Looking for a special holiday gift for your favorite booklover? Collector’s quality limited first editions of Romina Power’s moving memoir/biography, Searching for My Father, Tyrone Power are now available by special order tyronepower.firstedition@gmail.com while quantities last. In film historian Matthew Hoffman’s book review of this handsomely produced book, he says it is “… a work of love that his fans will certainly love. Considering that Power himself was an avid collector of first edition books, this was a nice homage to him. Though it took years to see the light of day in this country, I can tell you that it’s been worth the wait. This is a beautifully written and compiled book for the global fans of Tyrone Power.”
My husband used to chide me when I referred to the low, square-shaped table in our living room as a coffee table. “The (low rectangular) table in our family room is a coffee table,” he would say. “A square table is a cocktail table.” Well, the joke is on him. Purists say that a cocktail table can be square or round; a coffee table is round or oval. Whatever you call the low table you place in front of your sofa, if you keep a large, attractive, illustrated book on it to look at casually or inspire conversation with guests, it is a coffee table book.
The concept of books meant for display dates back to at least the 16th century. An essay by Michel de Montaigne refers to “a book to lay in the parlor window ….” This was a putdown of a book that had little literary merit but might impress those who did not take the time to read it.
Some credit David R. Brower with introducing the “modern coffee table book” to the U.S. market in 1960. His first effort in a series published for the Sierra Club was This is the American Earth, a stunning collection of Ansel Adams photos with text by Nancy Newhall. Brower may have been inspired by British tomes using the term “coffee table books”; they appeared there as far back as the 1800s.
Coffee table books have become so popular that some consider them a genre or sub-genre. Most of them feature high quality photography but some highlight art or interesting subjects. They make great gifts for people you care about … including yourself. You’re sure to find a favorite among these: 400 Photographs – Ansel Adams The Family of Man – Edward Steichen Life 70 Years of Extraordinary Photography – Editors of Life The Art Book – Phaedon Press DIGNITY: In Honor of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – Dana Gluckstein At Home with Books – Estelle Ellis, Caroline Seebohm, Christopher Simon Sykes Gnomes – Wil Huygen 1,000 Places to See Before You Die – Patricia Schultz Echoes of Earth – L. Sue Baugh
Go dust and polish your coffee table (no matter what size or shape it is) and show off your favorite coffee table books.
The third annual Chicago Book Expo will be held Saturday, December 6, 2014, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Columbia College Chicago, 1104 South Wabash. The centerpiece of the event will be an expo of Chicago area independent publishers and literary organizations on the first and eighth floors of the building. This will be an expansion of last year’s event, which was named by New City as one of the top five literary events of 2013. Come meet me and some of my colleagues at the two Off Campus Writers Workshop tables!
Collector’s quality limited first editions of Romina Power’s moving memoir/biography, Searching for My Father, Tyrone Power are now available. Please send an email to request a special order while quantities last. In film historian Matthew Hoffman’s book review of this handsomely produced book, he says it is “… a work of love that his fans will certainly love. Considering that Power himself was an avid collector of first edition books, this was a nice homage to him. Though it took years to see the light of day in this country, I can tell you that it’s been worth the wait. This is a beautifully written and compiled book for the global fans of Tyrone Power.”
We’re approaching the end of 2014 and the one New Year’s resolution I failed miserably was to shed the extra pounds I put on in 2013. And 2012. And 2011. You get the sorry picture. What’s a girl to do when she loves food? With winter weather blowing down our necks and driving us indoors, we’re entering the season of holiday feasts with family and friends. Instead of gorging on food, let’s feed our minds and devour great books … about food!
Food and drink are natural themes for fascinating reading. After all, we all eat and drink, so we are familiar with the subject. It’s the way authors mix the ingredients of unique characters and interesting situations with the food/eating theme (sometimes including actual recipes) that results in a great book. Here are some you may want to check out:
The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals – Michael Pollan (non-fiction) Chocolat – Joanne Harris Like Water for Chocolate – Laura Esquivel Tender at the Bone – Ruth Reichl (memoir)
Scarlet Feather – Maeve Binchy The Belly of Paris – Emile Zola The Flounder – Gunter Grass Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Café – Fannie Flagg Heartburn – Nora Ephron In the Night Kitchen – Maurice Sendak (for children and adults)
If it’s true you are what you eat, there’s nothing more nourishing than food for thought.
