10 Bestselling Books that Were Later Debunked

Apart from having one of the most bizarre unique headlines ever, this article provides a list of 10 books that became bestsellers, only to have their authors outed as liars exaggerating the facts not remembering things correctly. Oh, whatever. :)

Here's what the article says, and I quote:

The literary world often ends up painted as some stuffy realm of academics and intellectuals who whittle away their days polishing their monocles and dusting their sepia-toned globes. Meanwhile, in the real world, it’s positively rife with drama to rival that of the latest self-deluded pinheads paraded around on MTV for society’s perverse enjoyment. Scandals abound, including fake identities, fake memories, fake science, thievery, and other schadenfreude delights. And it’s all the more frustrating (and maybe a little entertaining) when one of the contested books lands squarely on a bestseller list.

Really? Okay.

BTW, speaking of interesting facts. Did you know that today is the 125th anniversary of the world's largest snowflake?

I know, because I saw it on the Google search page.

I can think of at least one blogger who might be interested in that bit of trivia. :)

11 Books About Coming of Age

The headline of this post is actually is a bit misleading, because the real headline of this article says it's about 11 Books to Celebrate on Coming-of-Age Day, whatever that means.

Anyway, here's what the article actually says (word for word):

Remember the day you became an adult? Maybe you walked across a stage and threw your cap in the air, or maybe you strapped on some tefillin and read from the Torah. Maybe you are Mentawaian and got your teeth chiseled. Every second Monday in January, the Japanese celebrate Coming-of-Age Day, when all those who have recently turned 20 drink, party, and go crazy. In honor of the big day, why not drink a toast to your lost youth and think back fondly on it with the help of these excellent coming-of-age books (most of which you can read in a few days or less).

That's it. And then it lists the books with brief descriptions.

Hold on. Which headline is misleading?

PS: The list includes the book shown above, as well as this one ...

This one gets mentioned in this mystery. :)

Between the Covers: Tattered Cover Book Blog

In Denver, CO, there's an indie bookstore called the Tattered Cover that really has its online act together. Not only does it have a website, complete with an awesome video, but it actually has a blog.



You'll note the blog features the following store links: Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, GoodReads and podcasts.

Now, is that impressive or what?

Please note also the good placement of text and graphics, an important aspect of good blogging, in my opinion.

Check out this post, for instance. See how nicely the three books are arranged on the virtual page?

Also, notice the descriptions. Apparently, this store isn't an asshole snob is more open to embracing new authors, regardless of how they got started than certain people I could name.

Well, it threw me for a loop. :)

Good News (I Think) for Indie Booksellers

There's good news for small retailers, including bookstores. According to this article, consumers are supporting local booksellers and other retailers, due in part to the use of online strategies to compete with you-know-who. Ha ha ha ...

Hey, what did I tell you? :)

Of course, these strategies don't always work out for everyone. Life isn't always fair. And success is never guaranteed, is it? Have I foreshadowed enough? Okay, here's the bottom line.

The last part of the article says: 

Yet some small retailers with e-commerce sites say that no matter what consumers say, supersites’ prices are just unmatchable.

Mike Stewart opened Feather & Fly, a sporting-goods store in Chattanooga, Tenn., eight years ago. As online stores started to pull away his customers, Mr. Stewart began selling some products on the Web.

Online, he found, "there’s no way I could compete against a big-box type store that could have massive inventories or cut deals to get better rates," he said.

"We did have good customer loyalty here," said Mr. Stewart, as he boxed up the inventory left over after his going-out-of-business sale, "but the Internet is a killer."

Bummer.

Books and Technology: Who's Being Disingenuous?

You know, when you're telling a story, it seems to me that it shouldn't matter whether that story is told on a printed page or by way of a digitized file. I realize some people prefer one to the other and that's fine. I'm good with both formats, actually.

Now, creating literature on the other hand would seem to require substantial human input, right?

So, how could anyone say that a bunch of CAPTCHA-created stories could comprise a literary genre? Seriously?

