Author! Author!

June is proving out to be a very busy month.

We are excited to have two upcoming author visits:

On Friday, 4 June, Dawn Deets, from a Dixon family, who worked as a missionary for 40 years in 4 countries, comes to talk about her adventures as told in her book Memoirs from Southeast Asia. (Sorry, no scan of her book's cover is available -- our scanner was a casualty in our water-damaged basement resulting from the work being done on Hennepin.)

And, then, on Tuesday, 23 June, Bob O'Connor returns with his first non-fiction book, The U.S. Colored Troops at Andersonville Prison. We carry O'Connor's other books, all fiction, but meticulously researched, including The Perfect Steel Trap: Harpers Ferry 1859.  This topic should prove interesting for Civil War buffs as well as those interested in African-American history.  O'Connor describes the book as containing photographs of all the gravestones of the members of USCT who died at Andersonville.  There was one person uncommemorated as he was buried in an unmarked grave.  Why?  We'll have to ask O'Connor when he comes or read the book.  Please join us!

In the meanwhile, we can add all of them to our prayers on Memorial Day, along with John Fanelli, Frances Dunphy, Stanley Lee, and all the other war veterans and fighters for freedom and the U.S. of A, like Charles Dunphy, who have since passed.

Last Thoughts on The First Rule

This is the first Robert Crais I have read in a very long time (so long, I don't remember how and what). The writing is tight, the characters, well-fleshed and the situations, believable. When I read it, I thought that Crais manages to respect the reader's intelligence without falling into terminology and references which so delight insiders, whether it be Former Soviet Bloc criminology, weaponry or Southern California geography.  However, I spoke with a Korean-American who is reading it and she said, it is just so full of streetwise slang and colloquially-used words that she had to ask her husband for explanation (and she is one of those admirable people who reads in bed with a dictionary on the nightstand).  So much for my thinking I know how the average reader would find a book.
I read it in practically one sitting (yes, that makes for a very early morning shut-eye); the story was that good.
And, I don't think I'll ever again pull in to a "cheap gas" filling station and use my credit card with so little thought.

Colliding Worlds of Hyphenated Citizens

NPR had found a common thread running through the would-be bomber of Times Square, NYC, and Mohsin Hamid's best-selling novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist. However, in the resulting interview, Hamid adroitly sidesteps the neatly cubicle-d analyses to present some heartfelt and intelligent reasoning on the collision of two cultures, the not-unusual internal conflict of a hyphenated citizen, and how we collectively may be able to prevent further such incidences through giving a little space for the dichotomy so that disillusioned persons do not need to choose between being American and being Pakistani, or Western and traditional Muslim or wearing blue jeans and listening to rock & roll and covering one's face and answering the call to prayer five times daily.  The interview was a lovely extension of the ambassadorial work Hamid's novel has done to bring understanding of commonalities while creating a space in which differences can thrive.

Everything Old Is New Again

Long before L. Ron Hubbard delved deep into Dianetics and the study of science (isn't that what "Scientology" means?), he was a well known writer of fiction -- science and "pulp."  We are talking true pulp fiction of the 1920s and '30s.  Dead Men Kill first appeared in the Five Novels publication in 1934.  It's about a skeptical yet go-along detective, a shady lady and killer zombies!  (Take that, Seth Graham-Smith!)  We are selling this and other titles (if this title doesn't grab you, how about Under the Diehard Brand or If I Were You?) for $4.99, half of the suggested retail price.  The reproduced covers alone are worth the price.

I have to show one that evokes the long-ago lectures by a Vassar professor of Asian Studies Donald Gillin on the Fu Manchu/inscrutable Oriental stereotype of the Chinese.
Behold, the cover of Spy Killer:
and the publisher's publicity:

[Wanted for murder and grand larceny he did not commit], Reid takes refuge in a [pre-Communist era Shanghai] tea house where he meets White Russian Varinka Savischna, whom he manages to rescue from certain death.  As beautiful as she is smart, she recruits him in her crusade against Chinese intelligence services.  Unfortunately, Reid manages to get himself captured by the Chinese and blackmailed into pursuing and assassinating a Japanese spy.

Funny how well our hero "manages," isn't it?

I shouldn't make fun of the writing.  I am sure it is a pastiche of that classic pulp fiction style.

We are also looking forward to some re-issues of more "serious" work.

One of Larry's favorites by Brian Moore, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearn, is back in print. I would agree that this is a must-read if you are a fan of Irish writing on Catholic and social angst.

Additionally, Antoinette and I are looking forward to the re-issue of a book by the author of Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons: Nightingale Wood.

The publisher's publicity calls it a "sly, satirical fairytale" and a "modern romance ripe for rediscovery."  Those phrases are almost poetry. That's what I want to do, write publisher's publicity blurbs. 

