Catching Fire

It looks like it's going to be a beautiful day today, not too hot, not too cold, clearing later in the day. Can you believe the days are shorter already? It was dark at 8 last Wednesday.

The grass (well, the grass-like weeds, anyway) is crispy to the touch, the fallen leaves are puddling in the corners of the porch, the air is hot until the marine breezes come cool, and we are seeing many kids searching for books to complete their summer reading lists before school starts next week. I always feel a little conflicted by the seasons changing. I love fall, and I love twilight, that little extra fillip at the end of the day - the feeling of expectation that comes with the darkening sky - and summer in the northwest is the only time to do that. When it's dark at 4...Not much twilight happening then. It's just dark.

Today is Catching Fire day! The sequel to Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, can be put out on the bookstore floor today.

Hunger Games is this great book about a dystopian society (a far in the future United States) that requires two children from each city-state to fight to the death as a tithe and a way to keep control over the people. Katniss, our hero, has been chosen as one of the warriors.

Part Lord of the Flies and part Theseus and the Minotaur, Hunger Games is filled with action, philosophy, quick thinking and a little romance. Katniss returns in Catching Fire where she finds herself the unwilling center of a rebellion, receiving way too much attention from the government. Oh, it's good! A perfect way to relax before the hectic days of the first weeks of school.
Ages 12 and up. Scholastic. Both books in hardcover for $17.99.

Two of the other sequels to watch for this month are Fire, by Kristin Cashore (sequel to Graceling) and The Missing, Book 2: Sent, by Margaret Peterson Haddix (this is already on the shelf and is flying out of the store).

I am so close to finishing Velva Jean Learns to Drive, by Jennifer Niven, and it is such a great read. It's the story of a young woman living in a holler in Appalachia who wants to go to the Grand Ol' Opry when she grows up, and then life gets in the way. Velva Jean is a good character to expose older teens to. She runs wild after her mother dies, is raised by her sister, gets married, gives things up, gets things back, and becomes true to herself. I am going to go read, now, and see what happens at the end!
Older teens and grown ups. Plume Books. Paperback, $15.00.

The most recent newsletter I send out to friends (BookNotes) follows.

It’s Summer! July 15, ‘09

Hello! Are you still out there? It has been a while since I last wrote- not because there aren’t any books or because I haven’t been reading! I have been reading SO much, and there is so much to tell you, that I became a little overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of books and paper that surrounded me! Bear with me and I will get back to a somewhat regular schedule.

I just walked out to put the compost in the bin and looked out towards downtown. We have a tall building view and the fog has washed up against them, flowing upwards before breaking and wrapping around and moving on, filling the lower lands with clouds. Summer fog….my favorite memories are curled inside ocean fog: wrapped in sweatshirts covering halter tops and swimsuits, shorts, thongs (sorry, flip flops), sitting on the porch in the cold with my book, knees tucked inside my shirt, waiting for it to burn or blow off before heading to the beach or up the river. Going up the river was MUCH warmer. Warmth on the coast I lived on was in very short supply. The river banks always had hot rocks to lie on; the smell of hot rocks and evaporating river water rivals the smell of newly cut hay or salt water on a cold night.

I hope your summer has been a comfortable and pleasant one, filled with deep and long twilights, reading in the shade with a tall, cool glass of something by your side, and that you are making memories to hold you through the upcoming fall and winter. There have been some truly fabulous books released this summer and I hope they will find their ways into your lives.

BookNotes:

I truly love a picture book that I can read as an adult and share with a kid, both of us getting something good out of it. One of my recent favorites is Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem, written by Mac Barnett and illustrated by one of my favorite illustrators ever, Adam Rex.
Billy’s room is a mess and his mother is not happy. After many reminders that he has responsibilities and needs to take care of them, she threatens to get him a blue whale. While Billy neglects his chores, the threat of a blue whale is repeated, but Billy isn’t worried, he knows a bit about blue whales and he knows that one can’t be delivered to your house overnight!

Or, can they?

The next morning a blue whale is delivered to Billy’s house and that whale is now his responsibility; to go with him wherever he goes, including school where he and the whale disrupt the day, canceling the cowboy movie for a lesson on cetaceans.
And does Billy learn his lessons? Does he keep his room clean? Well, let’s just say he finds an alternative to this whole messy world.

