More from The Tender Bar Author

We were thrilled to learn recently of a forthcoming book from the author of one of our all-time favorites, The Tender Bar. JR Moehringer has signed with Hyperion to publish a historical novel based on the story of the infamous bank robber Willie Sutton, who robbed 100 banks between 1925 and 1950 without firing a single shot.

"I've been fascinated by Sutton since I was a boy," Moehringer said. "My grandfather used to talk with some amusement, and some awe, about Willie 'The Actor,' about his disguises, about his commitment to non-violence. He was the Gandhi of gangsters. He was also a lover, a reader, a thinker, and a social critic ahead of his time: he detested banks. He thought bankers were the root cause of everything wrong with society. No wonder he became such a folk hero." 

The Tender Bar, Moehringer's first book (2005), is a memoir that tells of his life being raised by a single mom in Manhasset, New York, and the group of guys at the local bar who provide the father figures in his life. It's a beautiful story, beautifully written, from the point of view of the journalist that Moehringer became -- he actually went back and interviewed the people from his past for the writing of this book. When Moehringer went on tour for the book's launch, he took his mother on tour with him -- I got to meet both of them when they came to Portland, and they were delightful.

Moehringer earned a BA in history from Yale University and then became a news assistant for The New York Times. He spent many years as a reporter and then bureau chief for the LA Times, earning a Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. In 2009 he collaborated with Andre Agassi for the writing of Agassi's memoir, Open. Agassi contacted Moehringer after reading The Tender Bar and asked him to work with him.

Moehringer's as-yet-untitled novel is scheduled to be published sometime in the fall of 2012 -- we can't wait!!!

More Maisie on the Horizon!

Good news for all of the Maisie Dobbs fans at Broadway Books -- and we know there are a lot of you out there -- Jacquline Winspear's next book in the series, A Lesson in Secrets, will be published in March! In the newest episode, set in the summer of 1932, Maisie goes undercover to Cambridge as a junior lecturer in philosophy in her first assignment for the Secret Service, where her task is to uncover any activities “not in the interests of His Majesty’s Government.”

In a case that brings Maisie up against the invisible walls of the Secret Service, she becomes involved with a family almost broken by the treatment of pacifists during the war, and at the same time unravels a web of intrigue which puts her face to face with the powers of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei—the Nazi Party—in Britain. A pivotal chapter in the life of Maisie Dobbs, A Lesson In Secrets marks the beginning of Maisie’s intelligence work for the Crown, as the storm clouds of World War II gather on the horizon.

And while I'm not in the habit of sending our customers to events sponsored by other stores, I would be remiss if I didn't tell you that the lovely Jacqueline Winspear will be in Portland this weekend, and for a very good cause. On Saturday she will be reading from and signing her newest book, The Mapping of Love and Death, at the inaugural Portland Authors Luncheon, a fundraiser for the National Kidney Foundation. Jacqueline will be joined at the luncheon by Armistead Maupin, Tom Lichtenheld, Julie Powell, Condoleezza Rice, and Stacy Schiff. You can get details about the event at the foundation's website.

Forthcoming Ann Patchett Novel

I'm happy to report that there's another Ann Patchett novel on the horizon -- June 2011, to be exact. Patchett is one of our most popular authors, with Run and Bel Canto being her two most recent novels. Her next novel, State of Wonder (Harper) returns to the South American setting of Bel Canto and is described as a "Conradian" (Heart of Darkness) novel.

The book centers around the relationship between two female physicians: 70-something Annick Swenson and 40-ish Marina Singh, who was Swenson's medical student. The relationship, in which the medical student owes everything to the teacher, who has completely forgotten this particular student, is one that is familiar to Patchett. Her studies at Sarah Lawrence University were dominated by two writers/teachers, Allan Gurganus and Grace Paley: "Everything they said, my 18-year-old heart took in....And I was nobody to them. That's an interesting dynamic."

In the novel (which Patchett has completed writing), Swenson has discovered a tribe of women in the Brazilian Amazon who are eternally fertile, and who are immune to malaria. When Swenson settles in the Amazon to create a vaccine for malaria, she gets involved in the politics of drug development.