The third annual Chicago Book Expo will be held Saturday, December 6, 2014, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Columbia College Chicago, 1104 South Wabash. The centerpiece of the event will be an expo of Chicago area independent publishers and literary organizations on the first and eight floors of the building. This will be an expansion of last year’s event, which was named by New City as one of the top five literary events of 2013.
This week’s Book●ed webcast re-broadcast (starting November 24th) features a perfect book to give yourself or someone you care about for the holidays. Author Sue Baugh talks about the incredible global journey she took while writing Echoes of Earth and the unexpected discoveries she made along the way. This show takes full advantage of our video format to share some of the spectacular photos from the book. You can catch the show on U-Stream this week and, as always, in the Book●ed Archives.
Collector’s quality limited first editions of Romina Power’s moving memoir/biography, Searching for My Father, Tyrone Power are now available. Please send an email to request a special order while quantities last. In film historian Matthew Hoffman’s book review of this handsomely produced book, he says it is “… a work of love that his fans will certainly love. Considering that Power himself was an avid collector of first edition books, this was a nice homage to him. Though it took years to see the light of day in this country, I can tell you that it’s been worth the wait. This is a beautifully written and compiled book for the global fans of Tyrone Power.”
You’d think that in a world where we have more accessible information than ever, we would feel powerful enough to tamper our anxiety. Instead, it seems we suffer more needless anxiety than our ancestors. Most of us do not live in a war zone and do not have to worry about the basic needs of life. In fact, one of our challenges seems to be what to do with all of our possessions; that is when we’re not anxious that someone is out to take our possessions.
The daily dose of news launches all sorts of anxieties, without regard to how remote a threat to our wellbeing might actually exist. Whether it is disease, unwelcome foreigners, crime or just plain change we take in the news like a vacuum. To be sure, there are things in the world that can cause anxiety. What attracts us to stories that are designed to cause even more anxiety?
Whether you prefer nonfiction books to help you understand and overcome anxiety or fiction about characters dealing with anxiety, there are plenty of very worthy books to choose from.
On the nonfiction end, you might want to check out these books: The Anxiety and Phobia Workout Book – Edmund J. Bourne The Chimp Paradox – Dr. Steve Peters Overcoming Anxiety – Helen Kennerley
If you prefer to seek entertainment in anxious characters, you’ll find them in these novels: Oscar & Lucinda – Peter Carey Of Human Bondage – Somerset Maugham The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger The Perks of Being a Wallflower – Stephen Chbosky Portnoy’s Complaint – Philip Roth A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
For children: Scaredy Squirrel – Melanie Watt Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears – Emily Gravett
This week’s Book●ed webcast re-broadcast (starting November 17th) continues my thought-provoking interview with David Murrary, co-author with Lt. Col. Mark Weber of the true, inspirational bestseller Tell My Sons. At the age of 41, Mark lost a valiant 3-year battle with cancer. He spent the last year of his life transforming his lifelong personal journals into a book with the David Murray’s skillful help. While Tell My Sons began as a legacy to Mark’s children, it took on a life of its own as an inspirational memoir with remarkable wisdom we can all apply to our own lives. David Murray shares the incredible backstory of this transformative book this week on U-Stream and, as always, in the Book●ed Archives.
The third annual Chicago Book Expo will be held Saturday, December 6, 2014, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Columbia College Chicago, 1104 South Wabash. The centerpiece of the event will be an expo of Chicago area independent publishers and literary organizations on the first and eight floors of the building. This will be an expansion of last year’s event, which was named by New City as one of the top five literary events of 2013.
This week’s Book●ed webcast re-broadcast (starting November 10th) will move and inspire you as you learn the moving true story of Lt. Col. Mark Weber, author of the bestseller Tell My Sons. At the age of 41, Mark lost a valiant 3-year battle with cancer. He spent the last year of his life transforming his lifelong personal journals into a book with the help of co-writer David Murray. While Tell My Sons began as a legacy to Mark’s children, it took on a life of its own as an inspirational memoir with remarkable wisdom we can all apply to our own lives. David Murray shares the incredible backstory of this transformative book this week on U-Stream and, as always, in the Book●ed Archives.
