Archive for March, 2010
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
Buying used books used to be a hit or miss process. The standards for accepting books through buyback programs were inconsistent, so it was possible to have books accepted for re-sale whose bindings were broken or with pages ripped and missing. This resulted in unsuccessful attempts to resell the books. To make the used book market strong and profitable, the vendors needed to improve standards to positively reflect the integrity and usefulness of the products available. Today, the pre-owned book market is strong and resale values are cost effective for most customers. Unfortunately, this does not mean that all resellers have equally high standards.
If you are going to be buying used books at a bookstore, there are things to look for that indicate the quality of the book. Open the book, if it lays flat, with the binding visible in the center, the binding is broken. If the pages come away from the book cover, it has been separated, and if pages are not already loose, they soon will be. Evidence of water damage includes stiff, wavy pages that will not lie flat and darkened areas on the pages. This type of damage may eventually lead to mold growth.
If you are buying used books online, look at the site’s requirements for purchasing used books. If they will not accept books that show signs of damage discussed above, you can be assured of the quality. Most vendors also go through the books to make sure there are no missing pages, confirm that notations and highlights are kept to a minimum and that the general condition of the book could be described as “good”. A rating of good means that the signs of wear and tear are small and do not detract from the usefulness of the book.
When buying used books, it will be worth your time to research the quality standards set forth by the vendors for purchasing used books. These standards will alert you to the quality of their offerings. The online used book business is very competitive. As a result, it is becoming more common for sites to specialize in a niche market. The types of books available through buyback programs range from older textbooks to last season’s bestsellers. Paperback and hard covers have their own market values and standards.
Checking for quality is important whether your intention is selling the books to an online vendor, such as CKY Books or growing your personal collection. Happy shopping!
Monday, March 29th, 2010
Here’s the weekly comparison of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times Top 5 bestsellers in Fiction Hardback. There are three newcomers to the Wall Street Journal’s Top 5 Fang (James Patterson), Twilight: The Graphic Novel (Stephanie Meyer) and The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Shadow Souls(L.J Smith). (It’s been fun to watch the WB series resurrect a L.J Smith’s Vampire Diaries series. ) The Help remained at #3 while House Rules dropped down three spots to #4.
There weren’t as many changes on the New York Times list. The Help moved to #1 from the second spot, dropping House Rules to #2. Think Twice debuted at #4. The Silent Sea and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter stayed at #3 and #5 respectively.
| Wall Street Journal Top 5 |
New York Times Top 5 |
| Fang James Patterson |
The Help Kathryn Stockett |
| Twilight: The Graphic Novel Stephanie Meyer |
House Rules Jodi Picoult |
| The Help Kathryn Stockett |
The Silent Sea Clive Cussler |
| House Rules Jodi Picoult |
Think Twice Lisa Scottoline |
| The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Shadow Souls L.J Smith |
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Seth Grahame-Smith |
Fiction new releases:
03/30/2010
Solar (Ian McEwan)*
I Am Not A Serial Killer (Dan Wells)
The Last Fix (Kjell Ola Dahl, translated by Don Bartlett)
Beautiful Assassin (Michael C. White)
The Escape (Adam Thirlwell)
The Season of Second Chances (Diane Meier)
Without Mercy (Lisa Jackson)*
Deception (Alex Delaware Series #25) (Jonathan Kellerman)
Scandal on Rincon Hill: A Sarah Woolson Mystery (Shirley Tallman)
Rat (Fernanda Eberstadt)*
Pinion (Jay Lake)
Snakes Can’t Run (Ed Lin)
Whiter Than Snow (Sandra Dallas)
Liars All (Jo Bannister)
Silver Borne (Mercy Thompson Series #5) (Patricia Briggs)
Fireworks over Toccoa ( Jeffrey Stepakoff)
Your Presence is Required at Suvanto (Maile Chapman)
What is This Thing Called Love (Gene Wilder)
He Walked Among Us (Norman Spinard)
The Book of Murdock (Page Murdock Series #8) (Loren D Estleman)
If I Loved You I Would Tell You This: Stories (Robin Black))
31 Bond Street: A Novel (Ellen Horan)
The Long Way Home (Robin Pilcher)
Something Red (Jennifer Gilmore)
The Bradshaw Variations (Rachel Cusk)*
Barbary Pirates: An Ethan Gage Adventure (William Dietrich)
The Lotus Eaters (Tatjana Soli)*
Sick Like That (Norman Green)
Pearl of China (Anchee Min)
04/01/2010
Stress Fracture (D.P Lyle)
Hello Kitty Must Die (Angela S. Choi)
Pretend All Your Life (Joseph L. Mackin)
Drake’s Bay (T.A Roberts)
The Iron Kahn: A Detective Inspector Chen Novel (Liz Williams)
Falling Angel (William Hjortsberg)
*Books added to my “To Be Read” list
Friday, March 26th, 2010
The “easy” part about writing book reviews is that they’re opinion pieces. You may not AGREE with my opinion. You may even think my taste in books royally stinks. It’s okay; there’s no right or wrong. You can even TELL me you disagree – and why. (As long as you do it nicely. Mean/rude comments will be deleted).
