As the Book World Turns…

Favorite piece of book news this week: Stephen Colbert interviewed Maurice Sendak. Here’s Part 1. And Part 2. Watch it. You will not be sorry.

The late Johnny Ramone’s autobiography is coming this spring from Abram’s.

Winners of the Caldecott, Newbery and other children’s book awards were announced this week. PW spoke to winners Jack Gantos (Dead End in Norvelt won the Newbery), Chris Raschka (A Ball for Daisy won the Caldecott), and John Corey Whaley (Where Things Come Back won the Michael L. Printz Award) about where they were when they got the call.

Finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award were announced. Jeffrey Eugenides and John Jeremiah Sullivan are among those nominated.

Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of Russia, is putting together a list of 100 books every Russian student must read in order to preserve the “dominance of Russian culture”.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has struck a deal with Amazon to print and distribute all of the adult titles published by Amazon’s New York publishing arm.

NBC News has launched a digital imprint.

We had an incredible evening with Ben Marcus and American Short Fiction on Tuesday. The Rumpus has a wonderful review of The Flame Alphabet this week. (Signed copies available here.)

The L Magazine has a round up of authors (Jonathan Lethem, Rick Moody) who have also written some song lyrics in their day.

World Book Night is still looking for givers. The deadline is February 1st. Sign up to help distribute free books to non-readers in and around Austin.

 

Have You Shared Your Break Up Story Yet?

For the last couple of week, Austinites have been coming in to share their stories of heartbreak on our Break Up Wall. Tomorrow at 7:30pm, Daniel Handler & Maira Kalman will be here to speak and sign their new book, Why We Broke Up, which is the inspiration for the wall. If you haven’t yet, come on down tomorrow night and post your story on the wall in our cafe, then come on up to the second floor for the event. Daniel Handler is a riot, and meeting talented and famous artist Maira Kalman will make for a Saturday evening so exceptional, you’ll forget all about what’s-his/her-name forever…or for a while, at least.

Here’s what some folks have been sharing:

The British Are Coming! Or One of Them, at Least.

Scott’s been telling anyone who will listen about RJ Ellory, a bestselling British crime thriller writer who is making his way here to the states to tour his latest book available this side of the pond, A Quiet Vendetta.

Here Scott gives a little background on Ellory and the new book:

If his style seems up your alley, check out Scott’s review of A Quiet Vendetta and his Q&A with Ellory over on the MysteryPeople blog. You can catch Ellory here tomorrow night at 7p. We’ll have beer, wine and nibbles to welcome him to Texas. There’s a rumor he may pick up a guitar, as well. Come on down!

Michael Ian Black is On His Way to Austin

THIS JUST IN: 

Monday, March 5th, 7p Michael Ian Black will be here at BookPeople to speak & sign his forthcoming collection of essays, You’re Not Doing It Right: Tales of Marriage, Sex, Death and Other Humiliations.

Further details to come. Make it your beeswax to be there, Austin.

What We’re Reading This Week

Everything Joe is today is based on comedian Marty Feldman.

Joe

Marty Feldman: The Biography of a Comedy Legend by Robert Ross

Marty Feldman is the funniest man who ever walked the earth. As a wee lad watching Young Frankenstein and his other movies, I wanted to be Marty Feldman when I grew up. Everything I am today is based on him. When I saw this book, it had to be mine.

The book is great. It’s based on recordings Feldman made right before he died, when he was going to write his memoir. I’m at the beginning of his career. He had a crazy life. Living on the streets, selling drugs, playing jazz, Vaudeville. And he wasn’t googly yet, he was actually quite handsome.

I highly recommend this book, especially if you like comedy or Mel Brooks. He was a master of the form.

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Clint

Butterfly in the Typewriter: The Tragic Story of John Kennedy Toole and the Remarkable Story of The Confederacy of Dunces by Cory MacLauchlin

I just started this. It’s coming out in a couple of months. Finally, a true portrayal of a singular author (and by singular, I mean he wrote one great novel – A Confederacy of Dunces). Interesting is that his mother is not interviewed. Vastly intelligent. I cannot wait to dig into this book.

