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ForeWord this Week is a weekly email news service covering independent publishing of interest to booksellers, librarians, and other trade professionals.
FOREWORD THIS WEEK
08.20.08
1. MEET AUTHOR GAIL KARWOSKI
Gail is the author of River Beds: Sleeping in the World’s Rivers. Gail’s thoughts on the importance of children’s picture books are included in ForeWord’s Author Pages.
2. FOREWORD BOOK CLUB
A collection of German short stories in translation.
3. FAST FOREWORD
News, awards and announcements from our wire.
4. FOREWORD FOOTNOTES
Titles of note from our review stacks.
1. MEET AUTHOR GAIL KARWOSKI
Gail Karwoski, the author of River Beds: Sleeping in the World’s Rivers (illustrated by Connie McLennan; Sylvan Dell, 978-0-9777423-4-9), shares her thoughts on the importance of bedtime stories and children’s books.
Like most writers, I am surrounded by books. They play important roles in my life: resource and diversion, memory and stimulus. But of all the books that I’ve experienced, I think the ultimate is the slightest among them -- the bedtime storybook.
Why? Because of its power to transform.
The bedtime storybook is where the habit of reading begins. When a child lies in a warm, soft spot, about to enter that most necessary but most vulnerable world – Sleep -- a story provides transition and protection. It is a guide leading from the everyday world into the World of Dreams.
The words, pictures, and the comforting voice of the reader surround and protect the sleepy child, like a warm coat and fuzzy mittens. On the journey into the World of Dreams, the child leaves the safety of home and travels alone. Only images can enter the sleep world with the child, and these images combine with events of the child’s life to help the little traveler move from Dream to Dream, as travelers move from city to city.
A bedtime storybook has to be brief, for it is often a short journey into Sleep. It should be gentle and reassuring. For this is a book meant to grow softer and more comforting -- like pajamas -- with many uses. It should also be wise and intriguing, like the World of Grownups that lies at the far end of Childhood.
I don’t remember the words and pictures from the bedtime books of my own childhood. It doesn’t matter. These books became part of me -- food of my dreams, nourishing my imagination. What I remember is the comfort of the bedtime ritual; the feeling of safety and love and serenity.
I passed this precious legacy onto my daughters. And I do remember the books that I read to them: Goodnight Moon was the favorite, and we read it so often that the words tumbled from our mouths and the pages tumbled from their binding.
The bedtime storybook transformed me into a person who valued words and imagination. It shaped my future. In a sense, it got me into college and landed my first job in the classroom. It also saved my life…
My shiny, carefree childhood came to an abrupt end during my eleventh year, when my mother died of cancer. It was then that I needed books as a drowning victim needs air. I don’t remember the titles of the books that I read during those lonely, stark years. It doesn’t matter. Books gave me a recess from my painful life, as I giggled with characters in silly conundrums. Books gave me a guide to the far side of misery, as I struggled beside the characters toward safety and happiness.
I’m sure that’s why -- as a writer -- I’m drawn to stories about adventure and disaster, courage and coming-of-age. But make no mistake about it: The most powerful books that I’ve written contain the least words. They are my bedtime storybooks, Water Beds, Sleeping in the Ocean, and its brand new “brother,” River Beds, Sleeping in the World’s Rivers. These storybooks are my gift to the children of the future, to lead them into the World of Reading.
I think a three-year old said it best: I autographed a copy of Water Beds that was going to be a gift for this child’s Easter Basket. The child said the book was the best part of his basket, because it would last lots longer than the candy eggs. “And because,” he said, pointing to his name on the autographed page, “she wrote it just for me!”
So I did.
River Beds was reviewed in the July/August issue of ForeWord. For more interviews and perspectives from the authors featured in ForeWord magazine, visit http://www.forewordmagazine.com/authors.
