Meadowdale H.S. graduation 2012
Middletown H.S. graduation 2012
Dunbar H.S. graduation 2012
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 > 2011 > December
December 2011
My favorite books from 2011
We are wrapping up another year in books. Last week in this newspaper I offered up my choices for the best fiction titles from the past year. When I say the best, I really just mean my favorites from the books released in 2011 that I was able to read. So many books are issued each year-I can never read more than a small percentage of the thousands that are published.
To check out my fiction choices click HERE:
To check out my my favorite non-fiction titles click HERE:
Happy New Year!
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetShe was so powerful…
Catherine the Great was the empress of Russia for over 40 years. At that time, in the late 18th century, Russia was the largest country in the world. Catherine was an amazing person.
Robert K. Massie recently published his definitive biography, “Catherine the Great - Portrait of a Woman” (Random House). I just interviewed the author on my radio program. If you missed the first half of our conversation you can hear it by clicking HERE:
Part two of my interview will air this Sunday morning (New Year’s Day) at 11 on WYSO (91.3fm) at 1:30 (EST). You can stream it at WYSO.org.
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetI think Ron Paul can win in Iowa
The Iowa Caucuses will be held next Tuesday. Mike Huckabee won the GOP side of the caucuses four years ago. He had strong support from evangelical voters in Iowa. He didn’t win the GOP nomination to run for president but his Iowa win certainly shook things up a bit.
Polls show that this time around there is no clear-cut leader. Can Newt win in Iowa? Or will it be Mitt? This time around the evangelical vote in Iowa seems split up between many of the candidates. The winner in Iowa will probably be the candidate with the best organization on the ground. That is probably not Newt Gingrich. He failed to get on the primary ballot in Virginia because they failed to get enough valid signatures.
Mitt Romney has been ignoring Iowa somewhat to focus on New Hampshire. He has the organization on the ground in Iowa but I don’t think Mitt will garner many votes from evangelicals.
Which leaves Congressman Ron Paul to play the spoiler. He has the organization there. With so many candidates splitting up the votes in Iowa I think Ron Paul can actually win there. If he does that will really shake up the GOP field.
Ron Paul has written a lot of books. So has Newt. Mitt has written some, too. Between those three, when the dust settles I see Ron Paul potentially coming out on top in Iowa. If he does that will be one for the history books…what do you think?
p.s. I see that a restaurant in Iowa just named a sandwich The Newt. It has lots of ham…
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetWatch out for this book…
“The Man From Primrose Lane” is a mystery that will be coming out in the spring. Watch out for it.
James Renner wrote it. He lives in northern Ohio and the book is set mostly in Ohio. It is a strange, strange book. I loved it.
I can’t tell you much more about it but remember the next time you are in the vicinity of Loveland, Ohio, watch out for those giant black eggs…
This is a weird one…
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetSex and Dick Nixon
Those are two thoughts that one rarely has simultaneously. The late Dick Nixon is about the last politician one would ever imagine being linked to sexual indiscretions. Oh well, according to an article that just ran in a British newspaper, a new book, “Nixon’s Darkest Secrets” by Don Fulsom, might change our views of the strait-laced Richard Milhous Nixon. (sigh). Here’s more from the tabloidish Mail Online:
“A new biography by Don Fulsom, a veteran Washington reporter who covered the Nixon years, suggests the 37th U.S. President had a serious drink problem, beat his wife and — by the time he was inaugurated in 1969 — had links going back two decades to the Mafia, including with New Orleans godfather Carlos Marcello, then America’s most powerful mobster.
Yet the most extraordinary claim is that the homophobic Nixon may have been gay himself. If true, it would provide a fascinating insight into the motivation and behaviour of a notoriously secretive politician.
Fulsom argues that Nixon may have had an affair with his best friend and confidant, a Mafia‑connected Florida wheeler-dealer named Charles ‘Bebe’ Rebozo who was even more crooked than Nixon….”
Ouch! Dick Nixon was my favorite president. Call me astonished.
To read the whole article click HERE:
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetHow many pounds do you want to lose?
‘T is the season. There’s the pumpkin pie. The apple pie is over there. The quadruple layer cake my egg lady baked is in there somewhere. Half a turkey. A plethora of side dishes. Dribs. Drabs. Squibbles. Now jiggles.
The holidays bring cheer. Beer. Champagne. Candy. All manner of gustatory indulgences. Here, Vick do you want to try this homemade toffee? Oh Vick, you must have a glass of the Nouveau!
We made it through Thanksgiving. Through Chanukah, Festivus, Christmas. The blur of holidays leading up to the New Year. On New Year’s Eve there will gumbo, more beverages, plates of appetizers. And that’s not all. We just got invited to an Iowa Caucus party a week from today. Next Tuesday. Lots of homemade chili.