What I love about all this is that these are reprints.  Reprints give publishers the opportunity to blow the dust off bought rights and to play with cover art and ask respected people like Mary Gordon (for Judith Hearn) or hip magazine editors like Sophie Dahl (for Nightingale Wood) to write a new introduction and weigh in.  Yes, let's introduce printed, bound books to a new generation of pulp (literally) fiction.

I am not totally against other media.  What led me to reading Cold Comfort Farm was seeing the film.  The film was hilarious.  The film and the book are not alike, but the movie is certainly more than "inspired by" the book and it is in these instances when I still marvel at how someone can visualize a film from a book.

Accentuate the Positive

In my weekday gig, we are working through a change in culture. Step one is reading and discussing Jack Stack's book about how he and managers at the leveraged buyout company Springfield Remanufacturing Corporation developed a company-wide way to keep score and keep the eye on the Big Picture, first to survive and pay back all that debt incurred to purchase the near-bankrupt division of International Harvester, and then, to grow and thrive.

There's a lot of skepticism and being in the second group of readers, I can see why.  First question would be, if this works, why hasn't the first group, which has had at least a six-week jump on this book and represents the Company's best-and-brightest, begun practicing any of this share-the-information, help-the-team-succeed, break-the-problem-down-into-smaller-problems-but-keep-your-eye-on-the-Big-Picture stuff?  We don't see yet any change in attitude from those ten or twelve colleagues.  Is the expectation on us as "second child"s (not a typo) to do the heavylifting -- the cheering for the cheerleaders, the spectating for the rolemodels on parade, the Costellos for the Abbotts? If so, I guess we have to "get it," before we can see that sea change from the trailblazers.

The first four chapters are full of little myths to be busted and pep phrases to remember, such as Accentuate the Positive.  Of course, twenty years later (this book was firs published in 1992 about the few years previous), after dozens of how-to-manage books including Jim Collins's  Good to Great, this seems obvious.  However, people need to be reminded, continuously.  Additionally, there's a whole generation of managers who have never heard of Freddy Laker's People's Express Airlines, although we now have dozens of descendants from Southwest Airlines to Ryan Air.

I must personally confess that I am an optimist.  So optimistic am I that I am continuously bruised and battered by reality and I must tamp down that optimism with negativity.  Truly, this is a skill I must hone daily.  I got excited with reading the first four chapters that I allowed my optimism to bubble up and did a couple of things at work one day which resulted in my being totally crushed.  I did not realize I was testing the waters until I got burned.  So, that's why the preceding paragraph is so negative.    If this continuing process becomes interesting enough to report, I'll let you know.

To accentuate the positive, though, I want to report a great use of the word, "literally."  Again, because it's a Wall Street Journal article, I will quote as well as link as the link may disappear or cost you the price of a subscription to read (and as the Wall Street Journal is selling content, that is perfectly reasonable).  It's an article by PeterWallsten analysing the Florida race for U.S. Senate and Obama's possible role. Charlie Crist who had been trailing in the polls for the Republican primary for U.S. Senator, has been considered a moderate Republican, but the once "now-who's-the-Big-Tent-Party?" party is no longer tolerant of anyone left of right.  So, he decided to run for the Senate as an independent (after the writing of Mr Wallsten's article).  As speculations grew on whether or when and how Crist would make the break with the Republican Party, speculations grew on a direct relationship on how the Democrats, especially President Obama, would respond, considering likely Democrat nominee Kendrick Meeks appears to be polling third in a three-way race.

Mr. Meek "is the president's candidate" and that it was a "safe guess" that Mr. Obama would campaign for him.

Still, people familiar with the conversations say that several factors could color Mr. Obama's approach to the race. Polls show Mr. Meek trailing significantly behind Mr. Crist and presumptive Republican nominee Marco Rubio in a three-way contest, Mr. Crist leads the pack, at least for now. Because Mr. Crist has not ruled out caucusing with the Democrats as a senator, the White House could have reason to help him defeat Mr. Rubio—or at least to avoid steps that would impede his campaign.

In addition, people familiar with the conversations said that Mr. Obama's history with Mr. Meek could play a role in his thinking. Mr. Meek was a staunch backer of Mr. Obama's chief rival for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton.

By contrast, Mr. Crist literally embraced Mr. Obama on a trip to Florida early last year when the president was selling his economic stimulus plan—and supported the program as Mr. Obama was seeking Republican support to lend bipartisan credibility to his agenda. Mr. Crist was later punished by his party for that support, as Mr. Rubio and other Republicans used it to undermine him in the party primary for Senate. 