And have you seen the actual story created? Well, here you go. Just click this link.

Bizarre Interesting, isn't it? And yet the New York Times Book Review would damn a formerly self-published ebook author with faint praise.

I think what we have here is a bad case of putting the "fart" in art. (via Pretty Feet, Pop Toe) Ha ha ha ...

PS: Speaking of disingenuous, haven't I blogged about this before?

'The Ghosts of Belfast' is Suspenseful and Haunting

Review: THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST
Author: Stuart Neville (Soho Crime 2009)

Ages and ages and ages A little over a year ago, I wrote a review of a novel called COLLUSION by Stuart Neville for Mystery Scene Magazine. I loved it so much, I swore I'd read the book that preceded it, if it was the last thing I ever did.

Fortunately, it hasn't quite come to that. Ha ha ha ...

Anyway, this novel opens with Gerry Fegan getting drunk off his ass, which he does all the time. Fegan is, in point of fact, a stone killer who murdered many people during the The Troubles in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where the story takes place (of course). Fegan has served time in the Maze prison and has been released. However, there's a reason Fegan has become a freaking drunk bit of a rummy. He is a man haunted by the ghosts of those he's killed -- the innocents who died by his hand for the causes of others -- other people who must pay the piper.

So ... Fegan goes about whacking seeking retribution from people whose orders he blindly followed. And with each execution retribution, another ghost bites the dust vanishes. Convenient! Well, for a while, anyway. Ha ha ha ...

In any case, Fegan's series of retributions become a thorn in the side of the powers that be. Politicians (new and old guard) and another more mysterious faction (ooh, complicated!) who see his crusade as a threat to the uneasy peace that's been struck in Northern Ireland. Thus, they will do anything to stop him, including terminating Fegan with extreme prejudice.

To do this, the mysterious faction enlists the help of a renegade Scotsman named Campbell, who's about as mean a bastard fellow as Fegan. The two are about equally matched as opposing forces can be. Fegan ends up doing all sorts things to elude/outwit/fight him off. The plot is, needless to say, highly suspenseful and tension-filled. And can get pretty bloody bloody. :)

Thing is Fegan is the one the reader is rooting for, because he's the protagonist. His humanity is best expressed in his relationship with Marie McKenna and her child, Ellen. Marie has been shunned by her family due to her shagging relationship with a British peeler, aka cop. And Ellen is the result of their, um, merger relationship. So Fegan and Marie are naturally drawn to each other like two lost souls grasping for lifelines.

When you come down to it, all the characters have a touch of that humanity to them. That's what raises this story beyond the level of a suspenseful and bloody crime fiction read, to something that resonates with the reader long after you reach the book's stunning climactic bloodbath at the farm I kept reading about in the sequel. Now, I finally know what that was about! :)

And, honestly, who'd have thought a scene with a stone killer, a mother and her child could actually bring a tear to a hardboiled crime writer's eye?

Books to Read Over Winter Break

 

Frankly, I'm not a huge fan of winter. It's a great time to stay indoors and read lots of books. This is especially true when it snows. Because I'm not a big fan of snow, at all.

So, here's a list of books you might enjoy reading over the winter. Maybe.

Well, one the books, THE LEFTOVERS, has actually been reviewed on this blog.

What do you know? :)

And I really hate snow.

So, happy holidays. However you choose to celebrate them. And happy reading!

Actual Bookstores are Way Cool

Credit: AP

You know, I won't deny that I've benefited financially as an author from online sales of my books in electronic format, especially through Amazon. Since Amazon is a mammoth online retailer, what would you expect? Chopped liver?

However, that doesn't mean I agree with the recent article in Slate, that actually argued against supporting local booksellers in favor of Amazon. Seriously? WTF?

Why can't they all co-exist? Real brick and mortar bookstores have their benefits, don't they?

Yes, they do. And this article talks about that.

