No, Really – It’s Free!

Concord Free Press is a wonderful publisher that has just published its seventh book, Round Mountain by Castle Freeman, Jr. Here’s the catch, (don’t worry, it’s a good catch) the book is free. As in zero dollars. Concord Free Press publishes 3,000 copies of a book, then gives them all away, via their web site and independent bookstores. All they ask in return is that the reader makes a charitable donation of some sort (size and recipient is left up to the giver). The reader should also log their donation on the Press’ site, and then pass the book on so more people can read it and donate on its behalf. It’s a wonderful idea that is working very well. To date, their 7 titles have raised nearly $300,000 worldwide. So, check the list of stores that carry their books and see if one is near you. If not request a copy of Round Mountain here.

Revisiting Re-reading (7:17)

Our Goodreads Group’s “What do you want us to talk/write about?” thread comes to the rescue again. Tawny started a discussion there about re-reading, which books she has re-read and which she wants to. Surprisingly, it’s a topic we spoke about in the very first episode of BOTNS, but, frankly, both Ann and I are too afraid to listen to it to hear what we said. Suffice to say, with our reading schedules, we rarely have time to re-read, though Ann has recently read two books a second time: The Sense of an Ending and Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter. If we were to re-read more than we do, we’d love to re-experience To Kill a Mockingbird, The Chocolate War, The Great Gatsby and Nineteen Eighty-Four. So, what are your thoughts on re-reading? Do you have the time? Do you make the time?

Two Books We Can’t Wait For You to Read (15:15)

No, I still haven’t read William Boyd’s new book Waiting for Sunrise. I will get to it soon, but I didn’t want to wait any longer to tell you about this book which is the story a British actor in Vienna in 1913. He’s looking for psychological help but ends up in an affair that nearly ruins his life. Ann raves about Trapeze by Simon Mawer. It’s the story of nineteen-year-old Marian Sutro who is trained to operate covertly in occupied Europe during World War II.

(Apologies for the less-than-stellar sound this week. Our recording conditions were less than optimal.)

Booktopia Past and Future:

We’re finally back, recovered from the glory that was Booktopia Vermont. Thank you to all BOTNS listeners who joined us in a magical, bookish weekend. Extra-special thanks to our lovely authors, whom I now all count as friends.

Today we announce our author lineup for Booktopia:Santa Cruz, happening in October. This event is sold out, but you can sign up for the waiting list.

Our Booktopia partner Bookshop Santa Cruz is offering BOTNS listeners the opportunity to receive 10% off and free shipping when you order our Booktopia authors’ most recent books, through this special page on their website. If you are attending Booktopia:Santa Cruz, please use this to order any books that you know you will want to buy that weekend. You can specify that they be held for you at the store. In this way, the store will be sure to have enough copies on hand. If you are NOT attending Booktopia, you may order your books and ask for them to be held for Booktopia weekend. At that time, we will have the authors sign the books, and then they will be shipped to you.

• Lynne Cox, author of South with the Sun
• Ann Packer author of Swim Back to Me
• Tayari Jones, author of Silver Sparrow
• Adam Johnson, author of The Orphan Master’s Son
• Tupelo Hassman, author of Girlchild
• Cara Black, author of Murder at the Lanterne Rouge
• Sarah McCoy, author of The Baker’s Daughter
• Preeminent audiobook narrators Grover Gardner (Robert Caro’s The Passage of Power) and Simon Vance (Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies)
• Matthew Dicks, author of Memoirs of An Imaginary Friend (available in August).

Book Snobbery:

If you’ve been watching any media whatsoever, you’ve probably heard about the phenomenon that is Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James.  Millions of readers have discovered these sexually-charged novels, and many women point to the series as having sparked their love of reading. Meanwhile, some have criticized the novels or even had them pulled from library shelves. I was honored to stand next to EL James at her Connecticut event, and I witnessed for myself the hundreds of women who said that they hadn’t read a book in many years prior to Fifty Shades of Grey. This led Michael and me to ponder “book snobbery,” and to make a new vow: don’t judge a book until you’ve read it, and don’t judge a person for what they read.  Care to join us in our vow?

Two books we can’t wait for you to read:

This week, Michael recommends The Man Who Planted Trees by Jim Robbins. This book follows David Milarch, a man obsessed with saving the planet through the preservation and cloning of the world’s oldest trees.

Home by Toni Morrison is a spare and powerful story of a war veteran who returns home from Korea to find a place different but no less brutal. We move back and forth in time, learning about Frank and his sister Cee, and their cruel childhood that has had lasting impact on their lives.

