Ye Olde Partners Page

*A Collection of Antiquarian Curios & Relics*

"He understood it to be another nudge from forces unseen, almost surely connected with the letter that had come along with his latest mental disability check, reminding him that unless he did something publicly crazy before a date less than a week away, he would no longer qualify for benefits . . ."
--Thomas Pynchon

1) INHERENT VICE . . . Owen Laukkanen, the Vancouver Canuck's #1 fan, which until recently I thought was my brother Jason, has stopped in today to sign copies of his latest novel Criminal Enterprise (9780399157905) 26.95. FBI Special Agent Carla Windermere and Minnesota state investigator Kirk Stevens from his last book The Professionals (9780425250495) 9.99 have joined forces once again and they are trying to sort out another byzantine series of crimes. And exactly what is up with Minnesota and detectives, eh? From John Sandford's Lucas Davenport, whose latest novel Silken Prey (9780399159312) 27.95 releases on May 7, to William Kent Krueger's Cork O'Conner, whose latest title is Ordinary Grace (9781451645828) 24.99, which is a stand alone novel without Cork O'Conner, it appears to me that there are an inordinate number of crime books set in the Land of a 1000 LakesTM. Could it be the long winters? Hmmm, Owen is from Vancouver, and their winters, from what I hear, are quite mild compared to those in Minnesota, but it looks like he still had the time to concoct the perfect crime. Go figure. At any rate, Owen is good people and you need to buy his book. Our signed stock is on the usual first come, first served basis . . .

 2) GRAVITY'S RAINBOW . . . Opening Day is just days away and I am eagerly anticipating the upcoming Detroit Tigers' World Series Championship, but I shouldn't get ahead of myself. There is a grueling season to survive first. However, we do have a couple of new Detroit Tiger books in stock. Doug Wilson has written the definitive biography of Mark 'The Bird' Fidrych, who was one of my childhood heroes, and it's called The Bird (9781250004925) 26.99. It has sent me on a nostalgic walk down memory lane. I remember seeing 'The Bird' pitch during that magical '76 season at the old Tiger Stadium. The Tigers won against the Cleveland Indians. We also had John Rosengren's Hank Greenberg: Hero of Heroes (9780451235763) 26.95. And if you want to complete your Detroit Tigers' theme for your display, we have Summer of '68 (9780306821837) 14.99 by Tim Wendel still selling at a good clip. Go Get 'Em Tigers!

 

3) AGAINST THE DAY . . . Kevin Power's award-winning The Yellow Birds (9780316219341) 14.99 will be released in tradepaper on May 7. In the meantime, this title has been named the City of East Lansing and Michigan State University's 2013 One Book, One Community book selection so if you want his title immediately, it is only available in the hardcover edition (9780316219365) 24.99. My wife Aubrey said, "This book will make a grown man cry." With my apologies to Mick Jagger . . .

Odds & Sods

Apparently, this is the year of the diet book, and not the Year of the Depends Adult Undergarment (Y.D.A.U.) as put forth in DFW's Infinite Jest (9780316066525) 17.95. If you're keeping score at home, we have Mike Mosley's The FastDiet (9781476734941) 24.00 back in stock. This week's addition to the diet wars is Harley Pasternak's The Body Reset Diet (9781609615505) 25.99. We should have more stock in early next week. The same is true for J.J. Virgin's The Virgin Diet (9780373892716) 25.95 which was hot about four months ago, but it is inexplicably resurging. Man, it's a workout just trying to keep up with these diet titles . . .