While I don’t think I like the ending as much as younger readers will, I love the way Adam Rex illustrated this book. He uses a deep, saturated color palette, lots and lots of details to keep the read-to amused while the words are going, and a great deal of humor in the illustrations. His endpages are of sea-going advertisements, and that whale looks like he really needs a break. I especially appreciate the use of the often empty pages before a book begins as a story-mover: Billy’s mom is on the move, following the trail of toys, popsicles, and clothes to his room. I really like that the parent’s heads are cleverly camouflaged throughout.

This is a book I have already read and browsed 5-6 times and will pick up over and over- I love it! And it’s a good summer book! Ages 4 and older. $16.99. Disney Hyperion.

Another great picture book for the same age is a nonfiction book called Sparrows, by Hans Post and Kees Heij, illustrated by Irene Goede. It’s so cool to have a book that pulls common things out of the mundane and elevates them into the sublime, especially one for kids. This little book shows the life of a House Sparrow, one of the most common birds around, and gives us an up close and personal view of how they hatch, where they live, what they eat and how they attract each other.

It is a pretty simple book: lots of little pockets of text sprinkled over the two page spreads and, like Billy Twitters, the artwork is a huge reason to come back to it over and over again. There are tons of details and I have pored over the pictures many times since bringing it home. I love the spreads that show a little neighborhood of sparrows and their lives while the text explains what is going on. And, parents, it does show sparrows “pairing” and a bird actually laying an egg (although not in graphic detail, just as asides, something that happens naturally)! The book has an informational fact page at the very back. Beware, this book may turn some of your children into amateur birders, forcing you to head out to look for more! Ages 3-4 and up. $16.95. Boyds Mills Press.

One of the best books for middle readers this summer is When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead. This is an amazing story about a girl whose world is filling with mysteries and conundrums.

Miranda and Sal have been friends forever and have finally figured out how to negotiate their neighborhood, avoiding the crazy man near the post box, crossing the street when they get to the group of boys hanging out on the corner. All is good until Sal gets punched by a stranger and then stops talking to Miranda.

Things begin to get a little weird when Sal goes away: the hidden apartment key disappears, shoes are stolen, the crazy man on the corner gets crazier, naked people are running through the streets, and little notes with information only Miranda should know start showing up in very odd places. One of the notes reads, in part, “I am coming to save your friend’s life and my own…You must write me a letter”.

When You Reach Me is a great story about a sixth grade girl who has an average life: she has friends, she has frenemies, she has crushes and a first kiss, her mom is wonderful and has a wonderful boyfriend. I like the book so much just for its ordinariness. Like Meg in A Wrinkle in Time, Miranda’s favorite book (and mine), Miranda is just a girl to whom things happen. But what happens…more than enough to last a lifetime.


I read this book twice. I read it once for the story, not knowing what was happening, and then again for the clues which made the story richer. AND if you have not recently read A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L’Engle, dig it up and read it, too. And then share them both with a friend so you can talk about them! Ages 10 and up. $15.99. Random House.

If you like science fiction, check out Rebecca Stead’s last book, First Light, too. It’s the story of Peter, on a research trip in Greenland, and the story of a girl dreaming of seeing the sun. Thea’s culture was accused of witchcraft and hid ages ago under the ice and Peter is close to discovering her. This is a very good read. I guess it’s more speculative than science fiction, but you will like it! Ages 10 and up. $6.99. Random House.

Coming soon, September 22 (reserve your copy now!), is Libba Bray’s next book, Going Bovine. Both Going Bovine and When You Reach Me are books you really can’t say a lot about without giving too much away. Libba is best known for her gothic-y romantic, supernatural books about Gemma Doyle (A Great and Terrible Beauty is the first in the series). Very much a departure from the English boarding school books, Going Bovine is a great addition to the Libba Bray shelf.

16 year-old Cameron wants to skate through life with a minimum of effort. All is going well until he finds out he is sick and going to die. And, yes, he has Mad Cow Disease. There is hope, though. A punk angel named Dulcie (really an angel? Hallucination?) tells him there is a cure but he must go on the road trip to end all road trips to find it.

