Ye Olde Partners Page

*News From the Glamorous World of Bookselling*

"The basic fact about human existence is not that it is a tragedy, but that it is a bore. It is not so much a war as an endless standing in line . . ."

--H.L. Mencken

Let the Great Stoner Bill Spin

Hey Dudes and Dudettes! Stoner Bill is in the house! Mick is working on his new blog, which you can scope out at http://partnersbookblog.blogspot.com/, so I'm doing the dirty work for him on zee Page. Mick did say he needed to give a shout out to Shelly Koteskey from McLean & Eakin Books, who won some kind of Ingram award thingee. Let me see here . . . Oh, it's the n-n-n-notorious Emerging Leaders Council scholarship. Congrats, dudette! Man, I wish Double D were here so he could help me navigate through all these stupid sticky notes that Mick left me.

Whoa, we have signed copies of Anthony 'It must be Prince Spaghetti Day' Horowitz's Crocodile Tears (9780399250569) 17.99 available. From what I've seen in the warehouse, Jane O'Conner's Fancy Nancy's Splendiferous Christmas (9780061235900) 17.99 has been the hottest children's title so far. The Fancy Nancy stuff reminds me of the song, Hey There Fancy Pants by Ween. "Play the songs that make us dance, Play the tunes that make the ladies swoon . . ." Also, the series based on my kid brother, Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney, is a close second in the kiddie sales sweepstakes.

So I see Borders CEO Ron Marshall has given his quarterly "We've turned the corner" speech for his shareholders. They've turned the corner so many times that I think they're driving around in circles. But hopefully, he is right on target this time. There are some good business type books out there, including Andrew Ross Sorkin's Too Big To Fail (9780670021253) 32.95 and Steven Leavitt and Stephen Dubner's Superfreakonomics (9780060889579) 29.99. And we're not even going to get into the whole Rick James thing.

Dude, it's not just Sarah Palin, but like every Christian conservative icon has a book out for the holiday, er, Christmas season. Mike 'Huckleberry Hound' Huckabee has his Simple Christmas (9781595230621) 19.95. Smilin' Joel Osteen says God wants you to make lots of money in his book, It's Your Time (9781439100110) 25.00. Rick Warren is the exception, but you could always resurrect The Purpose of Christmas (9781416559009) 17.99 and throw those back on the shelf.

And Happy Thanksgiving! I am going to get soooo toasted tomorrow.

Odds & Sods

There are a ton of new releases due out next Tuesday, so here's the rundown:
Michael Roizen and Dr. Oz are back with You: Having a Baby (9781416572367) 26.99.
Greg Mortenson of Three Cups of Tea fame has a new one called Stones into Schools (9780670021154) 26.95.
Sue Grafton is finally up to the letter U with U is for Undertow (9780399155970) 27.95.
And finally Zane channels Bonnie Tyler with Total Eclipse of the Heart (9780743499293) 25.99.

Prediction for the Turkey Day football game: The Pack 24 --Lions 10.

The Partners Bookseller Insider

With Black Friday fast approaching, I figured I’d give you the lowdown on our stock situation on various titles. First of all, if you had the Lego Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary (9780756655297) 21.99 on your Christmas list, you should revise your list. The publisher is out until January. Also I’ve heard that the Charlie Brown Christmas with the cute little Christmas tree (9780762435999) 14.95 is out at the publisher with no reprint scheduled. I guess you could create your own version by using Celebrating Peanuts: 60 Years book (9780740785481) 75.00 and a crooked sapling, but it would be a bit pricey . . .

I was reading an article on the intrawebs the other day that claimed that the human race is devolving and becoming less intelligent. I give you Exhibit A: Former Governor Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue (9780061939891) 28.99 has already sold out once for us. At the B&N in Grand Rapids, she supposedly signed over 1500 copies. I say supposedly because Fox News could be the source for those numbers. However, we did have more stock come in today, and your personal thoughts aside, you should be more than willing to take their $28.99 or $24.95 or $18.50 or $9.99 or whatever . . .

The National Book Award winners were announced last week. We were restocked on the non-fiction winner T.J. Stiles’ The First Tycoon (9780375415425) 37.50 yesterday. Also, Random House announced they’ve moved the tradepaper release date for Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin (9780812973990) 15.00, the NBA winner for fiction, to December 4. If you can recall a more pretentious title than ‘Let the Great World Spin’ or if you have any other fun bookselling tidbits, please e-mail me anytime . . .

And remember: It’s not paranoia when you know everyone is out to get you.

Ye Olde Partners Page

*News From the Glamorous World of Bookselling*

"Istanbul was Constantinople
Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Now it's a Turkish delight on a moonlit night . . ."
--They Might Be Giants, Istanbul

The End of a Useful Partners Page

I haven't eaten in days. At the behest of Doug from The Bookman, I had been searching for great holiday titles when I realized that I had become lost in Partners' monolithic warehouse. To keep hydrated, I have been able to scrounge water from leaks in the ceiling. This whole fiasco reminds me of a story I heard about a sniper on the University of Michigan campus back in the early '70s. The undergraduate library was such a labyrinth, it took an entire day to find some of the students. In the meantime, I have been tempted to eat the pages of cookbooks for sustenance like Rachael Ray's Book of 10: More than 300 Recipes to Cook Every Day (9780307383204) 20.00, but I'm holding out for the chocolate chip cookies that David Swan promised me via text message if I mentioned The Saugatuck Dunes: Artists Respond to a Freshwater Landscape (9780615298313) 35.00. Let's hope he comes through . . .

If only Harper Collins had run Sarah Palin's vice-presidential campaign, the last election might have turned out differently. Harper has done an outstanding job of promoting Sarah Palin's Going Rogue (9780061939891) 28.99. In fact, they have done such a great job the word on the street is that Ingram has sold out. They've hit all the right shows with Sarah kicking the publicity off with an appearance on Oprah. Barbara Wawa is doing a two-part interview with her. There are already rebuttals from John McCain's advisers that keep it fresh in the mainstream media cycle. There is no e-book, so people will have to buy the hardcover. I will reinterate one last time, "This book will be huge."

I don't know if there are cookies involved, but Tom Drinkwater wanted me to mention Sean Deveney's The Original Curse: Did the Cubs Throw the 1918 World Series to Babe Ruth's Red Sox and Incite the Black Sox Scandal? (9780071629973) 24.95. I'm not sure why the Chicago Cubs are loveable losers, and the Detroit Lions just suck, but that's the reality.

I've noticed a couple of titles that are inexplicably starting to take-off. Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn's Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide (9780307267146) 27.95 is self-explanatory. Also, former Calgary Flame Theo Fleury's Playing with Fire (9781600781995) 24.95 is selling. A hockey book on the bestseller lists? It's more likely than you think . . .

Odds & Sods
Last week Jill came in here at like 5 o'clock in the morning to accommodate the schedule of author Libby Hellman, so she could sign copies of her new book, Doubleback (9781606480533) 14.95. As usual, supplies are limited . . .

We still have signed copies of
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (9780061374234) 16.99,
Timothy Egan's The Big Burn (9780618968411) 27.00,
Polacco's January's Sparrow (9780399250774) 22.99,
and finally, Michael Glenn Monroe's Mister Rabbit's Wish (9781587265259) 17.95.

Hey man, it's definitely a great gift idea . . .