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In Praise of Macmillan
Those folks at Macmillan win the Subterranean Heroes Badge this month for standing up to Amazon, an entity toward which (definitely not a whom--there is no soul there) I harbor a hatred beyond description.
Not only is Macmillan the first publisher to grow a backbone but they also put out (either publish or distribute) outstanding books: Farrar Straus Giroux, Graywolf, Drawn & Quarterly, Picador...
And, AND, this is gigantic, they still send out field reps. Our previous Macmillan field rep just retired (3 cheers to Gary Cate) and our new one is luckily just as fantastic. For those of you not in the know, there are tons of publishers who are pulling their field reps in favor of no reps or phone sales reps--a phone sales rep being someone who works out of an office in NY and has never stepped foot in our store. There are publishers that get gigantic checks from us every month who have never ever sent someone to sit down and talk to us (Random House) or have never even Called (HarperCollins.) A field rep is a traveling salesperson who visits our store, knows our stock, and (this is invaluable) makes suggestions on which of the 3 kazillion books they're publishing each year that we should bring in. If you look at the figures, we spend the most money and take way more chances with the folks who actually visit us than the ones who leave us to wing it on our own. Yay for Macmillan.
(And also Penguin, who sends two field reps--one for Hardcover and one for paperback).
Invisible (Hardcover)
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Published: Henry Holt and Co., 10/01/2009
“One of America’s greatest novelists” dazzlingly reinvents the coming-of-age story in his most passionate and surprising book to date
Sinuously constructed in four interlocking parts, Paul Auster’s fifteenth novel opens in New York City in the spring of 1967, when twenty-year-old Adam Walker, an aspiring poet and student at Columbia University, meets the enigmatic Frenchman Rudolf Born and his silent and seductive girfriend, Margot. Before long, Walker finds himself caught in a perverse triangle that leads to a sudden, shocking act of violence that will alter the course of his life.
Three different narrators tell the story of Invisible, a novel that travels in time from 1967 to 2007 and moves from Morningside Heights, to the Left Bank of Paris, to a remote island in the Caribbean. It is a book of youthful rage, unbridled sexual hunger, and a relentless quest for justice. With uncompromising insight, Auster takes us into the shadowy borderland between truth and memory, between authorship and identity, to produce a work of unforgettable power that confirms his reputation as “one of America’s most spectacularly inventive writers.”
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Published: Rodale Books, 10/01/2009
Drawn from seven diverse categories, including lifestyle and preventive medicine; the mind; medical milestones; drugs and alternative treatments; sexuality and reproduction; diseases and ailments; and children and adolescents, these 365 entries are as informative as they are functional.
From aspirin to the x–ray, headaches to Hippocrates, Viagra to influenza, The Intellectual Devotional: Health will revive the mind and rejuvenate the body. Sure to please devoted intellectuals and newcomers alike, this timely volume sheds new light on an endlessly fascinating subject: ourselves.
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Published: St. Martin's Griffin, 10/01/2009
Over the past twenty years, Neil Gaiman has developed into the premier fantasist of his generation, achieving that rarest of combinations—unrivaled critical respect and extraordinary commercial success. From the landmark comic book seriesThe Sandman to novels such as the New York Times bestselling American Gods and Anansi Boys, from children’s literature like Coraline to screenplays for such films as Beowulf, Gaiman’s work has garnered him an enthusiastic and fiercely loyal global following.
Now, for the first time ever, Prince of Stories chronicles the history and impact of the complete works of Neil Gaiman in film, fiction, music, comic books, and beyond. Containing hours of exclusive interviews with Gaiman and conversations with his collaborators, as well as wonderful nuggets of his work—such as the beginning of an unpublished novel, a rare comic and a never-before-published essay—this is a treasure trove of all things Gaiman. In addition to providing in-depth information and commentary on Gaiman’s myriad works, Prince of Stories includes rare photographs, book covers, artwork, and related trivia and minutiae. It is both an insightful introduction to his work and a true “must-have” for his ever-growing legion of fans.