Congratulations to Sara J. Henry, whose novel Learning to Swim won two awards last week: the Mary Higgins Clark Award and the Agatha Award for Best First Novel. Sara lovingly relates the story of her childhood spent in a room full of books and a typewriter; the perfect breeding ground for a writer!

Richard Mason had such a great time in Vermont that he asked if he could join us in Oxford as well. The fact that he was such a big hit made it an easy decision for us. Oxford attendees, prepare to be charmed and entertained! During his talk Richard spoke about writing, longhand, History of a Pleasure Seeker, and the interactive app he has created for his novel.

Live from Booktopia!

We are pleased to present the talks given by Bill Landay and Leslie Maitland at this past weekend’s Booktopia event in Vermont.

There were many interesting discussions about Defending Jacob, and the motivations of the characters, discussions that were somewhat hard to have since not everyone in the room had read the book yet! Bill spoke about his background and how the debate about nature versus nurture sparked the creation of his book.

Leslie Maitland’s Crossing the Borders of Time was just released last week and is already garnering raves from readers and authors. Leslie’s description of her mother’s tale of lost love had many Booktopians in tears. This is sure to become a classic story of WWII survival and a love that can span decades.

Literary Debate in the New York Times

We’ve been fascinated by the New York Times website feature “Room for Debate,” especially when they tackle literary topics. One topic was book blurbs, and recently they took on the topic “The Power of Young Adult Fiction.” There was a hue and cry from the blogosphere when columnist Joel Stein wrote a rather inflammatory editorial called “Adults Should Read Adult Books.” We love the idea of different voices debating literary topics (of course we do!) so we wanted to share this section with you, even if some of the entries infuriate us.

Covering Book Covers

Jacket designed by Matt Roeser, borrowed from the New Cover blog

We’ve decided to do another show about book jackets, because we know that you are all fascinated by the topic. Also, many things have come to our attention recently that are worth sharing.

First, Chip Kidd, famed book designer, did a TED talk that has been highly praised. If you have ever wondered how a book jacket is created, and what happens in the mind of the designer, don’t miss this 20 minute video. It’s highly entertaining, and will make you look at books in a whole new way. For more on Chip’s work, see if you can track down a copy of Book One: Work, 1986-2006.

At the same time, Michael found a tumblr site called New Cover, where graphic artist Matt Roeser redesigns book jackets after he’s read the books. His designs are terrific, and we are eager to follow Matt’s career as a book jacket designer.

Lastly, one of our favorite author friends Matthew Dicks wrote a blog post showing some of the early ideas for the jacket of his new book, Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend. Matt shows the UK cover, the US cover, and two covers that were rejected. I’ve started reading Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, and so I have some sense of what the book is about. That sense colors my opinion of the four book jackets, though I understand where the ideas of the jackets came from. Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend is already out in the UK (published under the name Matthew Green), and will be published in the US this summer.

The UK and US jackets of MEMOIRS OF AN IMAGINARY FRIEND by Matthew Dicks

Two Books we can’t wait for you to read:

I loved The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, and I’m very excited that it is now in paperback. This story of a young woman who has “aged out” of the foster care system is a poignant and compelling novel that has made me keenly aware of what happens to foster children once they reach the age of 18. Author Vanessa Diffenbaugh is committed to shining a spotlight on this problem, and her novel does this in a way that is never preachy and is wholly entertaining. I think this is a great selection for book clubs, as there is much to discuss.

Michael starts his segment with a challenge to me: he wants me to read Batman: Year One by Frank Miller, which has just been re-released in a deluxe edition. It looks at the beginning of Batman and what happens when Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham after training to become Batman. It’s also a look at the early lives of several Batman characters. The art for this edition is by David Mazzucchelli, who did the amazing Asterios Polyp (“hmmmm,” says Ann, intrigued), and is very realistic. There are a lot of “extras” in this edition, and Michael recommends it as a graphic novel for those who think they don’t want to read Superhero comics.

Booktopia Swag: We now have three official Booktopia Souvenir items ready for purchase! (Click the name of any item to be taken to the page for purchasing) The Living in Booktopia book, which is being printed on Northshire Espresso Book Machine, is finished and came out wonderfully! Thanks to everyone who contributed their vision of Booktopia. NOTE: even if you are attending Booktopia in Manchester, and plan to buy the book then, we urge you to pre-order it and indicate that it should be held for pickup. We want to make sure we have enough! Also available: official Booktopia T-Shirts and Tote Bags, via our Zazzle Store.

