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*A Collection of Antiquarian Curios & Relics*

"Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun the frumious Bandersnatch!"
--Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky

1) BEHIND BLUE EYES . . . I like Greek mythology as much as the next guy, but Rick Roirdan has made a career out of it. The third installment of his Heroes of Olympus series, The Mark of Athena (9781423140603) 19.99 will hit the stores on October 2, and then it will hit the bestseller lists shortly thereafter. This title immediately reminded me of this old chestnut from the rock band The Who:

Athena, Odysseus knew how much he'd need her
On the acropolis, Pericles could not heed her
Paris' heart starts palipating when he thinks of Helen's sarong
But the Greeks will get along
She's just a girl -- she's a song
She's just a girl -- she's a song

Sorry Pete, I took a few liberties with your lyrics, but that's how I roll. The first two titles in the series, The Lost Hero (9781423113461) 9.99 and The Son of Neptune (9781423140597) 19.99 were YA blockbusters, so order accordingly. I mean, like, listen to these totally awesome comments from his readers:
Alex Pulaski: Phaa! i cant wait must hav book!!!!!

Fred S Carmer: I loved the other two and very excited for this one!!!!

Anna: CAN'T WAIT FOR IT TO COME OUT!

Sofia: Iv been waiting for ages for this to come out and its only October im soooo syced its tooo cool ps i wonder what annabeth has as a secret

I saw an article about how this year the US has the lowest scores on the SAT in the history of the test. These comments did not convince me otherwise . . .

2) WON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN . . . Some ancient astronaut theorists believe that Rick Riordan is to this generation what J.K. Rowling was once to the last YA generation. However, the JK has taken a break from diving around like a porpoise in her vault of money to write the book that none of her fans really wanted. The JK is all growed up now and has written her first adult novel, The Casual Vacancy (9780316228534) 35.00. "Holy Hogwarts Batman, there are all kinds of naughty words in this book!" As the JK explains, "The middle class is so funny, it's the class I know best (sic), and it's the class where you find the most pretension, so that's what makes the middle class so funny." Yeah, your new social class isn't pretentious at all; it's perfectly normal in this day and age to walk around with a sceptre in hand and a crown on your head. You will sell some copies on her name recognition alone. It goes on sale September 27 . . .

Odds & Sods

I was excited to stumble upon Greg Woolf's Rome: An Empire's Story (9780199775293) 29.95. I've always been more of an Roman Empire than a Roman Republic guy, and this is the perfect book for me and the other 87 people in the US who are fascinated by this topic.

I was disappointed to learn that the closest Lawrence Norfolk, author of John Saturnall's Feast (9780802120519) 26.00, is coming to Michigan is Chicago. I don't get it. Michigan is home to more great bookstores than there is space available to list, and yet, they can't fit any of those stores into his schedule. Hey publishers, there's more to the book world than L.A and New York! Sheesh.

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*A Collection of Antiquarian Curios & Relics*

"Language exists less to record the actual than to liberate the imagination . . ."
--Anthony Burgess

Channel 13 Community Access TV Presents: BOOK TALKERS
(Camera pans Double D's basement and settles on Stoner Bill and Double D sitting in comfortable chairs. The theremin heavy theme song of the original Star Trek plays in the background.)

Double D (In his best William Shatner imitation): Books. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Booker Prize. Its continuing mission, to explore strange new literature. To seek out new titles and new corporate sponsors. To go where no author has gone before . . . (laughs) Bill has this year's shortlisted nominees and their respective availability at Partners Books:

Stoner Bill: Hilary Martel is no stranger to the Booker Prize. She won in 2010 for Wolf Hall (9780312429980) 16.00 and this year she has been nominated for its sequel Bring Up The Bodies (9780805090031) 28.00. We have plenty of stock in the warehouse. Speaking of strange, no one is stranger than Will Self. He's been nominated for Umbrella (9780802120724) 25.00, which won't be published on this side of the pond early unless he wins. Lastly, we have a list of authors that I've never even heard of, including: Tan Twan Eng for Garden of Evening Mists (9781602861800) 15.99, which is in stock, Jeet Thayil for Narcopolis (9780143123033) 16.00, which has been moved to an October 16 release date, and Alison Moore for The Lighthouse (978190777174), which, again, won't be published over here unless it wins. Dudes and dudettes, I can sum this list up with one word: Booooooooring!

