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Book Nook provides readers with insights into the world of books. Vick Mickunas takes you into the center of the publishing world with the latest book buzz, book reviews, and exclusive chats with authors..Home > Blogs > Book Nook > Archives > 2009 > June
June 2009
Sleazin’ with John Edwards
Political sex scandals seem to be popping up on a weekly basis. Last week it was the Republican governor of South Carolina’s affair with a woman in Argentina. The week before it was a Republican senator from Nevada’s affair with a staff member.
Republicans do not have the political sex scandal market cornered however. There are always some Democrats waiting for their own overexposure on the front pages of the tabloids. Who can forget Bill Clinton’s disastrous play dates with an intern?
The Democratic governor of New York was flushed out of office when his expensive call girl habit was revealed. Then there was John Edwards. The former Democratic senator and presidential aspirant had a torrid affair while his wife was battling cancer.
An article today in the New York Times indicates that the Edwards brouhaha is far from over. One of his former aides just signed a book deal and this book might make John Edwards wish that he had never been born.
According to the article:
“A man who was one of former Senator John Edwards’s closest aides has a deal to write a book claiming that Mr. Edwards said he “would be taken care of for life” in return for falsely claiming he was the father of the baby carried by Mr. Edwards’s mistress, Rielle Hunter.
The aide, Andrew Young, sold his book proposal to St. Martin’s Press for an undisclosed price late last week. In his proposal, Mr. Young quotes Mr. Edwards, a Democrat who was his party’s vice-presidential nominee in 2004 and ran for president last year, as begging him to confess to fathering Ms. Hunter’s baby.
“ ‘You know how much I love you,’ Edwards said. ‘You know I’d walk off a cliff for you, and I know you’d walk off a cliff for me,’ ” Mr. Young wrote in the book proposal. “ ‘I will never forget this. And I will always be there for you.’ ” The proposal was shared with The New York Times by a book publishing industry executive. Portions of it were reported over the weekend by The Daily News of New York.”
Bill Clinton made the bogus pronouncement that “I did not have sex with that woman”. At least, he didn’t get Monica Lewinsky pregnant. Edwards might be wishing that he could crawl into a hole and vanish.
The article concludes:
“Mr. Edwards denied being the father after admitting the affair last summer, and there is yet to be DNA testing. A spokeswoman for Mr. Edwards’s legal team, Joyce Fitzpatrick, said Mr. Edwards had not seen the book proposal, and she would not comment on it. A lawyer for Ms. Hunter, Robert J. Gordon, said he no longer represented her.
Mr. Young’s proposal states that he was writing the book because he had become disillusioned with Mr. Edwards’s behavior and recklessness, which he said included participating in the production of a sex tape with Ms. Hunter that Mr. Young later discovered.”
To read the entire thing click HERE:
Vick Mickunas
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Eddie Van Halen was a nice guy…
After Michael Jackson died I was reading some of the tributes. A guy I know back in Des Moines wrote something about one of Michael’s songs that had a fabulous guitar solo by Eddie Van Halen. Billie Jean I think?
Anyway, I hadn’t thought about Eddie Van Halen in years. Then today I saw something about Eddie getting re-married. It mentioned that his ex-wife, Valerie Bertinelli attended the ceremony.
That’s when it hit me. I thought, that Eddie Van Halen is still a nice guy. I met him once a long time ago. Knowing that Valerie was welcomed at the nuptials made me certain that Eddie is still a decent fella. Fame hasn’t wrecked that.
I met him briefly in the early 80’s when Van Halen was a huge concert draw before singer David Lee Roth left the group. I’m thinking that it was 1982?
Van Halen was playing at an arena in Omaha. I was working with a guy who was doing the backstage catering. We had a heck of a time fulfilling that contract. The “rider” as they called it was a laundry list of stuff that we were supposed to provide for Van Halen and their crew.
It was nightmare finding all that stuff. We drove around Des Moines in a van picking up supplies and checking them off the list.
A few years before that Van Halen had achieved some measure of notoriety for trashing a dressing room. It seems that the caterers that night failed to take care of one minor detail in the contract rider, they didn’t go through the M&M’s and remove all of the brown ones. When the boys in the band detected some brown ones in their snacks they used that as a pretext to trash the place.
Our rider specified: no brown M&M’s. We knew they weren’t kidding. That made my boss a bit paranoid about obtaining all the supplies that were being demanded.
We found all the numerous varieties of exotic booze. It turned out that the hard liquor was mostly for the roadies, mainly grizzled Nam vets who looked like they hadn’t slept lately. The Liebfraumilch was for Eddie.
We were able to locate the inflatable dolls they requested. I’m not making this stuff up!
The thing that had us baffled was the request for two dozen Coney Island Whitefish. In those pre-Google days we were stumped. As we drove around we asked everybody we met and nobody knew what we were talking about.
Finally, we went into another adult bookstore. We had been to several already while looking for inflatable dolls. The woman behind the counter appeared to be well past retirement age. We asked her, excuse us ma’am but are you familiar with Coney Island Whitefish? She cackled and took a long draw on her unfiltered smoke.
She said “boys, I haven’t heard that term in 40 years! Coney Island Whitefish are rubbers! They’re an old term for condoms, the only kind of ‘fish’ that ever used to wash up on Coney Island.”
We thanked her and checked the last thing off our list. When we got into Omaha the head of the sound crew went down our list and verified that every single item was available. When he reached the listing for Coney Island Whitefish we pulled out the boxes of condoms. He seemed somewhat disappointed that we had figured that one out. No brown M&M’s. Lots of condoms. Dolls. We figured we were all set.
The opening act were some guys who called themselves The Granati Brothers. There was was no reference in Van Halen’s rider to them. No provisions to provide them with food, drink, shelter. Nothing. Like they didn’t exist. We were bound to follow the contract. No deviations were allowed.
As the Granati Brothers were playing Eddie Van Halen was wandering around backstage. He was wearing ripped up sneakers and a big grin. He clutched a bottle of wine. I was washing up the dishes after serving dinner to the roadies.
We were getting ready to pack up the food. The Granati Brothers had finished their set. Eddie Van Halen approached me. He had the three Granati Brothers with him. Eddie didn’t order me around. He came up to me and in the most charming way he practically begged me to make up some plates of food for the Granati Brothers. He did this discreetly. None of the Van Halen crew or band witnessed his act of kindness and compassion. He genuinely just wanted to get them fed and he knew they were not going to eat otherwise.
Nice guy. Apparently, he still is.
One night in Omaha long ago…
Vick Mickunas
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Some new baseball books…
My friend Paul Dickson knows as much about baseball as anybody I know. This year he has already published two new baseball books, a new revised edition of The Dickson Baseball Dictionary (WW Norton) and The Unwritten Rules of Baseball (Collins).