The Changing Literary Canon?

A recent blog post about the evolution of the American Literary Canon got Ann and I talking about exactly how you can go about measuring an author’s popularity in academic circles. The author of this post ranked authors by the number of scholarly papers written about them, which places Henry James in the top spot, followed closely by William Faulkner and T.S. Eliot. What are your thoughts on this list and the author’s methodology for ranking?

Faulknerpalooza (10:35)

BOTNS listener Hope posted, on Facebook, a link to an article called How to Read William Faulkner. In it, the author explains how Faulkner wrote, what he expected of his readers, and why, for him, character development took precedence over plot. It’s an extremely engaging article and one that got Ann and me excited to read (or re-read) Faulkner in time for Booktopia Oxford. We both, independently, decided to start with As I Lay Dying, but we’re encouraging everyone attending or anyone who wants to take part, to read any Faulkner that interests them. Discussions will occur on our Goodreads Group and, of course, in Oxford!

For more information on the Faulkners of Mississippi, check out Every Day by the Sun, a memoir by William Faulkner’s niece Dean Faulkner Wells.

Two Books We Can’t Wait For You to Read (20:52)

Blood, Bones and Butter, by Gabrielle Hamilton is a book I loved last year. It’s out in paperback now – with a new chapter bringing the story up to date – and was just named Adult Nonfiction Book of the Year in the Indies Choice Awards. Ann has been a fan of Jim Lynch’s previous books, and his new novel, Truth Like the Sun is no exception. Set in Seattle, the story takes place both in 1962, during the World’s Fair, and in 2001, when a young reporter decides to get to the truth behind Roger Morgan, current mayoral candidate, and the man responsible for bringing the fair to town forty years earlier.

In segment one, we analyze this front page article from The New York Times, about parents who pay to have their children’s books self-published. It’s not a completely black and white issue, but Michael and I definitely have our opinions.

Fiction into Non- (7:13)

As you all know, I loved Adam Johnson’s The Orphan Master’s Son, and it made me incredibly intrigued about North Korea. This obsession caused me to buy Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden, about a man who was born in a North Korean labor camp and managed to escape to South Korea. I love when fiction makes me want to learn more about a specific topic. The Mists of Avalon by Marian Zimmer Bradley led me down a path of Arthurian literature, both legend and criticism. Michael felt this with The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen, which made him want to pick up Flu by Gina Kolata.  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer made him Google about Guernsey. Nonfiction can have this effect, too, as in Blind Descent by James Tabor, or The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.

Is it this curiosity that makes the difference between avid readers and those who don’t read much for pleasure?

Whatever it is, I am planning on soon learning more about Joan of Arc, inspired by The Maid by Kimberly Cutter, a novel of Joan of Arc, and The Maid and the Queen by Nancy Goldstone, a nonfiction account of Joan of Arc and Yolande of Aragon, Queen of Sicily.

Tell us your experience: has there been a novel (or work of nonfiction) that has caused you to want to learn more about a particular topic?

Two books we can’t wait for you to read: (17:43)

I am an Executioner by Rajesh Parmeswaran, is a book that I always describe as “a book where the writing makes my brain tingle.” It’s a very dark collection of stories that are simply brilliant. One story is told from the perspective of a tiger in a zoo who is in love with his zookeeper. My favorite story is the title story, mainly because of how Parameswaran plays with language. I can’t really compare the collection to other story collections, but I love it as much as Aimee Bender’s The Girl int he Flammable Skirt or Karen Russell’s St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.

Michael tells us about The Power of Habit by Charles Duhig, which he is listening to on audio. It’s a “big idea” book, like Quiet, or The Tipping Point, or Made to Stick. It explains how we form habits, how habits are perpetuated, and how to change habits.

[image credit: License Some rights reserved by arsen.guschin, via flickr creative commons]

Two Booktopia updates: Manchester Packets with the full schedule should be going out to all registered attendees within the next few days, so watch for those. All registered Oxford attendees, plus those on the waiting list, should have received an email announcing the authors. For those who can’t make it, but want to read along, you can see the full list here.

What’s Your Speed?

A recent app on the Staples website lets you gauge your reading speed. I’ve always claimed I was a slow reader and now I have proof! My number was somewhere around 260 words per minute and Ann’s was 487. It’s hardly a scientific test, after all its sole purpose seems to be to sell you e-readers, but it’s a fun exercise. Feel free to share your speed in the comments below!

