Book links round-up: the Nabokovia butterfly, literary bandits, and more

• Patti Smith to collaborate with playwright John Logan on screenplay of her memoir Just Kids
• Odd things named after writers
• After five decades, a book of lost Dr. Seuss stories to hit shelves this September
• Rare book collector sparks debate over manuscript he says was written by famous outlaw Butch Cassidy
• A preview of fall books marking the 10th anniversary of 9/11

In the July/August issue of Q&Q: 2011 fall preview

The busy season for publishers has no shortage of big new releases, with novels from Ondaatje, Vanderhaeghe, and Endicott, the Massey Lectures from Adam Gopnik, and kids’ books from Kenneth Oppel and Kit Pearson. In the July/August 2011 issue, Q&Q takes a look at the fall season’s top titles.

Also in this issue, QR-code marketing, novelist Esi Edugyan’s sophomore blues, and publishers’ reactions to Indigo’s new co-op program. Plus reviews of new books by Lynn Coady, Nicole Lundrigan, Cary Fagan, and more.

FEATURES
Fall preview
A sneak peek at the season’s top fiction, non-fiction, children’s, and international titles

The CBA’s balancing act
The Canadian Booksellers Association looks to new digital partnerships – and old-school member outreach – to regain its place as the united voice of booksellers

After the collapse
Canadian book distributors remain optimistic following the bankruptcy of H.B. Fenn and Company

FRONTMATTER
Esi Edugyan finds an unlikely inspiration for her sophomore novel, Half-Blood Blues
Winnipeg’s Aqua Books revinvents itself as a popular community hangout
Joshua Knelman’s art-theft investigation landed him a book deal
Best short stories: Michael Christie on David Bezmozgis’s “Tapka”
Indigo’s new co-op program faces mixed publisher reaction
Is QR-code marketing just a fad, or can it sell books?
Cover to cover: Caitlin Sweet’s The Pattern Scars
Snapshot: eBound Canada CEO Robert Hayashi

REVIEWS
The Water Man’s Daughter by Emma Ruby-Sachs
Alone in the Classroom by Elizabeth Hay
Glass Boys by Nicole Lundrigan
The Antagonist by Lynn Coady
How Shakespeare Changed Everything by Stephen Marche
PLUS more fiction, non-fiction, and poetry

BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
Dear Baobab by Cheryl Foggo; Qin Leng, illus.
Nini by François Thisdale
The Summer of Permanent Wants by Jamieson Findlay
Testify by Valerie Sherrard
Born Ugly by Beth Goobie
Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes by Jonathan Auxier
PLUS more fiction, non-fiction, and picture books

THE Q&Q/BOOKNET CANADA BESTSELLERS

THE LAST WORD
Authors who borrow from historical events face real ethical issues, writes novelist D.J. McIntosh

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Book biz round-up: Malcolm X’s estate fight, and more

• Portland’s Powell’s Books lays off 31 workers, with second “bumping” phase to come
• Malcolm X’s family feuds over his estate, including a trove of unpublished works and journals
• Springfield Reads: Lisa Simpson gets her own book club
• Watch out Snooki, here comes Bristol Palin’s memoir
• Former milk delivery driver and best-selling British kids’ book author Brian Jacques dies

“Might give teens violent ideas”: the TPL’s 2010 list of challenged books

Freedom to Read Week is a month away, but Toronto Public Library trustee Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler got a jump on the festivities today by releasing, on his Twitter feed, the 2010 report from the TPL’s Materials Review Committee, which summarizes how the committee dealt with library-user complaints about books, DVDs, etc., over the past year. The nine-item list includes some not-so-surprising targets for complaints, including Tintin in the Congo, which is noted for depicting “Africans in [a] stereotypical fashion that is no longer acceptable,” and the movie Bruno, which one or more patrons found to contain “sexual content and visually explicit pictures not suitable for children or youth.”

There are some odd inclusions, though: The Waiting Dog, a 2003 picture book by Carolyn and Andrea Beck published by Kids Can Press, is said to contain “obscene content, language, and pictures.” (For the record, Q&Q’s review of The Waiting Dog says that “this book is inappropriate for squeamish kids and those afraid of dogs. On the other hand, if you’re on for some exuberant grotesquerie, it’s a very fine specimen of its kind.”)

The best complaint is the one directed at D.E. Athkins’ 2006 YA novel Swans in the Mist: not only does it contain “sadistic scenes,” it “might give teens violent ideas.” (Really, what doesn’t give teens violent ideas?)

While some of the materials were re-categorized (that volume of Tintin was moved to the adult graphic novel section), Chaleff-Freudenthaler notes in his tweet that only one of the nine books was actually removed: an error-ridden volume purporting to help would-be bean counters prepare for their Chartered Financial Analyst exams.

Publishing: not always a downer

There’s some funny book stuff floating around the internets today. Lest the trolls be confused or angered by humour, this is indeed an attempt to offer some Friday afternoon levity:

Eye Weekly columnist Sarah Nicole Prickett defends Chapters as her favourite bland non-space to rest without people judging her:

They don’t complain about how many magazines I’ve read for free and possibly ripped things from. They don’t look askance at my taste. Their eyebrows don’t say, “Oh, you’re just getting into Murakami now?” They make no suggestions, having nothing to prove; they work at Chapters. “Are you sure you want The Paris Review?” says absolutely nobody to me. “What about The Believer?” I never feel like I have to buy anything, the way I do everywhere else books are sold, as though upon walking in I’ve been handed a bucket, and now I must scoop out my share of the water to prevent us all from drowning. Not here. This ship will float on.

