Soby’s New South Cuisine Cookbook, Table 301, Greenville, SC

Our first Decatur Book Festival and SIBA Awards ceremony was a huge pleasure! Not only did we meet hundreds of nice people, while doing a book signing and chef’s recipe sampling from 11:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the Eagle Eye Books booth, but we also enjoyed and appreciated the warm spirit of the SIBA Awards ceremony at 5:30 that same day!

It was clear that independent bookstores and independent restaurants exist and thrive for the same reasons: we are rooted in local soil, we know our customers, and we all do our absolute best to satisfy them, while building relationships that will last. At Table 301, we frequently tell our service staff, “You are not here to serve food and drinks. You are here to make memories!”

Our participation in the Decatur Book Fair and SIBA Awards made great memories for all of us at Table 301 who were able to be present. Thank you, Wanda, thank you Eagle Eye Books, and thank you Festival organizers for making it a wonderful day.

The Unicorn Girl by M. L. LeGette (Book Surge, 2008) has been out since April and has been getting quite a bit of notice on Amazon.com. Written when author LeGette was fourteen, at first you might think it’s going to be a somewhat simple and naïve story. But, LeGette understands what ingredients a good story needs and has spun her multi-dimensional characters into a pretty action-packed plot.

Her heroine, Leah Vindral, only daughter of Sir James, has been raised in a loving home, surrounded by servants who all treat her as their own. In her early teens, her father decides she needs a governess to turn her into a lady. This does not set well with Leah. One day, tired of being a lady, she runs out on her governess and goes for a ride on her precious horse, Iris. Riding farther into Raven Woods than she has ever been, she runs across a cottage and meets Lavena, a witch. Leah has heard that witches are evil, but Lavena tells her she is not only a good witch, but that she is Leah’s godmother.

Before you know it, Leah is thrust into a perilous quest for unicorns. She runs away from home and meets all kinds of people and creatures. She has to fight vors and crags and Sir William, who has been sent by King Rowan to capture her. She meets Elfins and Mora, a truly evil witch, and encounters dragons and a Sphinx. She meets a young man named Ian, who decides to help her find the unicorns.

This book will appeal to young adult readers of fantasy, especially if they have enjoyed The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Eragon, and The Spiderwick Chronicles. But, I think adults will also get a kick out of this hybrid fantasy-fairy tale.

LeGette is from Athens GA. She will appear at the 2008 SIBA Trade Show in Mobile Al, September 26-28. To request a review copy while supplies last, please email the author at legette_3@hotmail.com.

Galley Call by Reeden Wright

 

The young adult science fiction audience will go for William Manchee’s Tarizon: The Liberator, the first book in his new trilogy.  It reminds me of the Star Wars series, Among the Hidden (Margaret Peterson Haddix), Dancing With An Alien (Mary Logue), and Ender’s Shadow (Orson Scott Card). 

Seventeen-year-old Peter Turner, of Palo Pinto, Texas, stumbles upon a secret. He discovers that his father is working on a government project with aliens from another planet. Peter is given two choices: death or exile to Tarizon.

Peter does what every red-blooded, American seventeen-year-old would do; he opts for exile. Upon his arrival, he is pulled into a conflict that will eventually erupt into a civil war between the Loyalists (the good guys) and the Purists (bad guys). It just so happens that Peter’s arrival also coincides with the fulfillment of a prophecy about a Liberator who will appear upon the planet’s super-eclipse.

This book has everything a sci-fi fan could want: an alien world, mutants, conflict and civil war, spaceships, super-technology and chapters full of action! There is even romance for young Peter.

The reader is pulled into the story, learning along with Peter the language, customs, food, technology and warfare practices of this alien culture. The vivid descriptions of the planet will feel as if readers are there assisting the earthling as he struggles with doing what he believes is morally right. There is a message here, which is oft repeated, a message of tolerance and hope.

Manchee writes The Stan Turner Mysteries series, which feature Peter’s father.  These novels are in the unique genre of Legal Science Fiction.  Manchee is an attorney and practices in Dallas. 