Going Bovine is so great. Funny, sarcastic and heartbreaking, you will fall for lonely Cam on his trip to Disneyland (and a trip to lose his virginity before he dies) in a big way. Accompanied by a Garden Gnome who is actually a Berserker dwarf trying to get home, Cam’s story is one of the best of the year. I can’t wait to read it again – I lent my copy out to another bookseller - and can’t wait to talk to her about it! Don’t you love books that do that? Ages 14 and up. $17.99. Random House.

I’m in the middle of a bunch of things for grown-ups but I have to tell you about this non-fiction nature book about clouds that came in recently: Extraordinary Clouds: Skies of the Unexpected from the Beautiful to the Bizarre, by Richard Hablym.

This is an amazing book. It is filled with mostly color photographs of clouds. I guess the title pretty much sums it up but it does nothing to describe the photos. The photos are accompanied with explanations about the science of how the clouds were formed. Last Friday, while listening to Cliff Mass, weather guru, he described clouds that haven’t been seen this far south before, Noctilucent clouds. He said that if we went out half an hour or so after sunset, we should be able to see them, and so I did! On Sunday I looked them up in this book, and there they were! With the same explanation Cliff gave! Wow! Now I feel like a birdwatcher; I have a lifelist of clouds I would like to see: Fallstreak Holes, Mammatus, sonic boom clouds, and Angels on Horseback. This is a great browsing book for kids and adults and would be a very good addition to your science section. You do have a science section, don’t you? You will learn a little about physics and other sciences as you page through the book trying to figure out how clouds are made, an easy way to sneak science into your life, like bran in a muffin. All ages. $14.99. David and Charles.

I think I should get this sent off now. The opening paragraph was written a week ago and it’s obvious that the weather has changed a bit! The smell of coconut sunscreen is everywhere-

Rene’ Kirkpatrick

P.S. I am planning on sending this newsletter at some point via Constant Contact so I can add art and book jacket images. So, when I get it all figured out, watch for it. It will look different! I hope it will be a good change!

www.notesfromthebedsidetable.blogspot.com

Hey! What's with the weather? I wore socks to bed, we slept in flannel sheets and a comforter, and Dennis, my husband (whose birthday is today: HBD, D!), said he saw a woman on the corner downtown where he works wearing a blue pea coat, a hat, and gloves! It's July 7, dudes!

I started reading A Reliable Wife, by Robert Goolrick, last night. Set in the early 1900's, it starts off with a blizzard, a lie, and an accident in the snow and ice. It felt appropriate to be reading it on this very cold July night.

Speaking of A Reliable Wife: it is really good, so far! It's about a lonely, wealthy man living in rural Wisconsin who sends away for a mail order bride and, when she arrives in snow and steam, he sees that she is not who she said she is. Both of them are looking for companionship and warmth but I think she has some serious issues; a hidden agenda! She sent him a picture of a plain woman (and she is definitely not plain), she lies about how she knows what she knows, and she has obviously chosen Mr. Truitt for a specific reason. Can't wait to get back to it- a relationship that begins in a lie is bound to have good story behind it! I'll let you know what I think when I get done.

Later: I forgot that the All for Kids book group is meeting Thursday night and we are reading Austenland, by Shannon Hale (Bloomsbury). Shannon usually writes books for teens based on ancient folk tales but Austenland is about a woman seeking Mr. Darcy. She gets a chance to spend 3 weeks at Austenland, a theme park in England where everyone is plunged headfirst into the Regency era. Must read this before finishing A Reliable Wife.

Much later: Beautiful night in the yard at book group and quite a lively discussion about Austenland (we really do talk about the book). Some snacks, some catching up, and we actually decided about the next TWO YEARS' worth of books.

Our little group has been meeting, what, 10, 12 years or so, and we started as a grown-up group reading kid's books. We expand outward every once in awhile but always come back to books originally written for children.

Our group was formed when Jo, a lovely woman who died of ovarian cancer a few years ago, suggested we get together to talk about all those books we should have, but didn't, read when we were kids. She brought in a few of her friends, some of the All for Kids' staff joined up, a few other childrens book aficionados came along, and we were off! We still meet once a month, now at each others homes rather than at the store.