Patchett is already at work on her next book, a collection of nonfiction essays. Bel Canto is one of my favorite books, so I will eagerly await the appearance of State of Wonder next summer.

Follett's Next Epic Masterpiece

Call me crazy. Or maybe just old-fashioned. But I can't get used to the idea of video trailers to promote books. But because I'm so excited about this new trilogy coming from Ken Follett -- author of the medieval historical novels The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End (as well as several suspense novels) -- I thought I'd share this with you.

Fall of Giants, the first novel in The Century Trilogy, follows the fates of five interrelated families -- American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh -- as they move through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women's suffrage. As always with Ken Follett, the historical background is brilliantly researched and rendered, the action fast-moving, the characters rich in nuance and emotion. The next two books in the trilogy will follow subsequent generations of the same families through the great events of the rest of the twentieth century.

Through the lives of these five families, Follett illuminates the major events, trends and issues of the times, a remarkable synthesis of fact and fiction. This giant of a book -- it clocks in at just around a thousand pages -- goes on sale two weeks from tomorrow. We'd be happy to hold a copy for you.

New Stieg Larsson Stories Found

Stieg Larsson is the talk of the town -- every town -- these days. His three-book "The Girl Who..." series (although was it intended to be longer than three???) is selling like hotcakes. Roberta just finished reading the third book, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, and says it's even better than the first two. She said she had to force herself to put down the book so she could come to work!

And now we've just learned that two early science fiction stories by the late crime novelist have been uncovered at the Swedish National Library in Stockholm. Larsson sent them to a Swedish science fiction magazine when he was 17, hoping to have them published, but the magazine rejected them. The museum received them as a donation in 2007. Larsson was 50 when he died in 2004, not living long enough to experience the wild success of his Millenium series.

I'm willing to bet there will be something more by Stieg Larsson published within the next few years. After all, publishing books by dead people is relatively common in the book world. For example, we lost the wonderful Robert B. Parker in January, but his books are still coming -- the newest (and sadly last, I think) Spenser novel, Painted Ladies, will be published in October.

We'll let you know if we hear news about anything new from Stieg Larsson!

The Summer Book Talk is On!

I'm a bit of a stubborn reader. NOT a reluctant reader, not that at all. But stubborn in that I don't particularly like having to read a specific book on a specific schedule. I like to read whatever I'm in the mood to read at any particular time. Perhaps it's a lack of self-discipline. I prefer to think of it as my Renaissance side, and my independent nature. But that's up for debate.

Because of that, my idea of the ideal book club is one in which the members gather periodically to rave about the best books they've read recently, or the ones that made them think, or made them cry, or made them shout "YES" out loud. It's made even more appealing if it involves yummy treats and possibly even adult beverages of some sort. If that meshes with your way of thinking, or if you're actually in a real book club because you're a real grown-up, have we got a treat for you!

On Tuesday, June 15th, at 7 pm, Broadway Books will be offering its annual Summer Book Talk, where we'll talk about good books to read and discuss, tell you about some new books coming out soon and what books are coming out in paperback,  give you some ideas to shake a reading group out of a rut, and take recommendations for good reads from attendees. We'll offer sips and snacks, and there will be prizes!! Does it get any better than that? I think not.

All are invited, but seating is limited, so you must register in advance by paying a $5 per person fee, which will be refunded toward any purchase you make during the evening. We plan on having a great deal of fun and sharing a lot of terrific ideas. Come join us!

New Jean Auel Book Announced!

Calling all Jean Auel fans -- you have less than a year to wait for the sixth and final book in her Earth's Children series! This week at Book Expo America Crown Publishers announced that The Land of Painted Caves will be published on March 29, 2011, thirty-one years after the first book in this epic prehistoric series. According to the publisher, the novel will see Ayla struggling "to find a balance between her duties as a new mother and her training to become a Zelandoni – one of the Ninth Cave community's spiritual leaders and healers." In a rare move in the publishing world, the book will be published simultaneously in all the countries in which it will initially appear, including the US, the UK, Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Japan, Norway, Serbia, Spain, and Sweden.