Yesterday, Paul reviewed a couple of new baseball books for The Washington Times. He covered SATCHEL: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF AN AMERICAN LEGEND By Larry Tye (Random House) and
THE BALTIMORE ELITE GIANTS: SPORT AND SOCIETY IN THE AGE OF NEGRO LEAGUE BASEBALL By Bob Luke (The Johns Hopkins University Press)
His piece is titled “Attaining Racial Equality in Baseball”. To read his reviews click HERE:
Richard Sandomir has a column today in the New York Times about a new biography of Thurman Munson. The star catcher for the New York Yankees died in a plane crash 30 years ago near his home in Toledo, Ohio.
A year before that tragedy, Marty Appel, the author of this new book had collaborated with Munson to write his autobiography. Munson was a very private guy. He had a troubled childhood. To read Sandomir’s article click HERE:
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Glenn Beck’s Common Sense
Every day I check the list of best-selling books over at Amazon.com. Amazon sells a lot of books so knowing what books are topping their sales charts is very important to me. I need to know what people are reading.
For the past couple of weeks the Number One best-selling book on Amazon has been Glenn Beck’s Common Sense-the Case Against Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine (Threshold Editions).
It’s published by the same imprint of Simon and Schuster that just paid former Vice President Dick Cheney two million dollars to publish his memoirs next year.
I’m slightly familiar with Glenn Beck. I’m more familiar with Thomas Paine. So I thought I better read this book to see why it is so popular. I also wanted to see if it was possible to compare it with Paine’s original Common Sense.
So I read it. Here are some of the things that stood out for me:
Beck wants that “670-mile fence” completed to prevent illegals from crossing the Mexican border. He doesn’t say anything about building a fence to block off Canada?
He apparently doesn’t believe in global warming? Common sense?
He doesn’t seem to have any problem with the grotesque profits of companies like Exxon Mobil (45.2 billion dollars in 2008).
He compares Social Security to Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.
He’s against universal health care.
I could go on. What really did it for me is that Beck’s book is barely 100 pages long. He pads it by re-printing Thomas Paine’s original Common Sense to add another 75 pages.
He’s cashing in on Paine’s masterpiece. While I agree that Americans need to read Paine it pains me that Beck has been able to pad his own slight work with something of much greater value.
And he profits by it.
Vick Mickunas
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Lisa Marie Presley blogs about Michael Jackson…
It appeared at MySpace on her page. To read what she said click HERE:
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In the Cemetery of Forgotten Books…
“The Angel’s Game” by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Translated from the Spanish by Lucia Graves (Doubleday, $26.95)
Carlos Ruiz Zafón is a Spanish writer who began his career by writing children’s books. His first novel for adults, “The Shadow of the Wind” (2004), marked Zafón as a literary sensation. Set in Barcelona in the 1940s, “Shadow” has sold more copies in Spain than any other book with the exception of “Don Quixote.” It has sold 12 million copies worldwide.
Zafón recently published “The Angel’s Game,” a novel which is a prequel to “Shadow.” It already is the No. 1 bestseller in Spain, Germany, Norway, Italy and Portugal. This book opens in 1917 and closes in 1945. It is the second novel in a planned quartet.
It’s the story of David Martin, a writer who churns out pulp fiction under the pen name of Ignatius B. Samson for a Barcelona publishing house. Martin comes from humble origins. He is orphaned at a young age, his father mysteriously murdered in the street.
He finds a mentor in the wealthy Don Pedro Vidal. He gets David his first real job writing for a newspaper. David’s other great protector is Senor Sempere, the owner of a bookstore that his family has owned for four generations. He inspires David with a copy of “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens.
David is exhausted by the demands of his publishers to crank out more dreadful serial novels. He’s locked into a 20-year contract. His books sell like hotcakes, but his crooked publishers lie to him and steal the profits for themselves.
He locks himself away in his haunted mansion and fantasizes about the woman of his dreams, the daughter of Don Pedro’s chauffeur. He fails to notice that the young woman who delivers his groceries has eyes for him.
Early in the story Andreas Corelli, a mysterious French publisher, offers David a boatload of money to write a very strange book for him. David accepts, and is soon drawn into a strange, bloody mystery.
Readers of “Shadow” will recall Zafón’s fantastic creation, “The Cemetery of Forgotten Books.” It reappears in “The Angel’s Game”:
“This place is a mystery. A sanctuary. Every book, every volume you see has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and the soul of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens. In this place books no longer remembered by anyone, books that are lost in time, live forever, waiting for the day when they will reach a new reader’s hands, a new spirit…”
This story really ends in 1930, but the author chose to tack on a bizarre epilogue set in 1945. I was a bit puzzled by it. Sometimes a writer needs to know when enough is enough.
Zafón has penned a thriller here — it careens across the pages with madcap gusto. Our unlikely hero fights for his life and for the books that he loves. Above all, “The Angel’s Game” pays loving tribute to the power of literature and the magic of words.
Vick Mickunas
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Is the Dayton area at Ground Zero in the economic meltdown?
There’s a fascinating article in the New York Times today about the Dayton region. The title of the piece is: As Plants Close, Teenagers Focus More on College.
Here’s an excerpt:
“Far beyond Dayton — where the huge, shuttered G.M. plant not long ago employed 4,000 people — millions of young Americans are facing the reality that manufacturing will no longer serve as a conveyor belt to the middle class.
Dayton is a vortex of that economic and social change. The area’s job total has fallen 12 percent since 2000, while about half of its factory jobs — 38,000 out of 79,000 — have disappeared this decade. Not only have large G.M. and Delphi plants closed, but NCR, long the city’s corporate jewel, recently announced that it would move its headquarters to the Atlanta area.
These are body blows to a can-do city long known for innovation. (Dayton was the Wright Brothers’ hometown and a G.M. boomtown because of Charles Kettering, who invented the electric starter and founded Delco — originally the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company — before G.M. acquired it.)
“In the ’60s and ’70s you could get a good job at Delco, NCR, Frigidaire, Inland, Dayton Press, the Standard Register, Chrysler,” said David Hicks, Moraine’s city manager. “They came with good benefits and good pay.”
To read the entire article click HERE:
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Did Michael Jackson die of an overdose?
According to the celebrity website TMZ, Michael Jackson might have died of an overdose of prescription drugs. TMZ refers to a mysterious doctor who apparently lived at the Jackson residence, a doctor who cannot be located right now. This gets stranger by the moment…
For more on this breaking story click HERE:
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He was on the Appalachian Trail writing a book…
Yesterday the stuff hit the fan as the governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford admitted that the whole thing was a lie. When he vanished for a week his office claimed that he was “on the Appalachian Trail writing a book.” Ha ha ha.
He was actually in Argentina. Yesterday during the coverage of yet another political sex scandal Fox News ran a graphic on the screen that identified the disgraced Sanford as a Democrat. He’s not. He was supposedly another potential GOP presidential aspirant in 2012. He’ll be lucky if he can keep his present job.
Here’s more on Sanford’s mistress from Fox News:
“South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s mistress is a 43-year-old employee of an international agriculture company who speaks several languages and lives in an upscale apartment building in Buenos Aires, Argentina, local media there are reporting.
Terra Noticias reported Thursday that the woman’s name is Maria Belen Shapur and she works for the international agribusiness firm Bunge y Born.
