Alex C. Telander's Blog, page 52

Book Report: Oldest Living Bookseller, Brick and Mortar Bookstores For The Win & More!

Amazon Flails

Amazon has created a new program, Amazon Source, in an attempt to work with independent bookstores.

Bookish Pet Costumes

Ever wondered what certain dogs and cats would look like as literary characters, and how far one can push their pet.

HarperCollins Unbound

A new app and program from HarperCollins allows for interactive multimedia while reading certain books.

Opening Day for Copperfield’s Books San Rafael

Today is a special day. It’s opening day for Copperfield’s Books newest store in the city of San Rafael, located at 850 4th st. This will be the second bookstore I’ve played a big part in setting up and opening.

Almost a month ago I started working for the great Copperfield’s Books. I had previously worked for them from October 2003 to August 2005 in Petaluma. When I first saw the store it looked like a hollow shell with a lot of work left to be done and to believe it would be ready come November 11th required some stretching of the imagination. But I have almost a decade of experience working in bookstores, and I know the potential and abilities of a good team, especially one that has a love of books and working in bookstores.

I knew we could do this.

And now, three weeks later we’ve gone from that dusty, dirty empty shell that didn’t have lighting or shelves or a single book to a beautiful ready bookstore that will be opening its doors to the public of San Rafael and beyond at noon today after a ceremonial ribbon cutting ceremony.

I hope to see you there.

“The Cuckoo’s Calling” by Robert Galbraith (Mulholland Books, 2013)

Originally The Cuckoo’s Calling was supposed to be an experiment to see how well a catchy well-written mystery from a new author would sell and be read, but when someone in the know told the wrong person, the story broke out that Robert Galbraith was in fact a pseudonym for an author named J. K. Rowling. Rowling wasn’t happy about this, and someone probably lost their job over it, but the secret is out and sales for the mystery immediately went through the roof. Nevertheless, The Cuckoo’s Calling is a great example of what a good mystery is and shows Rowling’s breadth as the talented writer she is.

Cormoran Strike lost his leg in Afghanistan and is now a private detective who doesn’t really have any cases, has a lot of debt, and the love of his life just left him. He’s in a bad place and not sure where to go next. He gets a new secretary from the temp agency, who he can’t really afford, but she seems nice and he can’t say no to her at first.

Then John Bristow walks into his office who knows of him through a family connection. His sister, the rich supermodel, Lula Landry, known to her friends as Cuckoo, plunged to her death from her penthouse apartment months ago. The police ruled it a suicide, but Bristow doesn’t believe them. So he hires Strike to find out if she was murdered and who did it.

Strike may be in dire straits with a lot of things, and may not have much respect amongst his friends and family, as well as anyone else who knows of him, but he is a good detective. And with the help of his new secretary who quickly becomes fascinated by the work, they slowly put the pieces together and find out way more than they bargained for.

Rowling does a great job of writing a compelling novel in the style of Agatha Christie but with a good modern feel. The reader is kept hooked, wondering on the full story and who’s behind it all until the very end. The book is also listed as the first of the Strike series, so presumably Rowling will be penning more of these mysteries, and fans will no doubt be delighted.

Originally written on September 27, 2013 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of The Cuckoo’s Calling from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

Book Report: Amazon Gets Literary, Monster Memoirs, Spectacular Libraries and More!

Best Books of 2013

Publishers Weekly presents its top book picks for 2013.


Publishing Industry Salary Survey

Publishers Weekly presents the interesting results of its publishing industry salary survey.

Sales Down

For August book sales were down 4.5%.

[READ MORE . . .]

“Parasite” by Mira Grant (Orbit, 2013)

With the completion of the Newsflesh trilogy that has earned Mira Grant some dedicated readers, she turns to a new series, this one a duology called Parasitology, leaving the zombies behind for now and taking on a perhaps more frightening and realistic subject: parasites. The time is the near future and the concept is what if we kept a tapeworm in our intestines, known as the Intestinal Bodyguard, which could help cure sickness and prevent things like allergies? Sounds great.  But what if these tapeworms became sentient and intelligent?

Sally came back from the dead; she suffered a horrible accident that essentially killed her but thanks to SymboGen she was brought back to life along with her Intestinal Bodyguard. She’s a different person now, changed from who she was; calmer, quieter, less likely to anger. She’s living with her parents again, still getting used to being alive and being a person once more. She has monthly visits with SymboGen as they continue to check on her and perform their experiments to make sure everything inside her is working fine. She works at an animal habitat center and she has a boyfriend; life for Sally now ain’t too bad.

Except things are starting to get weird; some people are starting to act not like people. They’re acting as if someone else is in control of them, turning violent against other people, really violent, and then falling into a sort of catatonic state. It’s seems totally random and no one really knows who’s going to get hit with this weird state next. And SymboGen isn’t saying if they know anything about this. But Sally knows they have to know something, and she’s going to need to work out what exactly is happening to these people and what can be done about it; because if it’s to do with the Intestinal Bodyguard, then this could happen to her too, at any time.