Publishers know this. There’s all the food. The temptation. The battered resistance to more gluttony. And right now the stack of diet books is growing as quickly as some of our waistlines.
Let me grab a couple off of the top of the stack. I don’t dare to bend over too far. I might topple over.
Ok, here’s one: “FAT TO SKINNY -Fast and Easy! -Eat Great, Lose Weight, and Lower Blood Sugar Without Exercise” (Sterling) by Doug Varrieur. Wow, that was exhausting just reading that title. Maybe a cup of coffee would help. And while I’m over here, that apple pie looks mighty good….
Here’s another one: “THE SIMPLE DIET - A Doctor’s Science-Based Plan - No Rigid Rules, No Strict Menu, No Measuring, Counting, Or Expensive Meal Plans” (Berkley) by James W. Anderson, M.D. and Nancy J. Gustafson, M.S., R.D. Gee, the first book is fast and easy. This one is not rigid, not strict and claims that we can “lose up to 50 pounds in 12 weeks.” It wore me out just typing all the initials for the advanced degrees of the authors. Now, where did I put that slice of pie? Wait, I forgot the ice cream!
Just one more: “THE NEW ATKINS FOR A NEW YOU COOKBOOK - 200 Simple and Delicious Low-Carb Recipes in 30 Minutes or Less” (Touchstone) by Colette Heimowitz. Ahh, a cookbook. Let’s see what recipes look good in here…
mmmm…Chicken Cutlets Parmesan. Curried Egg Salad. Mocha Smoothie. Toasted Pecan Cake….
Is it lunchtime yet?
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetA Google tablet to challenge Apple’s iPad?
Apple’s iPad is the dominant tablet computer on the market these days. It is also a very popular device for reading eBooks. According to Fox News Google might be planning to take a shot at Apple’s iPad supremacy. They report that:
“During an interview with an Italian newspaper this week, Eric Schmidt, Google’s Executive Chairman, mentioned plans “to market a tablet of the highest quality”.
Google doesn’t mess around. Neither does Apple. This could get interesting…
To read the article click HERE:
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetBest selling eBooks of 2011
Millions of eReaders were sold over the past month. Nooks, Kindles, iPads, etc. That means millions of eBooks are being downloaded. The top ten best selling eBook downloads for the past year have been announced. The top seller was “Unbroken” followed by a trio of titles written by the late Stieg Larsson. Here’s the list:
Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, by Stieg Larsson
The Girl Who Played with Fire, by Stieg Larsson
A Game of Thrones, by George R. R. Martin
The Litigators, by John Grisham
The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain
Smokin’ Seventeen, by Janet Evanovich
In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson
Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese
For more info on the list click HERE:
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetiPad? Kindle? Nook?
Did you give or receive an electronic reading device this holiday season?
If so, what kind was it?? And, can you use it on the plane? According to the NY Times: “The Federal Aviation Administration has its reasons for preventing passengers from reading from their Kindles and iPads during takeoff and landing. But they just don’t add up.”
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetSomebody gave me a book for Christmas!
Can we ever have enough books? I don’t think so. Fortunately, some of my friends understand my desire to acquire even more books.
My buddy Pete sent me a new book for Christmas. He mailed it from Des Moines. It was wrapped in pretty paper. I just had to open it.
Pete sent me “Black Sheep and Lame Ducks - the Origins of Even More Phrases We Use Every Day” by Albert Jack. I just learned the origin of the term “maverick”. There was actually a man named Samuel A. Maverick. He was a Texas cattle rancher back in the 19th century. His name went into popular usage after he became known for refusing to brand his cattle because he felt that branding was cruel. Did you know that?
Happy Holidays!
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetDonald Trump quits the G.O.P.
The Donald just gave us an early Christmas present. He has quit the Republican Party. He has his reasons. He might still run for president. As an Independent. That’s right. He has a dream. Now he is playing his Trump card…
Here’s more on this latest development from the New York Times:
“Donald J. Trump has withdrawn from the Republican Party to retain the ability to run as an independent candidate in the 2012 presidential election, his political adviser confirmed on Friday.
“Mr. Trump did this in order to preserve his legal right to run as an independent if in fact he’s not satisfied with who the Republican candidate is going to be,” said the adviser, Michael Cohen, a Trump Organization executive.
“His core Republican principles haven’t changed at all,” he said. “This was simply to preserve his right to run.”
Mr. Cohen would not say which of the seven Republican candidates would prompt Mr. Trump to enter the race, but Mr. Trump has been openly critical of Representative Ron Paul of Texas and Jon M. Huntsman Jr.
This year, Mr. Trump considered running as a Republican, but abandoned his bid in early May, saying, “Business is my greatest passion, and I am not ready to leave the private sector.”