 

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Salvador

Twitter for Good: Change the World One Tweet at a Time by Claire Diaz Ortiz

This book is written by Twitter’s head of corporate social innovation and philanthropy. It’s a how-to book for non-profits and other organizations, an A-to-Z manual on how to use Twitter. I’m learning really fantastic stuff that’s helping me with the Twitter page for the non-profit I work for, Action for Animals Austin.  I really like it.

 

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Raul

The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq

This novel is much different, more mature, than his previous work. It deals with some of the same themes of death and nihilism. It’s a strange story because the author is in the story, he puts himself into the fiction. It won the Prix Goncourt in France and I can see why.

 

 

The Beauty and the Sorrow by Peter Englund

I always enjoy First World War narratives. This one is particularly interesting because it’s a people’s history of the war. It’s not about strategy or anything like that, it’s about people’s daily experiences. For example, it tells the story of a Venezuelan cavalryman who joins the Ottoman Empire because no one else will have him. You can’t get more diverse storytelling. I’m really enjoying it.

 

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Jamie

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

I read this seven years ago and I’m reading it again now for the next meeting of the New & Noteworthy Book Club. I forgot how much I like it. I keep looking forward to finding out what’s going to happen next, even though I’ve already read it.

 

 

Momofuku by Chef David Chang

I’m cooking my way through the Momofuku Cookbook, which means there’s cabbage rotting in my fridge and my wife is sick of Korean food. It’s actually a really fun read. The cookbook is also the story of Momofuku’s success and goes through his different restaurants. It’s pretty great.

 

 

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Scott

A Simple Act of Violence by R. J. Ellory

This is a cross between Silence of the Lambs and Spy Who Came in From the Cold. It further proves Ellory is one of our stronger voices in crime fiction right now.

MysteryPeople welcomes Ellory to BookPeople this Friday, Jan 27, 7p.

 

The Comedy is Finished by Donald Westlake

This is a newly discovered book Donald Westlake wrote in the 70′s. It uses a kidnapping story as a great way to look at the post-Watergate era.

Am I Too Old to Be a Nerdfighter?

Saturday night we had the great privilege (and straight up joy) of hosting Vlogbrothers John and Hank Green while they’re on their nationwide Tour de Nerdfighting to promote John’s new (NYT #1 bestselling!) book The Fault In Our Stars.

Here’s a little video we put together from the event. I’ll warn you in advance to turn down the volume on your computer before hitting the play button, unless you want to startle your entire neighborhood with the sound of 1,100 screaming Nerdfighters:

I’ve had a few days now to try to put together the words to describe this night, but all I keep coming to is one single adjective – AWESOME.

That’s what Nerdfighters are all about – being Awesome. DFTBA. Don’t Forget To Be Awesome. And not awesome because you have the right clothes or the latest iPod, but awesome because of who you are.

And I can tell you, Nerdfighters are good people. Well mannered. Polite. Intelligent. Interested. And excited. Excited for books. Excited because their favorite author just walked out on stage. Excited to sing along to a song about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Excited to be alive, and engaged, and talking about what it means to be alive and engaged.

The performance was easily the most fun I’ve ever had at a book event. Hank had everyone up out of their seats singing and dancing. Watching the crowd do a wave with those bright blue books from the back of the house was mighty impressive. And the scene at the signing table was incredible. There was so much love and gratitude for John’s work, and those feelings were obviously reciprocated. The Greens are as grateful to have their fans as the fans are to have them. It was a beautiful thing to see, and I feel lucky to have been there. Also beautiful was the sight of so many stacks of well-loved paperbacks. These readers are into Green’s books.

Many readers came up to John and Hank at the signing table and told them they’re their heroes.  Those brothers are my heroes, now, too. First of all, they’re getting thousands of young people exciting about reading. Second, they’re providing an antidote to all of the hipster apathy and devotion to cool that’s invaded a lot of young culture by encouraging their fans to forget cool and just be genuine. Be real. Be thoughtful. Be awesome.

So what I want to know is, even though I’m 30, am I too old to be a Nerdfighter? Because I want to sign up.

Thank you to John, Hank, to the volunteers who helped run the event, and to everyone who was there that night. It was an unforgettable evening for all of us here. If you couldn’t make it, the brothers live-streamed the whole show, you can watch it here. And you can check out more pictures from the event here.

DFTBA.