I urge you to read the whole thing, but the intro will give you the general idea: 

On a recent evening in Washington, D.C., Kramerbooks was hopping. Getting inside meant actually shimmying past people who were chatting and poring over the stacks. There’s a restaurant in the back, but on this particular night there was no wait for a table, so it’s safe to say that the vast majority of these people were using Kramerbooks as a place to hang out.

Two doors down, at Beadazzled, a bead and jewelry shop, no such crowd could be found. Both stores are independently owned, well-liked local institutions that have been in D.C. for decades. But Kramerbooks is a hive of ebullient chatter on any given night and Beadazzled isn’t. Why do bookstores so often become magnets for bustling urban activity?

Bookstores enjoy a rare trait: To many, the store itself is seen as at least as important to the community as the product it sells. There are several reasons for this, which is why a Slate story published earlier this week called “Don’t Support Your Local Bookseller” has sparked a small online uprising of indignant bookworms. In the story — so paint-by-numbers counterintuitive that it almost reads as a parody of a Slate piece — Farhad Manjoo argued that people should buy books on Amazon and let independent bookshops wither. “Buying books on Amazon is better for authors, better for the economy, and better for you,” he writes.

Authors and economists can duke it out over the first two claims. But “better for you” is a lot of B.S.  if you are lucky enough to live somewhere that has a quality independent bookstore. (And if you live in the suburbs, I bet it’s hard to find a parking spot by your local Barnes & Noble on a Friday night, just as it was at Borders, before bad business decisions pushed it into bankruptcy.) Unlike almost any other kind of retail establishment, bookstores operate as quasi-public neighborhood trusts that give city dwellers more than they receive in return. Like art galleries, they’re a free-of-charge indoor urban venue where you can make yourself comfortable without being expected to eat something, drink something, or even buy something.

This is why the most-loved bookstores tend to hang on: Kramerbooks and Politics & Prose in D.C., The Strand and McNally-Jackson in New York, Skylight and Book Soup in Los Angeles, Tattered Cover in Denver, Book People in Austin, Texas — the list goes on. Their patrons are numerous enough that even if only a fraction of them make a purchase it adds up to a profit. That doesn’t really make them like Whole Foods, as Manjoo suggests. Yes, both Whole Foods and independent bookstores provide a luxury shopping experience, but bookstores provide a cooperative aspect that goes well beyond that. No one goes to Whole Foods just to soak up the atmosphere — everyone’s ultimately there to buy quinoa and ramps. Bookstores, on the other hand, function as communal spaces, which makes them valuable urban amenities.

Nice rebuttal!

Besides (and in my own experience), how are you going to buy a decent espresso (at a place that reminds you of Italy) or get to hear a really great author give a talk before a signing on Amazon? Hmm? :)

20 Essential Books About Special Education

Once again, I have an article to share with an interesting list of books. In this case, it's a list of books about special education.

I'll just quote a bit from the article to give you an idea, okay?

Special education teachers require a very specific set of skills if they hope to do right by their students. Even the best make mistakes, but opening up to what others have to say and offer grants them an excellent opportunity to learn and forge viable future solutions. That’s why reading proves fundamental when entering the industry. Without the free exchange of ideas and insights, many promising kids and teens with special needs might not receive the educational opportunities that are their right.

Plenty of fantastic reads exist beyond this, of course, so read these selections and use them as an introduction to all the varying perspectives out there. This list strives more for diversity rather than any one facet in particular. Don’t take it personally if a favorite ended up left off. That doesn’t make it a bad book by any means!

Well, of course not. All books are special, right? And somehow this topic reminds me of this heartbreaking movie.

The Berkley Book Corner

As part of my continuing show of support for indie bookstores, I'm blogging about The Berkley Book Corner, which opened not too long ago.

It should be noted that this bookstore is located in Berkley, Michigan -- not Berkeley, California.

So ... I was trying to find things online that would express the essence of Berkley to readers.

A Google search produced the usual Chamber of Commerce stuff. All well and good, but BOH-ring!

