Changes to the Bookbroads Blog

Close observers of this blog (are you out there??) will note two additions this week to the fuctionality of our blog . We've added a search component so if, for instance, you remember that I wrote something about Jim Lynch but can't find it, now you can easily search for it. We also added the option of subscribing to the blog through your email address. Once a day you'll get an email with all of the postings we made to the blog that day -- that way you don't have to remember to go to the blog to find out what's shaking at Broadway Books! Of course, you can still just go to the blog when you feel like it and read whatever you've missed, if that's your preference. It's all about YOU!

2009 Man Booker Prize Longlist

This week the judges for the 2009 Man Booker Prize announced the longlist of thirteen titles - or the Man Booker Dozen. The longlist includes Summertime by J.M. Coetzee, who is one of only two novelists to have won the Booker Prize twice with Life & Times of Michael K in 1983 and Disgrace in 1999. (Summertime isn't due out in the US until January.) It also features The Children's Book (October publication) by A.S. Byatt, winner of the Booker Prize in 1990 with Possession -- who announced at the time that she would spend her prize winnings to build her longed-for swimming pool in Provence, something that sounds particularly delightful to me this week, given our weather!

William Trevor, previously shortlisted four times for the annual prize, is longlisted for his new novel Love and Summer (due out September 1). Sarah Waters and Colm Toibin, who have both been shortlisted twice for the Man Booker Prize, have made the 2009 longlist with their latest novels -- both available now in hardcover. Hilary Mantel was previously longlisted for the prize. Her shortlisted book, Wolf Hall, will be published in October.

Chaired by broadcaster and author James Naughtie, the 2009 judges are Lucasta Miller, biographer and critic; Michael Prodger, Literary Editor of The Sunday Telegraph; Professor John Mullan, academic, journalist and broadcaster; and Sue Perkins, comedian, journalist and broadcaster. Naughtie said of the longlist, "We believe it to be one of the strongest lists in recent memory, with two former winners, four past shortlisted writers, three first-time novelists, and a span of styles and themes that make this an outstandingly rich fictional mix." A total of 132 books, 11 of which were called in by the judges, were considered for the ‘Man Booker Dozen' longlist of thirteen books.

Any full-length novel, written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland and published this year, is eligible for the prize. The novel must be an original work in English (not a translation) and must not be self-published. This year's Man Booker Prize winner will be announced October 6, 2009.

Last year's winner of the Man Booker Prize was The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga, a novel of the gritty underbelly of contemporary India. His new book, Between the Assassinations, is a collection of linked stories set in the fictional Indian town of Kittur. It is available now in hardcover.

Here are the books selected for this year's Man Booker longlist, along with their scheduled publication dates (where known) in the US:

• The Children's Book, A.S. Byatt (Oct 2009)


• Summertime, J.M. Coetzee (Jan 2010)


• The Quickening Maze, Adam Foulds


• How to Paint a Dead Man, Sarah Hall (Sept 2009 PB)


• The Wilderness, Samatha Harvey (available now in hardcover)


• Me Cheetah, James Lever


• Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel (Oct 2009)


• The Glass Room, Simon Mawer


• Not Untrue & Not Unkind, Ed O'Loughlin (April 2010)


• Heliopolis, James Scudamore


• Brooklyn, Colm Toibin (available now in hardcover)


• Love and Summer, William Trevor (Sept 2009)


• The Little Stranger, Sarah Waters (available now in hardcover)

And That's The Way It Was

Walter Cronkite was born was born November 14, 1916, in Saint Joseph, Missouri. On July 17, 2009, the "most trusted man in America" died at his home in New York City at the age of 92. Watching the wonderful tribute on "60 Minutes" recently moved me to tears. (Then again, as anyone who knows me will tell you, I'm a bit of a sap when it comes to stuff like that.)

In 1996, Alfred A. Knopf published his memoir, A Reporter's Life, which became a main selection of The Book-of-the-Month Club and a New York Times Notable Book. In the review, the NYT called the book "Entertaining...The story of a modest man who succeeded extravagantly by remaining mostly himself....His memoir is a short course on the flow of events in the second half of this century -- events the world knows more about because of Walter Cronkite's work." We just got the book back in stock -- and what a great time to read it.

