*A Collection of
Antiquarian Curios & Relics*
"Sorry I'm
not home right now,
I'm walking into
spiderwebs . . ."
--No
Doubt, Spiderwebs
PRE-HALLOWEEN
BONANZA OF BOOKS BLITZ
It won't be long until the
Halloween sales begin and you're pulling fake spiderwebs out of your hair,
which segues nicely into the biggest release this week, the long awaited fourth
book in the Stieg Larsson's Millennium series, The Girl in the Spider's Web (9780385354288)
27.95. Stieg, of course, is still dead. However, he had written the
outline for this book and David Lagercrantz, formerly of Lagercrantz and
Guildenstern, has completed the book. Mr. Lagercrantz is Sweden's top
author (and he's also huge in Japan).
The other big release yesterday
was Purity (9780374239213) 28.00 by Jonathan Franzen. Love him or
hate him, a new Franzen title is a worldwide event. Granted, Mr. Franzen
has a penchant for putting both feet in his mouth when interviewed, but this is
the kind of inane publicity that gets your title on the bestseller lists.
An important writer, Jonathan is as close as we have to David Foster Wallace
without the likeability factor. Speaking of DFW, both Although Of
Course You End Up Becoming Yourself (9780307592439) 16.99, which the movie
'End of the Tour' is based on and his opus Infinite Jest (9780316066525)
18.00, which was the book DFW was promoting at the time, have been selling like
crazy.
Closer to home, John U. Bacon's Endzone:
The Rise, Fall, and the Return of Michigan Football (9781250078971)
27.99 has far outsold any of the previously mentioned titles for us. Hallelujah!
Father Harbaugh has returned to lead the Michigan Wovlerines football team to
the Promised Land. Praise the football gods!
Also, Arcadia Publishing has
released a couple of new local books. The first one is Meridian
Township (9781467114394) 21.99 by Jane M. Rose, which kickstarts the song
'At the Hundredth Meridian' by the Tragically Hip in my head without
fail. The other is Jack Dempsey's Michigan at Antietam (9781626199279)
24.99. I'm a bit of a Civil War buff, so I'm going to bore you with some
fun facts about Antietam. Even though Union General McClellan had a
captured copy of Robert E. Lee's entire disposition at Antietam, he almost
managed to grab defeat from the jaws of victory with his usual poor
generalship. In spite of him, the Union forces prevailed and President
Lincoln journeyed to the battlefield and issued the Emancipation
Proclamation. So yeah, it was kind of a big deal.
Finally, we lost two very beloved
authors this past week. Oliver Sacks, who reminded me of an even kindlier
Santa Claus, if that's possible, passed away. Dr Wayne Dyer, who I met
about 25 years ago, and I can tell you from firsthand experience that he was
genuinely a nice guy, also left us. Dr. Wayne was the real deal.
They will be missed.
Odds
& Sods
Deadly force and
the police have been in the news a lot these days, so Lt. Dan Marcou's Law
Dogs: Great Cops in American History (9781933272528) 16.95 is extremely
timely. These are the men and women behind the badge who have put
themselves in harm's way to protect the citizens in our great country.
From Wyatt Earp to Teddy Roosevelt, Mr. Marcou examines the larger than life
personas in law enforcement. A must-have . . .
By the way, we
have received the Studio Series Colored Pencil Set (9781441314512) 14.99
from Peter Pauper Press. With the upswing in adult coloring book
purchases, this is an easy add on sale. How many pencils can Peter Pauper
Press print?
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