Though details are sparse, the newspaper, along with Buenos Aires Continental Radio, reported that she lives next to the Buenos Aires Zoo in a 14-story building. A witness described her as a beautiful brunette with big eyes who usually plays tennis in a nearby lawn and runs every morning in her neighborhood.
The witness told the radio station that Sanford arrived at the complex, alone, with a small sports bag last week and asked to go inside the building.
Sanford admitted Wednesday to having an affair over the last year and covering up a secret trip to visit his mistress last week. The admission rocked the South Carolina political scene but has also captured the attention of the Buenos Aires media, as the governor provided few details about his lover.”
Maria! Maria! Maria!
Can you say Whig? The Republicans are scrambling and sliding and sinking in the swamps of embarrassment. Family values party. Snicker.
Vick Mickunas
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Dick Cheney’s memoirs sold for 2 million…
Former Vice President Dick Cheney has sealed a deal for two million dollars to write his memoirs for an imprint of the Simon&Schuster publishing house.
Cheney was known for his secretive ways over a 40 year career in politics and private enterprise. He doesn’t need the money. Cheney cashed in big time when he worked for Halliburton, the recipient of numerous lucrative government contracts following his return to politics.
Two million is chicken feed for somebody with multiple homes and a fat bank account. So, why is he doing it? Will he tell readers anything that they didn’t already know?
Is this about settling some old scores? Time will tell. The book is due in 2011. He’s writing it now. To read more click HERE:
Vick Mickunas
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The subtlety of Michael Savage…
An article this morning on the website Examiner.com states that:
“Right wing talker Michael Savage vowed yesterday during his broadcast that he will retaliate against media watchdog Media Matters for America by posting pictures and “pertinent information” about the organization’s staff on his website. He made the comment almost in passing during one of his infamous rants, but did not explain what he expected his followers known as the “Savage Nation” to do with the information.”
Savage is the author of works that include The Savage Nation; The Enemy Within; Liberalism Is a Mental Disorder.
Free speech is one thing…bad craziness is another.
Vick Mickunas
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Leniency for Madoff?
Convicted swindler Bernard Madoff is awaiting sentencing for ripping off his clients to the tune of 50+ billion dollars. The Wall Street con artist stole the life savings from many Americans. He could be locked up for as many as 150 years for his heinous crimes.
Now Madoff’s lawyers have sent a letter to the judge asking for leniency for Madoff. They say that a 12 year sentence is sufficient. What do you think? Is 12 years enough time to serve for this shifty little weasel?
Bernie is throwing himself upon the mercy of the court. Can’t you think of any other things he might be thrown upon? Wouldn’t you love to see him released into a stockade with all the people he has ripped off? Now that would be poetic justice…
To read more click HERE:
Vick Mickunas
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Save our libraries…
This just in:
Friends, Family and Associates,
Please accept my apologies in advance for sending a broadcast message. I don’t think I’ve done that before but the need to contact you is urgent.
Last Friday Governor Strickland proposed a $227.3 million cut in funding to Ohio public libraries. When added to the losses expected from the constricting economy total losses in revenue to Ohio public libraries will be close to 50%. Many Ohio public libraries will close.
The Dayton Metro Library is not immune to these cuts. I have calculated that cuts to our budget will be near $6 million this year and over $8 million next year. If this budget proposal goes through, branches will close, programs for children and seniors will cease, and new book and media purchases will slow to a trickle.
I ask that you call the Governor’s office today. Let him know what the depth of cuts will mean to you, your children and your community. Call: 614-466-3555
The Budget Conference Committee has less than 10 days to finalize the state budget. Make sure our legislators know the impact of these proposals.
More information is available at the Library web site: click HERE:
Please share this email with others. It is critical we get word out within the next day or two. Thank you for your help.
Your friend,
Tim Kambitsch Dayton Metro Library
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remembering my dad…
World War Two history is one of my favorite subjects. World War One is also of great interest to me. Whenever I see a book about either of these wars I can’t resist taking a peek.
I just got a copy of “Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) by Michael Norman and Elizabeth M. Norman. This book reminded me of my dad and of my maternal grandfather.
My dad (also Vick) served in the United States Marine Corps, Second Division. He was a sergeant and he fought on Saipan. He was on one of the first survey crews to enter Nagasaki after the Japanese surrender. They surveyed the blast area left by the atom bomb that we had dropped there.
My grandfather (Amos) served in the United States Marine Corps in France, 1917-1918. He and his twin brother Orrin enlisted as soon as they graduated from high school in their small town in western Iowa. They were 18 years old.
Neither Vick nor Amos liked to talk about their wars. They survived them. That was enough. My dad was a lifelong Democrat. My grandfather, a lifelong Republican. My dad admired John F. Kennedy. My grandfather loved Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Both Kennedy and Eisenhower were American war heroes. While Vick and Amos had their disagreements about politics when it came to patriotism they were always on the same page.
My dad never shed tears with one exception; when he heard the national anthem he would weep. He had earned his right to cry by surviving the unspeakable. Most of his friends never returned from that war.
Vick and Amos returned and got on with their lives. They had families. Careers. They raised their kids to be proud of the freedoms that they fought for.
On this day for dads I remember them. Amos, Pops, thank you.
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Garrison Keillor loves the New York Times…
He created the fictional Lake Wobegon, a Minnesota town that looms in the consciousness of millions of public radio listeners and a plethora of devoted readers of his numerous novels about Lake Wobegon and other humorous topics. His name is Garrison Keillor.
I have had the pleasure of interviewing Keillor a number of times. While he always seems to find his way back to his home turf of Minnesota (he lives in Saint Paul), Keillor has also confessed his love for things New York. He told me once that he likes to walk around Manhattan silently observing his fellow pedestrians and the bustle of the streets. Hard to imagine that a man of his height and appearance can blend in so well but he does. Keillor loves New York and he loves the New York Times. Here’s his tribute to Gotham’s greatest newspaper:
Vick Mickunas
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Lookin’ for a cheap thrill?
“Gone Tomorrow” by Lee Child, (Delacorte Press, 421 pages, $27).
“The Neighbor” by Lisa Gardner, (Bantam, 373 pages, $25).
This sultry June weather puts me in the mood to read a thriller or two. Lucky thing then that a pair of sizzling new thrillers just hit the book bins.
Lee Child just came out with his 13th Jack Reacher novel, “Gone Tomorrow.” This one opens with Reacher riding a New York subway car late at night. There are only a few passengers riding along with him. One passenger, a woman, attracts his notice.
She exhibits the warning signs of being a potential suicide bomber. Reacher goes down the list in his head of the 12 supposedly certain indicators identified by Israeli counterintelligence as obvious ways to identify individuals planning to detonate explosives. She meets all the criteria.
Reacher is a former military policeman who methodically evaluates his options for preventing her from blowing up the train. Lee Child ratchets up the tension from the very first page of “Gone Tomorrow.”
Child was a successful longtime director at a British television network when he lost his job in a corporate downsizing in 1995. He thought he would give fiction writing a try. He concocted the character of Jack Reacher, a crime fighter who wanders America with just a toothbrush, an ATM card, an expired passport and the clothes on his back.
