After Harry, Then What?

It has been a “killer” week, but that’s no reason to leave you hanging. Here are some thoughts on what might be the successor to Harry Potter and his pals. By the way, Thursday is your last day to reserve HP and the Deathly Hallows: Year 7 at our special price. The launch party is Friday, July 20, beginning at the store at 9 p.m., with distribution of reserved pre-paid copies at midnight.

POSSIBLE SUCCESSORS
Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider series
Jenny Nimmo’s Charlie Bone series (a new one releases tomorrow)
Angie Sage’s Septimus Heap series
Joseph Delaney’s Last Apprentice books
Suzanne Collins’s Underland Chronicles
Janet Lee Carey’s Dragon’s Keep
The Pendragon series by D.J. MacHale
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
The Edge Chronicles (now up to eight titles)

Share with us your suggestions of YA fantasy that will do the trick!

These are the comments of Randy Smith, proprietor of Destinations Booksellers in New Albany, Indiana.

Who Will Be First?

Rigidly embargoed until Tuesday, Al Gore’s new book, Assault on Reason, is now available. I’ll be telling you more about it after I absorb it, but can anyone doubt that Gore has transitioned from run-of-the-mill politician to prophet and high priest of a growing segment of our population?

Here’s a mini-review from Talking Points Memo:

Gore even argues that Internet interactivity, just like the back- and-forth at TPM, is reviving something like Revolutionary-era pamphleteering and “committees of correspondence,” strengthening “a meritocracy of ideas” instead of letting conglomerates corner “the marketplace of ideas” by beaming one-way shock imagery at us through our TVs.

Fear almost always trumps reason, Gore explains, and television does it hundreds of times a day to Americans who watch TV for the national average of four and a half hours. Print, at least, makes you think by engaging a different lobe of the brain to interpret its otherwise meaningless symbols. He praises the Internet for restoring reading and writing to millions, if sometimes too instantly and anarchically to make them think as well as they would while sitting down with a good, serious book like his.

These are the comments of Randy Smith, proprietor of Destinations Booksellers in New Albany, Indiana.

New Book by Author of The Kite Runner

I’ve been promising Randy for almost 2 weeks that I would post something about A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and since it came out yesterday I figured I better get busy.

Many of you are already familiar with my reading habits and you are aware that if a book is wildly popular I have probably not read it. Why is that? One reason is that our patrons will usually find out about those books some other way and I am trying to read some of the great books that don’t get so much attention so that I can tell you about books you won’t hear about anywhere else.

This leads to my confession that I had not read Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner until it was selected as the book for the May meeting of our dining book club. Being in a book club is a great way to catch up on books that you may have missed.

I am glad that I finally got around to reading The Kite Runner. I enjoyed it so much that when I finished it I immediately began reading the advance reader copy of A Thousand Splendid Suns that we had received from the publisher. If you enjoyed Hosseini’s first book you won’t want to miss this one.

While not a sequel, the author again sets his novel in his native Afghanistan. This story follows the lives of Miriam and Laila, two women from different backgrounds, who are brought together by a shared struggle to survive the volatile events of the last 30 years in a culture where women have few choices and little power over their own lives.

You may have heard the author on NPR this morning, if not, here is a link to the NPR Web site.

Thanks for reading.
Ann

These are the comments of Randy Smith, proprietor of Destinations Booksellers in New Albany, Indiana.

Everybody’s Got One

We’ve often been asked about “best” books lists. Every reader has one, and we’re no exceptions. Here is one reader survey of the best books of 2006 – most of which we’ve sold or are currently selling.

Believer Book Awards from Beleiver Magazine.

These are the comments of Randy Smith, proprietor of Destinations Booksellers in New Albany, Indiana.

Books on the Air, Plus a Great Review

I can’t always stay up to date with the blog, but that’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to see what’s good. Herewith, a review link…

Eight years have passed between the release of Nathan Englander’s widely acclaimed debut collection of stories, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, and his first novel, The Ministry of Special Cases. As with any highly anticipated event, the burning question about the novel is, was it worth the wait? The answer is a qualified yes—this accomplished if imperfect work of literary fiction is beautifully written, hard to put down and packs a very subtle, lingering emotional wallop…read more.

If you listened to Bob Edwards this weekend you’ll have heard Frank DeFord talk about his new novel, The Entitled. I’ve read it and I loved it. Bob also talked with actor Bruce Dern (Things I’ve Said, But Probably Shouldn’t Have). We have that book, too, in our memoir/biography section.

These are the comments of Randy Smith, proprietor of Destinations Booksellers in New Albany, Indiana.

The Blooker Prize: Any Local Contenders?