A number of years ago I interviewed Donald Trump on my WYSO radio show. He had a book out called: “Trump-the Art of the Comeback” (or, something along those lines). I’m not proud of it. Hey, he could win. Stranger things have happened…
To read the rest of the article click HERE:
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetShe was Catherine the Great
Don’t miss my interview this Sunday with Robert K. Massie. His biography, “Catherine the Great - Portrait of a Woman” (Random House) is one of the hottest books in the country these days.
Tune in to WYSO (91.3fm) at 11am on Sunday for part one of this two part interview.You can stream it at www.wyso.org.
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetThe best book you read this year was…
This Sunday I’ll have my favorite fiction titles for you from the past year. What were your favorite books this year? Please, leave a comment.
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
Tweet“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”
The book was enjoyable. Have you read it?
The Hollywood film version is just now reaching theaters. The reviews seem mostly positive. I might actually go to this one. What do you think? Are you planning to see the movie?
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetThe mystery that is North Korea
The death of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was a reminder that we really don’t know very much about what happens in that mysterious closed off land. According to the New York Times:
” Kim Jong-il, the enigmatic North Korean leader, died on a train at 8:30 a.m. Saturday in his country. Forty-eight hours later, officials in South Korea still did not know anything about it — to say nothing of Washington, where the State Department acknowledged “press reporting” of Mr. Kim’s death well after North Korean state media had already announced it.
For South Korean and American intelligence services to have failed to pick up any clues to this momentous development — panicked phone calls between government officials, say, or soldiers massing around Mr. Kim’s train — attests to the secretive nature of North Korea, a country not only at odds with most of the world but also sealed off from it in a way that defies spies or satellites.
Asian and American intelligence services have failed before to pick up significant developments in North Korea. Pyongyang built a sprawling plant to enrich uranium that went undetected for about a year and a half until North Korean officials showed it off in late 2010 to an American nuclear scientist. The North also helped build a complete nuclear reactor in Syria without tipping off Western intelligence.
As the United States and its allies confront a perilous leadership transition in North Korea — a failed state with nuclear weapons — the closed nature of the country will greatly complicate their calculations. With little information about Mr. Kim’s son and successor, Kim Jong-un, and even less insight into the palace intrigue in Pyongyang, the North’s capital, much of their response will necessarily be guesswork.”
There is a novelist who writes about North Korea. He writes under the pen name of James Church. He has been to North Korea many times and he seems to possess a rare grasp of how things are in that sealed off world. I interviewed him earlier this year on my WYSO radio program about his novel “The Man with the Baltic Stare” (Minotaur Books). If you listen to the interview you could gain some insights into what it is really like inside North Korea. To listen to that interview click HERE:
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetRemembering Vaclav Havel
Vaclav Havel died today. The former Czech president was 75. Here’s more from the New York Times:
“Born on Oct. 5, 1936, Mr. Havel was one of two sons of Vaclav and Bozena Havel. His father, a civil engineer, was a major commercial real estate developer who acquired important property. When the Communists took power three years after World War II, the family holdings were taken over by the state. After Communist rule ended, Mr. Havel and his brother, Ivan, won back much of the property.
Mr. Havel would later write that his privileged upbringing heightened his sensitivity to inequality.
“I was different from my schoolmates whose families did not have domestics, nurses or chauffeurs,” he wrote. “But I experienced these differences as a disadvantage; I felt excluded from the company of my peers.”
He started writing, he said, to overcome his feeling of being an outsider. Because of his background, the Communists blocked him from going to university, and at age 15 he started work as a technician in a chemistry lab.
Mr. Havel was called up for military service in 1957, and wrote a satirical play while in the army. In 1960, he joined the Theater on the Balustrade as a stagehand. In 1963 he wrote his first publicly performed play, “The Garden Party,” about a person who has lost his sense of identity to such a degree that he goes to look for himself in his own apartment.
In 1956 Mr. Havel met Olga Splichalova, a lively, dashing actress, whom he married in 1964. A working- class heroine for many Czechs, she helped to inspire the collection of essays, written as letters from prison, and published as “Letters to Olga.” In dissident circles and beyond, Mr. Havel was a celebrated womanizer. Olga, who was fiercely defensive of her husband, was said by friends to have a certain reassurance when he was in prison, because “at least she knew where he was.”
When he became president, Mrs. Havel seldom took part in formal events, but used her new platform to campaign for the handicapped. She died of cancer in January 1996. They had no children.
Mr. Havel is survived by his wife, Dagmar, and his brother, Ivan.
After stepping down as president in 2003, Mr. Havel, ailing and tired, returned to writing, insisting he was happy with a peaceful life. In his memoir, “To the Castle and Back,” published in 2007, he called his political rise an accident of history. Post-Communist society disappointed him, he said.”
I had always dreamed of interviewing him. It wasn’t meant to be.