Reacher seeks out quality cups of coffee while he hunts down bad guys with lethal precision. Criminals aren’t the only ones who fall victim to him. He’s also a ladykiller. The formula works. “Gone Tomorrow” and the previous book, “Nothing to Lose,” each debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list. Child’s books have sold more than 22 million copies.
Lisa Gardner began her writing career as a romance novelist. Then she shifted gears and began writing romantic suspense. Now she writes thrillers with slight tinges of romance. Her latest novel, “The Neighbor,” is a page turner with an incredibly convoluted plot.
It begins as a beautiful young schoolteacher, Sandy Jones, vanishes from her Boston home in the middle of the night.
Her husband, Jason, a newspaper reporter, comes home from work early in the morning to find their 4-year-old daughter alone and his wife missing.
Of course the husband becomes the No. 1 suspect. Gardner provides readers with other suspicious characters, too. The female detective assigned to the case wants it resolved quickly.
That doesn’t happen — 300 pages into “The Neighbor” she’s clearly frustrated. “Look at our pool of suspects: We have the mysterious husband who’s probably engaged in online porn, the down-the-street neighbor who’s a registered sex offender, a 13-year-old student who’s in love with his missing teacher, a state computer technician who seems to have a very personal stake in the investigation, and, last but not least, the victim’s estranged father who may or may not have known she was abused as a child and has lots of incentive to keep that quiet.”
Gardner has almost 13 million books in print. She visits Books and Co. at The Greene in Beavercreek at 7 p.m. Monday, June 22.
Vick Mickunas
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Ninja Obama kills fly…
Ingrid Newkirk has a new book, the PETA Practical Guide to Animal Rights: Simple Acts of Kindness to Help Animals in Trouble. Newkirk is the long time head of PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Did you see President Obama kill the fly the other day? Newkirk had something to say about it. Check out this video clip of Obama nailing the fly and the subsequent praise and criticism of his ninja like moves…
To view it click HERE:
Vick Mickunas
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Silliness, Sedaris, and cigarettes…
David Sedaris is a very funny man. We have some amazing humorists in America. Garrison Keillor comes to mind along with a host of others.
Sedaris has carved out a niche in the weird humor zone. His essays and monologues tend to focus on bizarre events and odd observations. His most recent collection of essays, When You are Engulfed in Flames just came out in paperback. On the cover there’s a pictorial illustration of the head shot of a skeleton. The skull is smoking a cigarette. I find that significant.
Both times that I have encountered David Sedaris, once in Dayton when I introduced him along with Sarah Vowell, and another time in Chicago when we had a late dinner of cold cuts and beer Sedaris was smoking. He was always smoking. Cigarettes were a distinct part of his persona. He craved them.
This latest collection contains a number of classic essays compiled from various sources. My favorite is one where he seems to be falling madly in love with a spider. It’s hysterical. Classic Sedaris.
The book ends oddly with a long essay about how he quit smoking. He went to Japan and went cold turkey. It’s a long, painful process. The essay is just as agonizing. The smoke free Sedaris is not funny.
Did the nicotine create the conduit for his humor? I think he is still on the wagon. Not smoking. We’ll see if he is still funny without his noxious habit. It would be selfish of me to wish he would take up that dangerous and vile pastime just to provide me with amusement.
Not funny any more. Smoking, he was. Just an observation.
Vick Mickunas
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I fell in love with a Bookmobile…
When I recall my childhood some of my fondest memories revolve around the Bookmobile. The Des Moines Public Library sent it out every Saturday morning to park for a few hours in the parking lot of our church.
I would be waiting for it with my stack of books to return. The Bookmobile librarian always brought along something special for me to borrow; a book about dinosaurs or perhaps, the Civil War.
I shall always treasure recollections of those books and of Saturday mornings when I found my passion for reading and by association, for Bookmobiles (and librarians).
With that in mind, this just crossed my desk:
It comes from FiveRivers MetroParks…
The Dayton MetroLibrary Bookmobile will be visiting the Children’s Discovery Garden in Wegerzyn Gardens MetroPark at at 2pm this Thursday, June 18th. Librarian Kim Bautz will read some stories about caterpillars in the garden then lead children in a craft on the Bookmobile. Books will be available for check-out. Reservations are not required. Call (937) 277-6545 for more details.
Yay! The Bookmobile!
Vick Mickunas
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Bad craziness…
I get mail. E-mail. Snail mail. Mail. Lots of mail.
With the volume of mail I receive I am inundated with publicity requests to promote books that range across the entire spectrum of ideas. Here’s one that just appeared in my bulging e-mail pouch:
Book Questions the “Strange and Anomalous” Events Occurring in the U.S. and the Possibility of a Master Plan Meant to Re-Engineer Society Away from a Democratic Republic toward a Socialist Oligarchy
Author maintains that understanding what really happened on 9/11 would help identify who or what is behind such an effort
“It appears there is a conspiracy and massive cover-up surrounding this terrible event [9/11], leading me to believe there are many individuals walking free who are guilty of criminal negligence at the least, and perhaps something far worse. Readers of this book cannot ignore or escape the common sense conclusion that another investigation must be done, and done quickly, lest justice be denied. For an eye-opening exposé, I highly recommend this book!” Norman A. Adams, Retired British Teacher and Headmaster, Retail Executive and Trainer, and D-Day Survivor
Alvan Shane’s book titled The Day Liberty Wept seeks to understand what really happened on 9/11 in an attempt to determine the intent, long-range goals, and current agenda of the United States, both internally and for the world at large. Shane’s conclusion isn’t comforting: he thinks we’re in pretty serious trouble.
In describing the many inconsistencies and irregularities encountered in the facts and circumstances surrounding the events of 9/11, Shane questions the possibility of governmental cover-up. He wonders, “Could the strange and anomalous things that have taken place during the past nine months be indicative of a ‘master plan’ meant to re-engineer our society away from a democratic republic, causing a vast reduction in the size of the middle class?”
Shane lucidly presents arguments supporting his belief that “There are secret agendas at work, moving us toward a point of no return, geopolitically” and argues that “a key step in achieving this is to downsize the middle class,” with dire results for us all, regardless of our current place on the socio-economic ladder.
In systematically tackling the deceit all around us, he strongly urges his fellow Americans to “Wake up your no-nonsense patriotism!” “Demand answers!” “Make a commitment.”
Fascinating, don’t you think?
Vick Mickunas
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His 7 dollar book just sold for 80 thousand dollars
A soldier in Indiana paid 7 dollars for a copy of The Federalist at a flea market when he was a teenager. He just sold this rare copy for 80 thousand dollars on an online auction. Wow! Flea markets, yard sales, auctions, you just never know.
It isn’t even a complete set. It is the first part of a 2 volume 1788 book of essays that called for ratifying our U.S. Constitution.
To read about it click HERE:
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Plot to assassinate Jimmy Carter?
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported today that “Hamas has foiled an attempt by Palestinian militants to attack former U.S. president Jimmy Carter during his visit to the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian source told news agencies on Tuesday.
