BS List

Ah, the New Your Times Book Review page. Would I pay to read it? Ha! NOT. I've always considered their "Best Seller" list the B*** S*** list. This HP article articulates my feelings about the NYT Book review.

At my Public Library, when I see an interesting title and then notice it has one of the NYT review list stickers or blurb on it, I slide it back in place and move on to something else. The NYT, just as Madison Avenue and network TV have done, works too hard at trying to sculpt the thinking of Americans. Actually, they're scalping it.

New Book Release Dates

It's Spring, and many publishing houses are releasing their new titles. I have several friends whose books are due out soon. My friend Linda Leaming, who wrote Married to Bhutan, is rightfully excited about the April 1st release date for her book. She has encouraged people to preorder the book as preorders are suppose to push interest in a title. So I popped over to Barnes and Noble online to do just that—to preorder—but no need; the book is already in stock and on sale—AT A SIGNIFICANT DISCOUNT. Gasp! The same is true at Amazon; Amazon even offers a Kindle version, at a few pennies less than the discounted DTB.

Doesn't a release date mean anything?

I decided to check on other friends' titles. Charlotte Hinger's second mystery for Poisoned Pen Press, Lethal Lineage...I got the date wrong. It was released March 1st, but by golly, it's at a reduced price too.

Next stop, Michael Sims. I know his schedule includes readings for one of his Penguin Classics, The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime, that came out in January, but The Story of Charlotte's Web is not to be released until June. Or is it? Ah! 7 June is the release date and, yes, preorder is still in place at a reduced price, no less.

And these discounts before the book is officially on the market—do the publishers arrange for that? It really doesn't seem economically sound, but maybe I'm missing something. At least the authors take isn't reduced.

To drum up a bit more business, I decided to go back to B&N and post the review I wrote for Leaming's book, but, sadly, that wasn't possible. I hadn't purchased the book from them, so I can't write a review. Of course, B&N didn't tell me that, they just kept declining my "submit" and I assume that's why (I read all the rules and directions, really I did!).

I'm making a trek to town tomorrow and will stop by my local independent bookseller to "preorder" my books. That should generate interest and improve sales demographics. And as for release dates...I'll put no stock in those anymore.

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky - Review

I borrowed this book from my Public Library, but I might well buy a copy for my home shelves.

This intricate and well-conceived novel by Heidi Durrow gives a different glimpse into the plural American society. Beginning in 1982, with a six year story line, the reader learns of Rachel (told in first person) who has suffered a horrific family accident that leaves her the only survivor. At age eleven, she is taken from Chicago to Portland, Oregon to live with her paternal grandmother. She is suddenly part of a black community. Not long before this, Rachel had made another move: with her Danish mother and two siblings from a European military environment to Chicago: her black GI father was left behind.

Rachel's emotional assimilation to both changes defines her intelligence and strong character. She is intent to make herself a new girl. On page 10, Rachel reports: "When something starts to feel like hurt, I put it in this imaginary bottle inside me. It's blue glass with a cork stopper." Everything goes in there, joining the major event that has her being a "new girl."

The reader learns of this event through back story with fascinating characters. Presented in third person, each character name is the chapter heading: Laronne, Jamie (who becomes Brick), Nella (Rachel's mother), Roger (Rachel's father). With deft integration of these stories, the tragedy that relocated Rachel to Portland becomes clear.

Durrow flawlessly presents other vivid characters, creating a tapestry of Rachel's Portland life as she matures and survives in a changing global society and Portland neighborhood. This multitudinous presentation intrigued me as an author and an editor. I can understand why this book won the 2008 Bellwether Prize for Fiction (for literature of social responsibility). It has also been chosen as the March 2011 Costco Book of the Month.

The Girl Who Fell From The Sky, while portraying some racial constants and restrictions, is about family and personal strength. It's a book that launches discussions and fosters introspection. I'm so glad I read it.