Auel’s groundbreaking Earth’s Children series has sold more than 45 million copies worldwide, and more than 22 million copies in the US alone. The series began in 1980 with the classic The Clan of Cave Bear, followed by The Valley of Horses. In 1985, the third book in the series, The Mammoth Hunters, was the first hardcover novel to achieve a one million-copy printing. The fourth book in the series is The Plains of Passage, and the fifth and most recent installment is The Shelters of Stones, published in 2002.

Auel was born in Chicago and moved to Portland with her husband Ray when she was pregnant with their second child -- they eventually raised five children. The storyline for the series was born in the Multnomah County Library system, when Jean went there to do research for a short story and came home with stacks and stacks of books. The series is acclaimed for the prodigious research behind it -- both in libraries and in person -- as well as for its inspired storytelling and meticulous attention to detail.

The books are set in prehistoric Europe, in the Dordogne region of France. In 2008 Auel was named an Office of the Order of Arts & Letters by the French Minister of Culture & Communication. She has also received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Portland, from which she received her MBA in 1976.

Here is a link to a brief article by Jeff Baker of The Oregonian announcing the new title and offering more information about the author and the new book.

Decemberists Frontman to Pen Kids Series

Colin Meloy, lead singer and songwriter for the Portland-based indie rock band The Decemberists, has just signed a contract with Harper Collins for a three-book illustrated adventure series for kids, illustrated by his wife, the acclaimed illustrator Carson Ellis. The first book in the series is scheduled to be published in Fall 2011.

The series, Wildwood, will be a "classic tale of adventure, magic and danger set in an alternate version of modern-day Portland." Meloy says, "I grew up on a steady diet of Lloyd Alexander, Roald Dahl, and Tolkein; this is our humble paean to that grand tradition of epic adventure stories." Ellis adds that this collaboration is something she and Meloy "have been dreaming about for years." In signing the book, Donna Bray, co-publisher of Harper imprint Balzer & Bray said, "Storytelling and rich imagry are hallmarks of Colin's songs, so writing a novel seems like a perfect next step for him."

Meloy was born in Helena, Montana, and attended the University of Oregon before switching to the University of Montana in Missoula to major in creative writing. His sister, Maile Meloy, has published several books including her most recent, Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It, a collection of short stories named one of the top ten books of 2009 by the New York Times Book Review. Meloy formed the band The Decemberists in 2000. The band's most recent album is 'The Hazards of Love."

Carson Ellis was born in Vancouver, Canada, was raised in suburban New York, and earned a BFA in painting at the University of Montana. According to her website, she has been a nanny, a hot dog vendor, a chairlift operator, an artist's model, and a cocktail waitress, among other occupations. She is the illustrator-in-residence for The Decemberists, creating album covers, posters, websites, t-shirts, and stage sets. She illustrated the bestselling children's book The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart -- one of the most popular kid's series at Broadway Books -- as well as The Beautiful Stories of Life: Six Greek Myths, Retold, by local author Cynthia Rylant, along with other books.

The Decemberists are playing a benefit tonight with Michael Hurley at the Liberty Theater in Astoria (8 pm) to help offset the medical debt for local artist Jessica Shleif. As Ellis says on her website: "One day we'll look back and laugh at a health care system so dysfunctional that we had to organize benefits to help our friends pay their emergency hospital bills. ha ha." Ha ha is right! That is such a ridiculous concept, and I hope this country is on its way to correcting that. But I digress....

I don't typically have high hopes for books written by "celebrities," but I have a good feeling about this series. And in fact there is a good parallel precedent in the books by local (ok, Scappoose) writer -- and singer/songwriter -- Willy Vlautin. Vlautin, frontman for the alt-country band Richmond Fontaine, has written three terrific novels: The Motel Life, Northline, and his newest, Lean on Pete. [One of my favorite quotes about Vlautin is another author saying that he "writes like the secret love child of Raymond Carver and Flannery O’Connor." What a great recommendation! But again, I digress....] So good songwriting and good fiction writing can go hand in hand.

