Keir Graff and editors from Booklist's adult and youth departments write candidly about books, book reviewing, and the publishing industry
Thursday, November 5, 2009 4:07 pm Book Trailer Thursday: Nubs Posted by: Daniel
I’m gonna go ahead and tell you. Nubs: The True Story of a Mutt, a Marine, & a Miracle holds the distinction of being the only book I’ve ever reviewed that made me cry. Now, I’m not talking the kind of cataclysmic sobbing that makes coworkers edge away, nor am I talking about the ever-disturbing weeping-quietly-into-your-hand variety. I just got a little misty-eyed, that’s all, but for this hardened punk, that’s saying something.
It’s one of my favorite books of 2009. With artful simplicity, it tells the tale of a earless Iraqi mutt whose bond with Major Brian Dennis, an American soldier, compels Nubs to walk 70 miles through unforgiving conditions to find his friend. With its multiple (and often appropriately low-res) shots of both the human and canine hero, the book acts as sort of an annotated album.
The trailer takes this concept literally, placing each still image within picture corners, as if you are browsing an actual photo album. It’s a cute concept, but for such a modern story it feels awkwardly old-fashioned; more likely Dennis would keep his pics on a USB drive rather than mounted scrapbook-style. The muddy sound (and weird volume jump near the end) also adds to the overall rushed feel.
Verdict: Bad Dog! Thankfully, there’s plentyofothervideos that bring home the powerful story. Oh, man. Here come the waterworks.
Friday, October 30, 2009 3:46 pm Weeklings: Loss Leaders, Unpaid and Unhappy Book Reviewers, and the Power Trio of the Future Posted by: Keir
Nook, vook, blook, p-book, wovel, poegel . . . am I forgetting anything?
Some in the publishing industry say that, thanks to e-readers such as the Kindle, people are reading more books (”E-Book Fans Keep Format in Spotlight,” by Brad Stone, New York Times). Who, exactly, says this? Well, the manufacturers of the Kindle, but that’s beside the point. Given that the average Kindle edition is priced at $9.99, it stands to reason that people might buy more of them than $24 hardcovers. Of course, when you factor in the cost of the e-reader itself, you have to buy a lot of Kindle editions before they become a bargain, which may be why people are buying so many: to save money.
But what’s happening to those $24 hardcovers? They’re being sold for as low as $8.98 by retailers such as Amazon, Wal-Mart, and Target (”In Book-Pricing Battle, How Low Can They Go?” by Motoko Rich, New York Times). The American Booksellers Association has cried foul–indeed, some have wondered how publishing can survive when the biggest sellers are treated as loss leaders, like cans of tuna fish in the grocery store. Then again, it’s the retailers who are absorbing the loss (some in hopes of selling mountain bikes or big-screen TVs) and while some independent booksellers have gnashed their teeth, others have shrugged and said that they don’t sell a lot of bestsellers anyway.
Indeed, some see Barnes and Noble as a perfect storm of unenlightened self-interest: in going head-to-head with Amazon in the e-reader business (with the adorably named Nook), they might just have found the doomsday device to hasten the demise of their 700-plus superstores (”The Nook of Doom,” by Marion Maneker).
Friday, October 30, 2009 12:04 pm Let’s Get Romantic Posted by: Donna
I have a confession to make. I was among the many who thought romance novels were silly. Formulaic, pure fluff. Damsels in distress. Ladies in long dresses and painful bodices. Men in puffy shirts. Then I became Booklist’s romance editor. I scrutinized the wonderfully varied array of romance novels that arrived in the mail. I attended a Romance Writers of America conference, and learned that romance writers have amazing backgrounds. Many have PhDs, some are or have been doctors, lawyers, or police officers. The same can be said about romance readers. I began working with a group of smart, enthusiastic, generous, funny, and talented freelance romance reviewers. Librarians who know the genre inside and out. I discovered that romance novels are sharply witty and unmistakably feminist.