From staff reports
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2. FOREWORD BOOK CLUB
“Auntie Kadrajan” is the story of a lonely spinster who pines for a lost love who will never come. It takes place in Saudi Arabia, a country on the other side of the world which most of us will never see; the names are unfamiliar to Western readers, as is the concept of arranged marriage. However, the themes of loss and hope are recognizable, and it is the Miss Havisham-like qualities of Auntie Kadrajan that highlight the similarities between our cultures. Although we are thousands of miles apart and our language, clothes, and gods may be different, emotions are the same around the world, as is the gradual understanding of the world that we gain as we grow up.
The story available for free download at the ForeWord Book Club this week.
Oranges in the Sun: Short Stories From the Arabian Gulf (Lynne Rienner, 978-0-89410-869-3), from which this story is taken, is an appealing collection because of the glimpses at a distant world that it offers. The unfamiliar settings are imbued with a surprising familiarity that crosses borders. Look for other short stories from foreign lands in the upcoming September/October issue of ForeWord.
Download “Auntie Kadrajan” at http://www.forewordmagazine.com and discuss your opinions online.
This week at Publishing Insider, Judy Gruen's explains how she did self-publish again, and finally got it right.
At Shelf Space, Sarah Lovato talks about librarianship and the loss of sanctuary.
At Publishing Matters, Eugene Schwartz explores the seeming clash of Internet interests between intellectual property and fair use.
At Editor’s Notes, Editor in Chief Heather Shaw notes books on Afghanistan, Iran and al Qaeda.
Visit www.forewordmagazine.com for publishing news, book reviews, and the ForeWord Book Club.
3. FAST FOREWORD
NYCIP and Audible Create Audio Imprint for Indies
Audible has partnered with the Center for Independent Publishing to create IndieFirst, an imprint that will bring independently published books out in audio before the print version of the book is available. The audiobooks will be available from both Audible and iTunes.
The imprint’s first titles are Demons in the Spring by Joe Meno (Akashic Books) and Child of All Nations by Irmgard Keun (Michael Hofmann, translator; Overlook).
Canadian Library Bans Arts and Crafts The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reports that a children’s knitting group will have to find a new place to gather after the Long Sault Library in Long Sault, Ontario, has banned arts and crafts.
“I really had fun in there in the library, and I’m really sad that they stopped that,” Kingston Currie, a six-year-old member of the group, told the CBC.
The library is using the time they gain to promote literacy-based activities like book clubs and Scrabble nights.
Why Nick Hornby Won’t Own a Kindle At the UK’s Times Online, author Nick Hornby explains some problems he sees with current eBook technology.
“Ebook readers have a couple of disadvantages when compared to MP3 players,” he writes. “The first is that, when we bought our iPods, we already owned the music to put on it; none of us owns ebooks, however. The second is that so far, Apple is uninterested in designing an ebook reader, which means that they don’t look very cool.”
Library Employee Pens Book, Gets Fired A library employee in Ludington, Michigan, has been terminated after her employers connected her to a book, The Library Diaries, which she wrote under the pen name Ann Miketa. According to the Ludington Daily News, Sally Stern-Hamilton’s book is set in “Denialville” and is a series of vignettes in which she describes many patrons from the community of 8,000 people as “mentally ill, mentally incompetent, unintelligent, and unattractive.”
“Most writers, anyone who writes something, some of it’s going to come from, be rooted in, your personal experience,” Stern-Hamilton said. “I don’t think I could have come up with (the characters) on my own. They’re bizarre, idiosyncratic, so they are based on some real experiences, but of course there are embellishments.”
Stern-Hamilton has appealed the termination and is awaiting a decision from the library director and board.
Short Stories Have a Future On his blog, Brave New World, Martyn Daniels writes about the promising future of the short story.
“In a world of shortening attention span and available quality time, the short story has huge potential,” Daniels writes, pointing out that it may be the perfect thing for electronic devices, which some may find unsuitable for reading long novels.