Suffice it to say that I'm excited about Wildwood, and I look forward to a great series from Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis. I hope they raise tons of money in the benefit tonight, even though it sucks that that's what we have to do to pay medical bills these days.

David Sedaris and Ian Falconer Together!

Two of our favorite book folks are joining forces!! The next book from one of our favorite humorists, David Sedaris, will contain artwork by one of our favorite children's book authors, Ian Falconer. The book of animal fables, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary, will be published by Little, Brown in October 2010.

David Sedaris is the author of several books, including Barrel Fever, Me Talk Pretty One Day, and -- the one I'm listening to right now -- When You Are Engulfed in Flames (it's hysterical, and the experience is especially wonderful when you have Mr. Sedaris himself doing the reading). The most recent item from Sedaris is a CD of five live performances entitled Live for Your Listening Pleasure (and no, that's not David on the front of the CD).

Ian Falconer is an illustrator, children's book author, and theater costume/set designer -- in fact, in 1996 he designed the sets of The Atlantic Theater's production of The Santaland Diaries, the play based on one of Sedaris's essays. Falconer is best known, however, for his wonderful children's book series featuring Olivia, an outspoken and unique little pig. Falconer won the Caldecott award for the first Olivia book. There are now several Olivia books, including the original translated into Latin and audio recordings of the Olivia books by Dame Edna Everage. He has also done the cover art for 30 New Yorker magazines.

This is a book I'm definitely looking forward to seeing!

New Maisie Dobbs Book Coming Soon

In April we will be blessed with the seventh book in the wonderful Maisie Dobbs mystery series by Jacqueline Winspear, The Mapping of Love and Death. In the newest novel, Maisie is hired by the parents of a young man listed as "missing" in 1916 during WWI in England to find the woman who wrote him a series of love letters later found among his belongings. While searching for this woman, identified only as "The English Nurse," Maisie wrestles with her own memories of serving as a nurse in "the war to end all wars."

Jacqueline Winspear was born and raised in the county of Kent, England. After higher education at the University of London's Institute of Education, she worked in academic publishing, first in the UK and later, after she emigrated to the United States in 1990, in the US. This is where our paths first crossed, in the Bay Area, where she lives now.

In my past life I managed all of the West Coast reps for a major higher-education publisher, and Jacqueline was, for a short time, one of our key reps in the Bay Area. Following a very bad spill from a horse, which necessitated a long recovery time, she embarked on her life-long dream to become a writer. And boy has she been successful in that endeavor!

Jacqueline's grandfather was severely wounded and shell-shocked at The Battle of The Somme in 1916 during WWI, and, even as a youngster, she became deeply interested in this war and its long-lasting effects. She continues to conduct extensive research into the time period. In fact, I remember once at a meeting I asked her what she was reading and she mentioned something about a text on British nurses in WWI, and I remember thinking "how odd." Little did I know!

Her first novel, Maisie Dobbs, was a New York Times Notable Book 2003 and was nominated for seven awards, including the Edgar for Best Novel -- only the second time a debut novel had been nominated in that category. She subsequently won the prestigious Agatha Award for Best First novel, the Macavity Award for Best First Novel; and the Alex Award, which is presented annually by the American Library Association in conjunction with the Margaret Alexander Edwards Trust.

Her sixth novel, Among the Mad, has recently been released in paperback. I ran into Jackie at a bookseller meeting in San Jose last weekend, and she wanted to say "hi" to her readers in Portland. If you haven't read any of the books in this mystery series, I strongly recommend them, and you can really start anywhere, but starting with the first is always a reasonable idea. They are well written and well supported with background information and they feature a wonderfully strong and enjoyable female lead character.

Book Three in The Hunger Games Trilogy!

Book Three in the compelling YA dystopic trilogy by Suzanne Collins will be released August 24th. Mockingjay follows the bestselling books The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, which tell the story of a futuristic North America that has become Panem, a TV-dominated dictatorship run from a city called the Capitol, exploring the idea "What happens if we choose entertainment over humanity?"