According to the source, militants linked with Al-Qaida planted two roadside bombs at a border crossing between Gaza and Israel with the intent of striking Carter’s vehicle on his way out of the coastal territory. Witnesses reported seeing Hamas forces patrolling near the Erez crossing and detonating the explosives.”
The former president has been outspoken about his views on the long conflict between the Israeli state and the stateless Palestinians dislodged after Israel’s creation in 1948. He has given his opinions in books like Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid (2007).
And the BBC reported today that:
“Former US President Jimmy Carter has said he had to “hold back tears” while viewing destruction on a visit to Gaza.
He is due to meet leaders from Hamas, which controls Gaza but is considered a terrorist group by western countries.
The veteran politician is expected to hand over a letter for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit from his family.
He condemned “deliberate” destruction in Israel’s January offensive, but also expressed sadness over Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli towns.
The former US president, who brokered the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace deal, has long advocated engagement with the militant Hamas movement as crucial for progress on peace.
The BBC’s Aleem Maqbool in Gaza says he is one of the highest profile figures to visit Gaza for years.
While Mr Carter is not visiting in an official capacity, many in Gaza hope he has the ear of US President Barack Obama, our correspondent says.
Visiting the American School in Gaza, damaged in Israel’s three-week operation, Mr Carter said “it’s very distressing to me”.
He said the school had been “deliberately destroyed by bombs from F-16s made in my country and delivered to the Israelis”.
“It’s not good to see this destruction, but it’s also not good, when I go to Sderot, to see rockets falling on Israelis,” he said, in reference to an Israeli town that is a frequent target of rocket fire from Palestinian militants.
“The only way to avoid this tragedy happening again is to have genuine peace agreed between the Palestinians and Israel,” he said.”
Vick Mickunas
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Coming this Wednesday…
This Wednesday, just in time for Father’s Day, Amazon.com will release their latest generation proprietary wireless reading device, The Amazon Kindle DX.
Here’s the spec sheet as it appears on Amazon:
Slim: Just over 1/3 of an inch, as thin as most magazines
Carry Your Library: Holds up to 3,500 books, periodicals, and documents
Beautiful Large Display: 9.7” diagonal e-ink screen reads like real paper; boasts 16 shades of gray for clear text and sharp images
Auto-Rotating Screen: Display auto-rotates from portrait to landscape as you turn the device so you can view full-width maps, graphs, tables, and Web pages
Built-In PDF Reader: Native PDF support allows you to carry and read all of your personal and professional documents on the go
Wireless: 3G wireless lets you download books right from your Kindle DX, anytime, anywhere; no monthly fees, no annual contracts, and no hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots
Books In Under 60 Seconds: You get free wireless delivery of books in less than 60 seconds; no PC required
Long Battery Life: Read for days without recharging
Read-to-Me: With the text-to-speech feature, Kindle DX can read newspapers, magazines, blogs, and books out loud to you, unless the book’s rights holder made the feature unavailable
Big Selection, Low Prices: Over 285,000 books; New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases are only $9.99, unless marked otherwise
More Than Books: U.S. and international newspapers including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, magazines including The New Yorker and Time, plus popular blogs, all auto-delivered wirelessly
What do think? Can you imagine owning one? Would you read more books and periodicals if you did?
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Books will always be with us…
Book Expo America is the mammoth annual conference for the American book publishing industry. Held every year in the spring, BEA is the grand finale to the annual publishing cycle.
How the mighty have fallen. Book publishing was hit by the double whammy that has staggered so many other industries. Book sales are dropping. Jobs lost. Scaling back. Downsizing. I attended BEA in New York to see how bad things have gotten.
Attendance was down. A number of people commented that they were impressed that the Dayton Daily News really cares about books. I assured them — we are still reading them out here — I’m still reviewing them.
That’s the true bottom line — we need books. Books are not a luxury item. They are essential. I had conversations with authors, publishers, librarians, book sellers and journalists. The common thread running through these discussions was that books will always be important.
Even in this down market there were many highlights at BEA. Here were some of mine:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will be publishing a book this fall called “Save the Deli — In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of the Jewish Delicatessen” by David Sax.
The publisher celebrated this book by serving a deli lunch in their basement hideaway.
The pastrami sandwiches were to die for. The best I have ever tasted.
Pat Conroy will soon be publishing his first new novel in 15 years. He was supposed to be at BEA to autograph advance copies. Poor health prevented him from appearing. Fortunately, there were plenty of other big names who did show up.
James Patterson was there. So was Jane Smiley. Amy Tan stopped by to chat. Lisa Scottoline demanded a hug. R.L. Stine wandered by. I heard that Steven Tyler, the lead singer of Aerosmith, signed autographs. I missed him, however.
An American hero generated quite the buzz. When US Airways Pilot Sully Sullenberger ditched his Flight 1549 into the Hudson River to avoid hitting populated areas he became an instant hero. He was grinning for his adoring public at the Javits Convention Center, not too far away from the scene of his heroic and steady landing. I snapped his photo with my cell phone.
I spotted an ID badge on the floor. I was thrilled that it belonged to Motoko Rich of the New York Times. There she was conducting an interview. I tried not to swoon as I returned it to her.
That BEA glow carried me all the way back home. I caught a direct flight on US Airways to Dayton. The Dayton-based crew was led by Capt. John Howard. It was his final flight before retirement. During the flight the passengers wrote their congratulations in a special book for Capt. Howard.
As our jet made the final approach to the gate in Dayton there were fire engines parked on either side of the runway. They sprayed their fire hoses on the plane as we passed by in a farewell salute to Capt. Howard.
That was refreshing.
Vick Mickunas
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You might win a book…
My friend Jen Marshall has a new blog about crime fiction. Her blog is called Crime Candy.
Jen just started writing it and she plans to give away some books to some of the lucky readers who check out Crime Candy.
Check it out by clicking HERE:
Vick Mickunas
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Sinatra does MySpace…
This is hilarious. It has absolutely nothing to do with books. So don’t bother muttering or complaining about it.
Just sit back and enjoy it by clicking HERE:
Vick Mickunas
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Was the Holocaust a lie?
We live in a violent world. The flames of hatred are being stoked by hate speech. Free speech is a protected right. Murder is not.
The invasion of the Holocaust Museum is another chilling example of hate speech that became a hate crime. Here’s more from today’s edition of the New York Times:
“A notebook that law enforcement officers discovered in Mr. von Brunn’s 2002 red Hyundai, which he had double-parked outside the museum’s 14th Street entrance on Wednesday, appeared to offer insight into his mind-set before the shooting.
“You want my weapons — this is how you’ll get them,” Mr. von Brunn wrote in a note he had signed, according to the arrest affidavit.
“The Holocaust is a lie,” the note read. “Obama was created by Jews. Obama does what his Jew owners tell him to do. Jews captured America’s money. Jews control the mass media.”
Mr. von Brunn’s note refers to himself in the third person by his initials, JVB, saying that he swore “to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
He lashes out at Jews and includes the name of his book, “Kill the Best Gentiles!”
