Thursday, April 30, 2015

Ye Olde Partners Page

Ye Olde Partners Page
*A Collection of Antiquarian Curios & Relics*
"They can keep their Heaven.
When I die, I'd sooner go to Middle Earth . . ."
                                                                                     --George R.R. Martin

1)  A GAME OF THRONES . . .  One thing the late David Foster Wallace and I had in common is our addiction to television.  As he once said, "It's more like it, [TV 's] got to do with this -- here's this easy, passive, I-can-feel-like-other-people-are-in-the-room, but I don't really have to do anything."  I know what he means.  It's addictive.  I have to watch every episode of every show that I get started on.  Right now, my wife has me hooked on Diana Gabaldon's Outlander (9780440212560) 9.99 on Starz.  It's a Scottish version of Game of Thrones and the show runner is Ronald D. Moore, who was the showrunner for the re-boot of Battlestar Galactica and Carnivale.  Since those are probably two of my all-time favourite shows, Aubrey didn't have a hard time selling Outlander to me.  I've also hunkered down with Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis in Hilary Mantel and PBS's Wolf Hall (9781250077585) 16.00.  Mr. Rylance is brilliant as Thomas Cromwell and Damian Lewis as King Henry VII.  It's sort of a Game of Thrones-lite without the gratitous violence and nudity but with the requisite political intrigue.  I like to think it's 'smart' TV.  Whereas with George R.R. Martin's A Game Of Thrones (9780553386790) 18.00, I believe my justification is that since I read the novels, I need to watch the HBO series, and thus, I can say annoying things like, 'Well, it was different in the book' or 'That's not how I imagined it.'  You know it's the same thing we did with Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.   Nobody really likes that guy . . .

  

 2)  A CLASH OF KINGS . . .  Speaking of television, Dana Perino, who was formerly the press secretary for George W. Bush and is currently a Fox News talking head has released her memoir on the grand old days of the Bush administration. It is entitled And The Good News Is . . . (9781455584901) 26.00.  This is the same Dana Perino who said without a trace of irony on national TV, "We did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush's term."  Seriously?  If she can get such a fundemental fact like that wrong, how can I believe anything in her book?  Needless to say, this hasn't stopped it from becoming a huge bestseller amongst the Conservative crowd.  Just tell me what I want to hear . . .


 3)  A FEAST FOR CROWS . . . Don't get me wrong, I still read, but mostly on my breaks or during my lunch at work.  I have found Mary Norris' Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen (9780393240184) 24.95 to be nearly un-put-downable.  Not only am I learning interesting idiosyncrasies about the English language (and there are many), but Ms. Norris has a wonderful and engaging voice.  In fact, I find it amazing that this is her first book.  Her stories about pronouns and her transgendered younger brother were hilarious.  I hope with the success of this title that we will be hearing more from her in the future . . .

Odds & Sods

Mother's Day is right around the corner and I'm happy to announce that we will have copies of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Pioneer Girl (9780984504176) 39.95 in tomorrow.  As I'm sure you are well aware, the availability has been sporadic at best on this title.  Get yours before they're gone . . .


Our good friend Neal Samors and his co-author Christopher Lynch are back with a new title, Now Arriving: Traveling To and From Chicago by Air -- 90 Years of Flight (9780996141703) 39.50.  This is obviously a must-have title for stores in the Chicagoland area . . .


Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Ye Olde Partners Page

Ye Olde Partners Page
*A Collection of Antiquarian Curios & Relics*
"Sitting in the stand at the sports arena,
Waiting for the show to begin . . ."
                                                                                     --Paul McCartney, Venus and Mars

1)  ROCK SHOW . . .  I must admit when I saw the title Rock With Wings, I thought it might be a new tell-all book by Paul McCartney about his days with his band Wings.  For you youngsters, Wings was the name of the band Paul formed before he began collaborating with Kanye West and his career officially 'blew up'.  But I wasn't even in the ballpark with that one.  Heck, I wasn't even on the right planet (see: Venus and Mars above).  Apparently, Rock With Wings (9780062270511) 26.99 is actually the title of Anne Hillerman's sort of sequel to Spider Woman's Daughter (9780062270498) 9.99, which is a continuation of her late husband's series of books featuring Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn.  It releases on May 5.  By the way, next time we'll talk about the band that Paul was in before Wings . . .

 

2)  WITH A LITTLE LUCK . . .  The Pulitzer PrizeTM winners were announced  on Monday and to everyone's great surprise, they are solid bestsellers (well, at least the fiction and non-fiction categories).  Anthony Doerr's All The Light We Cannot See (9781476746586) 27.00 won the fiction award after the Pulitzer jury asked for a fourth nominee to be submitted to them.  Thankfully, we did not have a repeat of 2012 when no award was given for fiction.  Also, the trade edition of this title has been delayed until December.  Elizabeth Kolbert's important book, The Sixth Extinction (9781250062185) 16.00, which is already in tradepaper, was the winner in the non-fiction slot.  Of course, the history category winner, Elizabeth Fenn's Encounters At The Heart Of The World (9780374535117) 18.00 and the biography award winner, The Pope And Mussolini (9780812983678) 20.00 by David Kertzer are not quite as well known, but they both have been recently released in tradepaper editions, too.  There also was a poetry
winner . . .