The Hunger Games are an annual fight-to-the-death for young combatants from each of the 12 districts in Panem -- think "Survivor" only with teenagers and instead of getting kicked off the island you get killed. The books feature intense action, love stories, a wry sense of humor, the exploration of big ideas, and a main character with the not-so-mellifluous name Katniss (sometimes called "catnip"). In Catching Fire, the air of rebellion is spreading through Panem, and Katniss finds that personal acts can affect others and create unintended consequences she is powerless to stop. One reviewer described Catching Fire as "Stephen King meets Dr. Zhivago." I wrote about the first two books earlier.

If you haven't read the first two books in The Hunger Games Trilogy yet, I strongly recommend them. They are interesting and entertaining, thought-provoking and well written. You can get the first two done in time to read Book Three when it hits the store in August!

White Tiger Fans

Just heard through the grapevine that Aravind Adiga, author of Booker-Prize-winning novel The White Tiger as well as a collection of linked stories (Between the Assassinations) has been signed to his third book, Last Man in the Tower, a sweeping novel set in contemporary Mumbai that explores the conflict between a high-powered real estate developer and one man who won't sell out. That's the good news. The bad news is you have to wait until 2011.

Talking 'bout Books at BB

We had so much fun at our sold-out Book Talk events last spring that we're going to have another one! Thursday, November 12, at 7 pm is the date for our next Book Talk, this time with an eye to holiday gift-giving. You can learn about the best new books of the season, with a peek at what's to come, mingle with other book lovers and share good reads, have a little nosh, win prizes, and perhaps get some of your holiday shopping out of the way!

Space is limited, so sign up now. Reserve a spot for the next Book Talk by paying $5 in advance, which will be refunded toward any purchases you make that night. Call us at 503-284-1726 to reserve your spot, or just stop by to sign up. We're open from 10 to 7 Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 on Sunday. After Thanksgiving we'll change to our extended holiday hours until Christmas.

Hope to see you there!

Great News for Percy Jackson Fans!

Fans of Rick Riordan's series based on Greek mythology, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, got some great news recently: Riordan will soon launch a new series involving Egyptian Gods loose in the modern world. The series, featuring siblings Carter and Sadie Kane, will launch May 4, 2010, with The Kane Chronicles, Book One: The Red Pyramid (Disney-Hyperion). You can read more about the new series on Rick Riordan's blog.

You can also read more about Rick Riordan and Percy Jackson in a previous blog here about the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.

A film version of the first book in the Percy Jackson series, The Lightning Thief, will be released in February 2010. The final book in that series, Book Five: The Last Olympian, was published last May. Both of Riordan's series are targeted to the 10-14 age group, but kids of all ages have been known to devour the Percy Jackson books (including yours truly).

Man Booker Shortlist for Fiction

Today the shortlist for the 2009 Man Booker Prize for Fiction was announced, culled from an original longlist of thirteen. The six finalists are listed below. The winner will be announced at a dinner in London's Guildhall on October 6th and announced simultaneously on BBC radio and television.

• AS Byatt, The Children's Book
• JM Coetzee, Summertime
• Adam Foulds, The Quickening Maze
• Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
• Simon Mawer, The Glass Room
• Sarah Waters, The Little Stranger

As of today, only The Little Stranger is available for purchase in the US. The books by Byatt and Mantel will publish in this country in October, and the Coetzee book will be available in December. Of course, scheduled publishing dates are subject to change.

Coetzee is a two-time previous winner of the Booker, and Byatt has won once before. Last year's winner was The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga. The Booker Prize for Fiction was first awarded in 1969. You can read more about the Man Booker Prize and interviews with the authors on the longlist here.

Sherwood Anderson Fiction Prize Winner

The Sherwood Anderson Foundation has announced that its Fiction Competition Award winner for 2009 is Lucy Jane Bledsoe. Bledsoe, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, read at Broadway Books when her last novel, Biting the Apple, was published. She writes both fiction and narrative nonfiction. The competition judges found her two entries "Girl with Boat" and "Enough" to be outstanding literary stories precisely because neither is "literary" or mannered but instead the author speaks with an honest human voice.