The third annual Chicago Book Expo will be held Saturday, December 6, 2014, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Columbia College Chicago, 1104 South Wabash. The centerpiece of the event will be an expo of Chicago area independent publishers and literary organizations on the first and eight floors of the building. This will be an expansion of last year’s event, which was named by New City as one of the top five literary events of 2013.
If you’re going to be in Los Angeles November 13th-15th, you have a last chance to join in the Centennial celebrations honoring movie legend Tyrone Power. Since May, celebrations have occurred around the U.S. to great response. For more information about events (and some photos of me with the Power children in Ohio), visit Movie Memories Foundation.
Collector’s quality limited first editions of Romina Power’s moving memoir/biography, Searching for My Father, Tyrone Power are now available. Please send an email to request a special order while quantities last. In film historian Matthew Hoffman’s book review of this handsomely produced book, he says it is “… a work of love that his fans will certainly love. Considering that Power himself was an avid collector of first edition books, this was a nice homage to him. Though it took years to see the light of day in this country, I can tell you that it’s been worth the wait. This is a beautifully written and compiled book for the global fans of Tyrone Power.”
The phone keeps ringing off the hook. The mail box is stuffed to the limit. Lawn signs have popped up like weeds. TV commercials tout candidates like cars, all shiny and powerful, except they also describe the competition as total wrecks. It must be election season! This may not be a Presidential election year but it’s one of the hottest, with an unusual number of Congressional and Gubernatorial seats in contentious races. It’s hard to turn off the incessant intrusion into our daily lives. What a perfect time to park in a quiet corner with a good book – about politics. You’ll see that the more things change the more they stay the same. Here are some recommended novel and non-fiction reads: How to Win an Election – Quintus Tullius Cicero (64 B.C.) The Prince – Niccolo Machiavelli (1532) Democracy – Henry Adams (1880) The Last Hurrah – Edwin O’Connor (1956) All the King’s Men – Robert Penn Warren (1990) Washington, D.C.: A Novel – Gore Vidal (2000) The Boys on the Bus – Thomas Crouse (2003)
Don’t forget to cast your ballot. Your vote is as important as everyone else’s – unless you don’t vote; then your vote is less important than everyone else’s. Your absence simply gives your power to the opposition who does vote. If you don’t like any of this cycle’s candidates, vote for the least objectionable. Then, begin the day after the election to find and support one you do want to vote for in the next cycle.
If you’re going to be in Los Angeles November 13th-15th, you have a last chance to join in the Centennial celebrations honoring movie legend Tyrone Power. Since May, celebrations have occurred around the U.S. to great response. For more information about events (and some photos of me with the Power children in Ohio), visit Movie Memories Foundation.
Collector’s quality limited first editions of Romina Power’s moving memoir/biography, Searching for My Father, Tyrone Power are now available. Please send an email to request a special order while quantities last. In film historian Matthew Hoffman’s book review of this beautifully produced book, he says it is “… a work of love that his fans will certainly love. Considering that Power himself was an avid collector of first edition books, this was a nice homage to him. Though it took years to see the light of day in this country, I can tell you that it’s been worth the wait. This is a beautifully written and compiled book for the global fans of Tyrone Power.”
This week’s Book●ed webcast re-broadcast (starting November 3rd) will take your mind off politics as I talk with Shobha Sharma, editor of Bridges and Borders, a thoughtful anthology by women from various backgrounds, experiences and views of our world. You can catch the show on U-Stream and in the archives of the Book●ed website.
Ever get caught in a nightmare you knew was a nightmare but couldn’t escape? All you want to do is wake up and be safe again. Yet we deliberately go into Halloween “haunted houses”, watch horror flicks and sit around a campfire exchanging spooky tales. We love goose bumps and feeling the hair on the back of our necks stand up … under certain conditions. Every time we face fear and triumph, we reassert our ability to overcome what threatens us, whether or not it truly exists.
