Ye Olde Partners Page

*News From the Glamorous World of Bookselling*

"The Bible says that lust in your heart is committing adultery. [And] you can't masturbate without lust . . ."
--Christine O'Donnell, GOP candidate for Governor of Delaware

1) SELL YOUR SOUL . . . I look at the above quote and I fear for my country. Unfortunately, ignorance and misdirection seem to have exemplified the platforms of our so-called leaders for quite sometime now. In Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway's Merchants of Doubt (9781596916104) 27.00, we learn that when big business is threatened by scientific fact that they will find scientists for hire to contradict their facts for a fee. A good example: In the 1930s German scientists determined that cigarettes caused lung cancer, so the tobacco industry hired a couple of physicists to refute their findings, and they were obviously quite successful because it took decades for the truth to come out. Big industry would hire these same charlatans again and again on issues like DDT, the ozone hole, the Strategic Defense Initiative, and global warming to sow seeds of doubt in the general public. They were so good at it that Michael Chrichton had one of his characters in State of Fear (9780061782664) 9.99 say, "Banning DDT killed more people than Hitler, Ted. [DDT] was so safe you could eat it." Mmmmm, DDT. I'm going to have a big plate of lemon flavoured DDT for lunch . . .

2) TRAVERSE CITY MADHOUSE . . . Traverse City State Hospital was one of the Big Three mental hospitals in Michigan, the other two were located in Kalamazoo and Pontiac. The Arcadia title, Chris Miller's Traverse City State Hospital (9780738533896) 21.99 has been a good seller for us for years. And so it's no surprise that Dr. William Decker's Batman-sounding Northern Michigan Asylum (9781933926254) 50.00 is going great guns out of the gate. It was only a 2500 copy print run, so get them while you can.

Speaking of craziness, Edward Keye's The Michigan Murders (9780472034468) 22.95, which has been long out of print, is available once again in a tradepaper format. It features a new introduction by noted Michigan author Mardi Link. This is the chilling story of one of Michigan's first serial killers who abducted and killed young co-eds in the 60s.


3) GET TO DA CHOPPA! So what is it with daughters of politicians and book deals? Katherine Schwarzenegger is the author of Rock What You Got (9781401341435) 22.99 and John McCain's daughter Meghan recently released her book, Dirty Sexy Politics (9781401323776) 23.99. So what kind of life lessons can these girls possibly pass on? Should I call the butler by his first name or last? Ridiculous...

Odds & Sods

Big News! President Obama has a new children's book coming out on Noevember 16 called Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to my Daughters (9780375835278) 17.99. Before you jump to any conclusions, I read that he wrote this book before he was elected and any profits will go to a college fund for children of American soldiers. So it's all good. What's even cooler is that the illustrator is Loren Long, the Pride of Joplin, MO and the man behind both The Toy Boat (9780399243745) 16.99 and Otis (9780399252488) 17.99. I love his stuff . . .

Don't forget: Oprah Book Club #64 (9780312600846) 28.00 is announced this Friday.