Austenland was a fun, frothy read, good for 20-30 year old women. I found it quite funny.

Even more later:

I finished A Reliable Wife and it was GOOD. Many turns and surprises. It is brutal, sad, complex, and there were times when I was utterly stunned by the turn the story took. Complicated characters, devious plots, A Reliable Wife was an amazing look at how people make decisions, how they choose to see things, and then how to live with the results.

I have his first book, a memoir called The End of the World as We Know It, on my desk at work right now. It's gritty, harsh, the story of a man raised in the South of the 50's. We are looking back at his life in a dysfunctional family from his adulthood, where alcohol, mental, and physical abuse combine to take his childhood. I am only a little way in but it is absolutely riveting. (Both books are by Algonquin Books, Wife: $24.95; World: $13.95. Definitely adults only.)

Well, I am now going to cleanse my palate with a few kid's books. I have a hefty stack of books on the bedside table and a few more scattered around the house, butI think I will take a new book called Fairy Tale, by Cyn Balog, to sample when I go up to bed. Sweet dreams, all.

One of the best things about my job is that I get to open the "white box". My heart does a little leap, I get all excitable when I see it sitting next to my desk. In the white box are advanced reading copies from publishers, the books that aren't yet published, that they want us to know about. ABA (American Booksellers Association) member bookstores get these white boxes sent to them once a month and it's like a little birthday party every time.

One of the last boxes was opened in the presence of another children's bookseller, whose name is also Rene, and it was full of KID'S BOOKS! Books of all types are cool, but the YA box really thrills me- One of the best things in this box was a pink and white galley of Sarah Dessen's new book, Along for the Ride. I swooped in and pulled it out of the box, distracting Rene with clever dialogue about the other (almost as good as Sarah's) books that she might really enjoy. In my head, I was yelling, "MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE!"

Since then, many of us have shared the book and it is beginning to fray along the edges. I know there are at least two meal time mistakes coloring the pages and the cover is starting to curl. I love seeing how ARCs and bound manuscripts age as they get read and passed to the next person who would enjoy them. I often keep the ARCs I love up next to the finished copies of the book because all my memories of the story are in the reading copy.

I think Along for the Ride is Sarah Dessen's best book so far! She writes amazing stories about people who are just like us. Reading her books can let you see your life from the outside, giving you a little perspective on stuff.

She has written books about domestic abuse, teenage pregnancy, absent parents, crushes, pretty much everything you'd want to know about. In Along for the Ride, we meet Auden, her professor mother's perfect child, studious, serious, unable to sleep, wandering in the dark waiting for the next day to come and go. Auden decides to spend the summer away from her mother this year, going to live with her father, his young wife, and their new baby to see if she can separate herself from her regular, normal, life.

The moment Auden arrives in the little beach town, she begins to doubt whether this was a good idea. The baby won't stop screaming, her very young stepmother can't sleep and has no idea what to do, and her father is clueless about everything, putting his needs above all else. What is a girl to do? Well, Auden, being an insomniac and at loose ends, walks the streets of her little town all night, getting familiar with the locals, making a few friends, working at a little boutique, and getting to know Eli, another insomniac. Together, Eli and Auden prowl the town working away at their problems: Auden didn't have much of a childhood, she never learned to ride a bike, and Eli feels great guilt about the death of a friend.


Sarah's books have great characters and great plots, they deal with all kinds of relationships between teens and adults, they are funny and hopeful, and we can't recommend them highly enough. I would suggest a month's worth of Sarah Dessen books for this summer's reading. She has eight (nine?) or so books out, now, just enough to keep one occupied for a bit. Although you may want to whip through them all in a week you should savor them, read something else between, because she doesn't always write a book a year! She takes her time writing each one so it may be a while before the next comes in.

All of Sarah Dessen's books are published by Viking Books. Everything is in paperback now except for Along for the Ride which is $19.99. You adults out there who love a good story with great relationships will thoroughly enjoy Sarah's books. They make for very good Mother-Daughter book group fodder, lots of discussion points without the teenage angsty stuff that most adults seem unable to deal with.