The thing about scary things is that they require our participation, our validation that, indeed, they are fearful. The challenge to writers of horror stories is to find those triggers in us that induce fear, presenting questionable situations and events in believable ways. The most effective, memorable horror stories often play out only in the mind of the main character … or maybe not. Emotion overcomes logic as we, along with the protagonist, fall under the spell of the supernatural.
In the spirit of Halloween, here are seven recommended scary classics that are spooktacular: The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson The Turn of the Screw – Henry James The Shining – Stephen King The Woman in Black – Susan Hill Collected Ghost Stories – M.R. James Ghost Story – Peter Straub Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood – Selected by E.F. Bleiler
If you’re looking for something lighter to get you into the Halloween spirit: The Canterville Ghost – Oscar Wilde Topper – Thorne Smith
If you’re going to be in Los Angeles November 13th-15th, you have a last chance to join in the Centennial celebrations honoring movie legend Tyrone Power. Since May, celebrations have occurred around the U.S. to great response. For more information about events (and some photos of me with the Power children in Ohio), visit Movie Memories Foundation.
Collector’s quality limited first editions of Romina Power’s moving memoir/biography, Searching for My Father, Tyrone Power are now available. Please send an email to request a special order while quantities last. In film historian Matthew Hoffman’s book review of this beautifully produced book, he says it is “a work of love that his fans will certainly love. Considering that Power himself was an avid collector of first edition books, this was a nice homage to him. Though it took years to see the light of day in this country, I can tell you that it’s been worth the wait. This is a beautifully written and compiled book for the global fans of Tyrone Power.”
This week’s Book●ed webcast re-broadcast (starting October 27th) will thrill your funny bone as I jokingly spar with Al Zimbler, octogenarian author of several laugh-out-loud books, including Broadway at 77th. You can catch the show on U-Stream and in the archives of the Book●ed website.
It’s a small world after all. Global media and internationally interdependent economies have brought people of different countries and cultures closer than ever. This can be rewarding but, too frequently, we bump up against “the others” in harmful ways, often the result of ignorance and misunderstanding.
News reports may tell us “what” happened but unbiased journalism has been overtaken by market forces that present “news” through adversarial viewpoints, constricted by space or time limitations. The result is that, even with internet access to the world, we easily and unknowingly remain isolated from “the others”. We tend to fear what we don’t know; fear instigates conflict.
I suggest we treat good literature as ambassadors of understanding. There is a wealth of literature that opens a world of other cultures to us while entertaining us. Whether novel or non-fiction, these books inform and enlighten us as few “news reports” can because they bring us into the lives of “the others”.
Literature is not “news”; it doesn’t pretend to be. It does, however, allow us to inhabit new places, get inside other people’s skins, share their experiences and see life from other viewpoints. Soon, we begin to stop seeing the “otherness” and recognize the “sameness” of humanity.
Your port of entry into other worlds can be your library, book store or eReader. Here are some of the places you might want to visit: The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini (Afghanistan) The Joy Luck Club – Amy Tan (China) Reading Lolita in Tehran – Azar Nafisi (Iran) The Namesake – Jhumpa Lahiri (India) The Orphan Master’s Son – Adam Johnson (North Korea) Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe (Nigeria) One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia) In the Time of the Butterflies – Julia Alvarez (Dominican Republic) Stones from the River – Ursula Hegi (Germany) Same, Same But Different – Benjamin Prufer (Cambodia)
For young readers: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian – Sherman Alexie (Native American) Same, Same But Different – Kostecki-Shaw, Jenny Sue (India/America)
Book●ed is delighted to rebroadcast its classic interviews and book reviews on UStream… because good books don’t have an expiration date. The shows continue to be accessible in the Book●ed Archives and book excerpts are also available on the website. This week’s re-broadcast (starting October 20th) is part two of my thought-provoking interview with transgender author Renee James, winner of several awards for her psycho-social thriller, Coming Out Can Be Murder.
Any fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation is familiar with Lieutenant Commander Data, a Soong-type android who went through several episodes fruitlessly seeking to understand and feel humor. At one point, he confesses, “I am superior, sir, in many ways, but I would gladly give it up to be human.”