Craving The Hunger Games (7:10)

Hunger Games mania has gripped the nation! Ann took her daughter and friends to see the movie opening night (thereby contributing to the movie’s $155 million weekend). Like most adaptations, Ann still thinks the book was better, but definitely thought the movie was pretty darn good. Lots of stores and websites are creating lists of books to read once you’ve devoured The Hunger Games. Here’s one such list that seems to be good and diverse. Ann also mentions Battle Royale by Koushun Takami (a book for adults, or very mature teens), and recommends Feed by M.T. Anderson and Divergent by Veronica Roth.

Two Books We Can’t Wait For You to Read (16:28)

Some of you may remember that I loved Blind Descent, a non-fiction look at extreme caving. Now, James Tabor, the author of that book, has returned with The Deep Zone, a thriller that follows a young woman as she leads an expedition into a super-cave in Mexico to find a cure for a virus threatening to turn into a pandemic. I haven’t read it yet, but it’s something I’m saving for summer vacation. Ann recommends The O’Briens by Peter Behrens, a sequel to The Law of Dreams, one of the first books ever written about on Books on the Nightstand. In The O’Briens, we follow a family of Irish immigrants during  the first half of the twentieth century as they make their way from Canada to California.

Welcome to our first Soho Crime Read-Along! Thanks for joining us.

Without further ado, let’s begin our discussion of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” which he published in 1841 in Graham’s Magazine, a Philadelphia-based publication.

If you’re just tuning in now: it’s a short read! Since the story is public domain, you can read it for free online without feeling like a pirate. The Poe Museum has a version hosted on their website.

Some questions I’d love to propose for discussion:

• One lesson modern crime writers all learn is to open their book with an action sequence! Poe, uh, doesn’t. I really liked the opening, eventually, but I have to admit I felt I was doing a little wading in the dark before I saw where he was going with his philosophical maunderings—a feeling I rarely have with a modern mystery novel. Were you, o modern crime reader, tolerant of his long discourse at the beginning? Do you think the crime genre should be a little more flexible in form? Can only a master like Poe pull off a stunt like that? Do you have any favorite openings from other crime fiction? I’d love to hear favorite first sentences if you have them at hand.
• What did you think about the philosophy of the opening? Do you have particular feelings about whether genius or creativity is more important for a detective? Not that it matters in terms of Dupin, of course—he is both a sharp observer and a creative thinker. (Side note: This is a problem that can be applied to lots of jobs, like editorial, for example—do you want a detail-oriented and thorough person to do the work so you can be sure they won’t miss anything, or do you want a more big-picture thinker who can tackle a problem creatively but might miss smaller details? Do you find this lesson about the making of a successful detective translates to your day job?)
• “Rue Morgue” introduces some themes of detective fiction that appear in Sherlock Holmes and other subsequent stories. Off the top of my head, here are a few: 1) An eccentric, slightly disparaging genius detective. 2) A less charismatic narrator/friend of detective who tells the story. 3) An entrapment element, to lure the culprit. 4) A failure on the part of law enforcement to solve the problem without the (amateur) detective’s help.  Any other detective story themes/traditions you found in this story?
• I was surprised at how violent and graphic the story was. Color me a little naïve on this one, I guess—it is a Poe story, after all. But I read crime fiction all day, every day, and off the top of my head I can think of very few books with such visceral descriptions of violence done to human victims. Perhaps this is naïve again, but I found it particularly surprising given the period in which it was published. (In terms of English-language fiction publishing, the 1840s are years I associate with folks like Charles Dickens and Charlotte Brontë—can you imagine either of those two producing a description as specific as, say, this one? “The face was fearfully discolored, and the eye-balls protruded. The tongue had been partially bitten through. A large bruise was discovered upon the pit of the stomach, produced, apparently, by the pressure of a knee.”) Did you find the crime scene description difficult to read? Were you surprised by its velocity?

And of course, any other discussion questions you guys want to pose I would LOVE to hear. Thanks so much for participating!

ANNOUNCING THE APRIL TITLE: The next Read-Along book is going to be A Study in Scarlet, Arthur Conan Doyle’s first novel-length Sherlock Holmes story. Although I’ve read other Holmes I haven’t read this one! I’m looking forward.

We’ll be on the Soho Press blog then (fingers crossed everything goes live!). Tune in on April 26^th at www.SohoPress.com/blog for the next discussion!

Thanks again, guys! Happy reading!