I was getting ready to submit this post when I checked my Facebook page to find a note from my brother-in-law. Turns out that today's tide is the lowest of the year and tomorrow's will be a minus 2 (this is in Bandon, Oregon. The tides up here should be comparable, right?). This was the perfect note to read when writing about Jim Lynch's books and, when you are done reading The Highest Tide, you will feel compelled to head to the water's edge to look at stuff.

I just read Jim Lynch's new book, Border Songs and got a chance to hear him speak about it last night. I truly love the way the man writes.

Jim wrote The Highest Tide a few years ago and it quickly jumped to one of my top favorite books of all times. Funny, worrisome, a really good read, The Highest Tide is the story of a teen aged boy who discovers a giant squid washed up on the shores of Puget Sound.

When interviewed by the press about the find, he becomes known as a kind of young environmental prophet like his idol, Rachel Carson. He really isn't a prophet, just observant and worried about the changes he sees around the Sound.

The book is hysterically funny (air guitar champion of the world) and quite poignant (one of his best friends is an old woman who lives, literally, over the Sound) and a good story where the landscape is also one of the characters. When you live in a place like ours, dominated by such a body of water, you can really appreciate a book that describes the penis lengths of goeduck oysters, the quickness of tide changes, and the smell of a beach at low tide.

(A little aside: I write on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings while listening to Steve Sher's show on KUOW and today, because someone miscalculated an interview, he is re-running a show he did earlier this year with Curtis Ebbesmeyer, the author of a book called Flotsametrics (Collins, 26.95). Don't you love serendipity? I'm writing about The Highest Tide, things washing up on shores, and local guy, Curtis Ebbesmeyer, the reigning master of ocean currents, flotsam and jetsam, and the Nike shoes and rubber duckies washing up on shore, is on the radio!)


Now, in Jim's new book, Border Songs, we drive through the landscape of the border lands between Canada and Washington.

This is the story of a man who is a bit adrift in his world and is trying to find a way to anchor himself in it. The people on both sides of the border are just trying to get by in hard times. Dairy work is going south and there are small mansions springing up like mushrooms, occupied by wealthy weekend and summer folk, where little farms used to sit. Jobs are gone, drugs are plentiful, his mom's memory is sketchy, his dad's cows are sick, and so Brandon joins the Border Patrol.

Brandon is an awkward man, big and uneasy with people, and he drives back and forth along the two foot ditch that makes up the border between Canada and the US looking for illegal crossings and drugs. More comfortable with birds, many of them listed and counted up throughout the narrative, Brandon pays close attention to the world around him, constantly noting changes in color and scent, the changes in birdsong, using what he sees and notes to make art.

I don't think he sets out to be a good border guard, he spends a lot of time making frost angels and leaf bridges out in clearings in the woods, but he seems to always be right where someone is trying to cross the raspberry fields with buckets of pot or behind someone transporting illegal aliens in the trunk of a car. He eventually becomes the unlikely hero of his town which puts him smack dab in the middle of the public eye and at the top of the local drug runner's list of people to watch. All Brandon wants to do is take care of the cows, have a date with Maddie (his long-time crush who lives on the other side of the border), and make art that pleases him.

Again, Jim has given us characters we can fall a little in love with, and a view out the window we can poke our heads into, as we roll along with the Border Patrol.

(Highest Tide is a great book for teens and adults. Bloomsbury, paperback and hardcover. Border Songs is published by Knopf, hardcover only, 25.95. There is a beautiful, specially designed for Border Songs, limited edition broadside- a piece of typeset art- that can be yours with the purchase of the book from Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park. It's really cool.)

The City and the City

I spent the week during and around the big book show reading this great book by China Mieville, The City and The City. There's nothing like reading a book that is echoed by the world outside. The City and The City is a mystery set in two apparently Eastern European cities which just happen to occupy the same physical space. The people who live in Beszel, a poor, crumbling city, must walk and drive while unseeing the people who live in Ul Qoma, a glittering metropolis, who are also walking and driving down the same streets with different names, unseeing those who live in Beszel.

