Ye Olde Partners Page

*A Collection of Antiquarian Curios & Relics*

"Here we are, one magical moment, such is the stuff

From where dreams are woven . . ."

                                             --David Bowie, Station to Station

1)  WHAT IN THE WORLD . . .  This breaking news just in -- Author Chinua Achebe is still dead!  This past week the Twitterverse was all a-twitter that Mr. Achebe had passed away in his native Nigeria.  Unfortunately, Mr. Achebe, author of the seminal high school classic Things Fall Apart (9780385474542) 11.95 actually passed away more than two years ago.  The most obvious culprit was U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice who posted on March 23: "Despite the promise of the future, today is a somber day in Nigeria, as Chinua Achebe was laid to rest in his native village."  You would have thought that technological innovations like the internet, Twitter, YouTube, etc. would have made us smarter, but it appears to be making us even dumber.  [I'm looking at you Kim Karadashian, author of the upcoming and most appropriately titled Selfish (9780789329202) 19.95.]  I hope this helps to clarify the confusion.  As of press time, Abe Vigoda was unavailable for comment . . .

 

2)  WORD ON A WING . . .  As I've mentioned before, Midwesterners, and especially Minnesotans, are fascinated with loons.  No, I'm not talking about your typical bookstore customer, but the large aquatic bird with its well-known haunting call.  As if that isn't a good enough selling point for most birders, we have a new title featuring an adorable baby loon called Loon Chick's First Flight (9781933272511) 17.95 by Gene Klco.  (That's not a typo.  It is pronounced 'Kelso' like the character played by Ashton Kutcher on That 70's Show.)  The story is cute, but the photographs are absolutely stunning.  For this upcoming spring and summer, his book is going to move faster than a freshly greased T-34/76 Russian tank during Operation Bagration.  (If you are a fan of 'purple prose' and the preceding metaphor is dangerously close to that, you should check out www.bulwer-lytton.com .  It will provide you with hours of enjoyment.)

3)  GOLDEN YEARS . . .  Speaking of spring, the first indication that it has arrived is usually the sighting of a robin, but here in our business, it's the first release of a new book on Mackinac Island.  We have received a new children's hardcover The Colors of Mackinac Island (9781933272498) 10.95 by Jennifer Powell.  From the indigo of the ferry boat's hull to the green of Marquette Park, all of the colors of the rainbow are dutifully represented in a book that will become a classic.  It is also a perfect companion piece to Jennifer Powell's other book, What I Saw on Mackinac: A Counting Book (9781933272368) 10.95.  Another rite of spring is the yearly release of a new edition of Know Your Ships 2015 (978189849206) 18.95 by Roger Lelievre. Every major Great Lakes vessel is tenderly and loving pictured in this guide.  It's spring in spades.

 

Odds & Sods

Update:  Laura Ingalls Wilders' annotated Pioneer Girl (9780984504176) 39.95 is being reprinted.  We hope to have more stock at the end of April . . .

I was a little skeptical when I saw that the author's name for What The Dog Knows (9781451667325) 16.00 is Cat Williams.  In fact, I thought it might be a satire from The Oatmeal or another book of doggie poetry, but it's legit.  It explores the psychology of our best friend . . .

Another one to keep an eye on is Becoming Steve Jobs (9780385347402) 30.00.  Senior Apple Executive Eddy Cues said, "Well done and the first to get it right."  He is obviously taking a shot at Walter Isaacson's bio. 

Ye Olde Partners Page

Ye Olde Partners Page

*A Collection of Antiquarian Curios & Relics*

"HIC SVNT DRACONES. . ."

                                                                                     --Anonymous

(Please read the following while playing Queen's Dragon Attack on repeat.)

1)  DRAGONS OF AUTUMN TWILIGHT . . .  It's that time of year again:  March Madness.  It is estimated that American companies will forfeit over $168 gazillion dollars1 to lost man hours during the NCAA Basketball Championship Tournament this year.  I can still picture ESPN host Stuart Scott breaking down the brackets for the network in the past.  However, this year he lost his long battle with cancer and the world is a worse place for it.  Fortunately, he managed to complete his memoir, Every Day I Fight (9780399174063) 26.95, before he went to that Great Hardwood Floor in the sky.  He seemed to be one of the most knowledgeable and more affable hosts on ESPN, and he will be greatly missed.  In fact, I am going to purposely bust my brackets in his honor . . .