Those crazy kids at CBC Radio’s Day Six provide us with an audio track of Giller winners reading from Snooki’s debut novel, A Shore Thing:

Linden “Giller Gorilla” MacIntyre is a journalist with CBC’s The Fifth Estate, the winner of eight Gemini Awards, an International Emmy, and the 2009 Giller Prize for his novel, The Bishop’s Man.

Johanna “Skib-WOWW” Skibsrud is the 2010 Giller winner for The Sentimentalists, and the author of several collections of poetry.

The New York Times points to a project by a group of history teachers with an inventive and bizarre way to engage students. They produce music videos for altered versions of their favourite songs that replace the original lyrics with lyrics based on classic books and historical figures. Witness – for serious -  “Jenny From the Block” as Mary, Queen of Scots.

Aussie readers asked for input about future of publishing

Last week, the Internet behemoth Google launched its e-book sales site, Google eBooks, in the U.S. The e-book market is now crowded with offerings from Amazon, Kobo, Apple, and Sony, which in turn has spawned a cottage industry for articles about the future of reading and the future of publishing. Amid all this cacophony, it’s small wonder publishers have responded to the rapidly diversifying marketplace with a mixture of fear and confusion.

In Australia, a consortium called the Book Industry Strategy Group is directly petitioning readers about their reading habits, desires, and preferences as a way of gaining clearer insights into the way forward. Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, Barry Jones, chair of the BISG, states that the group is “seeking ideas from all Australians on how to face the challenges of the digital age, and to turn them into opportunities.” Jones suggests that opportunities lie in the flexibility and ready availability of e-books as against their print counterparts:

Where Amazon and Apple have got it right is the immediacy of purchasing an eBook. Both the Kindle and the iPad come with wireless connectivity to the Amazon and Apple stores, respectively. In the case of the Kindle, if you have an Amazon account, the Kindle comes preconfigured with your details so you can buy a book at 3am if you so desire. New York Times technology writer Nick Bilton calls this Me Economics, which is really just instant gratification in book buying. But it beats late-night television.

And although Jones throws a bone to those of us who still enjoy reading printed books (which he refers to as “pBooks”), it is clear that the digital arena is where he and his group are most invested:

And what about people who like the smell of books or the feel of books, or the cover artwork, or who just want to scribble over the pages? No, these sorts of people will mix up their reading habits and buy both pBooks and eBooks.

Public libraries are starting to offer access to eBooks via downloads or by access, by borrowers, to subscriptions taken out by the library. We want to hear about these initiatives and your experiences with them.

School kids will agree that carrying an eReader with all their textbooks on it beats carrying a heavy school bag with all their textbooks in it. And textbooks form a large part of the book industry in Australia. Can we hear your thoughts?

The public can submit comments and suggestions to the BISG until Jan. 31, 2011. One hopes that they will be slightly more innovative and nuanced than the sort of shopworn analysis Jones allows himself above.

Books of the Year 2010: Books for Young People

There’s no formula for choosing the books of the year. Some break ground, some tackle familiar themes with new energy. Some represent the best work from established authors, some introduce us to important new voices. And some are simply in-house favourites we feel deserve a little more attention. Here are the Books for Young People that made the most impact in 2010.

(more…)

Daily book biz round-up: Obama’s kids book hits shelves; Chelsea Handler gets own imprint; and more

Today’s book news:

• Barack Obama’s children’s book released while his predecessor faces plagiarism accusations for his own memoir
• Chinese website apologizes for selling pirated e-books
• Grand Central Publishing launches imprint for comedian Chelsea Handler
• The Guardian calls U.K. author’s sentence in Singapore “a disgrace”
• Diarmaid MacCulloch wins McGill University’s history book prize

Way to Display! The Hunger Games trilogy at Vancouver Kidsbooks

The upcoming visit from author Suzanne Collins (on Nov. 2) to Vancouver Kidsbooks inspired the store to once again go all-out on its exterior, opting for an eye-catching – yet more than a little menacing – “fear the future” theme very much appropriate to Collins’ mega-selling Hunger Games trilogy. (Photo courtesy of Scholastic Canada)

[Know of a great bookstore display? Made one yourself? Take a photo and drop it in our Flickr pool or send it to nwhitlock at quillandquire.com.]

No to dead-parent narration?

Generations of pre-J.K. Rowling books described kids acting (mostly) without adult supervision. Among other KidLit classics, characters from Peter Pan, Pippi Longstocking, and The Chronicles of Narnia often had at least one missing parent.

But Leila Sales, a children’s book editor at Penguin Young Readers Group, is speaking out against the ever-growing “ol’ dead dad syndrome” in KidLit. In a Publishers Weekly column, Sales describes the approach as “lazy writing,” offering a quasi-Oscar Wilde quote: “‘To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose a parent in nearly every children’s book looks like lazy writing.’ (I assume that is what Wilde meant.).”

Sales argues that by killing off parents, authors decrease the number of characters, make readers instantly sympathetic, and avoid boring adult subjects. Later she writes:

Dead parents will always have their place in children’s literature. If your book is set at an orphanage, then I would hope you include a lot of dead parents. Or if a book is about a teen coping with the recent death of her mother, then, you know, her mother should have recently died. But when authors omit parents for the sake of convenience, I take issue — as an editor, and as a reader. Because a convenient story is not the same as a good story.