It was a little eerie to be sitting on the train in the subway, with Mieville's book in my hands, watching another train passing us and sliding below while the people on both trains were studiously avoiding any eye contact. Walking along the streets, skirting protuberances, crossing the street, weaving between people, missing each other by inches without meeting anyone's eyes; all way too easy to imagine two cities, two cities where you need a passport to visit the other.

I had dinner in a really packed restaurant on one of those nights at Union Square. I sat by myself along a wall lined with two people tables, with The City and The City as company. It was interesting to be reading this book, surrounded by young, hip, cell-phone connected people drinking a lot and talking at the tops of their voices, unnoticed by all except for the waiter who was part of my own private Beszel (or Ul Qoma, depending on who you talk to). So weird to see (or unsee) Manhattan in this way! It's the power of the written word, baby!

Here is a little bit about the book: The City and the City is a mystery. Tyador Borlu is a detective in Beszel's Extreme Crime department. A young woman is killed and ends up as his case. In talking to her friends and reviewing the few clues in the case, Tyador begins to suspect that she was killed one place and moved to another. This isn't good, not that murder ever is, but because she may have been killed in Ul Qoma and moved to Beszel. Tyador now must work with the Ul Qoma police force which means passports, borders, and radical politicians who either want to destroy one of the cities or the other, or meld them both into a single city.

The story is really good, the characters are well-drawn and I would love to meet them again, but the Cities are my favorite character. China Mieville has made an amazing world in these two cities, creating an entire mythology, sociology, and culture to allow the people sharing the space to live together separately. The idea of having two cities in the same place, in the same physical footprint, that you have to leave one and apply to go to the other as if you were going overseas, even while you are standing in that other city, is a brilliant one. This is a book worth reading twice. This is not a children's book, although older teens will enjoy it. (Del Rey, $26.00)

And when you have closed this book, you should give Un Lun Dun, also by China Mieville, a read. This is China's book about two kids who find a secret entrance into a city filled with broken and cast off things and people, "worthless" things thrown away by London residents. The girls are there because it was prophesied that one of them is to save Un Lun Dun from certain evil. This is another wonderful story also about two cities and how the residents of both live together. It is newly out in paperback and would be good for everyone 11 and older. (Del Rey, $9.00.)

It has been a busy, busy month, almost exactly a month since last I posted. In that time many books have been read and passed along and many more new books have been collected and stacked in the living room (note to self: BUY BOOKSHELVES!) (another note to self: READ FASTER!).

One of the things that made the month so busy was going to the big book trade show in New York City; once a year booksellers and librarians from all around the world get together to preview new books, hear authors talk about their work, eat and drink way too much, and schmooze.

Going to the show is when I get to see all my amazing bookseller friends. I am in awe of how much they read and how much they do to bring books and people together. When we meet at dinners and on the buses back and forth to hotels and the conference center there is lot of laughter, a lot of sweet drinks and wine, and lists of books written on the backs of business cards. I love that this is where the magic happens, the only time we are all in the same place, talking about what we can't wait to tell you about.

So, some of the books on the back of those collected business cards are Shiver, the sequels to Hunger Games (Catching Fire) and Graceling (Fire), The Magician's Elephant, Leviathan, Liar, and Along for the Ride. And let me tell you, these books are definitely the ones you want on your shelves and wrapped in pretty paper for gifts come fall.

Shiver, by Maggie Stiefvater, is a book for all the Twilight fans waiting for something exceptional. When Grace was young she was bitten by the wolves living in the woods behind her house. As she grows up she finds herself fascinated by the lone yellow-eyed wolf that haunts the edge of the woods,waiting for him to show up every winter and pining for him in the summer. Sam lives in the woods during the winter watching Grace and yearning for the few months in the summer where he can be human. When Sam and Grace finally meet, they recognize each other immediately and must find a way to stay together. Shiver is one of the most romantic books I've read this spring and Sam may remind you of Edward-restrained and utterly devoted to Grace. Many men and boys will enjoy Shiver, too; it's exciting and full of danger. I already have a list of people this book goes to just as soon as it arrives in the store in August. Take our word for it: You will LOVE this book. Ages 14 and up. (Scholastic, available August '09.)

I'll fill you in on the other books mentioned above in the next posts!