To read the entire obituary click HERE:
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetEarly American fortunes made through opium trade
Tune in Sunday morning at 11 for my radio interview on WYSO (91.3fm) with Amitav Ghosh about his historical novel “River of Smoke.” A couple of centuries ago there was a trade imbalance with China. Does that sound familiar? Back then British and American traders found a way to reverse the trade deficit by importing massive quantities of opium from India into the port of Canton in China. “River of Smoke” is the second book in a series Ghosh has set in this period. The first book is called “Sea of Poppies”.
These are fascinating books and if you tune in on Sunday morning you can also learn how some notable American families made huge fortunes by shipping opium to China.
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetRemembering Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens has died. He was 62. A dozen years ago I interviewed him on my WYSO radio show. He was erudite. Witty. Charming. I was surprised to get the interview. This was before he became very famous (and infamous) for writing a book about his atheism, “God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.”
His recent memoir Hitch-22 is really tremendous. A second posthumous memoir will be published next month.
Connie Schultz once asked Hitchens what he would say to a dying friend? Watch his response… click HERE:
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
Tweet#WorstBookEver
There’s an interesting Twittercise going on right now on Twitter. People are posting their choices for the “Worst Book Ever” with the hashtag #WorstBookEver.
Check it out…join the fun.
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetA bookstore under attack
Manny’s Bookstore is located in Jerusalem. This bookstore has been under attack by religious zealots. Here’s more from “The Jewish Week”:
“The evil villain in this Year 2011 story is a devilish bookstore in Mea Shearim, Jerusalem called Ohr HaChaim, or Manny’s, “Your One-Stop Judaica and Judaic Book Shop.” The zealots are a group of local haredi Jews who call themselves Sikrikim, a name chosen in honor of an honorless group of Jewish terrorists from the Roman era who killed so many of their own they were chased out of Jerusalem before the Roman siege ever began. The name, incidentally, is also used today by a particularly violent group of Colombian drug lords; all’s fair, I suppose, in Lord and war.
But that is just ancient history — today’s Sikrikim, patrolling the seemly, iniquitous streets of the Old City, weren’t fooled by the shelves full of Hebrew books and religious texts that Manny’s tried to hide behind. Manny’s (www.mannysbookstore.com), the Sikrikim knew, was secretly “promoting immodesty,” in part by selling books in English, which attracted strangely-clad foreign tourists, as well as books on Zionism.
And so, their demands upon Manny’s were simple: hang up a sign insisting on modesty from their customers, remove all English-language books, signs and advertisements, and shut down their website. Now, I’ll be honest — I’m something of a fan of immodesty myself, so I checked out the website, (www.mannysbookstore.com) to see what I could find. I, however, am not a Sikriki, so I don’t have their keen eye for immodesty and ribaldry. Perhaps it was the Koren “Chamisha Chumshei Torah with Siddur Shabbat - Nusach Edot Hamizrach” that so offended them. Or maybe it was the “Mishna Berura with P’er Halacha on Hilchos Teffilin,” or the suggestively titled “Chidushav Rabeinu Dovid - Pesochim.” (I was certain I would find something immodest in the “Leather Shop” section of the site, but all I found was a very unkinky leather-bound “Kriat Shema Al Hamita” and a “Mini Pocket Siddur” - 2 Tone - Light Blue with Aqua, which sounds, frankly, a little more gay than I usually go in for).
Fortunately, though, we have the Sikrikim, who see immodesty other Jews cannot (avei-dar?). And so, over the past 20 months, these soldiers of the Lord Our God, God of Abraham, Isaac and Yaakov, relentlessly terrorized and vandalized Manny’s (www.mannysbookstore.com), shattering the store windows as God had commanded them, flinging soiled diapers into the shop in the manner which the Lord did show us…”
The author of this article, the novelist Shalom Auslander, goes on to make a truly disturbing point:
“If these tactics sound familiar, they should; in fact, the Sikrikim’s victory over Manny’s landed very nearly on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, which occurred 73 years ago on the night of Nov. 10. Shattered windows, intimidation, fear, thuggery, all in the name of some greater good, some betterment of the world.”
To read the entire article click HERE:
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetThat “zany” Newt…
A year ago I interviewed Newt Gingrich for this newspaper. I talked to him about a book he had just written about Valley Forge and a Revolutionary War hero who was, heaven forbid, an immigrant.
Now Newt is contesting with Mitt Romney for the front-runner position for the Republican nomination to run for president next year. Mitt has watched as his leadership in the polls has eroded. Now, he is fighting back. He just said that Newt is “zany.” I like that. How I wish Newt was zany. I don’t think he is actually that zany…not really.