I conducted a Google image search for the cover art for this book and I came up with a website that was selling the book. Here’s the sales pitch that they provide for it:
“Here are 350pp of FACTS condensing libraries of information about the Talmud, Democracy, Marx, Genetics, Money, Aryans, Negroes, Khazars, The Holy Bible, Treason, Mass-media, Mendelism, Race, the “Holocaust” and a host of suppressed “bigoted” subjects, all supported by quotations from many of history’s greatest personages. Learn who is responsible for the millions of Aryan crosses covering the world’s battlefields. Why our sons and daughters died bravely but in vain. Learn why the “browning of America will alter everything in society from politics and education to industry, values and culture.” (TIME 4-9-90). Learn who has committed treason - and must be brought to justice! This carefully documented treatise exposes the JEWS and explains what you must do to protect your White family. Kill the Best Gentiles! Is a must for every concerned parent and a manual for every student of World History.”
This crank is a total nut job. He wrote a book that is apparently a complete screed of hatred. I have not read it but the title speaks volumes.
I went to school with a Jim von Brunn. Not the same guy obviously. I feel sorry for the Jim I know. I feel sadness for the victims of this hatred.
Who is stoking the flames of hatred in this country? According to an editorial today by Paul Krugman, it is being done in plain sight. To read The Big Hate, click HERE:
Vick Mickunas
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Sex change for Bono…
No, not that Bono!
Chastity Bono, the daughter of Sonny and Cher is changing her sex from female to male. Here’s the story from the Miami Herald: Click HERE
Amazingly, I interviewed Chastity in 1999 on WYSO Public Radio. She wrote a memoir, Family Outing: A Guide to the Coming-Out Process for Gays, Lesbians, & Their Families and was in Dayton to promote it.
She was scheduled to come out to Yellow Springs for a live interview. I read the book and I was excited about interviewing her.
A couple of hours before the interview was supposed to happen I got a phone call from Bono’s publicist. She told me that Chas wasn’t feeling so hot so they wanted to cancel the interview.
I said FINE! That’s just wonderful!
About an hour later I got another call. Her publicist said that Chastity was now willing to do the interview but not in person. I would have to call Chas at her hotel. She was still feeling a bit under the weather. I said Whatever!
I was beyond caring about it. I had a sense that Bono’s publisher had coerced her into agreeing to participate. I have learned through painful experience that forcing someone to do something is never fun for anyone involved. I was dreading it now.
I called Chastity at her hotel. She sounded really depressed. We went live on the air. Her responses to my questions were lackluster and monosyllabic. No life there. No energy. Zero interest. Oh, this is such fun!
We were supposed to talk for most of the hour. It was like pulling porcupine quills out of the dog’s nose-so painful! After about 20 minutes I asked her what it was like to be the daughter of Sonny and Cher? I thought, hey, this might be interesting, right?
What do I know? She had nothing to say. Zilchola. Boring. I pulled the plug at that point. There really was no point.
After announcing Bono’s sex change and her new name; Chaz, Bono’s publicist stated:” We ask that the media respect Chaz’s privacy during this long process as he will not be doing any interviews at this time.” So, what’s new? She (he) wasn’t doing any interviews ten years ago.
She was so unhappy. Chastity,uh, CHAZ! I hope that life as a man is a better life for you. Be well, OK? Good luck!
Vick Mickunas
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Uglier Than a Monkey’s Armpit…
Back in my grade school days there was a book that was quite popular among my circle of chums. I don’t recall the title of that book but I do remember that it was a collection of outrageous insults. We were in the sixth grade and we thought it was fabulous.
I was reminded of those days when I received a new book called Uglier Than a Monkey’s Armpit: Untranslatable Insults, Put-Downs, and Curses from Around the World (Perigee) by Stephen Dodson and Dr. Robert Vanderplank. This paperback will be released in July.
My maturity level must have stalled at around the sixth grade because I love this book, also. (I wish I could remember the title of that childhood insult tome? Oh, how we laughed at those). My development could not even get arrested…
This latest volume in the insult assault is actually quite scholarly. It has insults from all over the world and it explains the origins of these verbal darts. Some are even accompanied with descriptions of the appropriate gestures and body language to accentuate the words being spoken.
Here are a few of my favorites so far:
Arabic
Ya atyab el nas nafsan
Wa alyan al nas rukha.
Translation: You are the kindest of all people with the softest of knees.
Norwegian
dra til helvete!
Translation: Go where the pepper grows!
Japanese
misokkasu
Translation: scum of soya paste
It’s a lovely book. Please note that many of the insults cannot be repeated in a family blog such as this one….
Vick Mickunas
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Thunderstorm thriller…
One of my dogs is terrified of thunderstorms. He freaks out, seemingly leaving his body. He’s not a huge hound but he is decent sized and muscular. He can predict a coming storm long before it arrives.
He gets really hyper and tries to tunnel under furniture or anything else in his path. The only place where he seems to feel any sense of security or safety is a downstairs bathroom that serves as our tornado shelter when needed.
When a huge storm rolled in to our edge of Greene County just before dawn the poor dog had been flipping out for a good hour already. I bunked with him down by the bathroom and tried to keep him there so the rest of the household could catch some Zzzz.
The dog had roused me from quite a pleasant dream. I didn’t let that annoy me. I grabbed my copy of the new thriller by Lee Child, Gone Tomorrow (Jack Reacher, No. 13) and I nestled right down and read it for the next couple of hours as thunder rattled the walls and the dog’s eyes were popping out of his head.
What a great read! I was just getting to the climax of the story. Jack Reacher, Child’s dark hero was tracking a gang of Central Asian terrorists through the pre-dawn streets of New York. Child is the master of the thriller genre these days and his creation, Jack Reacher is one of the baddest dudes in current fiction.
As the storms passed through Reacher was storming through the opposition, picking off the villains one by one. I interviewed Child about 7 years ago as this series was really starting to take off. He’s a Brit but he has lived in Manhattan for a number of years. He knows the city well. This latest novel showcases his expertise from the subways to the gritty streets. It knocked my socks off.
I saw Lee Child last year in Los Angeles. He’s tall, at least six foot six, just like Reacher. We stopped to chat. He was alone as usual.
Three years ago I encountered him on an escalator in Washington. We had another brief conversation. Naturally, he was alone. One of the most famous authors in America wanders about just like Jack Reacher, unrecognized.
Gone Tomorrow just came out a few weeks ago. It entered the New York Times Bestseller list at #1. Lee Child is #1 in my book. Perfect reading for a June thunderstorm….
Vick Mickunas
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The Precarious Financial Lives of American Families…
When Peter Gosselin published HIGH WIRE - The Precarious Financial Lives of American Families (Basic Books) one year ago he was acting as a canary in the coal mine, he issued a warning that wild volatility in the financial markets could have a devastating impact upon American families.
One year later the paperback version is being published and his words of warning have proved to be horribly precise. The chickens have come home to roost. Trillions of dollars have vanished just like that. Poof.
Gosselin, a former national economics reporter for the LA Times dissected the threats posed by an adherence to free market principles which swiftly devolved into a textbook lesson in the principles of free fall. His dissection now reads more like an autopsy report.