Grant uses a vaguely similar template for Parasite as she did with Newsflesh, and the reader can’t help but think of these people acting weird as being “zombielike,” but she presents plenty of fun surprises and explores some interesting concepts that leave the reader questioning just about everything, plus one gets to learn way more than they wanted about parasites, Mira Grant style.

Originally written on September 23, 2013 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of Parasite from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

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Book Report: Top 10 Horror Stories, Top 10 Short Story Collections, Icelandic Authorship & More!

Barnes & Noble Has a Baby 
A baby was born in the Torrance Barnes and Noble store, read all about it!

Ereader Habits 
How the ereader numbers are doing and what it means about reading.
 
Iceland Authorship 
What it means to be an author in Iceland and how many of them there are.

[READ MORE . . .]

 

“River of Stars” by Guy Gavriel Kay (Roc, 2013)

In River of Stars, Guy Gavriel Kay returns to the same world as he did with Under Heaven inspired by China’s Tang Dynasty, but jumps 400 years ahead and presents one of his own unique partly historical fiction, partly fantasy novels, this time inspired by the Song Dynasty. River of Stars is another great example of Kay’s lyrical writing and creative talent, making it no surprise he is a bestselling author with many readers worldwide.

Ren Daiyan was just a boy when he was ordered out on a mission to protect a magistrate and when besieged by highwaymen fought and killed them all in cold blood. It changed him, made him advance beyond his years and see the world and his life in a new way. From that moment he was different and never returned home, taking a new path. He finds himself joining a group of outlaws, becoming a Robin Hood type character, feared by those rich nobles who must travel throughout Kitai to serve the emperor.

Lln Shan is a beautiful woman and the daughter of a scholar who has educated her in ways most women never are. She is a talented songwriter and calligrapher who soon earns the interest of the emperor. She finds herself uprooted from her simple life and transported to one of lavish opulence in the city of the emperor, but it is one she is quite inexperienced with and must learn the complex politics and ways that a noble woman should perform.

As factions pit against each other and a war begins to brew in the north, Ren finds himself drawn to the wondrous city of Xinan and then Hanjin as he begins to serve the emperor in the army, doing what must be done to preserve the peace and the empire. He also meets a beautiful and talented woman by the name of Lln Shan.

River of Stars is well named, as it takes the reader on a literary pleasure cruise along a river of words and images, transporting them back in time to this great period of luxury and decadence, but also harshness. Kay does a good job of showing the various classes and levels of society, making this world seem not that different from our own, and certainly a relateable one. He also introduces his quasi-fantasy element; giving scenes and events a supernatural and spiritual feel that go beyond the mundane. Fans of Kay will delight in River of Stars, and for those looking to try the talented writer for the first time, this is a worthy example.

Originally written on September 23, 2013 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of River of Stars from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

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BOOK REPORT: The Greatness of Stephen King, The Importance of Indie Book Stores & More Book News

Unexpected Libraries 
Finding libraries around the world in unexpected places.
 
 
Publishers Weekly on why Little, Brown took a chance on this unknown author.
What Stephen King Isn’t 
An interesting piece from the New Yorker on what makes King so good, and it’s not that he’s a great horror writer per se.

[READ MORE . . .]

“Eye of God” by James Rollins (William Morrow, 2013)

Bestselling author James Rollins is back with his next Sigma Force novel, and like the previous installments, in Eye of God he puts his known characters in situations that defy logic and the odds and their survival is brought into question. But they’re members of Sigma Force for a reason; this is what they do best.

Once again Rollins ramps up the thrill and stress levels to 11, with a tale that posits the possible apocalyptic end of the world. An expensive research satellite used in the study of dark energy gives a vision of a torn and burnt eastern US seaboard, and then crashes to Earth, deep within the harsh lands of Mongolia. Sigma Force is called in to get to that satellite and rescue its valuable cargo of information before it’s too late and the events foretold come to pass.

A package has also been delivered to the Vatican containing a skull scrawled with ancient Aramaic and an ancient book bound in human skin; the evidence points to the ancient Mongol king, Genghis Khan. These items also possess links to what the satellite image prophesied, and now Sigma Force must bring all the elements and evidence together and the doomsday clock is ticking.

Fans of the Sigma Force series will enjoy Eye of God, as Rollins brings back familiar characters, as well as introducing some new ones, and puts them in the ringer. Towards the end of the book, things seems to be taken a little too far and become perhaps too preposterous, even for Rollins, but then it seems each time the author sets out to top the events of his previous book in the most outlandish and incredible way possible.

Originally written on September 23, 2013 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of Eye of God from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

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Book Report: McBooks, Library Shaming, Indie Publishing’s Golden Age & More

Nobel Prize
Alive Munro wins Nobel Prize for Literature.

Librarian Shaming 
A Tumblr to make librarian’s blood boil.

The Bay Area Literary Map 
Want to know what important authors have lived in the San Francisco area, as well as other literary landmarks?

[READ MORE . . .]