LONDON – A former U.S. machine gunner’s irreverent memoir about his year fighting in Iraq has won the second annual prize for the best book based on a blog.

“My War: Killing Time in Iraq,” by Colby Buzzell was to receive the $10,000 Blooker prize on Monday, beating out 110 entries from 15 countries…more

These are the comments of Randy Smith, proprietor of Destinations Booksellers in New Albany, Indiana.

Carnegie Center Garners Prestigious Prize

Outstanding news and congratulations to our friends at the Carnegie Center for Art and History, New Albany’s chrysalis-like center for culture. If you haven’t been by there lately, pick a day and I’ll pay your admission fee!

The Carnegie Center is pleased to announce it is the recipient of a 2007 MUSE Bronze Award in the Teaching and Outreach category. A MUSE award recognizes achievement in museum media, and is conferred by the Media and Technology Standing Professional Committee of the American Association of Museums. Winning entries were expected to demonstrate outstanding achievement in content quality, interface design, functionality, production quality, visual appeal and the user’s experience.

The Carnegie Center’s award was given for its newest permanent exhibit, “Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage: Men and Women of the Underground Railroad in the Indiana and Kentucky Borderland” which was designed by Solid Light, Inc. of Louisville, KY. It is a unique interactive learning experience, which enhances awareness of the deep political and ideological divisions experienced throughout the Ohio River Valley as a result of slavery. Focusing on local citizens – barbers, ferrymen, ministers, freed people – who risked their lives, welfare and freedom to help runaways, the exhibit illustrates individual acts of resistance in undermining the institution of slavery.

In commenting on the project, the judges noted it is “a beautiful and moving presentation that heightens understanding of a portion of the Underground Railroad. The DVD is very engaging and full of deep, rich content, offering viewers a slightly different perspective to gain new understanding of the complexity of the issue. The technology was user-friendly and enabled the delivery of a powerful narrative. The production quality was very high using photographs, historical documents, drawings, voiceover, and reenactments in an impressive and aesthetically pleasing manner.”

The MUSE Awards competition received nearly 200 applications from a wide variety of museums in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Nick Honeysett, Chair of AAM’s Media & Technology Committee said, “The quality and diversity of entries has been exceptional. The ingenuity and creativity of the people who conceptualize and build these projects never ceases to amaze me.”

Carnegie Center Director Sally Newkirk was on hand to receive the award at the 2007 American Association of Museums Annual Meeting in Chicago on May 13. She said, “ It is an honor and privilege to accept the award on behalf of all who were involved throughout the development of our exhibit. Competitors for this award represent a Who’s Who in the museum field, and the Carnegie Center has earned its rightful place on this international platform.”

She noted the outstanding financial support from Caesars Foundation of Floyd County, the Carnegie Center for Art & History, Inc., the New Albany/Floyd County Public Library, the U.S. Dept. of Interior National Park Service, Dr. Curt & Pam Peters, Cinergy Foundation, Paul V. Ogle Foundation, James & Phyllis Robinson, National City, Tri Kappa, Nu Chapter, Vectren Foundation, Aebersold Charitable Trust, and numerous individual contributors. She also expressed gratitude to the members of the Advisory Committee for their vision, professional expertise and wise counsel to ensure sensitivity and historical integrity in the telling of this important story.

A regional art gallery and local history museum, the Carnegie Center for Art & History is a department of the New Albany/Floyd County Public Library. It is located at 201 E. Spring Street in downtown New Albany and open Tuesday through Saturday, 10-5:30. Admission is free. Visit the website at www.carnegiecenter.org.

What’s the “books hook,” you ask? Pam Peters’ The Underground Railroad in Floyd County, Indiana was a critical research tool in developing the multi-media exhibit. Pam’s book continues to sell well and is a requirement for any Indiana history bookshelf. It recently went to a second printing.

These are the comments of Randy Smith, proprietor of Destinations Booksellers in New Albany, Indiana.

Act Locally

You’ve always gotten a special feeling, a little retail buzz, when you shop at independent, locally owned businesses like, say, Destinations Booksellers. Right?

Well, it wasn’t just the hand-picked stock, knowledgeable staff, and welcoming atmosphere. There are cold, hard numbers to back up the buzz.

Locally owned bookstores support the economic health and well-being of a region. The San Francisco Retail Diversity Study revealed that independent bookstores contributed $54 million a year back to the San Francisco area, but chain stores and Internet booksellers contributed $8 million a year back. That’s almost seven times as much!

Internet sales do not generate sales tax or jobs for the community. And chain stores don’t spend money on services in the community. They retain everything from signs to C.P.A.’s on a national level.