We were trying to live the ideals of our American Dreams. We believed that our financial security was assured if we did the right things; got decent educations, saved, bought insurance, worked hard, stayed loyal to our employers, and lived conservatively; that this approach would shield us from want and fear. It wasn’t so.
Gosselin makes the case that our devotion to the free market led us to worship at the altar of excess - that our politicians were blind - that our ethics proved flawed.
The author suggests that we must begin to head in a different direction. Read it and weep.
Vick Mickunas
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That Obama pooch…
Yesterday I posted a video of a cat who plays the piano. Dog lovers have demanded equal time so today I’m doing a post about that top dog, Bo. He’s the newest occupant of the White House.
Do you want to see Bo’s handshake trick? click HERE:
Have you seen the video of Bo attacking the reporter’s microphone?
Have you seen the video by the Republican National Committee that attacks the Obama purchase of Bo?
Sorry, that video has now been removed from YouTube by the hapless creators of it. How could anybody imagine that by attacking Bo they could score some points with average Americans? Duh - we love cute dogs - Bo’s adorable!
It may be open season on President Obama’s Supreme Court nominations but the presidential pooch is not fair game! Just say BO!
Do you want to know more about a dog like Bo?
J. PATRICK LEWIS and TIM BOWERS, author and illustrator of the book, First Dog, that Portuguese Water Dog, will be appearing at Books&Co. at The Greene this Saturday, JUNE 13, from 1 to 2 p.m.
Vick Mickunas
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Kitty tickles the keys….
My friend Ramunas lives in Kaunas, Lithuania. He’s a musician and an author. Now and then he sends me a link. Today he sent this link to me. It’s about a cat who plays the piano!
I love it. Perfect stuff for a Monday. Check out this cool cat by clicking here:
Vick Mickunas
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Martha Moody’s cure for writer’s block…
Eight years ago I interviewed Martha Moody on WYSO Public Radio (91.3 FM). She had just published her first novel, “Best Friends.” I was pleased to have her on my program. It isn’t every day that a doctor from Dayton has a first novel published by a major publishing house.
I know how difficult it is to get published. I have heard the horror stories. Moody endured the rejection slips until she accomplished an extraordinary feat; she found just the right agent and sold her book to just the right publisher. Impressive.
I liked the book. Her publishers liked the book. We had no idea. Hundreds of thousands of readers liked it, too. Moody has become one of the most successful writers in the Miami Valley. And there’s more to come. I caught up with Martha Moody the other day. This is what she had to say:
Q Your first novel, “Best Friends,” has sold over 600,000 copies. Why did you write it?
A I have a best friend who was my college roommate. Over the years our friendship had many ups and downs, times when I didn’t really understand what she was doing and I’m sure times when she didn’t understand what I was doing. I thought it would be interesting to write about a long-term friendship.
Q “Best Friends” got the attention of a major retailer. Then sales really took off. How did that happen?
A I don’t know how it happened. I got a call from Target saying that they wanted to highlight my book in their “Bookmark” promotion. When I told my editor that Target had chosen the book, she sounded astonished. She seemed shocked. That was funny. At the time I didn’t realize what the “Bookmark” publicity would mean. It turned out to be very good news. The book is still selling.
Q Two years ago you published a second novel, “The Office of Desire.” What inspired that book?
A I wanted to write something really different from “Best Friends.” I was interested in how people interact in a closed setting. I wanted to write something more claustrophobic. This one is about five people in this little medical office in a city like Dayton.
Q You are a physician. Were there autobiographical elements?
A There’s nothing very autobiographical in there. What I realized after “Best Friends” is that I think I write better when I make up characters. If I’m basing a character on a real person in any way, it limits what that character can do. If I start out with sort of a vague idea and just let the characters come into shape then they can reveal themselves. They can do things that surprise me. That makes the characters more real.
Q Your third novel, “Sometimes Mine,” will be published in August. What’s it about?
A A very driven female cardiologist. She’s divorced, incredibly busy, overwhelmed by her patients and her work life. Her one little release is her weekly affair with a college basketball coach who is also quite busy in his own way. He gets sick. Things really change. She has to deal with his family and ultimately, with herself, her own family and what she’s doing with her life.
Q Did you ever imagine that you would achieve this success as a writer?
A No. I’ve written since I was a kid. During my medical residency I began writing fiction. I thought I’ll write, and maybe it will never get published. I’ll have it in the back of my closet. Maybe when I’m dead my kids will discover it and find it a little bit interesting.
Q How did you get published?
A I’d written what became “Best Friends.” It was actually called “The Pornographer’s Daughter” initially. I was still practicing medicine full time. I’d written another unpublished novel before that. As I was writing what became “Best Friends” I thought; this is better — I think I’ve gotten better. I sent out query letters. Nobody wanted to look at the whole manuscript. Through a friend I got a referral to an agent who took it right away and sold it to a publisher.
Q What are you doing now?
A I’m working on a new novel. I do a lot of volunteer stuff. I’m the medical director at Good Neighbor House, a clinic for the working poor. I’m down there four nights a month seeing patients. I love that.
I work with some freshman medical students at Wright State teaching physical diagnosis. I’ve gotten involved with a village in northern Israel, teaching English. It’s very gratifying.
My husband, Marty Jacob, is a nuclear medicine doc at Kettering. We have four sons, ages 20 to 13. They are the lights of my life. We live in Washington Twp.
Vick Mickunas
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He really hated America…
“The Garden of Last Days” by Andre Dubus III (Norton, 535 pages, $14.95)
The weather was splendid on that fateful New York City morning, Sept. 11, 2001. It was a Tuesday. Things turned ugly in a matter of seconds. Our innocence evaporated, lost forever.
Andre Dubus III sets his novel “The Garden of Last Days” during those waning moments of innocence on that final weekend prior to 9/11. It is told from the numerous viewpoints of characters living in south Florida at that instant in time.
There’s April, an exotic dancer at a strip club. And Lonnie, a bouncer at the club.
April and her 3-year-old daughter Franny share a house with Jean, who simply adores Franny.
AJ is a blue collar worker who frequents the club. Finally there’s Bassam, a young Saudi who is staying at a hotel.
Bassam hates America and everything it stands for.
Seething with rage, Bassam despises immorality yet he cannot resist partaking in it.
Dubus doesn’t want his readers to focus on the disaster that looms ahead. He said: “It’s not anything I want you to think about at all. I want you to just go through the journey with all the people in there.” It is their story.
I asked him how he got the idea for this book? He responded: “I just get an image. I start to go with it. I saw an image of a wad of cash on a bedroom bureau.”
He thought about the money and where it came from — that it belonged to a stripper. So he wrote about “48 or 72 hours in the life of one of these women.”
He described his process: “I love trying to be other people and trying to imagine other peoples’ existence.”
His task was to “try not to say anything with this novel. Instead, just try to find something.”
He elaborated on that impulse: “The human imagination I find to be a gorgeous thing. Terrifying. Frustrating …
“The kind of fiction I like to read and the kind I try to write tends to be inherently empathetic.
“I think character-driven fiction is a sustained act of empathy. You are really just asking, ‘What is it like to be you?’