Here's a taste of what the memoir offers: Throughout his life, Mr. Cronkite was fond of music. "My fondness for band music never abated, nor did the desire to lead a band. To this day I can be lured to almost any charity function by the promise that I can lead the orchestra in the role of a 'celebrity conductor.' I'm pretty good at it, the key to success being the least number of milliseconds after the band hits a note that you can pretend you directed them to do it."

One of the landmark endeavors that Mr. Cronkite is most associated with is the US Space Program: "A spirit of high adventure permeated the place [Cape Canaveral, Florida]. While the eyes of the rest of our population might have been downcast as the nation dealt with a succession of problems -- civil rights, assassinations, Vietnam -- it seemed that everyone at the Cape was looking up, up into the skies that invited their conquering touch."

He was also known for his coverage of the Vietnam war, and his growing disillusionment with it: "I was not yet prepared to grasp the fact that Vietnam was no ordinary war as some of us senior correspondents had known it in World War II. This was no routine meeting of press and authority. I was not prepared for the ultimate truth: These hapless spokesmen were charged with explaining a war that had no explanation, and both they and the press knew this to be the awful truth. The press named the evening news briefing 'the five o'clock follies.' It could have been the name for the war."

In one of his most memorable broadcasts, he closed with his now well-known editorial commentary on the war: "We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds....But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could."

He was also known for his reporting of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. And of course he was known for his role in the birth of television news, having been recruited to CBS News in its infancy by Edward R. Morrow himself.

This book is full of history and opinions and personality. A real treat. A lovely read for a hot summer day, say one that is about 100 degrees or so.....

Let the Cooling Begin. Soon. Now Even.

Hey, did anyone notice that it's darned hot out there?? There's a reason why I don't live in the South. Well, many of them, actually (can you say "bugs"??). But one of the biggest is that I'm not a huge fan of heat and humidity. Especially together. So what's with this heat-and-humidity-IN-PORTLAND thing? My house was a balmy 85 on the main floor when I left to come to work, and my overheated cats were splayed out on the floor like furry hot water bottles. Oh, did I mention we have AIR CONDITIONING here at Broadway Books? I might have mentioned it a time or two already....

Anyway, let's try for a little vicarious book cooling, shall we? Just looking at the covers of these books takes the temperature down a notch or two, and I'm sure cracking them open and reading them will make us all just downright chilly, in the best possible way.

In Cold: Adventures in the World's Frozen Places, Bill Streever takes us on an extraordinary search for cold in a warming world. (Sound familiar?) Streever, who chairs the North Slope Science Initiative's Science Technical Advisory Panel, evokes history, myth, geography, and ecology in showing us the cold that remains in this world and what has been left in its absence -- taking a dip in an Arctic swimming hole, exploring the hibernation habits of animals, and adventuring up Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest peak, among his other poetic escapades.

The Solace of Open Spaces, by Gretel Ehrlich, about the beauty of Wyoming, has long been one of my favorite books. Her most recent book, published a few years ago, is The Future of Ice: A Journey into Cold (now THAT sounds nice about now). The book was written out of Ehrlich's love for winter -- for remote and cold places, for the ways winter frees our imagination and invigorates our feet, mind, and soul -- and also out of the fear that our "democracy of gratification" has irreparably altered the climate. From Tierra del Fuego in the south to Spitsbergen, east of Greenland, at the very top of the world, Ehrlich experiences firsthand the myriad expressions of cold and shares them with us, exploring the important question: If winter ends, will we survive?

Near Death in the Arctic: True Stories of Disaster and Survival, edited by Cecil Kuhne, might be taking us TOO far down the cold path. In this book, Kuhne, gathers astonishing tales of man versus nature, all set against the bleakly beautiful backdrop of the poles of the earth. The anthology includes "South: A Memoir of the Endurance Voyage," by Ernest Shackleton, "The Worst Journey in the World: Antarctic 1910-13," by Apsely Cherry-Garrard, and "Ice Bird: The First Single-Handed Voyage to Antarctica," by David Lewis.