Humor is a peculiar human trait that can’t be learned or forced. It’s organic. It is harder to elicit laughter than to generate tears. In today’s world, humor is a precious commodity. With daylight diminishing during this season, humor can be as effective as sunlight to lift our spirits and maintain a balance in our daily lives.
Fortunately, humor is as accessible as a book.
What puts one reader in stitches may fall flat to another reader. To help you find books that have tickled many a funny bone, I’ve rounded up a dozen that appear on multiple lists as funny favorites:
A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole Three Men in a Boat – Jerome K. Jerome Catch-22 — Joseph Heller The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Doug Adams Bridget Jones’s Diary — Helen Fielding Lamb – Christopher Moore Me Talk Pretty One Day – David Sedaris Thank You, Jeeves – P.G. Wodehouse Dave Barry Slept Here – Dave Barry The Importance of Being Ernest – Oscar Wilde Portnoy’s Complaint – Philip Roth Let’s Pretend This Never Happened – Jenny Lawson
Laughter is the shortest distance between two people. — Victor Borge
A day without laughter is a day wasted. — Charlie Chaplin
Through humor, you can soften some of the worst blows that life delivers. And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, you can survive. — Bill Cosby
The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter. — Mark Twain
You can’t deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants. — Stephen King
I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t laugh. — Maya Angelou
Beginning October 13th, Book●ed is delighted to rebroadcast its classic interviews and book reviews on UStream … because good books don’t have an expiration date. The shows continue to be accessible in the Book●ed Archives and book excerpts are also available on the website. First up on the rebroadcasts is my thought-provoking interview with transgender author Renee James, winner of several awards for her psycho-social thriller, Coming Out Can Be Murder.
If you’re in or near Milwaukee on October 18th, come to the charming Charles Allis Art Museum for an evening celebrating the Centennial of movie legend Tyrone Power. Film historian Dale Kuntz will interview Tyrone Power’s daughter, actress Taryn Power Greendeer. The classic 1938 movie, Suez, will be shown. The moving memoir/biography Searching for My Father, Tyrone Power by international star Romina Power will be on sale. Refreshments will be served. Seating is limited and reservations are suggested.
I keep several books on my nightstand. I read them at different times and for various reasons but I never read any of them in their entirety in one sitting. I suppose I could just keep an eReader on my nightstand and jump around from digital book to digital book. But I appreciate the printed page, the sight, smell, feel and heft of a traditional book in my hands. Because of my fondness for printed books, with covers and spines and pages I can turn, I have a collection of bookmarks to keep my place in each edition.
Bookmarks should be as carefully chosen as the books themselves. No dog-eared corners, paper clips or indiscriminate inserts for my books. My bookmarks are made of cloth or paper or leather or metal. Their designs may be geometrical or symbolic or illustrative. Some have messages, poems or quotes. Some have fringes or attached ribbons. Some of my bookmarks were given to me as gifts, which add to the pleasure of their use, remembering the person and circumstance of each gift. I’ve also found great pleasure in choosing bookmarks that evoke some pleasant emotion or introspective thought every time I see them.
A bookmark is the familiar welcome to whatever new world the reader is about to enter. Treat yourself to one every now and then. Treat someone you care about to one. Places that sell bookmarks include bookstores, stationery stores, museums and online. Or make your own. Whether your bookmark is traditional or whimsical, let it express who you are as a reader.
And you read your Emily Dickinson,
And I, my Robert Frost,
And we note our place with bookmarkers
That measure what we’ve lost.
– Simon and Garfunkel, The Dangling Conversation, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme
The disadvantage with people is that you can’t put bookmarks in them and set them aside till you want them again.
– Orson Scott Card, Treasure Box
I’m taking a 2-week break from blogging. No, not vacation. Fishin’ for book sales as part of a 2-day Tyrone Power Centennial Celebration in Wilmington, North Carolina. For information about the two events taking place, visit TCM News. The lead story and the third feature story are two examples of how to promote a book by relating it to other events.