Generosity: An Enhancement (Hardcover)
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Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 09/01/2009
FROM THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD–WINNING AUTHOR OFTHE ECHO MAKER, A PLAYFUL AND PROVOCATIVE NOVEL ABOUT THE DISCOVERY OF THE HAPPINESS GENE
When Chicagoan Russell Stone finds himself teaching a Creative Nonfiction class, he encounters a young Algerian woman with a disturbingly luminous presence. Thassadit Amzwar’s blissful exuberance both entrances and puzzles the melancholic Russell. How can this refugee from perpetual terror be so happy? Won’t someone so open and alive come to serious harm? Wondering how to protect her, Russell researches her war-torn country and skims through popular happiness manuals. Might her condition be hyperthymia? Hypomania? Russell’s amateur inquiries lead him to college counselor Candace Weld, who also falls under Thassa’s spell. Dubbed Miss Generosity by her classmates, Thassa’s joyful personality comes to the attention of the notorious geneticist and advocate for genomic enhancement, Thomas Kurton, whose research leads him to announce the genotype for happiness.
Russell and Candace, now lovers, fail to protect Thassa from the growing media circus. Thassa’s congenital optimism is soon severely tested. Devoured by the public as a living prophecy, her genetic secret will transform both Russell and Kurton, as well as the country at large.
What will happen to life when science identifies the genetic basis of happiness? Who will own the patent? Do we dare revise our own temperaments? Funny, fast, and finally magical, Generosity celebrates both science and the freed imagination. In his most exuberant book yet, Richard Powers asks us to consider the big questions facing humankind as we begin to rewrite our own existence.
You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas (Hardcover)
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Published: St. Martin's Press, 10/01/2009
You’ve eaten too much candy at Christmas…but have you ever eaten the face off a six-footstuffed Santa? You’ve seen gingerbread houses…but have you ever made your own gingerbread tenement? You’ve woken up with a hangover…but have you ever woken up next to Kris Kringle himself? Augusten Burroughs has, and in this caustically funny, nostalgic, poignant, and moving collection he recounts Christmases past and present—as only he could. With gimleteyed wit and illuminated prose, Augusten shows how the holidays bring out the worst in us and sometimes, just sometimes, the very, very best.
The Paris Review Interviews, IV (Paperback)
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Published: Picador, 10/01/2009
With an Introduction by Salman Rushdie
For more than fifty years, The Paris Review has brought us revelatory and revealing interviews with the literary lights of our age. This critically acclaimed series continues with another eclectic lineup, including Philip Roth, Ezra Pound, Haruki Murakami, Marilynne Robinson, Stephen Sondheim, E. B. White, Maya Angelou, William Styron and more. In each of these remarkable extended conversations, the authors touch every corner of the writing life, sharing their ambitions, obsessions, inspirations, disappointments, and the most idiosyncratic details of their writing habits.
The collected interviews of The Paris Reviews are, as Gary Shteyngart put it, "a colossal literary event."
Hot, Flat, and Crowded 2.0: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America (Paperback)
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Published: Picador, 11/01/2009
A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year
A Washington Post Best Book of the Year
A Businessweek Best Business Book of the Year
A Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year
In this brilliant, essential book, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas L. Friedman speaks to America's urgent need for national renewal and explains how a green revolution can bring about both a sustainable environment and a sustainable America.
Friedman explains how global warming, rapidly growing populations, and the expansion of the world’s middle class through globalization have produced a dangerously unstable planet--one that is "hot, flat, and crowded." In this Release 2.0 edition, he also shows how the very habits that led us to ravage the natural world led to the meltdown of the financial markets and the Great Recession. The challenge of a sustainable way of life presents the United States with an opportunity not only to rebuild its economy, but to lead the world in radically innovating toward cleaner energy. And it could inspire Americans to something we haven't seen in a long time--nation-building in America--by summoning the intelligence, creativity, and concern for the common good that are our greatest national resources.
Hot, Flat, and Crowded is classic Thomas L. Friedman: fearless, incisive, forward-looking, and rich in surprising common sense about the challenge--and the promise--of the future.















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