What a difference six weeks can make: Here’s a quote from the Wall Street Journal dated January 27, 2012:
“Gingrich was asked about the attacks from conservative pundits, particularly from the American Spectator’s Emmett Tyrell, who wrote that Gingrich has had “private encounters with the fair sex that doubtless will come out.”
Gingrich tried to turn such criticisms to his advantage, suggesting they represent “establishment” thinking.
“Tyrrell has to write whatever Tyrrell wants to write,” Gingrich said. “There’s the Washington establishment sitting around in a frenzy, having coffee, lunch and cocktail hour talking about, ‘How do we stop Gingrich?’”
While Gingrich relishes bashing the media “elite” in public, he is friendly with the reporters who cover his campaign and makes himself available for media questions daily on the campaign trail. He seems to relish the back-and-forth with journalists, sometimes labeling questions he dislikes “bizarre.”
And so it goes…
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetDeath as the ultimate career move?
The author Russell Hoban has died. Have you ever read his book Riddley Walker? Here’s more from The Guardian:
“Legendary cult author Russell Hoban, whose apocalyptic novel Riddley Walker was described by Anthony Burgess as “what literature is meant to be”, died last night aged 86, his publisher has announced.
Hoban, born in Pennsylvania but a resident of London for more than 30 years, first made a name for himself with his children’s books; his series about Frances the badger and his novel The Mouse and His Child are acclaimed as modern classics.
Riddley Walker, set in Kent 2,000 years after a nuclear holocaust and told in a distinctive version of English, was begun in 1974 and published in 1980 to huge praise. It has since been included in Harold Bloom’s survey of literature, The Western Canon.
Hoban joined the US army aged 18, and was posted to Italy during the second world war, where he served as a messenger, later awarded a Bronze Star for bravery in action. He worked as a freelance illustrator on his return to America, publishing his first book, the illustrated children’s title What Does it Do and How Does it Work, in 1959.”
The article concludes with this paragraph:
“Death, Hoban predicted in 2002, would “be a good career move”. “People will say, ‘yes, Hoban, he seems an interesting writer, let’s look at him again’,” he said.”
To read the rest of it click HERE:
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetErma Bombeck is a real doll!
Some gifts require a lot of thought. I just discovered a doll maker on Etsy who is selling dolls that are made to look like specific authors. Are you in the market for a Mark Twain doll? John Steinbeck? Doctor Suess? She has all those and many other choices. Heck, she even has a doll that looks like Dayton’s very own queen of humor, the late Erma Bombeck.
Check out Debbie Ritter’s dolls… click HERE:
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetRepublican senator takes a shot at Amazon…
The outrage over the financial incentive that Amazon.com offered shoppers this past Saturday for relaying prices at “brick and mortar” stores has now reached the hallowed halls of the US Senate. Republican senator Olympia Snowe has made an official statement on the matter. Here’s more from The Guardian:
“An Amazon.com promotion, which offered customers a discount if they let Amazon know the prices of items for sale in traditional shops, has provoked widespread anger, drawing a rebuke from a senator and seeing it compared to Dr Seuss’s Christmas-stealing Grinch.
The deal, which ran on Saturday, gave customers a 5% discount (up to $5) off Amazon.com’s price on up to three products if they used the retailer’s price check app while shopping in physical stores. Although books were not included - the eligible categories were DVDs, electronics, toys, music and sporting goods - the promotion prompted a furious response from beleaguered independent bookshops and from the American Booksellers Association, as well as from senator Olympia Snowe, who called it “an attack on Main Street businesses [and] anti-competitive behaviour that could shutter the doors of America’s small businesses”.
“Small businesses are fighting everyday to compete with giant retailers, such as Amazon, and incentivising consumers to spy on local shops is a bridge too far,” said Snowe, a Republican and member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, in a statement.”
Information, especially pricing information, is power. Amazon provided an incentive for millions of shoppers to voluntarily provide pricing info on Amazon’s competitors from all around the country. More brilliant but now controversial Amazon marketing savvy was on display here.
To read the entire article click HERE:
Some prominent writers are also perturbed…CLICK HERE:
And here’s another viewpoint from someone who thinks that we should buy all our books from Amazon: click HERE:
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetSome bookstores are doing well this month…
According to an article in the New York Times there are a number of bookstores around the country that are reporting sales increases over this same period last year. The article goes on to mention some of the hot books that are attracting customers to brick and mortar stores. To read it click HERE:
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetPerhaps the Amazon Kindle Fire isn’t that hot…
As the tablet wars heat up Amazon.com is hoping that their latest proprietary eBook reader, the Kindle Fire, will be competitive with the dominant tablet computer, the Apple iPad. The Kindle Fire just started shipping last month. According to an article in the New York Times, some Fire buyers are not that thrilled with the product:
“The Kindle Fire, Amazon’s heavily promoted tablet, is less than a blazing success with many of its early users. The most disgruntled are packing the device up and firing it back to the retailer.
