Book News

In the January 7, 2002, issue of BTW, you'll find a ballot for the first round of voting for the 2002 Book Sense Book of the Year awards. You'll see a long list of nominees drawn from the Book Sense 76s of 2002 in the categories of Adult Fiction, Adult Nonfiction, Children's Literature, Children's Illustrated, and, for the first time, a Rediscovery Award. This new fifth award will be drawn from a mix of adult and children's backlist or recently reissued books that made the 76 in 2001.

For Wally Amos, gourmet cookie guru and founder of Famous Amos Cookies, the cookie is a metaphor for life. That's why his new book (written with Eden-Lee Murray), The Cookie Never Crumbles: Inspirational Recipes for Everyday Living (St. Martin's), serves up recipes from his own personal kitchen that can help others lead gourmet lives.

I know you can barely bear to think about 2002 right now, but I do hope you can take one moment in this hectic holiday season and get a little re-energized by the thought of a lot of gems coming first thing in the New Year! Great midlist for us to sell!

In fact, it's the highest number of books I can recall coming out in the first two weeks of the 76 time span in question, and I apologize in advance. I kept them to a minimum, AND a few publishers moved up shipping schedules for us to get them out earlier.

-Carl

Eloquent and Provocative Memoir Garnering Strong Reviews

Most booksellers know the Hammett byline. The five classic novels and several volumes of short stories by Dashiell Hammett, father of modern American crime fiction, have been steady sellers for decades.

Booksellers around the country are reporting disparate results from the first shopping week of the Christmas season. The effects of the economic recession and the traumatic events beginning on September 11 are not consistently hurting, or helping, the nation's bookselling community. Weather conditions, ranging from snowy to summery, had a great impact on post-Thanksgiving shopping, as did a store's location. Resort areas were packed for the long weekend, while some cities were fairly quiet.

Muhammed Ali may seem an unlikely likeness for the author of Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper, a novel about Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt's dying sister that has been lauded for its sensitivity and delicacy. But Daniel Simon, publisher of Seven Stories Press, compares Harriet Scott Chessman to the heavyweight champion, explaining, "In her subtle way, Harriet hits you at several different angles ...