You probably know all this. But maybe you’re like the old me. Either way, I can assure you that romance fiction is a thoroughly enjoyable subject to talk about. It’s full of surprises; it’s always evolving, and romance experts are, well, passionate. I hope you’ll join us on November 12, 2009, from 3:00 to 4:00 pm Central Standard Time for the first Booklist romance webinar.
I’ll be the moderator for a terrific group of presenters. Two of our romance reviewers and feature writers, John Charles and Shelley Mosley, will be talking about what makes the romance genre so enduringly popular, and about new trends. Participants will get an early look at forthcoming romance titles both to read and to listen to from Kayleigh George from HarperCollins and Cheryl Herman from Books on Tape. And best-selling romance writer Madeline Hunter, author of The Romantic, The Rules of Seduction, and Secrets of Surrender, among many others, will talk about the vital connection between romance writers and libraries, and how romance writers are partnership with libraries through the Romance Writers of America.
It’s free; it’s bound to be fun. Please join us. Just click the Webinar button on Booklist Online and register today!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 4:14 pm Web(kinda)comics Wednesday Posted by: Ian
A coupla-three week ago I wrote about using my brand-new iPhonish-like device to read comics. Well friends, it’s become a verifiable obsession, and it seems like every day there’s a new reader app or comic designed specifically for mobile devices. Of the applications, comiXology seems to have the frontrunner, offering comics from some pretty reliable indie publishers like Arcana, Red 5, and one of my personal faves, SLG. The experience of smoothly zooming in and out of panels and all around the page makes for a nicely cinematic reading experience, and the money model is pretty savvy. Often, they’ll offer the first comic in a series for free to get you hooked, and then you can buy subsequent issues for a couple bucks a pop. Let me tell you that it’s maybe a bit too easy to hit “purchase” to find out what happens next to Atomic Robo.
While dabbling with various other mobile comics readers (Panelfly and iVerse get silver and bronze, respectively, to comiXology’s gold) I came across a startling bit of news that just seemed too perfect to be true. The title story in Will Eisner’s A Contract with God (collected with two other books in The Contract with God Trilogy: Life on Dropsie Avenue), considered by those who consider such things to be the daddy of the modern graphic novel, is available for the iPhone from Genus Apps. It’s weird to read such a venerable work, and one that had so much impact on the graphic format, on a mobile device, but it’s also kind of great and proves that the delivery device is far less important than content. Is it as good as reading it as a book? Who cares? It’s all good.
So, it’s all supergreat and now I’ve found a way to read in those tiny slices of time when I’m not reading, but things should really get cookin when our Apple overlords unveil their hyper-anticipated tablet device next year (which will likely be some kind of lap-sized, roided-up iPhone). See ya, Kindle. Hope you like the taste of iDust.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 10:31 am Where the Wild Things Are, pt. 2 Posted by: Courtney
When the opportunity arose to see the film again, this time with a 10-year-old boy present, I jumped at the chance. But not without first warning him that the film was a bit more sedate than other kiddie films, to which he responded, “this is my movie, and I have no intention of falling asleep.” True enough, it was his film. He knew the names of the characters and voice actors all before setting foot in the cinema. He had researched the film, but he had never read the book. And, full disclosure, before viewing the film the first time, neither had I.
Friday, October 23, 2009 2:05 pm Film Review: Where the Wild Things Are Posted by: Gillian
Max is crowned king
In an essay entitled “The Splendors of Crap,” published in his new book Manhood for Amateurs, Michael Chabon, shares his distaste for contemporary kids’ movies:
“The new studio-made CGI products are like unctuous butlers of the imagination, ready to serve every need or desire as it arises; they don’t leave anything implied, unstated, incomplete. There is no room in them for children.”