"Girl with Boat," winner of the 2009 Arts & Letters Prize for Fiction (to be published in that journal in Fall 2009), shows the conflict between loyal family love and the father's desperate, singular need to take them all to live in trackless Alaska. This is the story of the daughter's return, thirty years later, and of what she finds at the old homestead.

Bledsoe's second entry, "Enough," winner of the 2009 International Arts Movement First Prize for fiction, is set in Antarctica, "on the Ice," and depicts with unusual perception the conflicts, self-delusion, but nonetheless warm hopes humans take with them wherever they live.

Besides writing, the author goes sea kayaking in Alaska, backpacking in the Rockies, and skiing in the Sierra. She has been to Antarctica three times as a recipient of the National Science Foundation's Artists & Writers Fellowship, living and working at all three American stations--McMurdo Station, Palmer Station, and Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. She also lived at field camps in the Transantarctic Mountains. Bledsoe's work with geologists, biologists, and astrophysicists concerned studying penguins, seals, climate change, and the Big Bang.

Publishers Weekly gave Bledsoe's novel, Biting the Apple, a starred review. Cited as one of Bookmark's 10 Best Books of the Year, Biting the Apple is "an intelligent, introspective, and smartly sarcastic story about the shackles of the past, the pressures of a present built on falsehoods, and the promise of reinvention and renewal. . . ."

Her newest novel, The Big Bang Symphony: A Novel of Antarctica, will be out in spring 2010. The premise is that a galley worker, a geologist, and a composer have run away to jobs in Antarctica, each trying to escape a life that has become unbearable. Kim Stanley Robinson writes: "Lucy Bledsoe has written a beautiful novel about living in that extreme space; vivid and suspenseful, it really captures the feel of the Ice and the intensity of living and learning there."

Congratulations, Lucy, on the Sherwood Anderson Award honors! We look forward to having you read again at Broadway Books when your next novel comes out.

Sequel to The Absolutely True Diary...

Good news for fans of Sherman's Alexie's book The Absolutely True Diary of Part-Time Indian (is there anyone who isn't???): He's currently at work on the sequel to that book: The Magic and Tragic Year of My Broken Thumb, which will continue telling the story of Arnold Spirit, Jr., as he heads into his sophomore year. The Absolutely True Diary, winner of the National Book Award, is technically a Young Adult book, but I recommend that everyone read it, regardless of age.

Sherman is one of my favorite authors at book events, because he is smart, wickedly funny, and wildly supportive of independent booksellers. If you ever get a chance to go hear him read or speak in person, DO IT! You will be glad you did.

Here's some background information about Sherman you might find interesting, taken from his Web site: He was born in 1966 and grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, WA, about 50 miles northwest of Spokane. He was born with water on the brain -- hydrocephalic -- and not expected to survive the brain operation he underwent at the age of six months. Fortunately for us, he did! But he suffered from seizures throughout his childhood. Despite these challenges,he learned to read at age three and became a voracious reader.

He chose to attend high school off the reservation in Reardan, about 20 miles south of Wellpinit, because he knew he would get a better education there. He was the only Indian at the school, except for the school mascot. Sherman excelled academically and became a star player on the basketball team. His experiences there inspired his YA novel.

After graduation he attended Gonzaga University and then transferred to WSU, intending to become a doctor. After fainting numerous times in human anatomy class he decided to change his career path. A poetry workshop fueled his writing ambitions, and Sherman had found his new path. He earned a BA in American Studies and then received a couple of poetry fellowships, which led to the publication of his first two poetry collections.

Sherman had a problem with alcohol in college, but he gave up drinking at age 23 and has been sober ever since. His first collection of short stories, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, was published by Atlantic Monthly Press in 1993, and it earned a PEN/Hemingway Award for Best First Book of Fiction. In the late '90s, he wrote a screenplay based on one of the stories in that collection, "This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona," which became the wildly popular film "Smoke Signals."

Sherman's first novel, Reservation Blues, was published in 1995 and his second, Indian Killer, in 1996 -- both by Atlantic Monthly Press. His novel Flight was published in 2007 by Grove/Atlantic. Besides being a writer, Sherman has also pursued work as a stand-up comic -- something you'll have no trouble believing if you've ever seen him speak.