More than any other season, autumn is the most emotionally complex, releasing the full spectrum of human sentiments. Some view it as a beginning; the Jewish New Year begins in autumn, as do school years, football and basketball seasons. Some regard it as the season of abundance when the harvest comes in. Yet others sink into melancholy as sunlight hours decrease and the chilling of the air portends the arrival of winter. People refer to their later years as the autumn of their lives. Nature mercifully provides a burst of color in this season, a visual kiss before baring the landscape and chasing us indoors.
Not surprisingly, autumn generously lends itself to literature and is well represented in poetry, novels and short fiction. Browning (both Robert and Emily), Frost, Keats, Sandburg, Shelley and Whitman are some of the notable poets who have woven autumn into their work. To Autumnby Keats (1795-1821) lusciously details the season from beginning to end, creating an allegory for aging and death.
Before you know it, you’ll be donning sweaters, raking leaves, enjoying everything to do with apples, spending more time indoors and looking for activities that lift the spirit and warm the soul. What a great time of year to immerse yourself in good books connected to this most interesting of seasons.
Check TCM News for information about the two-day Tyrone Power Centennial Celebration in Wilmington, NC, on September 18th and 19th, where you can purchase a collector’s quality limited first edition of Searching for My Father, Tyrone Power by Romina Power. Tyrone Power’s children will be at the events honoring their father and signing books.
If you live or work in or near Milwaukee, mark October 18th on your calendar. The Charles Atlas Art Museum will celebrate the Tyrone Power Centennial with a reception, film historian Dale Kuntz’s interview with actress Taryn Power Greendeer and a screening of the Oscar-nominated classic, Suez. The collector’s quality limited first edition of Searching for My Father, Tyrone Power by Romina Power will be available for purchase and autographing by Taryn.
For more information about these events and the book, contact
tyronepower.firstedition@gmail.com
It is interesting – and disappointing – to see how organized labor is losing ground in the United States. I say this, not as a political statement but as an historic observation. Like so many advancements we take for granted, many of the labor laws that restrict abuses against workers and provide life-enhancing benefits for society were achieved through the efforts and sacrifices of union organizers and members.
Organized labor has lost support in recent years, in part due to its own management, political manipulation, and Capitalist efforts to maximize profits for investors and owners. Almost certainly, time’s effect on memory along with the encroaching distractions of everyday life has pushed understanding of the forces behind worklife to the background for most workers. To forget or to ignore is to lose ground that was hard fought and won over the decades, jeopardizing the relatively new labor advancements we take for granted; these include limited work hours, safety regulations, child labor laws, environmental protections, a minimum wage and negotiated benefits through collective bargaining.
The history of labor through the decades and centuries has been the basis of some excellent non-fiction literature and the inspiration for classic fiction.
On this Labor Day holiday, as you celebrate with family or friends in a leisurely way, you may want to check out one of many good books about workers and organized labor to read about how we arrived where we are. Let the books inspire you to work at making work better for everyone.
If you’ll be within a couple of hours of Wilmington, North Carolina, September 18th or 19th, you’ll have a double chance to buy a collector’s quality limited edition of the book as part of a 2-day Centennial celebration of screen legend Tyrone Power. This updated and expanded English language version of Romina’s 1998 Italian best seller made its debut this year and is available only at Centennial events.
On September 18th, a March of Dimes fundraiser luncheon at the Country Club of Landfall will honor Tyrone Power who, among his many charitable activities, was a longtime supporter of March of Dimes. On September 19th, historic Thalian Hall (where Tyrone Power Sr. starred in Macbeth in 1888) will celebrate Tyrone Power with a special reception and screening of the great John Ford film, The Long Gray Line, showcasing Tyrone Power’s superb acting and enduring appeal.
You’ll have a chance to meet Romina (an international star in her own right), along with her acting siblings Taryn and Tyrone Jr. at both events where they will autograph books. If you can’t make it to Wilmington but would like information about other Centennial events, the collector’s first edition of Searching for My Father, Tyrone Power or the trade edition of the book that will be published later this year, contact tyronepwer.firstedition@gmail.com.