Even a little rain sounds pretty good just about now, so I have to include one of my all-time favorite northwest books, The Good Rain: Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest, by that wonderful writer Timothy Egan. In the tradition of fine journalism, Egan takes us from salmon fisheries to mountain camps, from an impoverished Indian reservation to the manicured English gardens of Vancouver, interweaving personal experiences and conversations with observations of nature and historical information. A terrific book. Egan (also author of The Worst Hard Time, about the great American Dust Bowl) has a new book coming out in October: The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America.

Finally, if you're not cooled down yet, this book will surely do the trick: The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments, by David Lebovitz. Mmmmm. My mouth is watering just typing all those words! Every luscious flavor imaginable is grist for the chill in pastry chef Lebovitz's gorgeous guide to the pleasures of homemade ice creams and more. Just whip up one of these babies and watch the cooling begin.

We've got all these books in stock in our (did I mention yet?) AIR CONDITIONED bookstore, so come say hi and step out of the heat and let the cooling begin.

Need Air Conditioning???

WE GOT IT!! Broadway Books is a delightful respite at all times, but especially during these grueling heatwave days. Come take advantage of our wonderful air conditioning. It's already 80 in the downstairs of my house, and we haven't come close to the hottest part of the day yet! Egad! I might have to take my two cats down to the store tonight so we can all get some sleep! So, let me say it just one more time: hot books and cool store, awaiting you at Broadway Books. Come see us.

Later today I'll have some reading tips for keeping cool.......

The Girl Who Played with Fire

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson, took the reading world by storm when it came out last year. Featuring crusading journalist Mikail Blomkvist and punk genius hacker Lisbeth Salander, the book is part legal thriller and part psychological suspense, a tale of corporate corruption. The eagerly anticipated sequel to that story, The Girl Who Played with Fire, hits the streets tomorrow. In the second book, Salander takes center stage.

You've probably heard the story behind these books: European crusading journalist Stieg Larsson wrote three books, known as the Millenium series, that were accepted for publication, and then died of a heart attack at age 50. The first two books were huge sellers in Europe and are experiencing similar success in this country.

His long-term partner, Eva Gabrielsson, still lives in their old apartment and is battling Larsson's father and brother to regain control of Larsson's work. Gabrielsson, who lived with Larsson for 30 years, claims she holds a laptop which contains the 200-page draft manuscript of a fourth Millenium mystery.

Not surprisingly, Hollywood is hot for the rights to turn the Millenium series into a blockbuster movie series in the US, with rumors of George Clooney, Johnny Depp, and Brad Pitt all interested in playing the central role of the idealistic journalist Mikael Blomkvist. (A low-budget, Swedish film of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo already exists, although that film -- as well as the book in Sweden and most of Europe -- is titled The Man Who Hates Women.)

Here are reviews of The Girl Who Played with Fire from The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, as well as the story behind the Millenium series inUK-based The Guardian. We open at 10 tomorrow morning, the soonest we can sell the new book (which is in hardcover only), and we have the first book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in both mass market and trade paperback. Call us to reserve copies for you, because they're going fast!

RIP Frank McCourt

As most of you probably know, Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes, Tis and Teacher Man, died of cancer on July 19. Angela's Ashes, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, is absolutely one of the best memoirs ever written (in my humble opinion). If by some twist of fate, you haven't read it yet, now is the time. I've decided to reread it after listening to McCourt in an old interview on Fresh Air the other day. His descriptions of his miserable Catholic childhood in Limerick, Ireland are unbelievably depressing, but in a hysterically funny way. Not many writers can pull that off. It must have been that sense of humor that got him through growing up destitute with an alcoholic father and being forced to attend the local Catholic school where the priests practiced a unique brand of cruelty they crafted specifically for errant, impressionable young lads.

Teacher Man is also an excellent read. It recounts his years teaching at Stuyvesant High School in New York City and oozes that same sense of joy and wonderment that evades Angela's Ashes. The tales he tells about his students will have career teachers nodding their heads, like "Yeah, I've seen that before...", and non-teachers thinking, "No way. I can't believe they tried to get away with that."

Whichever book you choose to read, for the first time or for the fifth time, let's try and keep his his stories alive and remember him for the remarkable human being he was.