Author’s New Book is a Tribute to Her Father The Portsmouth Herald profiles Mary Lee Coe Fowler, the author of Full Fathom Five: A Daughter’s Search (University of Alabama Press, 978-0-8173-1611-2). The book tells the life story of Fowler’s father, who was lost at sea in a submarine during World War II, before the author’s birth.
“Part investigative journalism, part memoir, the book is the portrait of not only a single family’s loss, but a generation of Americans’ loss during one of our nation’s most complex eras,” Joshua Bodwell writes in the article.
Fowler is currently on tour promoting her book.
From staff reports. Share your news and information with Whitney Hallberg, Managing Editor.
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ISBN 9780977888405
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Cry of Justice
This handsomely bound and dust-jacketed hardback fantasy novel recently won the CSPA retailer vote for Best Novel of 2007! Ships from Central US warehousing with professional invoicing. Order from Atlas Books Distribution at 419/281-1802 (6883 fax), or via e-mail: order@bookmasters.com
Web page: Cry of Justice at Bookmasters.com
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4. FOREWORD FOOTNOTES
Biography & Autobiography. FULLER IN HER OWN TIME: A BIOGRAPHICAL CHRONICLE OF HER LIFE, DRAWN FROM RECOLLECTIONS, INTERVIEWS, AND MEMOIRS BY FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND ASSOCIATES, edited by Joel Myerson (University of Iowa Press, 217 pages, hardcover, $27.95, 978-1-58729-691-8): distinguished professor emeritus of American literature at the University of South Carolina and author of Emerson in His Own Time presents the life (1810-1850) of one of the leading intellectuals of the nineteenth century as well as a prominent member of Concord literary circles. Forty-one remembrances include those of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Thomas Carlyle, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose August 22, 1842, journal entry mentions discovering Margaret in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery reading and commented, “[childhood], whose influence remains upon the character after the collection of them has passed away.”“”
Biography & Autobiography. MAX FACTOR: THE MAN WHO CHANGED THE FACES OF THE WORLD by Fred E. Basten (Arcade Publishing, b/w photographs, 172 pages, hardcover, $24.95, 978-1-55970-875-3): assistant to the Max Factor public relations director and freelance writer presents the life of the premier make-up man (1877-1938). Factor was born in Poland, worked as a wigmaker and cosmetician for the Imperial Russian Grand Opera, immigrated to the U.S. in 1904, opened up a cosmetics and wig shop in Los Angeles in 1908, was the inventor of false eyelashes, lip gloss, eye shadow, and the eyebrow pencil, and used the “devil’s tricks” on the faces of Clara Bow, Joan Crawford, and Rita Hayworth.
Cooking. GALLEY GURU: EFFORTLESS GOURMET COOKING AFLOAT by Lisa Hayden-Miller (Paradise Cay Publications, b/w illustrations, 316 pages, softcover, $19.95, 978-0-939837-79-X): Cordon Bleu School attendee, Spanish restaurant owner, and Mediterranean charter ship chef presents food formulations for aboard ship and ways to keep ones “grip in the galley.” Recipes include salmon chowder, tequila shrimp, and the cocktail Mast Climber with plenty of ice, lemonade, and beer that can inspire one to rocket to the crow’s nest.
Health. THE POISON IN YOUR TEETH: MERCURY AMALGAM (SILVER) FILLINGS…HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH by Tom McGuire (Dental Wellness Institute, 193 pages, softcover $14.95, 978-0-9815630-0-8): dentist and author of Tooth Fitness: Your Guide to Healthy Teeth presents how this combination of elements relates to “autism, learning, and developmental disorders.” Among topics mentioned are chronic mercury poisoning, mercury detoxification, and amalgam filling history such as its invention in 1816 and the unawareness of the compound’s vapor.