The study also pointed out the difference created by just a 10% shift in customer spending from chain and Internet book retailers to locally owned bookstores. In the San Francisco area, the economy would gain $3.7 million a year from taxes and wages and such, and the shift would create 25 new bookselling jobs.The study, (http://www.civiceconomics.com/SF/) released last week, was commissioned by the San Francisco Locally Owned Merchants Alliance along with support from the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association and the American Booksellers Association. Civic Economics, the research company, conducted the survey over two years.

These are the comments of Randy Smith, proprietor of Destinations Booksellers in New Albany, Indiana.

What is Literature?

edify – To instruct especially so as to encourage intellectual, moral, or spiritual improvement.
- The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition.

It is not entertainment. Yes, it may entertain, but to my mind, to be literature, it must edify. It must instruct and clarify. Perhaps it puts into words something that we already knew on a subconscious level. Perhaps it opens a corner of our minds that we were unaware of. And perhaps it introduces an idea, a concept we never considered before.

Narrative fiction can elucidate equally as well as any piece of history, biography, or other nonfiction. After some initial resistance, I succumbed to the allure of Charles Frazier’s Thirteen Moons, a novel that addresses elements of my own heritage and, at least halfway through the book, concerns in part the Cherokee Removal (you know that as “The Trail of Tears”).

My own ancestry includes both Cherokee heritage (a great, great-grandmother) as well as descent from the soldiers tasked to escort the mountain-dwelling nation to Andrew Jackson’s proposed refuge west of the Mississippi. My mother’s sister wrote a novel about that, in fact, and although by appearance I am clearly Scots-Irish, my mother’s clan is clearly discernible as descended from Native American blood.

The protagonist of Frazier’s followup to Cold Mountain is also Scots-Irish, but adopted into a Cherokee clan. In Tennessee, and in North Carolina, which once included the Great Valley of Tanasi, Cherokee heritage is today generally claimed with some pride, much as the rest of America now, rightly or wrongly, claims descent from emigrants from the Emerald Isle.

A few days ago I shared with Ann a passage in the current book that was as dense as the prose of Melville, the first great American novelist. But that quickly passed. Thirteen Moons is engrossing, and evidence that it is entertaining and still edifying comes in this passage that speaks volumes: What I wanted to do was slap him down with a bit of wit and words. Grammar and vocabulary as a weapon. But what kind of world would it be if we all took every opportunity presented to us to assault the weak?

May I encourage you to consider that this book, novel and Novel as it is, would be entertaining literature?

These are the comments of Randy Smith, proprietor of Destinations Booksellers in New Albany, Indiana.

A Diversion From Normal

My apologies for the leanness of our books postings lately. Frankly, the stuff we have up now is among the best I can suggest. I do have a couple of notables you need to be aware of, one new, and one so in demand since December that I have only been able to bring in 4 copies since Dec. 9. I’ll say more later.

Since I no longer post original commentary on any other blogs, I beg your indulgence today as I pay tribute to a true New Albany downtown pioneer and champion of revitalization.

My friend Rick Carmickle died Thursday. Of the hundreds of people I’ve met in Southern Indiana over the past 3 years, Rick was among my closest friends. He kick-started the downtown merchants association. He offered himself for public service in elected office. But most of all, he believed in New Albany and was damned if he was going to let anybody see it die.

Carmickle’s Photography was the epitome of a service business with integrity. Rick bristled, of course, if anyone challenged his integrity, but he always made sure his clients were happy. Along with his wife Karen, Rick fought the good fight to build a business, knowing that his faith in a resurgent NA downtown would someday be rewarded.

Selfless to a fault, Rick could not abide insincerity and though he was no shrinking violet when it came to calling a pile of manure horseshit, no one will tell you he didn’t have faith in his hometown.

Rick was distinct from many of my friends. His acceptance was unalloyed. There was no artifice in him. You always knew how Rick felt about things. I was fortunate to spend a few moments with his wife on Wednesday, and though I felt a frisson when reminded that he was scheduled for surgery (sinuses) today, I was poleaxed when another friend called tonight with the news of Rick’s passing.

My friend joined with me and another local businessman recently to help the NA-FC Public Library preserve an important piece of local documentary history. Access to local history will be enhanced by his efforts (offered up at no charge) and his generosity will allow for the preservation of an important document while making it available for researchers.

If you didn’t know Rick, your experience on this earth is impoverished. I consider myself blessed to have called him my friend. Our love goes out to Karen and all of those who cherished Rick during the brief time he shared with us.

These are the comments of Randy Smith, proprietor of Destinations Booksellers in New Albany, Indiana.