Our most frequently asked question (as of late):

First, thanks to everyone who has entered the contest to win the Hogarth Press special bound galley package. We have been enjoying all of the entries telling us of your own publishing imprint ideas.  Keep giving us your ideas — the deadline for the contest is March 31st.

We’ve been getting a few emails from new listeners asking us to talk more about Booktopia, and what it is. So we try to explain a bit in this episode, without boring those of you who have been listeners for a long time. Booktopia is a Books on the Nightstand event that is both online and in person. Online, we hope to spread out the Booktopia theme of connecting BOTNS listeners and authors throughout the year. In person, it’s a series of three weekend gatherings where authors and readers come together in person. All three of the weekends are currently sold out, but we do have waiting lists for Oxford, MS in June and Santa Cruz, CA. As the weekends come closer, life does sometimes get in the way, so it doesn’t hurt to put your name on the waiting list. For more information and to get on the waiting list, visit http://booktopia.booksonthenightstand.com.

We will be recording author talks at the three Booktopia events and will figure out a way to make those available to you online. Also, even if you are not attending, you can order signed copies of the authors’ books. For the Booktopia:Manchester,VT authors, our partner Northshire Bookstore has set up a special page for BOTNS featuring our 8 authors’ most current books with 10% off, and free shipping on your entire order including backlist.   Tell them in the comments that you want the books signed, and they will have our authors sign your books during our Booktopia weekend and then ship them to you. To order, visit http://www.northshire.com/nightstand2012.php, and use the coupon code noted on that page when you checkout.

Also, if you are attending the Vermont retreat, it would be helpful for you to order your books in advance as well. That way the store will know how many copies of the books to have on hand. Don’t fear, they will have extra copies on hand, but there is always an author or two who sell out. So if you know for sure that you want a particular book, please do order ahead, and tell them in the comments that you will pick it up that weekend.

Lastly, as part of our Booktopia online event, we are doing something we call “One Podcast, One Book”, reading and discussing Julian Barnes’ THE SENSE OF AN ENDING. There is a discussion forum set up on our Goodreads group, and many Booktopians will be reading and talking about the book at the various retreats and online.

Eight Books We Can’t Wait for you to Read

Today we want to tell you about all of the books featured at Booktopia:Manchester, VT. We’ve talked about some of these before, but others we have not yet told you about. Remember, you can order all of these to be signed during Booktopia, so for that reason, we are linking all of the books to the special page that Northshire Bookstore has built for us, offering a discount of 10% off and free shipping. Remember to put in the comments if you want the books autographed. The store staff will make sure your books are signed and ship them to you right after our weekend event. In addition, if you are attending the event, you can order now and ask for them to be held for you at the store.

Quiet, by Susan Cain (Don’t miss her TED talk. In just the first 45 seconds you will see that Susan is a complete kindred spirit to us her at BOTNS).

Don’t Know Much About® History by Kenneth C. Davis, a compendium of historical knowledge presented in a very fun and entertaining way, and has been updated to reflect current events.

Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry, which I can only describe as “Nancy Drew for grownups.” Troy Chance impulsively leaps off a ferry because she thinks she sees a young child fall from the ferry traveling the opposite direction. What happens from there is an intriguing novel of suspense and mystery.

Defending Jacob by William Landay: Michael recommended this book in episode #164 - it’s a legal thriller that has many more layers of complexity, and you will want to talk about it with someone when you finish.

Crossing the Borders of Time by Leslie Maitland will be published on April 17th. Leslie is an award-winning New York Times investigative reporter who tells the story of her family’s own history during World War II and their flight from Nazi Europe, and how Leslie worked to track down her mother’s romantic interest from before the war and reunite them.

History of a Pleasure Seeker by Richard Mason was a book that I recommended in episode #166, at which time I called it “delicious.” I stand by that term — it’s a lush, racy look behind the scenes of a grand manor house in Amsterdam during the Belle Epoque, seen through the eyes of the charming Piet Barol. Fans of Downton Abbey should not miss this.

Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller is the retelling of the story of Achilles and Petroclus, who was a minor character in the Iliad that Miller brings to life. Michael and I both loved this book, and you can hear Michael rave about it in episode #170.

The Great Northern Express by Howard Frank Mosher, who is an author that we’ve both loved for many years. His book A Stranger in the Kingdom is a classic of New England literature. This book is the autobiographical story of Howard’s journey to travel to 100 independent bookstores across the country, by car, after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. We meet Howard and his wife, see their early life in Vermont, and laugh out loud at their adventures at the same time as we feel the pain of the low moments. It’s part travelogue, part autobiography, and completely wonderful.