Oprah joins the Freedom bandwagon

This morning it was announced that new #1 New York Times bestseller Freedom by Jonathan Franzen has been added to Oprah's book club.  Now interested readers can read along with the book club using Oprah's reading calendar which can be found on Oprah's website's book section, along with many other resources such as discussion questions and an excerpt from the novel.  So if you still aren't convinced about buying this new hit you can test out a portion of it for free.

New Release: Presidential Leak

If you googled President Jimmy Carter this morning you might have gotten a glimpse of his upcoming book on google.  Due to some communication glitch, the preface and first 50 pages of Jimmy Carter's new book, White House Diary.  The book which is to be formally released on September 20, 2010 had been embargoed from any sort of information leak as is done with many political books by its publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux.  According to the Washington Post's article Embargoed Carter Book lands on briefly on Google Books, information leaks on upcoming political books of interest have become a problem for publishers with the media.  Earlier this year another such leak occurred with Laura Bush's memoir, Spoken from the Heart, which was also embargoed.  Though the book was scheduled for release on May 4, the Times was able to run a synopsis of the book a week prior on April 27.  Bookstores have to sign agreements to agree not sell their merchandise prior to the release date.  The media, however, has made no such agreement with publishers and is always looking for the newer story.




Farrar, Straus and Giroux
September 20th, 2010
$30.00 | Hardcover, 592 pages
ISBN: 978-0-374-28099-4

The New Number 1

After months on top, Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series have finally been kicked out of the number one spot.  So lets find a little more about this mystery up and comer.  Freedom by Jonathan Frazen follows the lives of Patty and Walter Berglund.  Patty and Walter, hippie/yuppie idealists embarking on a happy life in Old St. Paul end up facing a reality years later that is anything but the pretty picture they had imagined.  Their son moves in with their Republican neighbors, Walter has gone corporate, and Patty is growing more unpleasant as time passes.  

Jonathan Frazen is the author of three other novels.  The Corrections, also deals with the similar theme of the difficulties of modern life.  It won several awards including ALA Notable Books and The National Book Award in fiction and was nominated for several others.  Frazen's other novels are The Twenty-Seventh City and Strong Motion.  He has also written two works on nonfiction, How to be Alone and The Discomfort Zone.

New Book Release!!!! Promise Me: How a Sister's Love Launched the Global Movement to End Breast Cancer

Available starting today is Promise Me: How a Sister's Love Launched the Global Movement to End Breast Cancer by Nancy Brinker, founder and CEO of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.  The book tells of Brinker's 30 year mission to change the way breast cancer is viewed and treated because of the traumatic experience her sister Suzy went through prior to her death from breast cancer in 1980 after a three year struggle with the disease.  Brinker's work and achievement was recognized by President Obama in 2009 when she was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  
To read an excerpt please click here: Promise Me excerpt

For more information you can visit the Promise Me website at Random House.

Hot Reads from the Daily Beast

Here is this week's hot reads from The Daily Beast's Book Beast.  This list looks diverse enough to stand out from the big bestseller lists so if you are looking for something just a little off the beaten path.

Ape House by Sara Gruen














The Company Town by Hardy Green














The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson














In the Shadow of Freedom by Tchicaya Missamou
















Portobello by Ruth Rendell

Barack Obama to Publish Children's Book this November

Random House announced today in a press release that its imprint Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers will be publishing an illustrated children's book by President Obama entitled Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters.  The book will be released November 16 during the general election and focuses on American themes.  It will honor 13 ground-breaking Americans and their ideals that have guided the development of our nation.  The book will be illustrated by New York Times Bestselling artist Loren Long.


The proceeds from the book will be donated to a scholarship fund for the children of fallen and disabled soldiers.  


To read the press release from Random House please click here:
Random House to Publish Children's Book By President Obama