My April 28, 2013 blog – The Great Cover-Up – discussed the impact of book covers on sales. I was reminded of the post when I learned of the uproar over a recently released edition of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It seems the latest cover of the classic book – written for children but carrying the undercurrent of adult themes – has a decidedly adult image; it features a young girl who hauntingly resembles the murdered Jon Benet Ramsey and most little pageant queens in the Toddlers and Tiaras television show.
Presumably, the girl on the cover represents one of the significant characters in the book, but she is not the most significant character or even the most significant secondary character. However, her depiction on the cover is intentionally shocking. Some critics call the new cover “creepy”.
This is a far cry from previous covers of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that are brightly colored and usually cartoonish; the most famous popular cover was the 1995 fourth edition cover, created by illustrator Quentin Blake who frequently collaborated with Dahl on his books.
While the publisher of the Modern Classic edition (Penguin UK) intended their new version to attract adult readers, it is disconcerting to readers who consider this as solely a children’s book, imagining the characters as depicted on earlier covers or through Technicolor fantasy movies.
A similar backlash was launched after the Leonardo DiCaprio movie version of The Great Gatsby became the source of a new book cover, replacing the iconic design chosen by the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald.
“People respond the way they do because they care, and they care about the book the way they remember it,” said Chip Kidd, a New York-based graphic designer who churns out about 75 book covers a year.
Classics are classics for a reason. People embrace the full book experience – at least with printed books; eBooks are less likely to build the same adoration. Classics remain with us, they are ageless. They feel more solid and reliable, not fleeting like the images and messages that bombard us daily through modern technology and a changing culture.
One of the most touching covers you’ll see is the one on Searching for My Father, Tyrone Power by Romina Power. If you’ll be in the Wilmington, North Carolina, area September 18th or 19th, you’ll have a double chance to buy a collector’s quality limited edition of the book as part of a 2-day Centennial celebration of screen legend Tyrone Power. This updated and expanded English language version of Romina’s 1998 Italian best seller made its debut this year and is available only at Centennial events.
On September 18th, a March of Dimes fundraiser luncheon at the Country Club of Landfall will honor Tyrone Power who, among his many charitable activities, was a longtime supporter of March of Dimes. On September 19th, historic Thalian Hall (where Tyrone Power Sr. starred in Macbeth in 1888) will hold a special reception and screening of the great John Ford film, The Long Gray Line, showcasing Tyrone Power’s superb acting and enduring appeal.
You’ll have a chance to meet Romina (an international star in her own right), along with her acting siblings Taryn and Tyrone Jr. at both events where they will autograph books. If you can’t make it to Wilmington but would like information about other Centennial events, the collector’s first edition of Searching for My Father, Tyrone Power or the trade edition of the book that will be published later this year, contact tyronepwer.firstedition@gmail.com.
Most of us started reading with the help of picture books. Some of us moved on to comic books. Some of us moved on to graphic novels. All of us, it’s safe to say, have continued to read books that sometimes have pictures – photos or illustrations.
When we think of pictures in adult fiction, we tend to think of graphic novels with drawings. But fiction can also benefit from photos. An excellent example is Carol Shields’ Pulitzer Prize-winning The Stone Diaries. Shields cleverly employs photos and even a faux family tree to convince us of the reality of her fictional autobiography. While her writing paints vivid time, place and characters in the mind’s eye, the addition of photos solidifies her view for us.
Jack Finney, in Time and Again and its sequel, From Time to Time successfully uses illustrations and photos to enhance his stories. The promotional blurb on Time and Again calls the book “the classic illustrated novel”.
The concept of photos dates back at least as far as 1892 and Bruges-la-Morte by Belgian writer George Rodenbach, the first known work of fiction illustrated with photos . Since then, other notable novels employing photos include Orlando by Virginia Woolf and Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
As more authors incorporate pictures in their fictional works, scholars are suggesting these books have their own genre. Suggested names for the genre include “iconotexts”, “image-texts”, “pictorial fiction”, “visual fiction” and the tripping-off-the-tongue “photography-embedded fiction”. Don’t worry what to call it … just picture it!
When I’m home, I prefer to read hardcover books but when I travel, I choose paperbacks. The reason is obvious: portability. Eventually, I will give in and get an eReader because it trumps paperbacks for portability, except that paperbacks don’t require battery power. With digital books, I will miss the sensory pleasures one gets with the touch or smell of paper that paperbacks offer. Even with an eReader, I’ll probably still carry a paperback when I travel.