If this description fits many recent kids’ releases, it’s certainly not true of Spike Jonze’s beautiful film adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are, in which everything is left implied, unstated, and incomplete. Jonze and fellow writer Dave Eggers have stretched Maurice Sendak’s picture-book text into an intense, psychological dream that is more meditative than manic. Like the original story, the film bypasses cozy clichés and taps right into the unsettling wildness of human feelings.
I loved the first scenes at home, when Max feels ignored, and the camera angles and music (and even the great title font) expertly capture his volatile, furious moods, which ramp up to an epic tantrum. This isn’t just a shouting match; Max, in a perfectly designed wolf suit (ratty, well-loved, identical to Sendak’s original drawings), sinks his teeth into his mother’s arm in a pure white rage and flies out into the night, where his imagination sends him to the Wild Things. The slippery shifts between the human and beasty qualities in all of us is a big part of the story, and all of the actors who lend their voice to the Wild Things expertly animate their characters with aching, real emotions. The action is also close to a kid’s real world: rather than car chases and explosions, the most frenetic scenes involve fort-building (and fort-smashing) and dirt-clod fights.
I loved the raw honesty in every scene, especially those between Max and his mom (the wordless ending is wonderful), and the script that, like the book, jumps right into primal issues that therapists talk through with adults every day. The movie leaves plenty of room for viewers to connect the melancholy story to their own feelings and experiences, and the effect is powerful. But, as I watched, I wondered how kids would respond. Would the comparatively simple plotline keep their attention? Would all the complicated emotional dynamics among the Wild Things puzzle them to the point of boredom? Then, towards the end of the movie, any worries that I had about kids connecting with the film were totally erased. From the back of the theater, we heard a young person’s sob, followed by a single wail of “MAAAX!”
Stay tuned for a response from my movie partner, Booklist staffer Courtney Jones, and let us know what you thought about the film. Its release was a year later than expected; was it worth the wait?
Friday, October 23, 2009 9:00 am Bill Ott’s The Back Page: Book Party Like It’s July 2009 Posted by: Keir
You may recall that, way back in the middle of last summer (or thereabouts), Time Out Chicago hosted a book launch party for Bill Ott’s new book, The Back Page. Well, Daniel Kraus, whose fingers must be smoking from all the videos he’s been editing of late, put together a nice overview of the event. Unfortunately for him, all he had was my decidedly amateurish video to work with. How hard is it, you ask, to push a single red button and hold a cigarette-pack-sized camera steady? Harder than it looks, apparently. And I don’t even have a typical book-launch-party excuse to fall back on, either: this public event was decidedly dry. (The blurry part is due to the digital zoom, I swear.)
Anyway, as I was transported back to that magical night across from the Harold Washington Public Library and under the El tracks, I was tempted to write a rollicking account of the proceedings, until I remembered that someone had already written one: the author himself.
Here are the highlights:
I have a confession to make. I was among the many who thought romance novels were silly. Formulaic, pure fluff. Damsels in distress. Ladies in long dresses and painful bodices. Men in puffy shirts. Then I became Booklist’s romance editor. I scrutinized the wonderfully varied array of romance novels that arrived in the mail. I attended a Romance Writers of America conference, and learned that romance writers have amazing backgrounds. Many have PhDs, some are or have been doctors, lawyers, or police officers. The same can be said about romance readers. I began working with a group of smart, enthusiastic, generous, funny, and talented freelance romance reviewers. Librarians who know the genre inside and out. I discovered that romance novels are sharply witty and unmistakably feminist.
While dabbling with various other mobile comics readers (
When the opportunity arose to see the film again, this time with a 10-year-old boy present, I jumped at the chance. But not without first warning him that the film was a bit more sedate than other kiddie films, to which he responded, “this is my movie, and I have no intention of falling asleep.” True enough, it was his film. He knew the names of the characters and voice actors all before setting foot in the cinema. He had researched the film, but he had never read the book. And, full disclosure, before viewing the film the first time, neither had I.
At the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention, winners were announced in eight categories for the 