A few of their many complaints: there is no external volume control. The off switch is easy to hit by accident. Web pages take a long time to load. There is no privacy on the device; a spouse or child who picks it up will instantly know everything you have been doing. The touch screen is frequently hesitant and sometimes downright balky.
All the individual grievances — recorded on Amazon’s own Web site — received a measure of confirmation last week when Jakob Nielsen, a usability expert, denounced the Fire, saying it offered “a disappointingly poor” experience. For users whose fingers are not as slender as toothpicks, he warned, the screen could be particularly frustrating to manipulate.
“I feel the Fire is going to be a failure,” Mr. Nielsen, of the Nielsen Norman Group, a Silicon Valley consulting firm, said in an interview. “I can’t recommend buying it.”
All this would be enough to send some products directly to the graveyard where the Apple Newton, the Edsel, New Coke and McDonald’s Arch Deluxe languish. But as a range of retailers and tech firms could tell you, it would be foolish to underestimate Amazon…”
Well, well, well. Count on Amazon to fix these problems…
To read the rest of the article click HERE:
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetCrime Fiction Sunday
I love good crime fiction. Peter James has a fabulous new crime novel called “Dead Man’s Grip”. Read my review: click HERE:
Denise Mina has written a lovely new crime novel, too. It is called “The End of the Wasp Season”. Mina is from Glasgow, Scotland. She has a wonderful Scottish accent. I interviewed her on my radio show on WYSO (91.3fm). You can listen to it this Sunday morning at 11am. I call it Crime Fiction Sunday…
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetLady Gaga, Batman and the Eagles…
In a recent column I compiled a list of new books that might make great gifts this holiday season. Here are a few more:
“Lady Gaga” by Terry Richardson (Grand Central, 384 pages, $50)
I don’t claim to understand Lady Gaga. I cannot comprehend how she became such a huge star. But hey, I’m getting old. I do understand that there are millions of music fans who are simply gaga about her. Here’s the perfect gift for the Lady Gaga fan. This book weighs a ton. It’s gigantic. And it is jammed with amazing, incredible, bizarre color photos of you know who…
“The Batman Files” (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 308 pages, $100).
Batman used to be a favorite of mine. I dug the Batman comics. The 1960’s TV show was a classic. And Batman is still around. This deluxe Batman item is “the personal journal of Bruce Wayne.” It comes in a padded case and it contains lots of cool stuff like the “top secret blueprints of the Batcave, Batmobiles, Batman uniforms, and weapons schematics…
Original Gotham City newspaper articles, official police records and crime scene photos…
In-depth villain dossiers and Arkham Asylum psychiatric profiles…
File printouts from the Batcomputer itself….” and lots more. Do you know someone who is simply batty about Batman?
“The Eagles - Taking it to the Limit” by Ben Fong-Torres (Running Press, 192 pages, $30)
The Eagles were one of the hottest bands of the 1970’s. Ben Fong-Torres is a legendary music writer. I used to love the stuff that he wrote for Rolling Stone back in the day. I have to admit that I hadn’t thought about this band in years. In fact, I can remember exactly when I last thought about them. It was in Italy. We arrived in the city of Pisa and checked in to a place called The Hotel California. I can remember feeling slightly relieved that we were allowed to check out of that place…
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetAn open letter to Amazon.com
This just crossed my desk:
Dear Jeff Bezos,
We’re not shocked, just disappointed. Despite your company’s recent pledge to be a better corporate citizen and to obey the law and collect sales tax, you created a price-check app that allows shoppers to browse Main Street stores that do collect sales tax, scan a product, ask for expertise, and walk out empty-handed in order to buy on Amazon. We suppose we should be flattered that an online sales behemoth needs a Main Street retail showroom. Forgive us if we’re not. We could call your $5 bounty to app-users a cheesy marketing move and leave it at that. In fact, it is the latest in a series of steps to expand your market at the expense of cities and towns nationwide, stripping them of their unique character and the financial wherewithal to pay for essential needs like schools, fire and police departments, and libraries. But maybe we’ve misunderstood. Even though you’ve spent millions on lobbyists, fired affiliates in seven states, and threatened to shut warehouses to avoid collecting sales tax, maybe you really mean it now when you say you support a level playing field. It’s up to you to show us. In the meantime, indie retailers remain the heart of countless communities — offering discovery, energy, support, and unique experiences. See you on Main Street.