“For me that’s the joy of reading these novels by these great writers … you get to live all these other lives than the one you’ve got. It’s kind of miraculous.”
Dubus is the son of an acclaimed short story writer, the late Andre Dubus. He had no intention of becoming a writer though. Then something altered his view.
“I wrote a short story. It wasn’t very good but I was hooked.
“Honestly, the day I finished it I felt more like myself than I ever had in my life … it’s one of those rare epiphanies that can happen in a life. I feel very lucky that I got to have that … I still didn’t want to be a writer but I knew that I was going to keep writing no matter what because I just felt more like myself than I ever had before.”
Dubus visits Books&Co. at The Greene in Beavercreek from 7-8 p.m. on Thursday, June 11.
Vick Mickunas
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Dad’s Awesome Grilling Book
Father’s Day is just around the corner. I lost my dad in 1993. I don’t have any children. So how will I celebrate Father’s Day? That’s easy. I’ll spend part of the day with my best grill….
And I have just the right companion to inspire my grilling; Dad’s Awesome Grilling Book - Techniques, Tips, Stories & More Than 100 Great Recipes (Chronicle Books) by Bob Sloan.
Let’s see, which recipe should I try?
The Grilled Skillet Nachos?
The Spanish Potato Tortilla?
Rib Eyes with Grilled Sweet Onions?
The Beer-Besotted Slow-Cooked Pork Loin?
The Jerk Pork Tenderloin?
The Chicken Thighs Cubano?
The Panino Monstro?
I don’t think that I can wait until Father’s Day to try out some of these recipes. Practice makes perfect. I think I’ll be spending some time with my best grill this evening.
Now where did I hide my secret spices?? (My friend just brought me some more from Ethiopia…).
Vick Mickunas
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Remembering David Carradine…
The actor and author David Carradine has died. Here’s a report from the BBC:
Kung Fu star Carradine found dead
Kill Bill and Kung Fu star David Carradine has been found dead in a Bangkok hotel room.
“Thai police told the BBC the 72-year-old was found by a hotel maid sitting in a wardrobe with a rope around his neck and body on Thursday morning.
The US star was in Thailand filming his latest film Stretch, according to his personal manager Chuck Binder.
Mr Binder said the news was “shocking”, adding: “He was full of life, always wanting to work… a great person.”
Carradine was part of an acting dynasty which included his father, John Carradine, and brothers Bruce, Keith and Robert.
The star was best known for his role as Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s TV series Kung Fu, which spawned sequels in the ’80s and ’90s.
After a career which included more than 100 movies with directors such as Martin Scorsese and Ingmar Bergman, he recently found fame again thanks to his role in Quentin Tarantino’s 2003 film Kill Bill.
He is survived by his wife, Annie Bierman, and four children.”
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A most peculiar fellow…
Last Saturday I wandered the aisles of the Book Expo America conference with a friend of mine from Chicago. My friend knows just about every author and publisher so it is always fun to tag along beside him.
We encountered the novelist James Ellroy autographing advance copies of Blood’s A Rover (American Underworld Trilogy), his massive novel scheduled to be released in September. I don’t know Ellroy. We had never met met before. My friend from Chicago approached Ellroy and was greeted with an obscene rhyme that employed my friend’s last name. His name is Young and Ellroy’s little poetic tribute employed words that rhyme with Young. I’ll leave it to your imagination to guess which words Ellroy chose. They were clever and quite obscene.
We kept running into Ellroy all afternoon. He was in the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt meeting room noshing on their fine deli lunch. It should be noted that they are not his publisher. A high ranking Random House publicist was also present among the pastrami.
We saw Ellroy again taping a TV spot for Borders Television. Later we encountered him once more at the signing table. He was not signing books any longer. The supply had been exhausted already. He offered to autograph a postcard for me.
Ellroy looked at my name badge. He said, so, your name is Vick? He was clearly delighted to know that. He went on to narrate an obscene story about the adventures of Vick the (fill in the blank). Now what obscene words rhyme with Vick? Think about it.
I’ll let you imagine. It was very funny and utterly obscene. I felt so special.
Vick the (fill in the blank)
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Google takes on Amazon.com…
Internet behemoths Google and Amazon.com appear to be headed for a showdown in the race to dominate the market for electronic books. Here’s more from The Wall Street Journal:
“Google could prove to be a significant challenger for Amazon, which sells e-books specifically formatted to work with its proprietary Kindle. A key difference would be that the search giant aims to let Google Book Search users “buy access” to copyrighted books with any Web-enabled computer, e-reader or mobile phone.
Google said it would allow publishers to set their own prices, although the company reserved the right to discount titles at its own expense. Amazon typically charges consumers $9.99 per e-book, far below hardcover prices reaching about $26.”
Are you reading any e-books? Do you plan to try them out in the future?
Vick Mickunas
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Idle gossip and salacious rumors…
Yesterday I returned from Book Expo America in New York City. BEA used to be a four day book blowout. An extravaganza. A prodigious potpourri of publishing parties. Not any more…
The tone was somewhat muted. Here’s my take, my Book Expose’ America:
The publishers: Where are they? I kept looking for them. Random House has always had a huge presence at BEA. No longer. What was once a huge expanse of booth space teeming with publicists and sales staff was reduced to a lonely kiosk with a few signing areas for author autographing sessions. There was hardly a Random House staffer to be found. They were apparently hiding out in a meeting room in the basement.
Saint Martin’s had no booth. Neither did Farrar, Straus and Giroux. I guess they were in the basement with the rest of the MacMillan family of publishing imprints. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt did not have a booth. I did locate their meeting room in the basement and was delighted to have the best deli lunch ever. Pastrami sandwiches as thick as my wrists. What a delightful surprise that was!
The swag: BEA has always been the place to pick up promotional goodies. At past BEA’s (I have attended six in a row now) the abundance of books, posters, tote bags, and miscellaneous book ephemera was astonishing and mind boggling. That’s over now. I usually don’t burden myself with much swag so I didn’t care but it was certainly noticeable. The publishers have gotten downright miserly about the stuff. I heard a number of booksellers and librarians fuming about the dearth of goodies. That’s part of the fun.
The parties: BEA was always notorious for great parties. You might recall the party I attended last year in Beverly Hills for the billionaire Ted Turner. It was hosted by Larry King at his mansion. Prince threw a big party last year, too. This year there were a few parties but it was almost impossible to secure an invitation to one. From what I heard they were far from lavish. The New Yorker Magazine has always put on fabulous parties at BEA. This year they didn’t even have one. Sob.
The celebrities: There are always lots of big names at BEA. There were many there this year. Even so, there were fewer than usual. James Patterson was there again. So was Amy Tan. Pat Conroy was a no-show. His first novel in 15 years is coming out soon. Apparently Conroy’s health was not good. He cancelled his autographing appearance. I did see the pilot who landed his plane safely in the river last year. He seemed to be enjoying himself.
In lieu of the real books that were being promoted at BEA I think I’ll enjoy reading about some imaginary books instead. Check out the list by clicking HERE:
Vick Mickunas
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