To receive a galley copy, please contact Zoila Iglesias at zoila@toppub.com.

Galley Call by Reeden Wright

 

According to Genesis, Cain and Abel were the first and second sons of Adam and Eve. The sons were born after the Fall of Man, the disobedience of Adam and Eve and their consequent loss of God’s grace and the peace and happiness of the Garden of Eden. When they ate the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, God punished them by driving them out of the garden and into the world. In this world, they would be subject to sickness, pain, and eventual death. God told Eve that she would give birth in sorrow and pain; Adam’s curse was that he would have to work hard to earn his livelihood.

In Frank Durham’s debut novel, Cain’s Version (Iroquois Press, 2008), we hear from Adam and Eve’s eldest son, who has been searching for his mother for years. He says she has been traveling in the company of her two great-grandson’s widows. He recounts his last meeting with the women in Tenerife, which ends with his realization that they were not listening to him. This was during the looting and killing by the Spanish. You start to see that Cain may be a little bit self-absorbed.

The other story being told in alternating chapters is of Lindy Caton, a middle-aged, attractive divorcee who has moved to the very small town of Acheron, Louisiana, to take care of her ill father. She becomes involved with three very peculiar elderly women. These three women are not just the usual wizened black women that seem to appear in every novel set in the South. These ladies have a much greater substance.

Two of the women, Adhah (wife of Esau in the Bible) and Selah (which means “stop and listen”), tell Lindy stories about their ancestors. Among them are the folks who grew vegetables in Barhbel-ah after the water went down. Adhah clarifies the story to Lindy, telling her the vegetables were for the boat-builder’s children. Seelah tells the story of the people who were building the tower and how they argued so much they could never finish it. Lindy asks if she is referring to the Tower of Babel and Seelah confirms the three of them lived outside of the town where the tower was being built.

The other woman in the group is the oldest, Uhwa (Eve‘s biblical name), who remains in her room, with her memories and visions of an earlier life, including the murder of one son by another. Both Adhah and Seelah treat her with great respect and dignity.

This novel reminds me of Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison’s novel which won the National Book Critics Award. As Cain searches for his mother and his identity, so does Milkman, the main character in Morrison’s novel, search for his identity and the history of his ancestors.

This is a compelling first novel, using the story of the First Son to parallel the modern-day Lindy and her struggles to come to terms with her life.  Durham is retired from the faculty of Tulane University and lives in New Orleans.

To request a review copy (of a limited supply), email Julie Schoerke at Julie@jkscommunications.com.

Galley Call by Reeden Wright

People are talking about Where’s Your Jesus Now?

Karen Zacharias has fashioned a witty, intelligent and poignant analysis of organized religion today—pungent manna for thought. — Winston Groom, Author, of Forrest Gump

Where’s Your Jesus Now? is heartbreaking and witty, full of compassion and righteous outrage. It’s a fascinating book. — AJ Jacobs, Author, of The Year of Living Biblically

Karen Zacharias has testified! This book is funny, fierce, and fearless. My stomach hurts from laughing, and my heart aches from finding the truth. — Doug Crandell, Author, of Hairdos of the Mildly Depressed and The Flawless Skin of Ugly People

About the author: Karen Spears Zacharias is editorial writer at the Fayetteville Observer, Fayetteville, N. C.

To schedule a book event, please contact

Marjory Wentworth, Publicist

1055 Royalist Rd.

Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464

843/971-6930 (home, office)

843/693-5191 (cell),843/849-12849 (FAX)

www.wentworthpr.com, www.fluencycreative.com

marjwpub@bellsouth.net, marjory@fluencycreative.com

This is from postsecret.com — now that’s a diet!

I have recently set up a facebook account and a twitter account.  I am working out a Twitter Inspired SIBA Book Awards Ceremony for the Decatur Book Festival — I’ll let you know the details as I know them.  The Facebook account is so I can see all of the wedding pictures that all of the kids took at my daugher’s wedding.  Here’s a few.

A great book club resource – readinggroupguides.com - They’d love to interview booksellers about their bookclubs instore. 