Sincerely,
Oren Teicher
CEO American Booksellers Association
www.bookweb.org
So the battle rages on. I’m a big fan of Amazon.com. On the other hand, I can see both sides of this argument…
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetSome bookstores are bummed out with Amazon.com
If you read yesterday’s blog post on how Amazon will pay you 5 dollars to walk out of the store… then you probably are wondering how brick and mortar stores feel about Amazon’s offer. Well, as you might expect, some displeasure is being expressed over it. Here’s more from Publishers Weekly:
“booksellers had even more to worry about because yesterday Amazon also announced a promotion slated for December 10, during the heart of the holiday selling season, that encourages shoppers to use its price check app. By simply checking a price while in a bricks-and-mortar store, Amazon customers get an additional 5% discount (up to $5) off Amazon’s price for a total of three items (or $15) in qualifying categories, which include toys, music, DVDs, electronics and sporting goods. While books aren’t specifically included, a number of sidelines typically found in bookstores are…”
This David and Goliath battle between bookstores and Amazon.com has some booksellers fuming. Here’s more from PW:
“Some booksellers have become resigned that Amazon wants them gone. “Nothing really surprises us much anymore,” says Leslie Reiner, co-owner of Inkwood Books in Tampa, Fla. “A few wonderful California booksellers, Green Apple with their videos and Diesel with the Occupy Amazon buttons, manage to amuse and educate simultaneously. We try to follow that example.” Others are less worried about customer loyalty. “I really don’t think my customers are paying so much attention to all the [Amazon] hype. They are still coming in and seeking human advice and a friendly conversation. So far, Amazon has not been able to do this,” says Valerie Koehler, owner of Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston.
Still others like Kenny Brechner of Devaney Doak & Garrett Booksellers in Farmington, Me., are angry. He calls Amazon’s new price check app “the virtual equivalent of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil gas station strategy” and regards its acquisition of Marshall Cavendish as “a naked move toward vertical monopoly.” For Christine Onorati, owner of WORD Books in Brooklyn, “It’s very hard not to constantly rail against Amazon as the enemy. I believe they are killing small business by undercutting everyone and constantly drilling home the point that price is all that matters. I have never ordered much from Marshall Cavendish in the past, but I will definitely not order anything from them in the future. We have to take a stand however we can. I will also not order any books published by Amazon right now.”
The Occupy Amazon movement?
To read the entire article click Here:
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetAmazon will pay you 5 dollars to walk out of the store
This is getting brutal. Amazon.com the 5 trillion ton internet marketing gorilla has come up with yet another ploy to attract consumers to their website. As you might know, Amazon sells everything already; more books than anybody, just about anything else you could imagine. But they still want more. Lots more. It won’t be enough for every person in the world to have the Amazon Kindle eBook reader. No, now they want us all to have 5 dollars… click HERE:
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetThe Donald and the Newt…
I just had a “Bowling for Columbine” moment. If you have seen that Michael Moore film you might recall the sequence where Moore shows up at the home of the actor Charlton Heston, the former president of the National Rifle Association, and Moore gives Heston a hard time about guns. That moment made me feel very uncomfortable.
As we learned after Heston’s death, he had been suffering from Alzheimer’s and it seemed rather obvious to this observer that Chuck wasn’t at his sharpest when Moore was badgering him on camera. I thought it was shameful. My Columbine moment occurred when I was watching the two of them and I suddenly realized that I had interviewed both Moore and Heston (separately) on my WYSO radio show.
I just had another Columbine moment. I was reading The New Yorker on-line and there’s an article about Newt Gingrich going to see Donald Trump in New York. Here’s an excerpt:
“On a December day so mild it was tempting to look for swallows, a migratory bird of another sort, Newt Gingrich, brought his travelling Presidential show to midtown for a few hours. The first stop was Trump Tower, on Fifth Avenue, where the Republican candidate met the Republican proprietor of the building.
“If I do become the nominee, we are going to compete in all fifty states,” Gingrich declared at an impromptu press conference in the building’s lobby. “I don’t believe in a red-versus-blue model. I believe that we are all one hundred per cent Americans. And I think if the issue is food stamps versus paychecks, I think every state in the country will be in play. And I intend to be the paycheck candidate.”
With Trump standing silently behind his right shoulder, his combover as wondrous as ever to behold, Gingrich had already achieved something many thought impossible: he had beaten Trump to the microphone, and on his own turf. “I’m a great fan of his,” Newt said of his host. “He was in our last movie, ‘City Upon a Hill,’ and he did a great job.”
There’s a photo of the Newt and the Donald together and I realized that once again, I have interviewed both men, Trump on my radio show, Gingrich a year ago for this newspaper. A weird thing to realize.
The article is very interesting but there’s some profanity in it so I’m not providing a link. You can search for it by Googling “NEWT’S BIG APPLE XMAS COMES EARLY” by John Cassidy.
Here’s another excerpt from the article:
“When Trump finally got to the mic, he said it was a great honor to have Newt in his building, adding, “It’s amazing how well he’s doing and how it really resonates with people.” That didn’t exactly sound like a ringing endorsement, but Trump had reason to be coy. He is due to host a Republican debate later this month, and he said he would delay any formal endorsement until after that momentous occasion.