2)  DRAGONS OF WINTER NIGHT . . .  Death marches on.  Death was an occasional lead character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.  This past week, Mr. Pratchett, to the world's great loss, has decided to personally join Death for his upcoming adventures.  Myself, I haven't read any of Sir Pratchett's books.  I like my fantasy to be serious.  I guess that's why I couldn't make it through the first Harry Potter book either.  But humor has its place.  As just another nameless face in the fantasy community, you would run into his prodigous output again and again.  Obviously, anyone who was a close friend of Neil Gaiman2 must have been one heck of a guy.  Sir Pratchett did leave one last collection of stories for young readers, Dragons at Crumbling Castle: And Other Tales (9780544466593) 16.99, and it is selling well.  Death posted this tweet:  AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER . . .

3)  DRAGONS OF SPRING DAWNING . . .  Hey, did anybody mention dragons?  We had our good friend and author Rachel Hartman stop in today to sign our copies of Seraphina (9780375866227) 10.99 and the sequel, Shadow Scale (9780375866579) 18.99.  Like a meeting of like-minded condottieri, Emily-the media escort, Rachel, and I hunkered down around the table as she autographed her books and talked about The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, George R.R. Martin, and of course, Terry Pratchett.  She pays a lovely homage to Sir Pratchett on her blog (March 13, 2015): http://rachelhartmanbooks.com/blog .  If you're into fantasy, I highly recommend her books . . .           

 

1  According to the MUNWPOOBI (The Made Up Numbers We Pulled Out of Our Butt Institute).

2  He said,  "I miss my friend, I miss him so much."

Odds & Sods

Sleeper Alert!  Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler's Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World (9781476709567) 28.00 has been trickling out of here over the past few days.  It's a guide to utilizing technology in the 21st century business world.  Abundance (9781451616835) 16.00, their first title sold . . . abundantly the last time around . . .

 

Another one to keep an eye on is Jennifer Robson's After the War is Over (9780062334633) 14.99.   It takes place after The Great War and it sounds kind of Downton Abbey-ish, as did her first book, Somewhere in France (9780062273451) 14.99.  Cheerio!

 

Charles Edmund Wilson III

Ye Olde Partners Page

*A Collection of Antiquarian Curios & Relics*

"Each night, when I go to sleep, I die.  The next morning,

when I wake up, I am reborn . . ."

                                                                                     --Mahatma Gandhi

Dearest Mick--

  Chip, my loyal manservant, and I had just returned from the Walton family's secret compound when we found your care package outside my villa's security gate.  It certainly looked enticing with titles like Clive Cussler's The Assassin (9780399171758) 28.95, Kazuo Ishiguro's The Buried Giant (9780307271037) 26.95, and David Axelrod's Believer (9781594205873) 35.00, which, mind you, had Chip singing to the tune of the Monkee's 'Daydream Believer': "Oh, what could it mean to a Daydream Belieber? He's the homecoming queen . . ."

  

  But we put all that aside.  I had already asked Chip to invite two newsmen, Bill O'Reilly and Brian Williams, who I had mentored many years ago over a nightcap.  I had taken Bill under my wing when I owned WFAA-TV in Dallas, and he was merely an up and coming reporter.  My words of advice to Bill:  Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.  As for Brian, I met him in the 80s when we were at an undisclosed island for an Exxon shareholders party.  I will share a snippet of our conversation with you:

  I asked, "So, Brian, what brings you to Napoli?"

 "I was on a sabbatical, and you know how I just loooove southern Italy."

  Bill sniffed, "You mean an enforced sabbatical.  Does a helicopter trip in the Iraq War ring a bell?"

  Brian bristled, "Oh, you're really one to talk, Mr. Bill 'I was at the door when the Russian friend of Lee Harvey Oswald shot himself' O'Reilly!  You claim to be a historian, but you've been caught in a lie in your book, Killing Kennedy (9780805096668) 28.00."

  "Wrong!  I never claimed to be a historian.  Hampton Sides in his review of Erik Larsen's Dead Wake (9780307408860) 28.00 described the author as 'a modern master of popular narrative non-fiction' and that's what I do too."

  I added, "Oh, the book about the Lusitania. Did you know that I was on the Lusitania when it sank in 1915?"

  Brian sniped, "Oh yeah and I bet Bill was on it too.  Ha, ha!"

  Bill was starting to turn purple, "That's it!  You're off my show!  Cut his mic!