Then, I turned to my old friend Google images. And what did I find?

This cool movie marquee ...

This awesome T-shirt ...

And a photo of Curtis Armstrong ... ?

Turns out that both Curtis Armstrong and Marshall Crenshaw are from Berkley, Michigan.

Now isn't that something?

50 Best Books for American History Buffs

If you enjoy history, here's a list of books you might like. An article called 50 Best Books for American History Buffs provides a list that runs the gamut from colonial American times onward.

I'll quote the article, word for word:

While a young country in comparison to many others around the globe, the United States nonetheless has a rich and engaging history. 

From the early days of settlement on the East Coast, to the wild days of outlaws and Indian wars in the West, from shore to shore, there is plenty to learn about when it comes to studying how our country came to be the nation that it is today.

Isn't that interesting? But wait! There's more.

Best of all, you don't have to major in history to do it. All you need is a passion for history and a few good books.

Here we've compiled a list of just a few of these wonderful books on America's past that offer an education on the complexities of the history of our country you likely didn't even touch upon in your previous history courses.

Yeah, complexities ...

It's All About the Money and Family in 'Steal the Show'

Review: STEAL THE SHOW (Minotaur Books 2011)
Author: Thomas Kaufman

Willis Gidney isn't your average private eye. For one thing, he was raised in the tender loving care of the Washington, D.C. juvenile justice system. Which is to say, he grew up hard and fast.

Incidentally, Gidney is a white man. For good or ill, race plays a significant role. D.C. has a large black population. And it's juvenile justice system is no exception. So Gidney grew up a minority within that system, as well as one within his own hometown.

He's also unmarried and looking to adopt a daughter who's currently in the clutches care of the D.C. Adoptive Services agency. Her name is Sarah. Well, Gidney calls her Sarah, anyway. Her actual name is Baby Jane Doe or some really institutional "who gives a good crap about you" name.

And wouldn't you know that Gidney's case worker turns out to be the biggest b*tch most ruthless bureaucrat of them all.

So Gidney really needs to get his hands on some moolah big time. To pay his lawyer. So he can grease the legal wheels and adopt this kid.

As a result, Gidney does just about the stupidest most desperate thing you can imagine. He agrees to break into a warehouse and ends up finding a lot of movie pirating equipment.

But he does it for the money, so he can grease the wheels and get the kid, so it's okay, right? No, it's not.

Turns out his client is an asshole a jerk and takes pictures of him breaking into the warehouse. Imagine!

So then the client uses the pictures to force Gidney to work for his father. The client's father, that is. Gidney don't have no daddy, remember? :( Anyhow, Gidney is forced to work for the client's dad, a lobbyist for motion pictures. Don't ask. He needs the money, okay?

Plus, have I mentioned how much I like Gidney? He's really awesome, tough and funny. Plus, Thomas Kaufman writes about D.C. with a style that's wholly his own. He captures the feel of the place perfectly. His prose reflects the hardboiled sensibilities of a modern Raymond Chandler, but does so in a fresh and unique way.

As for the plot, I don't dare tell more for risk of spoilers. Just know that Gidney's girlfriend, Lilly, is an important part of it. Gidney and Lilly share many touching scenes together. (No pun intended. Ha ha ... ) The book also features many other colorful characters, like his clever, albino attorney, various ruthless ganstas and a diva actress who tries to seduce Gidney while impaling his foot with her spike-heeled shoe. Nice! And as is customary for hardboiled mysteries, this one's got twists and turns aplenty.

So ... why is the book called STEAL THE SHOW? Because it involves film piracy. However, the great director Alfred Hitchcock used a plot device called a MacGuffin. It was a thing the characters sought or desired that was used to drive the plot, which could end up being essentially meaningless in the grand scheme. In my opinion, the film piracy in this novel seems like a MacGuffin. This story is really about Gidney's need for money and his desire for a family. This gives the book far more emotional resonance than the average private eye novel. Pretty damned awesome.