 

 

3)  CALL ME BACK AGAIN . . .  Our good friend and New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Berg stopped by on Monday and signed copies of her latest book, Dream Lover (9780812993158) 28.00.  She was wonderful and has a great sense of humor.  We both agreed that one of our favourite quotes was by Flannery O'Conner:  Everywhere I go, I'm asked if I think universities stifle writers.  My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them.  There's many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.  As usual, it's first come, first served on signed copies . . .


On this day in Byzantine History (April 22)
During the night on this day in 1453, the Ottoman Turks moved ships overland and across the Golden Horn to cut off the last supply line into Constantinople.

Odds & Sods 
Tom Izzo and The Michigan State Spartans have had another glorious run at the NCAA basketball championship this year.  To commemorate his 20 years as coach of MSU's wildly successful basketball program, the Lansing State Journal and the Detroit Free Press are releasing
Mr. March (9781597255714) 34.95 on May 15.  This title will only be available on a non-returnable basis at a 30% discount.  Unfortunately, more than half of our stock has already been backordered, and more than likely, it will not be reprinted.  Order accordingly . . .



Happy Earth Day!

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Ye Olde Partners Page

Ye Olde Partners Page
*A Collection of Antiquarian Curios & Relics*
"In derelict sidings the poppies entwine,
With cattle trucks lying in wait for the next time . . ."
                                               --Roger Waters, Your Possible Pasts

1)  THE TIN DRUM . . .  Nobel Prize winner Gunter Grass died of a lung infection on April 13 in the city of Lubeck.  I have mixed feelings.  In my estimation, The Tin Drum (9780547339108) 15.95 is one of the most powerful books of the 20th century.  Little Oskar is a character that will remain with me the rest of my life, and he helped me to understand the relationship between Germany and Poland, especially in the post-war years.  On the other hand, for most of his life, Mr. Grass hid his service as a volunteer with the Waffen-SS near the end of WWII.  A youthful indiscretion?  Perhaps.  Its easy to make moral judgements from 50 years later, but I wonder what I myself would have done in the same situation, which brings us to Edith Hahn Beer's The Nazi Officer's Wife:  How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust (9780062378088) 16.99.  With falsified papers, Edith Hahn married and survived the war as the wife of a Nazi official.  It reminded me of the true story of Solomon Perel, a Jewish survivor of the war, who was inducted into the Hitler Youth.  His story is recounted in his autobiography and the outstanding foreign language film Europa Europa.  However, these successful attempts at hiding in plain sight were the exceptions.  Instead, more than 6 million people of Jewish lineage paid the ultimate price with their lives.  Their stories are now told in Nikolaus Wachsmann's KL (9780374118259) 40.00, the most comprehensive overview of the German concentration camp system, and Ravensbruck (9780385520591) 35.00 by Sarah Helm, which was one of the few all-woman extermination centers.  There are few words in any language more evil than Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, and Treblinka . . .

 

 

2)  CAT AND MOUSE . . .  And now, mercifully, some lighter fare.  Gordon Korman's older title Zoobreak (9780545125000) 6.99 has taken off again.  Our stock was recently replenished, and it reminded me of this little ditty from Thin Lizzy:



"Tonight there's gonna be a zoobreak
Somewhere in this town
See me and Griffin Bing don't like it
So we're breaking in and takin' them down

Tonight there's gonna be a zoobreak
Somewhere near the pound
Tonight there's gonna be a zoobreak
So don't you be around

Zoobreak!"

Odds & Sods

Six of Detroit's premier chefs (Now there's a phrase I never thought I'd say) and Hour Detroit have created a beautiful tradepaper cookbook called Savor Detroit V1 (9781938018084) 19.95.  The cover looks so delicious that I could just eat it . . .



Much like apple and jacks go together, author Kathy-jo Wargin and illustrator 'Nick' Frankenhuyzen are a perfect pairing for any children's book.  This year they are responsible for a book that is destined to be a regional classic, S is for Sleeping Bear Dunes  (9781585369171) 16.99.  Say Yes to Michigan!