The Trade Show is shaping up to be a good one.  Lots of childrens bookselling programming, lots of authors, exhibitors and more…check it out here!

I picked up a copy of Interview With the Vampire at a Greyhound Bus Station in 1978.  One of the many things I found so attractive about my husband was he was the only other person I’d ever met who had also read it, and we both loved it.  We read a ton of books.  His tastes go to the very esoteric, sci fi, fantasy, surreal, what I think of as hard books.  Books that are just over my head.  It is rare when we can share a book but when we do, they are always great.  So I know if there is a book that both of us have read and loved, then it is a doozie.  We also both read The Eight by Katherine Neville in 1990 and loved it.  It is in my top five books of all time so you can imagine my excitement when I learned at BEA that the long awaited sequel, The Fire, is coming.  I am reading the ARC and it is great!  I am feeling the same excitement that I felt reading World Without End.  Katherine Neville is coming to SIBA and taking part in a new event – The Author to Author Interview – featuring Katherine Neville and Steve Berry.  Trust me – this is a book that will fly off the shelf.  If you like Dan Brown, you will love Katherine Neville.  Every customer will enjoy these books.  Geeks, Women’s Fiction, History Buffs, Gamers, Harry Potter people, Poets, Puzzlers, Book Clubbers.  Delight your customers this fall with The Fire!

Well, I am back from BEA in LA and my daughter’s wedding is soon and there is just so much going on that I wanted to take a moment here.  BEA was great.  The ABA Day of Education was productive as well as the exhibit visits.  Publishers seem quite excited about SIBA this year and I do think it is going to be a stellar show.  Just a few of the authors that are being waved about:  E. Lynn Harris, T. A. Barron, Stephanie Kallos, Sarah Addison Allen, Ron Rash, Kathy Reichs, Greg Isles, Ann Martin, John Hodgman, and many many more…

Our bookseller school on Thursday will focus on Children’s Bookselling and Buy Local.  The Association of Bookselling for Children is serving up a great day of Children’s bookselling education on Friday.  We are also offering so small store education and will continue the TableTalks and include a few author panels.  ABA will also bring some education our way.  And IndieBound will abound around at the show.

Last year we held The Moveable Feast of Authors on Sunday and we had a lot of good feedback about how it was such a great way to end the show, etc. and then a lot of feedback saying it was not a good idea at all.  Traffic in the exhibits on Sunday is critical to all of the exhibitors who besides paying for table rental on the floor, also pay for staff and authors, etc. to come in for the weekend and holding the feast on Sunday is the best way I’ve found to keep folks around.  If we held the feast on Sunday, we would do a supper on Saturday night featuring some top-notch authors.  I’d love to hear from folks who have a feeling either way.

All for now…except

for booksellers:  Gifts Galore for Bookstores has been updated

for exhibitors:  FREE Tradeshow & Event ROI Tookit

Hope everyone’s mother had a happy day!

The Basic Books Group:

New in Paperback -

The Suicide of Reason by Lee Harris (he live in Stone Mountain, GA)
We Who Dared to Say No to War by Thomas Woods, Jr. (he lives in Auburn, AL)
Men of Fire by Jack Hurst (he lives in Nashville, TN)

De Capo Press:

I am Potential by Patrick Henry Hughes (he lives in Louisville, KY)
Southern Interest:  Capote in Kansas by Kim Powers
The Brenner Assignment by Patrick K. O’Donnell (he lives in Arlington, VA)
Between the Covers by Margo Hammond (she lives in Florida)

Public Affairs:

Southern Interest:  The Hurricanes:  One Team’s Homecming After Katrina by Jere Longman
The Great Decision by Cliff Sloan (he lives in Virginia)

Running Press:

Skinny Bitchin’ by Kim Barnouin (she lives in Delray Beach, FL)
SABOR! A Passion for Cuban Cuisine by Anna Quincoces Rodriguez  (she lives in Miami, FL)

Running Press Kids:

Intricate Ornaments 45 Christmas Designs to Color!компютри by Chuck Abraham (he lives in Orlando, FL)