I hadn’t given much thought to the health of the paperback industry until a couple of months ago when I saw an obituary for a man named Oscar Dystel. No, I hadn’t heard of him either, but I learned he was the publisher who “saved the paperback” in the mid-1950s.
When Dystel arrived at Bantam Books, founded in 1945 to maximize profits from new paperback production advances, the company had gorged on success but overextended itself and was on the brink of bankruptcy. As Bantam’s new president, Dystel reduced inventory while expanding publication to classics, school and children’s books. He also had a keen sense for what the public would respond to: appealing covers on the outside and riveting stories on
the inside. In just a few short years, he turned around Bantam Books, setting new standards that other publishers followed.
Another major paperback publisher, Penguin, celebrated its history in 2009 with a commemorative retrospective book, The Book of Penguin. It opens, “This is a book about the most advanced form of entertainment ever. You can pause it at any time. Rewind and replay it if you miss a bit … It’ll fit in your pocket. It’s interactive … It’s pretty cheap. It’s completely free to share. And it lasts a lifetime. This is a book about books.”
In the five years since that self-celebration, eBooks have swept the market. In 2011, Amazon reported that eBooks outsold paperbacks and hardcovers combined. The upward trajectory of eBooks continued, at the expense of paperbacks. The 2013 BookStats report noted that eBook sales grew 45 percent since 2011, capturing 20% of the trade market. More ominously, Publishers Weekly said trade paperbacks saw a sales decline of 8.6 percent and total mass-market paperback sales fell by 20.5 percent between 2011 and 2012.
Before you mourn the death of paperbacks, consider this: sales reports don’t account for secondhand sales. There are no secondhand eBooks but secondhand paperbacks are wildly popular. Also, there are some genres that don’t sell well as eBooks but flourish in paperback form; popular narrative nonfiction and the pop-science books, for example.
The strongest hope for the continuation of paperbacks may lay with the intense market interest in indie books, a key force behind the growing popularity of indie bookstores. Readers are searchers. The physicality and staff experience offered by those stores offer “discoverability” – an element missing from digital books and online booksellers. Paperbacks make discoverability more affordable.
The role of books in all their forms is evolving. Fortunately, there’s a place for all of them.
If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, can we ever really understand each other? If it’s so hard for people to understand how the opposite gender thinks, how is it possible that some authors write so fabulously from the opposite gender’s view?
It’s really no different from a writer of a particular age, religion, race, nationality, ethnic group, or social standing creating believable characters who are at the other end of the spectrum. Crossing gender lines requires getting under the skin of the character, acknowledging universal human qualities, thoughts and feelings, then respecting that character’s otherness. In a word, it requires empathy. One must be able to feel what another experiences, then imagine how those feelings would make the other one respond. Even if the writer does not like what a character does, the writer must feel the reasoning behind the action. Because it is the character’s “truth”, even if it is not the author’s.
Armed with empathy, all good authors also have a keenly developed sense of observation. They break through clichés to notice the details that make us unique and alike, the exotic and the familiar. For a character to be interesting and memorable, readers have to recognize aspects of themselves while being amazed or amused by differences. That’s what great authors bring to their characters, even when the main character is of the opposite gender.
Authors who have been especially successful creating main characters of the opposite gender include Gustave Flaubert (Madame Bovary), Mary Shelley (Frankenstein), Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland), Edith Wharton (Ethan Frome), Leo Tolstoy (Anna Karenina), George Eliot (Silas Marner and Middlemarch), Theodore Dreiser (Sister Carrie), J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter) and Steven King (Carrie and Dolores Claiborne). Of note is the very contemporary indie novel Transition to Murder (originally published as Coming Out Can Be Murder) by Renee James. This excellent crime thriller/psychosocial study is written by a transgender woman whose main character is a transgender woman going through the transition from living as a male to living as a female while seeking justice for a murdered transgender friend.
When an author successfully crosses the gender line and gets under the skin of a character, the journey is so smooth that we don’t realize the bend at the beginning of the path.