New York Times Bestseller list

This Week		Last Week	Weeks on List
1	FREEDOM, by Jonathan Franzen. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $28.) A family of Midwestern liberals during the Bush years; by the author of “The Corrections.”		1
2	THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST, by Stieg Larsson. (Knopf, $27.95.) The third volume of a trilogy about a Swedish hacker and a journalist. Excerpt	1	15
3	DARK PERIL, by Christine Feehan. (Berkley, $25.95.) A Dragonseeker on a deadly mission; a Carpathian novel.		1
4	LOST EMPIRE, by Clive Cussler with Grant Blackwood. (Putnam, $27.95.) Sam and Remi Fargo, a husband-and-wife treasure-hunting team, pursue an important relic.		1
5	THE POSTCARD KILLERS, by James Patterson and Liza Marklund. (Little, Brown, $27.99.) An N.Y.P.D. detective joins a Swedish reporter in a search for the killer of young couples in Europe, including his daughter and her boyfriend.	2	3
6	THE HELP, by Kathryn Stockett. (Amy Einhorn/Putnam, $24.95.) A young white woman and two black maids in 1960s ­Mississippi.	4	75
7	THE WAY OF KINGS, by Brandon Sanderson. (Tor/Tom Doherty, $27.99.) In the first book of a new series, the Stormlight Archive, war ravages the world of Roshar.		1
8	SPIDER BONES, by Kathy Reichs. (Scribner, $26.99.) Temperance Brennan investigates the case of a man who seems to have died twice.	3	2
9	BODY WORK, by Sara Paretsky. (Putnam, $26.95.) V. I. Warshawski probes the death of a club patron.		1
10	STAR ISLAND, by Carl Hiaasen. (Knopf, $26.95.) A paparazzo attempting to kidnap a drug-addled pop star grabs her stunt double by mistake.

Symbolic Fires

Historically, governments around the world have censured books and groups have repeatedly burned books they dislike even here in the United States.  One pastor in Florida, Terry Jones, is trying to continue the tradition.  Jones is organizing a protest for 9/11 which would include the burning of the Koran.  Government officials as high up as President Obama and Army General David H. Petraeus, the commanding officer in Afghanistan are pleading with Pastor Jones to rethink his actions.  This simple action could endanger relations between the US and Islamic countries as well as spark retaliatory acts against Americans.  It would be disrespect tantamount to burning the American flag, Bible, or Torah to many here in the US.  


It is interesting however, to see how the importance of the books plays everyday in the news, even is as large of issue as foreign affairs.  To many of us they are everyday objects thrown around the house scattered over tables and shelves.  For many others, books can hold historical, cultural, and religious importance and held in great esteem.  It is easy to forget in the US as well that although we live in the land of plenty, not just everyone has access to such objects in other countries or the ability to read them as most do here.


To read more on this subject read the articles below:
LA Times Koran Burning
New York Times Koran Burning
BBC News Koran Burning

The Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer Awards

The Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Awards made to recognize the contributions of women writers make to our society and culture.  The foundation started by Rona Jaffe, New York Times Bestselling Author, began giving awards in 1995 to support female writers exclusively to help them handle the unique challenges they face.  To date the foundation has given more than $1 million dollars.    Each of the six writers recognized with receive $25,000 dollars to help give them more writing time and provide assistance for costs such as child care, research and travel costs.

The 2010 Winners are as follows:

Hannah Dela Cruz Abrams-Nonfiction

Rachel Aviv- Nonfiction

Sara Elizabeth Johnson-Poetry

Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich- Nonfiction

Laura Newbern- Poetry

Tiphanie Yanique-Fiction

Many past winner have gone on to publish several books in the years immediately following their recognition by the Rona Jaffe Foundation.  Most notable Eula Biss's (winner in 2002) Notes from No Man's Land:American Essays received both the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize and the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award and Rivka Galchen (winner in 2006 was recently named to the New Yorker's 20 Under 40 list of fiction writers.

Kosher America

I've noticed that lately we have several stories dealing with Jewish issues: a book review of the memoirs of a Nazi hunter, an author in Germany bringing up dialogue of the "Jewish gene" so when I saw this article I thought we'd add it to the list.  Sue Fishkoff, a Jewish journalist with a long history of writing about Jewish issues around the globe has brought her focus back to the US and on an issue that has grown to affect more than just its Jewish population.  Her new book, Kosher Nation: Why More and More of America’s Food Answers to a Higher Authority, addresses the issue of the growing amount of Kosher food being sold in the US even though the Orthodox Jewish population remains small is and is the only portion of the population required to eat it.  Fishkoff notes in her book these religious dietary standard are not starting to attract groups outside the faith such as Reformed Jews, vegetarians and Muslims (who can have similar dietary needs) because of an increased interest in health and food politics.  If you've ever been curious about what that label "kosher" on meat meant Fishkoff's book which is being released in October is a good place to look so keep an eye out for it.  


To read the original article in Publisher's Weekly please click here: Sue Fishkoff: Kosher Isn't Just Jewish Anymore