Ye Olde Partners
Page
*A Collection of
Antiquarian Curios & Relics*
"As her
young man dies,
On a cold and
gray Chicago mornin',
Another little
baby child is born
In the ghetto .
. ."
--Mac Davis, In the Ghetto
1) HEARTBREAK HOTEL
. . .
Harper Lee. There is no single title author who has had more impact on
American society than Harper Lee and her To Kill a Mockingbird
(9780446310789) 8.99. Shockingly, the publisher announced last week that
they will be releasing a long lost manuscript of a sort of sequel, Go Set A
Watchman (9780062409850) 27.99 on July 14 with a 2 million copy first
print. (Oh, those will be collectible.) This will be huge.
Readers are going back to re-read her first novel, and it has already produced
a noticeable upward tick in sales. As usual with Harper Lee, controversy
is swirling around not only how the book was found, but if she is even
cognizant enough to sign-off on its release. (Ms. Lee is not in the best
of health.) In a way, it is a testament to our industry that people are
questioning the ethics and morality in releasing a title that her literary executor
and her sister Alice, who recently died, had been sitting on for nearly 60
years. I'm sure we will be hearing more about this one in the days to
come . . .
2) CAN'T HELP FALLING IN
LOVE . . . Only something as big as a new novel by Harper Lee
could overshadow the release of a new Oprah Book Club 2.0 title.
Yesterday, Oprah announced that Ruby (9780804188241) 16.00 by Cynthia
Bond is her new title. This is the first book from Ms. Bond, who is 53
years old and has taught writing to the homeless and at-risk youths for the
past 15 years. Oprah has gone all-in on this title by purchasing both the
film and television rights, so expect her to hammer this one home . . .
3) IN THE GHETTO . . .
The Grammys produced more than its fair share of headlines this year.
Lost in the controversy surrounding Zack Braff's incredibly racist tweet was
Pharrell's own social commentary in his Grand Budapest Hotel-style
production number for his hit song Happy. As we all know too well,
there was a reason the dancers were wearing hoodies and holding their arms up
behind him. Obliquely, this touches upon the theme in Jill Leovy's Ghettoside
(9780385529983) 28.00. African-American males are 6% of our country's
population, yet they account for 40% of the homicides in America. Most
often the murderers are black men and they are never brought to justice.
They usually occur in the poorest part of our cities where, unfortunately, the
police are spread too thin to make much difference. For example, Ms.
Leovy focuses on the murder of a teen in Watts and the attempt of one cop to
bring the perpetrators to justice. We really should be talking about
this, and not Kanye West's latest stupid remarks . . .
Odds
& Sods
Hotdog!
The new edition of Larry Wagenaar and Izzi Bendall's Historic Michigan
Travel Guide (9781880311110) 7.95 is finally here. There are
so many cool places to visit in here. If you're looking for a respite
from the Michigan winter blahs, this is your book . . .
We
were saddened to learn that Colleen McCullough passed away recently. You
may recall the Australian born author wrote The Thorn Birds (9780380018178)
7.99, which became a mega-hit mini-series starring Richard Chamberlain.
She had also written a well-respected Roman history series. She will be
missed . . .
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