  "Bill, you're overreacting . . ."

  "Why am I still hearing you?  Frank!  Cut his mic or you're fired!" O'Reilly screamed as veins began to pop out of his neck.

  Sadly, it went rapidly downhill after that.  Eventually, I had to have Chip physically throw them out.  C'est la vie . . .           

                                                                                    Warmest Regards,

                                                                             Charles Edmund Wilson III

 

Odds & Sods

Spring is right around the corner.  *Knocks on wood*  And the spring titles are starting to hit the docks.  For everyone in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan who loves their loons and wants to pass that loony love on to their children, we have Gene Klco's Loon Chick's First Flight (9781933272511) 17.95 in stock . . .

We have also received a nifty little hardcover book for the youngsters called The Colors of Mackinac Island (9781933272498) 10.95 by Jennifer Powell.  This one is sure to be a fan favourite for Mackinac Island visitors for years to come . . .

The Caldecott winner, Dan Santat's The Adventures of Beekle (9780316199988) 17.00 is here  . . .

STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR DOUBLE D

Ye Olde Partners Page

*A Collection of Antiquarian Curios & Relics*

"When a stranger sojourns in your land, you shall not do him wrong.  You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God . . ."

                                                     --Leviticus 19:33-34

STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR DOUBLE D

  I'm worried.  Double D hasn't left his basement since he heard Leonard Nimoy passed away.  He's not answering my phone calls.  It's really bummin' me out.

  I grab a book from the coffee table.  I never go far without a comfort book; they make the best traveling companions . . .  Well, at least next to Double D.  I've picked Neil Gaiman's Trigger Warning (9780062330260) 26.99.  Of course, it's a collection of short stories, which doesn't usually sell well, but it's Neil Gaiman for Chrissakes.  It also has his script from Doctor Who in it and that's the bomb.

  I slam the door behind me, truck on down to Doctor Delay's house, and knock on his front door.  Eventually, his Mom arrives at the door.  She's wearing a robe and slippers with her hair in rollers.  She opens the storm door and I'm engulfed in a cloud of cigarette smoke.  I notice she has a Pall Mall in one hand and a half empty martini glass in the other.  I glance at my watch; it's 11:37.

  I say, "Hey, Mrs. D, I came over to see how the Doctor is doing."

  In a slurred voice soured by thousands of cigarettes she croaks, "C'mon in Bill, he's downstairs."

  In the living room, smoke is billowing from her ashtray like a small forest fire. I suggest, "Gee, Mrs. D, you should really cut back on the smokes.  It's gonna be the death of you."

  I make a mental note to bring a copy of Alan Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking (9780615482156) 16.99 on my next visit.

 

 

 He's not downstairs.  In fact, it looks like he left in a hurry.  On his rolling table, which is one of those big wooden pulleys that the telephone company uses to string lines, I see an array of Joseph Heywood titles.  Crap!  Joseph Heywood is always a sure sign Double D is upset.  Harder Ground (9781493009022) 17.95 is a new short story collection.  The other two titles, The Berkut (9781493009046) 19.95 and The Domino Conspiracy (9781493009053) 19.95 are re-releases of spy thrillers he wrote earlier in his career.  However, the really telling clue is on his desk, which was a recreation of Sulu's console on the Enterprise D, a scattering of Star Trek memorabilia is strewn across the tabletop.  Underneath a copy of the DVD, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, I find a sticky note with the address to a funeral in Los Angeles.

  I say aloud, "Oh no, he's going to stop Leonard Nimoy's funeral!"

  Unbeknownst to me, Mrs. D is listening on the stairs, "Bill, think about it."

  I scratch my head, "Oh no, he's going to crash Leonard Nimoy's funeral!"

  "Bingo!"

  

Odds & Sods

I have word on the most exciting news that you are going to hear in the entire month of March:  The new Partners Book Distributing 2015 Great Lakes & Midwest Catalog is here!  You should be receiving your copy in the next few weeks.  Watch your mail! Can't wait? View the catalog online: http://partners-east.com/documents/GLC2015.pdf

From The Chicago Tribune, we have received the memorial edition of Ernie: Mr. Cub (9781629371702) 14.95.  No one epitomized Cubs baseball more than Mr. Ernie Banks.  Every Cubs fan should have this book.

 Dan Santat's The Adventures of Beekle (9780316199988) 17.00, which won the Caldecott Award, should arrive in the next few days . . .