The HARD part of writing book reviews is that sometimes I sit staring at a blank page trying to do justice to a truly delightful read. That’s the case today.
A Twitter contact recommended N.D. Wilson‘s “100 Cupboards” trilogy. I’m quite glad she did. (I’m also glad I didn’t discover the books until AFTER the third one was published.) Wilson has a gift for description that allowed me to immediately immerse myself in his world(s). The characters were introduced but their personalities weren’t presented in a heavy handed fashion. Instead I felt as if I grew to know them as the story progressed, much as if I were making new friends.
The story itself is not new. A young boy, orphaned in practice if not legally, is packed off to live with unknown relatives where he finds adventure that forces him to learn about himself, and grow, until evil is defeated and everyone lives happily ever after. What I enjoyed about Wilson’s version is the adventures in the last two books are caused by Henry (the protagonist) taking responsibility for his actions in the first book. While he has his share of trepidation, he usually grits his teeth and takes action. When his family & friends look to him as leader, it’s because he’s actively earned the position, not passively received it through circumstances.
The books have a little bit of everything: humor, danger, adventure, and magic. The joys of everyday, common experiences overlay the story and the importance of true family and friends intertwine with supernatural powers. I loved reading these books. Even more, I loved that I could recommend these books to my kids.
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
One of our contacts (@crowandiris) on Twitter asked this morning: “What’s on YOUR ‘to read’ book shelf? “
Now I’m curious. What IS on YOUR list/shelf. I’ll show you mine if you’ll show me yours. (I actually don’t (currently) have any books pending on a shelf here at home. What I have is a list in Word of books I want to pick up…which needs to be soon before I finish what I’m reading now.)
I’m always looking to add to my list. What do you think I absolutely HAVE to read? What are you looking forward to reading?
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
Here’s the weekly comparison of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times Top 5 bestsellers in Fiction Hardback. House Rules remains in the #1 spot for both lists. On WSJ The Help dropped to #3 while newcomer The Silent Sea took the #2 spot. The Silent Sea also made an appearance on NYT at #3. Also new to the lists are Diary of a Wimpy Kid on WSJ and Starwars: Backlash on NYT (debuted at #12 on WSJ)
| Wall Street Journal Top 5 |
New York Times Top 5 |
| House Rules Jodi Picoult |
House Rules Jodi Picoult |
| The Silent Sea Clive Cussler |
The Help Kathryn Stockett |
| The Help Kathryn Stockett |
The Silent Sea Clive Cussler |
| Diary of a Wimpy Kid Jeff Kinney |
Backlack Aaron Allston |
| The Last Olympian Rick Riordan |
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Seth Grahame-Smith** |
Fiction (hardback) new releases:
03/23/2010
Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War (Karl Marlantes)
The Man from Saigon: A Novel (Marti Leimbach)
The Sable Queen (Redwall) (Brian Jacques)
Caught (Harlan Coben)
Keys to the Demon Prison (Fablehaven, Book 5) (Brandon Mull)
Fading Echoes (Warrios: Omen of the Stars #2) (Erin Hunter)
Bite Me: A Love Story (Christopher Moore)
A Darker God (Paperback) (Barbara Cleverly)
Epitaph Road (David Patneaude)
Pride & Prejudice & Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls (Steve Hockensmith/Jane Austen)
Known to Evil (Leonid McGill Series #2) (Walter Mosley)
212 (Alafair Burke)
Fragile Beasts (Tawni O’Dell)
Losing Charlotte ( Heather Clay)
The Sheen on the Silk (Anne Perry)
Eddie Signwriter (Adam Schwartzman)
The Creation of Eve (Lynn Cullen)
Brightly Woven (Alexandra Bracken)
The Bone Thief (Jefferson Bass)
The Mapping of Love and Death (Maisie Dobbs Series #7)(Jacqueline Winspear)
Good to a Fault (Marina Endicott) (US Debut)
Shattered (Karen Robards)
March 28, 2010
Black Hills(Dan Simmons)
Songs of Dead Dreamer (Thomas Ligotti) (reissue)
A Pleasure To Burn (Ray Bradbury) (collection of 16 stories)
Friday, March 19th, 2010
The concept of John Banville’s The Infinities – Greek gods amusing themselves with a family while narrating the events – sparked my interest as soon as I heard about it. I wanted to love the book. I tried to love the book. But I couldn’t, a fact that, quite possibly, reflects on my abilities as a reader more than the abilities of the author. Banville writes beautifully but often I found myself tangled in his prose. Phrases that should have been simple enough (ex: “To us your world is what the world in mirrors is to you”) were usually lost within long passages of meandering descriptions. Events or places were frequently described in great detail that served no apparent purpose in the overall story arch leaving me to feel as if there were some profound meaning that I was unable to grasp, some grand point that hovered just outside my comprehension.
