Anders’s debut novel has been filed, officially, on the adult side of fiction (and it does have an R-rated scene or two), but I think it might find its most passionate readers among older teen readers. It’s a crazy hodgepodge of a book, goofy and tragic all at once, combining, among a half-dozen other favorite …
Leroy W. “Lee” Soper, beloved mentor, esteemed figure in bookselling, and revered member of the northwest literary community, passed away on Tuesday, the day before his 92nd birthday. Love and memories are posted to Facebook by friends and colleagues, admirers all: “Such a great mentor to so many of us. A real gentleman.” “What a legend! What …
Over the past few months we’ve kept you up to date on efforts, lead by local author Ryan Boudinot, to establish Seattle as an official City of Literature. Read original contributions from Seattle correspondent Kristianne Huntsberger, Boudinot and NWBL columnist James Crossley to follow the path to Monday’s Seattle City Council’s unanimous decision to officially …
“The Best Translated Book Award recently announced its longlist, a collection of simply wonderful books from 2012. The website Typographical Era posted short descriptions of the 25 books under consideration. Most of these books don’t get the review space they deserve. I’m thinking of Dominque Edde’s fine book Kite and Sergio Chejfec’s The Planets and authors like …
As reported by Shelf Awareness November 14, a survey performed by The Digital Reader found 35 percent of almost 2,000 respondents had used their e-reader device only once. And, of that number, 25 percent said they preferred to read paper books. Also today, I received a package from Paris with an advance copy of Elfriede …
“One of my challenging, but very interesting responsibilities is to present the forthcoming titles in the Seagull Books catalog at semi-annual sales conferences. This April I had the privilege of talking about their lead book, POW! by Mo Yan. Today, Mo Yan won the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature. Mo Yan is the pen name of the …
The last column I wrote for Northwest Book Lovers was a guide to discovering international literature, which is an interest of mine. Carrying that a little further, I recently interviewed German translator Katy Derbyshire, who I first met online when I was tracking down an excerpt of a yet-to-be-published book. I’m friends with her on Facebook …
There’s an opinion in publishing that literature in translation doesn’t sell— that the books are dense and unapproachable, and that Americans won’t read authors whose names we can’t pronounce. Norman Manea (The Lair, Yale Margellos) says books in translation are thought to be “too ‘complicated,’ which is another way of saying that literature should deal …
NW Book Lovers’ North-North-West columnist George Carroll also authors a Young Bookseller Focus series for Shelf Awareness, and his latest piece just happens to be about another contributor from the NWBL roster, resident interview queen Lindsey McGuirk, Village Books’ Digital Marketing & Publishing Coordinator. She does briefly attempt to turn the tables but, in the …
When I started as a publishers’ representative, buyers would tell me of the old days, when a rep would arrive in town on a train, rent a hotel suite and present to all of the area booksellers in one meeting. No one I knew ever actually sold that way or bought books that way, but …