History. HYPERSONIC: THE STORY OF THE NORTH AMERICAN X-15 by Dennis R. Jenkins and Tony R. Landis (Specialty Press, 9 x 9, 500 b/w and color photographs, 276 pages, softcover, $26.95, 978-1-58007-131-4): aerospace consultant and air force pilot outline the history of the million-horsepower rocket that could fly twice as fast as a bullet. Among the topics are launches from B-52 bombers; the pilots, including Neil Armstrong who later went to the moon; and the failure of the X-15-3 when its ballistic thrusters were entangled by false electrical signals, the crash ending the life of pilot Major Michael J. Adams.
History. THE PARADISE OF ALL THESE PARTS: A NATURAL HISTORY OF BOSTON by John Hanson Mitchell (Beacon Press, 254 pages, hardcover, $24.95, 978-0-8070-7148-9): editor of Sanctuary, the Massachusetts Audubon Society magazine, presents the nonhuman inhabitants and plant life of the Shawmut Peninsula as well as some eccentric characters. Mentioned are migratory birds such as the golden-crowned kinglet and white-throated sparrows that “flow” across the skies; the “mythic Isle of the Dead,” Cambridge’s Mount Auburn Cemetery, which has become a “mecca” for bird watchers; and the residents of Brook farm (1841), the transcendental experimental community with such members as Margaret Fuller and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
History. PIRACY: THE COMPLETE HISTORY by Angus Konstam (Osprey Publishing, b/w and color photographs, 336 pages, hardcover, $24.95, 978-1-84603-240-0): former naval officer, underwater archaeologist, and author of Blackbeard: America’s Most Notorious Pirate notes nautical criminals from ancient Egyptians to pirates off the coast of China; among the discussions are the clichéd sea culprits of “The Golden Age of Piracy” who were “festooned with weaponry” and shouldered parrots; lady buccaneers such as Anne Bonny, who when hearing the sentence of death by hanging (1720) said she was pregnant’.
Pets. SAYING GOODBYE TO YOUR ANGEL ANIMALS: FINDING COMFORT AFTER LOSING YOUR PET by Allen and Linda Anderson (New World Library, 6 x 7, 160 pages, softcover, $13.95, 978-1-57731-626-8): clergy members and the authors of Angel Dogs offer ways to sort out the “barrage of emotions” after loss. Among the seven chapters are “Covered Bridges – Shelters from the Storms of Pet Loss,” “Swinging Bridges -- Rituals that Heal and Beliefs that Cause Pain,” and “Memorial Bridges -- Memorial Services for Angel Animals,” which begins with an epigraph from Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov: “Love all of God’s creation…”
Religion. THE WISDOM JESUS: TRANSFORMING HEART AND MIND—A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON CHRIST AND HIS MESSAGE by Cynthia Bourgeault (Shambhala, 223 pages, softcover, $14.95, 978-1-59030-580-5): Episcopal priest and author of Chanting the Psalms believes if one approaches the “Gospels as though for the first time” Jesus emerges as a teacher of radical wisdom and compassion. Among the chapters are “Kenosis: The Path of Self-Emptying Love,” “Jesus as Tantric Master,” and “Lectio Divina,” sacred reading, which the early monks called “ruminating” scripture “like a cow chewing on its cud” to absorb deeply into one’s being like food that provides nurturance.
Sports. 101 REASONS TO LOVE THE RED SOX by David Green (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 100 b/w and color photographs, 7 x 7, 120 pages, hardcover, $14.95, 978-1-58479-714-2): creative director of Brightgreen Design and author of 101 Reasons to Love the Cubs offers his choices for the team that won five world series titles before 1919. Some of them are “No. 7: Cy Young,” who anchored the Boston pitching staff for eight years; “No. 37: Ted Williams,” who was the last major leaguer to hit over .400 in a season; and “No. 82: The Bloody Sock,” when Curt Schilling pitched on a ruptured ankle tendon in a playoff game and TV cameras repeatedly zoomed in on the leak staining his red sock.
by Alex Moore, Book Review Editor
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