Backtracking on what one of his flunkies said a couple of weeks ago, Trump added that he has no intention of entering the Presidential race himself unless the Republicans choose “the wrong person”—read “Ron Paul”—as their candidate. And he added, “I don’t think the wrong person will get in.”
That was clearly what Newt wanted to hear. “The Donald has had the No. 1 show in the country,” he said in reply to an impertinent question about why he had come seeking an audience with the great man. “He is a genuine American icon in his own right. Why wouldn’t you want to hang out with him? And I would say the same thing across the board. I like the process of learning about all of America.”
Fascinating!
I guess I have been doing this for a long time. The Donald, Chuck (Charlton insisted I call him that), Newt, and the bombastic Micheal Moore. They all had books out when I interviewed them.
And so it goes…
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetThe best opening lines…
Novelists try to get our attention right away. All writers do. That first line provides a quick answer; should we continue reading this book? Or stop right there.
Years ago I was hired to write a promotional article for an architect. I struggled and sweated and strained over that first sentence. And I got it right. It was terse, pithy and succulent. A year later when the piece was finally published I was so proud. It opened with my magnificent sentence.
I kept reading. Imagine my shock when I realized that the editor had changed every other sentence I had written. That first sentence was left untouched. It was that good.
Meredith Borders at Lit Reactor just posted her top ten best opening lines of novels. Some famous books made her list. Check it out… click HERE:
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetDave Barry’s Gift Guide
Dave Barry is a very funny man. Every time I run into him he is hilarious. The guy is always on.
The first time I met this wacky humorist he came out to Yellow Springs to do an interview for one of his books. This was quite a number of years ago, 13, or 14 years, I think. Laptop computers were just starting to get some steady usage.
Dave hauled his computer into the WYSO air studio and he asked me spell my name for him. So I did. He entered the letters of my name, V I C K M I C K U N A S into his computer during the interview. He had some kind of an anagram generator going. His program spit out all the possible iterations of my name in the form of anagrams. He looked up at me and said: I’m sorry, Vick, but almost every anagram of your name contains the word SUCK. Funny guy, that Dave.
He just put out his hilarious gift guide for this year. To check it out click HERE:
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetBye Bye Herman Cain…
Today was the day that Herman Cain decided that enough was enough. He quit. His quixotic presidential campaign is over. Kaput. Done. I’m really going to miss him.
No need to go into the sordid details. Most of us have heard enough already. I wonder if he will continue his book tour to promote his new book “This Is Herman Cain!: My Journey to the White House”? I wonder if his publisher wiil use that same title for the paperback edition? I’m just asking…slow news day.
What do you think?
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
Tweet“Dead Man’s Grip”
Good crime fiction is one of my numerous literary vices. Peter James is one of my favorite practitioners in the crime genre. His stuff is clever, funny, morbid, and always entertaining. Page turners, every one.
His latest, “Dead Man’s Grip”(Minotaur Books), just came out in the States. His publicist was kind enough to send me an advance copy last summer. James was in St. Louis a few months ago for a big mystery writers’ convention. I tracked him down on the phone and we taped an interview for my WYSO radio show.
In this interview James talked about his home town of Brighton the “Crime Capitol of England.” “Dead Man’s Grip” is set in Brighton. I asked James how Brighton earned this unsavory reputation? Tune in your radios this Sunday for the answer. Hint: technology had something to do with it.
James is a delightful author to interview. We talked about shoe fetishes, toilets, and his early career in films. He has made famous movies that you might have seen and even some classic low-budget horror films.
You can hear our conversation this Sunday morning at 11 o’clock (EST) on WYSO, 91.3fm and streamed at www.wyso.org.
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
TweetThe agony of being a Cleveland sports fan…
Scott Raab knows the excruciating pain of being a Cleveland sports fan. Raab grew up in Cleveland. He was there in 1964 at the last significant Cleveland sporting event that came out in Cleveland’s favor, a football game in 1964. It has been sheer misery ever since.
Raab has had a successful career as a writer for magazines like Esquire. He just published his first book. It is a book about the pain of being a Cleveland sports fan and he puts his focus on the most recent wrenching, depressing thing that happened there, the day that LeBron James, their homegrown superstar, deserted the Cleveland Cavaliers for the white sands of Miami Beach.
This book is rude and obscene and vicious. It is also tender, deeply personal, and thoroughly entertaining. Time Magazine just published a review of it. If you want to read the review and discover the name of this book (a shocking name) click HERE:
Raab still carries around his ticket stub from that 1964 football game. I called him yesterday and told him how much I enjoyed his book. I’m hoping to tape a radio interview with him in the near future. Stay tuned…
p.s. Special bonus: the 2 million dollar comic book.
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
Tweet