PS: How does someone in the trunk of a car survive an accident in which the auto flips over, crashes and burns, then emerge from the trunk without a scratch? I don't think so ...

PPS: It's Hopkins Street, not Hopkins Place. Ahem! :)

Mystery Scene Magazine Review of 'City of Whispers'

Before the awesome Sara Paretsky (who I've just found out is on Twitter and is a cappuccino drinker -- love it!) and even the amazing Sue Grafton (who I heart so dearly), there was Marcia Muller.

As you can see, Muller endures. CITY OF WHISPERS is her 28th Sharon McCone mystery, and I reviewed it for Mystery Scene Magazine. Here's the link to the review right here.

I love hardboiled mystery writing women. And I love the Internet. :)

Libraries -- I Remember When They Came in Buildings

You know, when I read this article about the Occupy Wall Street Library, I wondered, "What kind of librarian carts books outside and leaves them for days weeks months at a time under a tent? Seriously?"

So ... the article says (and I quote): 

The NYPD raided the Occupy Wall Street camp in Zuccotti Park last night, tossing tents, tarps, pallets, sleeping bags and 5,554 books into dump trucks. This afternoon, the Mayor’s Offices released the photograph embedded above with some welcome news: “Property from #Zuccotti, incl #OWS library, safely stored @ 57th St Sanit Garage; can be picked up Weds.” However, activists reported that books were damaged or lost.

The OWS Library posted this response: “We’re glad to see some books are OK. Now, where are the rest of the books and our shelter and our boxes? Nice try guys, but we won’t be convinced until we actually have all our undamaged property returned to us.”

Hey, stupid. Try not storing things made out of paper outside. Are you real librarians? Didn't they teach you anything about book preservation when you got your library science degrees? The whole idea is to protect books from the elements not expose them to same!

And it's not the cops' job to look after these books. Duh! It's yours. You're the librarians. Dumbass librarians. Apparently.

Tonight ReOccupy Writers will help rebuild the library in a rally in Foley Square. Even though the New York City camp has been cleared, these People’s Libraries are popping up around the country. We are building a list of Digital People’s Libraries, if you want to contribute.

Yeah, I'll get right on that. Dumbasses. 

The Occupy Wall Street librarians tweeted the eviction all night:

“NYPD destroying american cultural history, they’re destroying the documents, the books, the artwork of an event in our nation’s history … 

Right now, the NYPD are throwing over 5,000 books from our library into a dumpster. Will they burn them?”

No, no, no ... cops don't burn books. Firemen burn books, right?

Of course, I also thought librarians protected books from the elements. But, hey, what do I know ...?

Please, Tell Me This is a Big Joke

That's exactly what I thought when I saw an article with the headline Should YouTube Add a Literature Category?

I was like ... seriously?

Fortunately, it wasn't. Maybe.

The article featured a video called 50 Book Spoilers in 4 Minutes.



The video looked, for all the world, like a big joke.

But then, I read the article.


And here's what it said, word for freaking word (parts bolded by me for emphasis): 

Fiction Circus has launched a movement to create a “literature” category on YouTube, hoping to build a new space for authors and readers on the video sharing site. For instance, the 50 Books Spoilers in 4 Minutes video embedded above was put in the “Entertainment” category, despite the fact that it deals with 50 great works of literature.

Check it out: “You will note that while Google has made serious, extremely well-organized attempts to purchase and control all out-of-print literature and create a massive online digital library, they have not bothered to create a ‘literature’ category for YouTube, revealing once again that they would be terrible shepherds for the human inheritance of written knowledge. Perhaps it can be argued that literature is ‘entertainment.’ But aligning literature with ‘entertainment’ is disingenuous. Literature is never merely ‘entertainment.’”

Disingenuous? Hmm ... the last time I checked, that word meant "lacking in candor; also : giving a false appearance of simple, etc., etc. ..." In short, I don't think that word means what you think it means.