For those who do not know, Crist really did physically hug the President and thus, this is a superb use of "literally."  Thank you, Mr Wallsten.

Don't Despair. Books on First and Downtown Dixon Is Still Here for YOU

When City of Dixon puts that shovel down, it means business.  With last night's rain and the current drainage pipe disruption, the water collected in the basement of Books on First.  I'm a little worried about the stone foundation of our building, but for now, we're still standing.  Even flooded, we are open for business (although not prepared for an audit or decorating for Halloween with storage sitting in 4 inches of water).

Today, Books on First has no sidewalks outside or inside, but we hope photographer Charles ("Chuck") Osgood will not be deterred to come by and say hello, bringing us a few copies of Sidewalks, Volume 2: Reflections on Chicago, his latest published work with Rick Kogan, based on their Sunday Chicago Tribune Magazine regular feature (on the inside cover).

We tried to get them both for a longer visit to Dixon, and still might be able to host Chuck in the near future in conjunction with a show or talk at The Next Picture Show here in Downtown Dixon.

Meanwhile, Downtown Dixon awaits your visit.  There are still great gift ideas all around the neighborhood, from clothing and accessories from Tangibles to unique new and antique items at Waterfront Gifts to wine at Crystal Cork to wonderful cakes & breads at Snow White Bakery to jewelry at Trein's and Venier's to gift certificates at all of them plus Books on First which has a book for every kind of reader, including journals for those who want to write their own, as well as cards for Mother's Day. While the restaurants downtown are not open on Sunday, they are open for lunch and dinner on every other day (plus available for that gift certificate purchase).  Wait, I think I heard that Basil Tree Ristorante, our great neighborhood Italian eatery, is now open on Sundays.  Give them a call!

Looking ahead, Graduation Day is coming quickly on the heels of this weekend and all those great gift ideas which apply to Mother's Day (except maybe the wine) would equally apply to our new graduates.  If wine for the parents of the graduates won't be enough, we also have books on getting the kids out of the house or on the other hand, coping with the empty nest.  CONGRATULATIONS, ALL!

Extra! Extra! Read All About It -- Google Editions

The news today has been the introduction of Google Editions, Google's new online service to allow the search to go one step further ... to the buy.  Google promises electronic versions of books which would be compatible with any format.  We hear that the iPad has signed on to designing an app to utilize Google Editions, and the Kindle might be in, also.  Google even invites independent booksellers to sell through and keep a portion of the pricing.  We are unsure how this will affect independent booksellers, but we are optimistic that it will allow us to stay in the game, after being shut out by amazon.com, Sony, et al., even as the American Booksellers Association (IndieNext!) and Ingram Book Company (the U.S.'s largest wholesale distributor) have struggled to find the solution to writers, publishers and consumers rushing in droves to electronic reading matter while lamenting the demise of the independent bookseller.

One comforting or confirming comment from a Wall Street Journal online reader is that while he loves reading e-books, especially those with a certain kind of LED technology, he still has that tactile (shall we say, human?) need to have a printed, bound book.  Alas, instead of the affordable luxury books are today, as he asks, is the printed bound book to become the ultimate luxury?

Third Second Saturday

Unbelievably, it is already May.  The old saying that Chicago has only two seasons, Winter and Construction, applies to Dixon, IL, also.  Our side road, Hennepin Avenue, from Second Street is now one-way going north (how strange to say "north," when we would physically be going downhill towards the river), and will be that way almost until the end of the summer, while we get new drainage and lighting.  Later, when all is done, we will have new trees planted.  Those regularly coming downtown are not used to the change or inconvenience, but I hope they will be tempted with all that we have to offer, from great restaurants (the sushi bar at Touch of Thai is now open again! and Salamandra has more seating) to Second Saturdays to a wonderful riverfront park to (of course) Books on First for great coffee, conversation and pass-the-hat live entertainment.

Salamandra celebrate Cinco de Mayo tomorrow (Sunday, 2 May).  And, remember, the second Saturday of May is the 8th.

We will miss, but we hope you won't have to, also, miss Sauk Valley Community College's production of Aristophanes's "Lysistrata," a great classic Greek comedic play on war protest, which opened this week and closes tomorrow.  Jim Ferolo tells us that Jason Hedric's production is explicitly bawdy and hilariously done.  He actually said the words: "doubled over" and "falling in the aisle laughing."  If you are interested in reading the play, we have had two different publications of "Lysistrata" go out of print in the years that we have been around.  The version we can offer now is a great volume containing not only four of Aristophanes's most well-known works, as translated by well-regarded translators --William Arrowsmith, Richard Lattimore and Douglas Parker, but also introductions with historical reference.  Besides "Lysistrata," you can read "The Frogs," "The Clouds," and "The Birds."