Leaping right out of the gate from sales conference, we’ve got a wide range of things to offer – from a rather large crash title, to some great launches for books now hitting the marketplace, and strong early signs for a few things a little further down the line. So while I’m sorting through the Fall catalogs etc., I hope you’ll take a bit of time to size up what’s still coming from the Spring:
Starting with the crash title: I sent out a separate notice of this, but want to remind you again that we have a new book from Michael Eric Dyson, Can You Hear Me Now?: The Inspiration, Wisdom and Insight of Michael Eric Dyson (Basic, 9780465018833), which we are rushing out at the end of this month. As Dave Eggers says in his introduction, it is “A one-volume greatest hits package. Dyson’s always been the kind of writer you read with highlighter in hand, ready to illuminate some sentence you could have sworn was written by Cicero or Douglass or Lincoln or King. So this book does the work for you.” Please let me know as soon as possible if you’d like to place an order; and I’ll be sure to update you as we get more confirmed media.
Getting back to books that are out now, I’m pleased to report a quick hit for Beyond the Revolution: A History of American Thought from Paine to Pragmatism, by William H. Goetzmann (Basic, 9780465004959): we had a nice review last week in the Seattle Times! “Beyond the Revolution is a stimulating volume that will make you see
We have come to expect The New Press to have an eye for exquisite fiction, especially in translation. Further validation of that expectation came with the announcement last week of the finalists for the 2009 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award: the short list included Ravel, a novel by Jean Echenoz, translated by Linda Coverdale (The New Press, 9781595581150). In its review upon original publication, Booklist wrote: “Echenoz employs almost no dialogue and nothing that departs from known facts in this tiny miracle of a biographical novel, which begins dryly and builds to a shattering, but still contained and elegant, emotional climax, like a Ravel masterpiece.” PW agreed: “Echenoz's prose is stylish and delightfully soft-pedaled, expertly conveyed by Coverdale, leaving the sensation of a life lived exclusively for the creation of art.” Mr. Echenoz has previously won the Prix Goncourt – I’m hoping he’ll be able to add to his trophy case.
The news from
Quinn Bradlee and PublicAffairs are delivering on their promised publicity for A Different Life: Growing up Learning Disabled and Other Adventures (9781586481896): Mr. Bradlee will appear on the PBS “NewsHour” tonight (April 7), along with his parents Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn. This follows last week’s feature in USA Today, in which Craig Wilson called the book “refreshingly honest… Bradlee's voice, both poignant and humorous, rings true, that of a young man struggling to figure out who he is and where he fits in.” Barbara Kantrowitz contributed a lovely piece in the Daily Beast, writing that “Bradlee is, at times, funny, mordant, surprisingly perceptive and disturbingly naïve…. it’s clear that even enormous privilege did not protect him from the profound loneliness of being different.” And next week Mr. Bradlee will be on ABC Radio’s “Imus in the Morning,” so things should keep rolling along nicely for this.
Without dwelling too long on our ever-growing financial cataclysm, I do want to mention that the PublicAffairs tandem of Charles Morris and George Soros continue to get attention and praise. Mr. Soros’s The Crash of 2008 and What it Means (9781586486990 – this is the fully revised and expanded paperback version of The New Paradigm for Financial Markets) has just landed, and is the beneficiary of a significant online marketing push, as well as coverage on CNBC, CNN, and Bloomberg TV and bloomberg.com, as well as Fortune, Reuters and Yahoo! Finance. Meanwhile, Mr, Morris was just singled out by key Democratic advisor Laura Tyson in the Wall Street Journal as the go-to guy for making sense of a complicated mess; the book, now in paperback, is The Two Trillion Dollar Meltdown (9781586486914 – the hardcover edition was called The Trillion Dollar Meltdown – my, how things change!).