Joyce in Space: James Joyce’s Use of Words Beginning with ‘A’ and their Connections to PostModern NonEdible Vegetables

~Post by Brian C.

You may have heard about the European expiry of the Copyright on the work of James Joyce. And if you’re anything like me, you got real excited. For too many years Stephen Joyce has held tight to a legacy that isn’t really his. Copyright Law isn’t meant to allow people to hoard culture in a tightly wrapped fist with only one finger pointed out (you know which finger that is). It’s meant to promote production. Although Stevie Joyce’s exploits are notorious, they haven’t really stopped the world from using James Joyce’s work to build a small but profitable genre in the Literary Marketplace. Joyce Studies has been viable, and will continue to be so. The idea that a new era and influx of Joyce related material will now hit the bookshelves is probably unrealistic. There are a lot of books and articles written on Joyce every year, and I predict that academia will neither bump-up, nor scale down their output. So my unpublished manuscript Joyce in Space: James Joyce’s Use of Words Beginning with ‘A’ and their Connections to PostModern NonEdible Vegetables will still have a hard time finding a publisher. But what this really means is that Joyce might now find its way into new markets, more commercial, non-academic markets. Markets that can’t fit any of the parameters of fair use doctrine. Here are a few things I’m looking forward to:

A film adaptation of Ulysses. The car chase scene will be difficult to film, but a top tier director, I’m thinking  Peter Jackson, could really make it shine. Conventional wisdom tells us that Bloom will be played by Owen Wilson or Jon Voight, but since Meryl Streep gets first right of refusal on all roles, ever, Ms. Streep will most defidently be walking the streets of Dublin in this special effects blockbuster.

Kanye West is free now to release his concept album based on Finnegans Wake.

It goes without saying that Stephen Sondheim will end his illustrious career by composing the musical, Dedalus’s Last Stand. The production, sure to be a Broadway hit, will be performed exclusively by the cast of Glee. Costumes will be minimal and the lute will reign supreme.

Starbucks will rename their bottomless cup (do they have one of those?) “James Joyce’s Stream of Consciousness”.

Last, but not least, I predict the perfect marriage between two of the creepiest looking men of the 20th Century: James Joyce and Ronald McDonald. What kid wouldn’t want a limited edition James Joyce Happy Meal? The meal is full of all the nutritional deliciousness of the standard Happy Meal, but this one comes with the “Gerty McDowell Action Figure and Beach Kit”.

Ben Marcus On Writing

Ben Marcus on what writers can do to keep their readers interested:

We can guarantee we won’t be bored when Marcus is here tomorrow night at 7p with his new novel, The Flame Alphabet.

Our friends at American Short Fiction will be here, too. It’s a party. You should come.

Newbery, Caldecott & Printz Winners Announced!

The 2012 Newbery Medal has gone to Jack Gantos for his novel, Dead End in Norvelt.

The 2012 Randolph Caldecott Medal goes to Chris Raschka for A Ball for Daisy.

John Corey Whaley received the Michael L. Printz Award for Where Things Come Back.

PW has the long list of honored books. Why We Broke Up, by Daniel Handler & Maira Kalman, received a Printz Honor. We’ll have to congratulate them when they’re here on Saturday.

Congratulations to all of the winners and those honored!

World Book Night 2012

World Book Night, the organization whose goal is to distribute 1 million free books to people across the nation on April 23, is still looking for Givers to volunteer to distribute books in the Austin area on 4/23. As a distribution center, we’re working with the Central Texas Chapter of World Book Night to organize the effort here in Austin.

What does it mean to be a Giver? It’s simple. You fill out the application on the World Book Night website and tell the organization your plan for distributing books. Here’s the list of books that will be given away.

What kind of plan are they looking for? Anything that will put a book into the hands of someone who doesn’t regularly read, or who doesn’t have easy access to books. This could be people in a prison, folks in nursing homes and hospitals, children at a neighborhood school. Who in our community do you think would most benefit from the gift of a free book?

After you’ve heard back from the World Book Night organization and your registration is complete, you’ll pick up your books at BookPeople on April 23 and then hand them out. That’s it!

Giver registration is open to both individuals and groups. If you’re a group and you’re interested in registering, please send an email to online@bookpeople.com.