This has been floating around the internet for a few weeks now, but I was reminded to post it here since I just started a fresh Moleskine for my autumnal to-do list, and it's one of the new limited edition Star Wars journals.

A Monster Calls
by Patrick Ness, inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd
illustrated by Jim Kay
Candlewick Press | 9780763655594 | $16.99 | Sept 2011

I wrote about A Monster Calls in a preview post on my3books.com earlier this year, shortly after I first read it. It's still one of the fall books that comes back to me most powerfully when I tell others about it:

The two authors have created a novel that shares the hallmarks of both their best works: the story goes in directions that are simply not anticipated, and the tidal pull of emotion that hits the reader by the end is out of all proportion to what should be possible.

From the Candlewick Press web site:

At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting – he’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It’s ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth. From the final idea of award-winning author Siobhan Dowd-- whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself-- Patrick Ness has spun a haunting and darkly funny novel of mischief, loss, and monsters both real and imagined.

Last week, we all learned that he's one of four finalists for Publishers Weekly's annual Sales Rep of the Year.

I grinned wildly when I saw his name on the list because, with absolutely no disrespect intended to his co-finalists, he's a hell of a sales rep. Like all the Academy Awards nominees always say, they share the honor of simply being nominated with a group of amazing colleagues and there's not a bad one in the bunch.

But as this Harvard University Press blog post pointed out, in addition to holding down his sales rep duties with a careful intelligence, John thinks deeply about the book business and writes about it sincerely and passionately. You owe it to yourself to follow his writings at Paper Over Board.

Another of the finalists for Sales Rep of the Year is Bridget Piekarz, one of the Random House reps based in Chicago, and she is another formidable colleague with a passion for sharing her publishers' new books to the booksellers here in the midwest.

Whichever sales rep is chosen in the end to be this year's Sales Rep of the Year, we are glad that John and Bridget and Doni and Rick have been lifted up and recognized in this way. 

Wingshooters
by Nina Revoyr
Akashic Books (Consortium) | 9781936070718 | $15.95 | Paper

(Also available in limited quantities in a hardcover edition: 9781936070862 | $23.95 | Cloth)

Indie Next pick - March 2011 (chosen by indie booksellers around the country)

The quote on the Indie Next sheet is from Prairie Lights' Jim Harris:

"An abandoned young girl narrates this tale set in 1974 in a small Wisconsin town as it plummets and tumbles into heartbreak. 'You don't belong here,' the townspeople tell the mixed-race schoolgirl and anyone else who is not like them. Revoyr's voice vibrates with the spiritual and physical isolation -- without adornment or illusion -- that is reminiscent of the writings of Carson McCullers. The pacing is perfect, and Wingshooters captures fully the tragedy of personal rejection resulting from racial tension as it explores both connection and loss and the enduring bonds of family." --James Harris, Prairie Lights Books, Iowa City, IA

Daniel Goldin of Boswell Book Co. praised it in his blog recently: 

It's a beautifully written story, and we're already selling copies. We've had the inevitable comparison to To Kill a Mockingbird, and I've heard Snow Falling on Cedars as well. The enthusiasm for this small press title also recalls to me Montana 1948 by Milwaukee's own Larry Watson. More recently, I can see comparisons to Hillary Jordan's Mudbound.

FURTHER READING & RESEARCH:

Nina Revoyr: web site

Akashic Books: web site | facebook | twitter

Mudkin

by Stephen Gammell

9780761357902 | $16.95 | publishes in March 2011

Lerner Publishing Group

You can see all of Lerner's videos at their YouTube Channel.

Start off your 2011 on the road in the right mindset: follow the lead of legendary travel writer & publisher Tony Wheeler (co-founder of one of the publishers we represent, Lonely Planet, of course) and embrace your inner grouch!

Tony lists the 10 things he hates in hotels.  Here's the first three, as a taste:

1.  @ = $ – hotels charging over the odds for internet connections

 

2.  Hidden powerpoints – I’ve paid a lot of money for this room, why do I have to crawl around under the furniture to plug in my laptop or phone charger?

3.  Unstealable coathangers – I’ve never had an urge to steal hotel coathangers, but with these I can’t hang a shirt to drip dry from the shower rail.

Click through for the rest of the list.