Double D: Dude, nobody is asking you for your opinion. Just stick to the script. Now, you've probably ticked off all these authors so that they'll never come on our show. None of these intellectual writers, well, excepting Will Self, has any semblance of a sense of humor. I mean we could have had Salman Rushdie on this week to promote his memoir Joseph Anton (9780812992786) 30.00, but there you were making stupid fish jokes about his name, and he cancelled.

Stoner Bill: Dude, this has really turned into a drag. I'd rather talk about Kij Johnson's At the Mouth of the River of Bees (9781931520805) 16.00. For the last three years, she's won the Nebula Award for short stories, and after reading this book I can see why. Instead, we do this literary bonehead stuff . . .

Double D: And don't even get me started on how many sponsors for our show that you've lost for us over the years. I'm not even sure what the Man company makes, but we're probably blacklisted from purchasing their widgets now. Whatever. We're out of time. We may or may not see you soon on Book Talkers.

Odds & Sods

You may remember Vic Eichler, Ph.D. as the author of such diverse titles as Morel Mushrooms in Michigan (9780970362056) 11.95 and Peter & His Pet Petoskey Stone (9780970362049) 5.95. Now he's back on the rocks again with Charlevoix Stones (9780970362063) 9.95. It's a smallish chapbook of about 30 pages with full colour photos. It's the perfect size to take on your next rock hunting expedition . . .

For beer connoisseurs, we are distributing Paul Bialas' new photography book, Pabst: An Excavation of Art (9780985672508) 60.00. If Ansel Adams had chosen to do black and white photos of abandoned breweries, it would have looked a lot like this title . . .

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*A Collection of Antiquarian Curios & Relics*

"As flies are to wanton boys, are we to the Gods; they kill us for their sport . . ."
--William Shakespeare, King Lear

From Rick Riordan's THE DEMIGOD DIARIES (9781423163008) 12.99

Dear Diary--

Whew! What a busy day! I have to admit that this Twelve Labours thing is getting out of hand. I had to clean out the Augean Stables in one day. And who knew that 1,000 immortal cattle could produce so much dung in thirty years? And don't even get me started on the smell. Ugh! So I just re-routed the Alpheus and Peneus rivers right through the stables and it washed the dung out. Before I started, I had made a bet with the king (I would get a hundred head of his cattle) that I could do this Labour in one day. He, of course, said I cheated so I had to kill the king (again!). I did put his kid in charge before I left, but I'll probably have to kill him someday, too . . .

My Bucket List (First draft)

Read Strengthfinder 2.0 (9781595620156) 24.95. I probably can't count on this demigod gig forever.

Visit Whiskey Island (9781938441097) 24.95. Les Roberts told me that a good whiskey is always better than a fine wine.

Need to find a reliable Time Keeper (9781401322786) 24.99 for the Olympic Games I just founded. I don't think Mitch Albom is the guy.

Learn to dance so I can have A Dance with Dragons (9780553801477) 35.00. Why should George R.R. Martin have all the fun?

Solve The Beautiful Mystery (9780312655464) 25.99. I'm not so good with thinking so I'll ask Odysseus to help me. He isn't doing anything anyway.

Try The Wheat Belly Diet (9781609611545) 25.99. I need to get my six-pack abs back in shape.

Find The Light Between Oceans (9781451681734) 25.00. I believe it has something to do with the Lighthouse at Alexandria.

Slay The Creature From Jekyll Island (9780912986456) 24.50. According to this Edward Griffin, this will cause a lot of trouble in the future.

Find out about The Ares Decision (9780446618786) 7.99. Apparently, this Kyle Mills is a seer for the Gods.

Go to the Heartland Fall Forum in Minneapolis on October 3-5.

Oh, and finish my Twelve Labours . . .

--Heracles

Odds & Sods

Unless you've been living under a rock in a GEICO^TM commercial, I'm sure you've heard about the brouhaha surrounding former Navy Seal Mark Owen's new book No Easy Day (9780525953722) 26.95. In case you hadn't, the commander of U.S. Special Forces condemned the book yesterday which, of course, gave it even more publicity. We are sold out, but we are expecting a bindery shipment early next week. You might want to place a backorder to hold your place in line.

Justin Bieber's new book Justin Bieber: Just Getting Started (9780062202086) 21.99 comes out September 13. I have no idea why it's releasing on a Thursday either.

Get more on the web at www.partners-east.com . . .