Thursday, April 9, 2015

B. Traven Jr.

Ye Olde Partners Page
*A Collection of Antiquarian Curios & Relics*
"Gentlemen, we can rebuild him.  We have the technology.  We have the capability to build the world's first bionic man.  Steve Austin will be that man.  Better than he was before. Better . . . Stronger . . . Faster . . ."
                                               --Oscar Goldman

1)  THE BIONIC WOMAN . . .  First, Gretchen Rubin shared her secrets to finding happiness in her mega bestseller, The Happiness Project (9780061583261) 14.99, and now, she is back with Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives (9780385348614) 26.00.  She believes we can harness the energy of our habits to build happier, stronger, and more productive lives.  Why are some habits hard to break and why are

 

*Click*

  B. Traven Jr. here.  Mercifully for you, I am interrupting your Partners Page snoozefest with some exciting news.  The new season of B. Traven Jr. Presents X-treme Ancient Astronaut Conspiracy Mysteries begins next Wednesday on the History Channel.  It will air after the new hit show Redneck Boutique, which explores the hidden world of Hillbilly crossdressers.  Ha, ha!
  In my upcoming episode, we will examine the intersection of contemporary literature and conspiracy theories.  Erik Larson is no stranger to mystery.  In his new title, Dead Wake (9780307408860) 28.00, we relive the final few days of the doomed ocean liner, S.S. Lusitania.  As I'm sure you are well aware, this ship was sunk by a German U-boat in World War I that helped propel America's entry into The Great War.  What you may not know is that the Germans claimed it was carrying munitions.  The British initially denied it; however, the manifest clearly validated that there was more than 50 tonnes of bullets on board.  What really precipitated the second explosion in the ship's hold that caused the ship to sink in less than eighteen minutes?  Also, not only were there destroyers in port that could have escorted her, but apparently, the British Admiralty knew that there was a U-boat in the vincinity and did not warn the captain.  Possibly, this comment by Winston Churchill from a week earlier may shed some light on this mystery, "[It is] most important to attract neutral shipping to our shores, in the hope especially of embroiling the United States with Germany."  I believe this is what politicians call 'acceptable losses'.  Ha, ha!
  The second half of my latest show will highlight Sara Gruen's new novel, At The Water's Edge (9780385523233) 28.00.  Sara Gruen?  Well, it takes place in Scotland and part of the plot revolves around the protagonist's husband and best friend's search for the elusive Loch Ness sea monster during World War II.  And you should know by now that nothing excites me more than a good yarn about ol' Nessie.  I just hope his wife knows better than to investigate any standing stones in the surrounding area.  She might just end up in the 18th century.  Ha, ha!     

 

Odds & Sods

Aaron Stander's long overdue eighth volume in the Ray Elkins series, Murder in the Merlot (9780578136851) 15.95 is finally here.  A famous wine expert has died in the vineyards of the Leelanau peninsula and Chinese billionaires may be involved.  It looks like Mr. Stander has hit another homerun with his latest mystery . . .


YouTube internet sensation Shane Dawson's I Hate Myselfie (9781476791548) 16.00 has been a surprise blockbuster.  We've gone through three shipments so far.  We just received another batch today.  I guess it's what the kids are into . . .

Thursday, April 2, 2015

FILM ADAPTATION

Ye Olde Partners Page
*A Collection of Antiquarian Curios & Relics*
"The truth is that I know very few novelists who have been satisfied
with the adaptation of their books for the screen . . ."
                                                   --Gabriel Garcia Marquez

FILM ADAPTATION

From Mickipedia, the free literary encyclopedia

A film adaptation is the conversion of the written word into a feature film.  It is a type of derivative work.  The common form is to use a novel as the basis for a movie, but other works may be used as well including autobigraphy, comic books, historical sources (non-fiction), and sometimes other films.  Between 1994 and 2013, 58% of the top grossing films in the world were adaptations.1

OVERVIEW  [edit]
      
The adaptation of books made into movies is as old as the movie industry itself.  In 1902, George Melies' A Trip to the Moon was loosely based on Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon and H.G. Well's First Men in the Moon.  The first of many adapatations of the Brothers Grimm's Snow White was released in 1903.  The first adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, directed by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow, was also released in 1903.

EXAMPLES  [edit]

Alice Hoffman's The Dovekeepers (9781476790381) 16.00 stars Rachel Brosnahan and Sam Neill in a two part miniseries on CBS.  The first episode was last night and the concluding episode is tonight.


Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall (9781250077585) 16.00 stars Damian Lewis as Henry VIII and Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell.  It debuts this Sunday on PBS.


The Woman in Gold, which is based on The Lady in Gold (9781101873120) 17.95 by Anne-Marie O'Connor debuts at the cinema this week and it stars Dame Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds.


John Green's Paper Towns (9780147517654) 10.99 stars Cara Delevingne and Nat Wolff.  It releases nationwide on July 24.


1  Wikipedia, Film Adaptation
 
Odds & Sods

As the father of three daughters, I was excited to see the new title, Great Girls in Michigan History (9780814340738) 14.99 by Patricia Majher had arrived.  From Fanny Baker to Diana Ross, this book celebrates the women of Michigan who have made a difference. 


Speaking of daughters, my oldest daughter Christina was kind enough to point out that the author of What The Dog Knows (9781451667325) 16.00 is in fact, Cat Warren and not Cat Williams. My apologies.


We are also expecting the new cookbook from Hour Detroit Savor Detroit V1 (9781938018084) 19.95 very shortly . . .