Ye Olde Partners Page

*A Collection of Antiquarian Curios & Relics*

"We'll see. The [Second] Amendment does not apply to weapons that cannot be hand-carried -- it's to keep and 'bear', so it doesn't apply to cannons -- but I suppose there are hand-held rocket launchers that can bring down airplanes, that will have to be decided . . ."
--Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia

1) MASK OF COMMAND . . . Star Wars never goes out of style. I saw a commerical for a new show called 'Collection Intervention' and there was a brief snippet on a person whose entire house was filled with Star Wars memorabilia. At first, I thought it was about my brother's home, but then they showed the guy (surprise!) and it wasn't him. Whew! Fortunately, publishers caught on to this a long time ago, and from Alan Dean Foster to Timothy Zahn, there has never been a dearth of new titles. However, I have a couple of newish quirky ones that have captured my interest. First of all, we have received Star Wars Origami (9780761169437) 16.95 by Chris Alexander. It has 36 paper projects for the aspiring paper engineer, but it also includes a little quiz after each project, which I found to be really enjoyable. Also, we have 'Darth Vader in a box.' Cronicle Books' Darth Vader: Together We Can Rule the Galaxy (9781452108506) 19.95 consists of a Darth Vader figurine in the classic 'choking pose', a display stand, and a 48-page illustrated book. Yeah, I've already bought one. Finally, we have Tom Angleberger's latest in his kid's series Origami Yoda, and it's entitled The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee (9781419703928) 12.95. The first two books, The Strange Case of Origami Yoda (9780810984257) 12.95 and Darth Paper Strikes Back (9781419700279) 12.95, are still good sellers, too. If you don't stock these titles, Darth Vader may just show up and say, "I find your lack of faith . . . disturbing."

2) THE PRICE OF ADMIRALTY . . . You may never have heard of M.L. Stedman, but his debut book, The Light Between Oceans (9781451681734) 25.00 is already turning a few heads. It is the latest B&N Recommends title, the reviews are glowing, and we have already sold out. Backorder accordingly . . .

3) THE FACE OF BATTLE . . . In the last Partners Page, I'm sure you thought I was heavy on the hyperbole when I said that all my favourite authors were dying off at an alarming rate. You would be wrong. One of the greatest military historians, John Keegan has gone up to that 'big battlefield in the sky.' I thoroughly enjoyed his seminal work The Face of Battle (9780140048971) 16.00 and I still believe that The First World War (9780375700453) 16.00 is the best overview of The Great War in print. And then Robert Hughes, author of the best history book on Australia, The Fatal Shore (9780394753669) 17.00 has passed away, too. I've always wanted to visit Australia, and his book was a large part of the reason why. His latest title was Rome (9780307268440) 35.00. Who, I ask, will replace them? Sylvia Day?

Odds & Sods

Oprah is doing some sort of spirituality thing again, and she's using the book Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself (9781572245372) 16.95 by Michael Singer as a template. We have some copies in the stash . . .

Up in these parts, Joseph Heywood is one of our most popular authors, and we have copies of Red Jacket: A Lute Bapcat Mystery (9780762782536) 24.95 in stock. Suspiciously, the plot sounds like it is loosely based on Michigan's own 1913 Italian Hall tragedy. Or as Woody Guthrie called it: The 1913 Massacre. Steve Lehto's Death's Door (9781879094772) 19.95 is a non-fiction account of this disaster.