This is not an action novel. Everything that takes place here is within the thoughts of the characters. That fact alone is not a criticism; I was looking forward to how it all played out. Unfortunately, interactions are emotionless. The cast with all of their severe flaws should have been wonderfully complicated and troublesome but instead were colorless, save for a few (all too rare) scenes. The pranks the gods play are relatively tame. Banville commented in an interview that he used Heinrich von Kleist’s play Amphitryon as inspiration (and it is actually referenced within the book). However there was no comedy of errors in “The Infinities”. And though Banville says all his books are humorous, I found very little here. Perhaps that’s a result of my American tendencies to get distracted by details such as “tyre” instead of “tire”. Perhaps it’s because after re-reading passages for the first few chapters, trying to tease out the significance, I grew bored and began skimming for actual meaning while missing subtle points that would have made the novel worthwhile. I have read glowing reviews and profound summaries of this novel. The last few pages did make me sit up and take notice so that I finished thinking “Wait. Maybe that wasn’t so bad” instead of “Whew! That’s finally done!” I’m even tempted to re-read it if for no other reason than to prove to myself that I haven’t become completely lazy in my reading habits and do, in fact, have the capabilities to recognize whatever philosophical gist lay at the core of the pages.
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
Are you wearing your green? March 17 can be a lot of fun with the parades and canals turned green and pinches and green beer. But like most holidays, its origins are much different. Interestingly enough, St. Patrick was not even Irish. He was born in Great Britain but at the age of 16 was captured by Irish raiders. He spent six years as a slave in Ireland, herding livestock. He turned to religion for comfort, eventually escaped and returned home. However, he had a dream one night that convinced him to return to Ireland, which he did after he was ordained bishop. He spent the rest of his life preaching, converting the masses to Christianity and building churches. (We know all this thanks to the book he wrote “Confessio”)
The first St. Patrick’s day parade was not celebrated in Ireland. Though the anniversary of St. Patrick’s death has been celebrated in Ireland for thousands of years as a religious holiday, the incarnation we see now began in 1762 when Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York. The parades grew to be a show of unity and later, a celebration of heritage, for Irish-Americans. It wasn’t until 1995 that Ireland began promoting St. Patrick’s Day with a modern bent in order to drive tourism.
What do YOU do to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?
Quotes from Irish authors:
“May you live all the days of your life” – Jonathan Swift
“I can resist anything but temptation.” Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan, 1892, Act I
“Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth, We are happy when we are growing. ” William Butler Yeats
“The English did many terrible things but one great thing you did was give us this extraordinary language … and it works for us.” John Banville
“We are all born mad. Some remain so.” Samuel Beckett
“I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day. “ James Joyce
Monday, March 15th, 2010
Here’s the weekly comparison of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times Top 5 bestsellers in Fiction Hardback. J.D. Robb’s Fantasy in Death was unseated from its top spot on both lists by Jodi Picoult’s new release House Rules. Kathryn Stockett’s The Help is holding steady at #2 but Roger Parker’s Split Image has disappeared from the top 5 completely.
| Wall Street Journal Top 5 |
New York Times Top 5 |
| House Rules Jodi Picoult |
House Rules Jodi Picoult |
| The Help Kathryn Stockett |
The Help Kathryn Stockett |
| The Last Olympian Rick Riordan |
Fantasy in Death JD Robb |
| Big Girl Danielle Steele |
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Seth Grahame-Smith** |
| Fantasy in Death JD Robb |
Worst Case Patterson/Ledwidge* |
* Worst Case (Patterson/Ledwidge ) is # 7 on the WSJ list.
**Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Seth Grahame-Smith) debuted at #10 on the WSJ list.
Fiction new releases for this week
03/16/2010
Think Twice (Lisa Scottoline)
Oath of Fealty (Elizabeth Moon)
The Girl Who Chase the Moon (Sarah Addison Allen)
The Spellmans Strike Again (Lisa Lutz)
The Irresistible Henry House (Lisa Grunwald)
The Crucible of Empire (Eric Flint)
The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA’s War on Terror (John Kirikou)
Capitol Betrayal (William Bernhardt)
The California Roll (John Vorhaus)
In the Company of Angels (Thomas E Kennedy)
03/18/2010
The Solitude of Prime Numbers (Paolo Giordano) (Debut novel)
Friday, March 12th, 2010
I hesitated for awhile before picking up “The Birth House” by Ami McKay. It just didn’t sound like something that would tickle my fancy. But then I started hearing good things about it — really good things. And I’ve been known to pick up books that I thought I would love but was extremely disappointed. Besides the rule is don’t judge a book by its cover, right?
Words cannot express how glad I am that I picked up this book.
McKay artfully wove the story of Dora Rare’s life with a simple poignancy that pulled me into the very fabric of pages. Starting with the knowledge that Dora is the only daughter in five generations of Rares and moving smoothly down the road of her life, there were no overly contrived plot twists or absurd moments that distracted me from the tale. Every detail felt authentic and served to further the story.
One of my favorite moments in the book takes place at Dora’s wedding shower. Her mother frets that she did not keep her wedding dress but used it to make christening clothes for Dora’s older brothers. Her aunts confide that they all did the same. It’s simple but sweet moment that helps develop the characters from merely words on a page to individual personalities.
McKay made it easy to forget I was reading a piece of fiction and not a biography. I was emotionally invested in what happened to Dora and those in her life. The only complaint I had was over something that is, alas, a problem in every great book. It eventually has to end. And while “The Birth House” ends in a satisfying and entirely appropriate manner, I was sad to say goodbye to Dora and crew.
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
Recently a friend mentioned she had rented the movie “Coraline”. It barely registered on my radar when it released in 2009 but her summation of “it’s creepy” piqued my interest… in the book. The next time I found myself at the library, I checked the computer to see if they had a copy. (Side note: Computers are definitely more efficient but it saddens me a little that my son’s generation will never know the “joy” of working with a card file.) They did have a copy, checked in even. But it was in the…teen section. The section positioned directly across from the public computers. I found the book easily enough but as I exited the aisle, my knees got weak. My hands were clammy, my face flushed. I watched people glance up as I passed, certain that they were judging me and my “teen reading” selection through narrow, suspicious eyes. A spotlight followed my steps, illuminating “NOT FOR SOMEONE ELSE” engraved across my forehead. I checked out as quickly as my shaky hands would let me and hurried out, feeling (ironically) like a teenager escaping with an illicit adult book.
I recognized the ridiculousness of my reaction almost as soon as I got in the car. Obviously I’m well beyond the target demographic of the teen section but I’m in good company. Adults aren’t dismissing a book just because it’s labeled as “young adult”. I entered Harry Potter’s world through a friend’s child’s copy of “Sorcerer Stone” but discussed later books with my peers. Twilight mania was fueled more by adult women talking than marketing. Young adult literature is the one bright spot for a publishing industry hit hard by the recession but adults are driving that trend. Why is that? My guess – it’s unabashedly FUN. It gives adults a chance to set aside their world weariness and relax into often fantastical worlds. And there’s usually no concern if your kid picks it up (or any concern taking them to subsequent movies.)
I personally have enjoyed several books that fall into the teen category. Most recently I finished a trilogy by N.D. Wilson (“100 Cupboards”, “Dandelion Fire”, and “The Chestnut King”) that was thoroughly satisfying. And that trilogy was recommended to me by a friend who’s currently pursuing her Masters…in English Lit. Talk about good company. Next time, I will emerge from the teen section with my head held high.
What do you think of this trend? Have you indulged in any young adult novels?
