"I'll say God seems to have a kind of laid-back management style I'm not crazy about.I COULD WAIT FOREVER
I'm pretty much anti-death. God looks by all accounts to be pro-death.
I'm not seeing how we can get together on this issue, he and I . . ."
--David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest
So yeah. You would like to think that when you write you are examining the big questions in life. Life. Death. Love. Etc. Most writers strive for a unique way to present information, and perhaps, their inner thoughts, mores, and beliefs without alienating their audience. As Mr. Wallace once said, "The job of the first eight pages is not to have the reader want to throw the book at the wall, in the first eight pages." No truer words have been spoken.
Yesterday, Walter Dean Myers, author of The Cruisers (9780439916332) 5.99 and We Are America (9780060523084) 16.99 was sworn in as the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. It is an inspired choice. He wants parents to read to their babies and said in part, "Read to children at three months, six months, nine months old . . ." I have a newborn on the way, and that kind of carrying on is nothing but music to my ears.
Also, in March, the National Education Association is featuring Dr. Seuss' The Lorax (9780394823379) 14.95 and everything else Seussian in their signature program Read Across America. This program generally kicks off every year on March 2, which is Dr. Seuss' birthday. Another nice title to highlight in your display would be the new Cat in the Hat Book and Hat (9780307930446) 24.99. The hat is kid-sized, and it will go perfectly with the game that the Cat calls 'FUN-IN-A-BOX'.
Speaking of life, death, and love, John Green tackles all of those topics in his latest young adult book, The Fault in Our Stars (9780525478812) 17.99. Hazel has terminal cancer and is only sixteen years old. She meets a kindred spirit named Augustus at her cancer support group and they fall in love. Much like Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why (9781595141880) 10.99, it addresses questions that most teen-oriented books avoid. Will I be loved? Will I be remembered? And will I leave a mark on this world?
Continuing my cavalcade of happy-go-lucky kid's titles, Charlotte Moundlic's The Scar (9780763653415) 14.99 is a '5 and up' title that dwells on a young child coming to grips with the death of his mother. The illustrations by Olivier Tallec expressively capture the grief and loneliness of losing a loved one. This is a topic that every bookseller will be asked for periodically, and every store should have a copy on the shelf.
That's all I have for this week. By the way, American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History (9780062082350) 26.99 is back in stock. Americans dig books about war . . .
Odds & Sods
Thomas Frank, author of What's the Matter with Kansas? (9780805077742) 15.00 has a new one called Pity The Billionaire: The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right (9780805093698) 25.00. In hard economic times, Mr Frank expected to find American discontent, but he didn't expect to see a call for punishment for the victims and more tax cuts for the rich. For the other side of the coin, Mark Levin's Ameritopia: The Unmaking America (9781439173244) 26.99 blames liberals for everything from the Spanish Inquisition to the sinking of the Titanic. It will release on January 17 . . .
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