Looking a little bit down the line: a 2,000-3,000 first serial feature from Richard Wrangham’s Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human (Basic, 9780465013623) will run in the June issue of Discover Magazine, which goes out to subscribers and hits newsstands May 10-15. We also just got a starred PW review: “[A] fascinating study… Wrangham's lucid, accessible treatise ranges across nutritional science, paleontology and studies of ape behavior and hunter-gatherer societies; the result is a tour de force of natural history and a profound analysis of cooking's role in daily life.” But this is more than just a good book – as I’ve been saying all season, it’s a significant scientific event. Dr. Wrangham’s recent attendance at the AAAS conference has led to full-length articles in The Economist and the Associated Press on his pioneering ideas. The blogosphere, too, has been abuzz, including blogs at New Scientist, Wired, and National Geographic, with a discussion scheduled for the US News & World Report “Thinking Harder” blog later this month. We’ve also gotten confirmation that there will be feature article in The New York Times’s “Science Times” section. And we’ve received another glowing review, from perhaps the best-titled journal ever, The Harvard Brain: “With clear and engaging prose, Catching Fire addresses a key and enduring scientific issue central to the quest to understand our species. It offers new insights for anyone interested in human evolution, history, anthropology, nutrition, and for everyone interested in food.” Dr. Wrangham will be bringing his show out west in early June. He is the real deal.
I’ll confess that I just didn’t get Rachel Lehmann-Haupt’s forthcoming In Her Own Sweet Time: Unexpected Adventures in Finding Love, Commitment, and Motherhood (Basic, 9780465009190) … until I had dinner with an old friend who told me of her bizarre and exhausting fertility odyssey. From relationship struggles to insurance hassles, the questions around motherhood are many and complex, more so than ever. It requires tremendous honesty, I think, to write about them as Ms. Lehmann-Haupt has done – and it helps that she’s done it with good humor as well. But you don’t have to take my word for it – here’s what Mary Pipher had to say: “This book offers extraordinary fresh and well-synthesized information that will be useful to doctors, therapists, women and couples who are striving to understand the complex worlds of fertility and relationships. Its author is thoughtful, honest, compassionate and funny. She reminded me of my daughter and her friends, all those Ophelias who are now in their thirties and struggling with the stormy seas of motherhood, commitment and work.” We’ll have a first serial in Newsweek either May 4 or 11, and Ms. Lehmann-Haupt will appear on “Good Morning America” on May 11. The book has also been assigned for review at the New York Times; that’s hardly a surprise, but….
Dread: How Fear and Fantasy Have Fueled Epidemics from the Black Death to Avian Flu, by Philip Alcabes (PublicAffairs, 9781586486181) is a book that I did get right away…although I wasn’t sure how widely noticed it would be. I ought not have been concerned. For starters, it received a starred PW review: “his study provides enough gruesome details and unexpected sidelights to captivate history fans. Looking first at the plague that swept
The early word is in on Ray Raphael’s Founders: The People Who Brought You a Nation (The New Press, 9781595583277), and there appears to be wide agreement that this is indeed his crowning achievement to date. Last time out I mentioned the starred Kirkus review. Now, Booklist praises its “robust storytelling” and calls it “almost an evangelizing introduction to the American Revolution.” PW assesses that “No one will come away without a better idea of how social class, ideas, careers, ambitions and plain luck interwove themselves into the revolution carried on by an entire people. …it will delight readers and no doubt add to their knowledge through a tale rarely told so well.” Even Library Journal says it is “sure to be a hit” – how can you go wrong?
And finally, a heads up on the upcoming publicity for You’d Be So Pretty If…: Teaching Our Daughters to Love Their Bodies – Even When We Don’t Love Our Own, by Dara Chadwick (Da Capo, 9780738212586). The current issue of Shape Magazine has a six-page excerpt (complete with jacket image), and next month’s First Magazine should have an additional author interview and feature; Family Circle, Parenting, and Weight Watchers will follow shortly. Ms. Chadwick has been blogging for Psychology Today’s website, and has been interviewed for AOL Health’s diet and fitness blog. There will also be an extensive radio tour through the ABC Radio Network, and we’ve confirmed a couple of national TV appearances: “The Today Show,” on May 1 (the official publication date, although you should have the book before then and are welcome to sell it), and Fox’s “The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet” on May 6. I think this is one that belongs just about everywhere.
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