While we don't yet have a date on the next Arnold Spirit book, we'll keep you posted as we hear anything. And if you haven't yet read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, now's your chance before the sequel is published!

A Gift for a Graduate

The literary world lost one of its most brilliant players last September when David Foster Wallace (author of the novel Infinite Jest and the essay collection Consider the Lobster, among others) took his own life. The son of a philosophy professor and an English teacher, Wallace grew up in a family where language took center stage.

In March, The New Yorker published a lengthy piece about Wallace by journalist D.T. Max. I've just learned that Viking Press (a division of Penguin) intends to publish Max's book about Wallace, likely in 2011. The biography is intended to be a "cradle-to-the-grave narrative about Wallace’s life and the historical-cultural backdrop against which he produced his work."

In his New Yorker piece, Max wrote that Wallace believed that good writing should help readers to “become less alone inside.” He quoted Wallace's sister Amy as saying “I think he was always afraid that the last thing he wrote would be the last thing he wrote.

Max also tells us that from 1997 on, Wallace worked on a third novel, entitled The Pale King, which he never finished. His drafts, which his wife found in their garage after his death, amount to several hundred thousand words, and tell of a group of employees at an Internal Revenue Service center in Illinois, and how they deal with the tediousness of their work. The partial manuscript—which is structured as a mock memoir and which Little, Brown plans to publish next year—expands on the virtues of mindfulness and sustained concentration.

In a commencement speech at Kenyon College in 2005, Wallace told graduates that true freedom “means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed.” That speech has recently been published in book form: This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life. Perhaps you know a graduate for whom this would make a good gift.

Something New from Timothy Egan

One of my all-time favorite nonfiction writers is Timothy Egan. Some of my favorite books of his are The Good Rain: Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest; Lasso the Wind: Away to the New West; and The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dustbowl, for which Egan won the National Book Award -- and deservedly so; it's a terrific book.

And now we all have another book from Egan to look forward to: The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America. The book tells the story of the Big Burn, the largest-ever forest fire in America. On the afternoon of August 20, 1910, a battering ram of wind moved through the drought-stricken national forests of Washington, Idaho, Montana, whipping the hundreds of small blazes burning across the forest floor into a roaring inferno that jumped from treetop to ridge as it raged, destroying towns and timber in an eyeblink. Forest rangers had assembled nearly ten thousand men -- college boys, day-workers, immigrants from mining camps -- to fight the fires. But no living person had seen anything like those flames, and neither the rangers nor anyone else knew how to subdue them.

Egan narrates the struggles of the overmatched rangers against the implacable fire with unstoppable dramatic force, through the eyes of the people who lived it. Equally dramatic, though, is the larger story he tells of outsized president Teddy Roosevelt and his chief forester Gifford Pinchot. Pioneering the notion of conservation, Roosevelt and Pinchot did nothing less than create the idea of public land as our national treasure, owned by every citizen. The robber barons fought him and the rangers charged with protecting the reserves, but even as TR's national forests were smoldering they were saved: The heroism shown by those same rangers turned public opinion permanently in favor of the forests, though it changed the mission of the forest service with consequences felt in the fires of today.

The Big Burn tells an epic story, paints a moving portrait of the people who lived it, and offers a critical cautionary tale for our time -- characteristics of all of Egan's books. The book will be published mid-October -- let us know if you want us to reserve you a copy.

Egan worked for 18 years as a writer for The New York Times, first as the Pacific Northwest correspondent, then as a national enterprise reporter. In addition to the National Book Award he won in 2006, he won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 as part of a team of reporters who wrote the series "How Race is Lived in America." He lives in Seattle.

Forthcoming from Pat Conroy

Rumor has it that Pat Conroy has just agreed to write a memoir, tentatively titled the Death of Santini, for editor Nan Talese at Doubleday. The book will talk about his relationship with his father and coming to terms with him. No publication date has yet been scheduled. Conroy's first novel in several years, South of Broad, will be published in August. Conroy's previous books include The Water is Wide, The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline, The Prince of Tides, and Beach Music.