Welcome to the New World

We are so excited to be part of the HarperCollins 'Comprehensive Backlist' Program. Now, over 3,000 Harper titles are available Print-on-Demand through our Espresso Book Machine. Together, with 9 other bookstores in the country, we printed our inaugural Harper backlist title: Ann Patchett's Truth & Beauty.

You can follow the whole #podbookday conversation on Twitter and check out more of our photos on our Facebook page.

Here's a little more about this exciting new venture.

Feel free to email Anna, our Print-on-Demand & Self Publishing Coordinator with any questions about this: ubs_publish @ earthlink . net

If you find us together, which we often are...

Here is the final book in our holiday-adjacent giveaway! It's been so fun reading all your comments, and now I hope to get your creative juices flowing once more. This last book is a real beauty: A Zeal of Zebras! It's a wonderfully illustrated, large-format hardcover that is truly great for all ages.

Collective nouns are a linguistic phenomena that you suddenly realize are a thing. For me, this happened somewhat recently. I took for granted such oft-heard phrases as "pride of lions," "murder of crows," and "school of fish," but it came as a shock to open James Lipton's An Exaltation of Larks and see lists and lists of collective nouns! They were overwhelming! They don't really fill a lexical gap; after all, saying "a group of parrots" gets the idea across. But "a pandemonium of parrots?!" It's so... linguistically indulgent! Poetic, even! Anyway, I like the ones that are also insults, such as "an embarrassment of pandas," (see above) because, well, pandas. They're a little embarrassing.

So here's my challenge for you, intelligent readers of this blog. Make up a collective noun for us booksellers. Don't cheat and Google it! I did that and there's no consensus, so there's no right answer. Be a little mean if you must, but mostly, be witty.
And as always: if you want to win the book, include your e-mail address in your comment!
--Seija

What did I read in 2011? (and will 2012 be any different?)

Last year I took to reading books on a whim: considering whatever looked entertaining that came my way. I also kept in mind books that my co-workers, friends, and Nancy Pearl liked, and that Kirkus or Publishers Weekly gave starred reviews to ... because it is fun to have company once you've read a good book, right?!

So for 2011, I got a fair bit of reading done considering my own pacing and standards. [Please note: I am not a fast reader, and often will sound out words in my head so that the beauty of them doesn't escape me.]  I read around 36 books. How many books did you read?

36 is not a number with bragging rights around here: in fact I have a co-worker that can easily read a book a day (... plus she has super-duper-high retention, and it seems that she can easily refer to the specific details of books read in days gone by) and other co-workers who plumb loads of the non-fiction variety. Me, I mostly read fiction with a dash of the non.

Further, I was talking to my new friend Misha the other day and we were discussing top reading picks for the year (persuasion enough for me to actually come up with a list.) So, without further ado, here are some books that stood out for various reasons with a few guilty pleasures:

Sunshine, re-released with a silly gold-sparkly cover in trade book size, by Robin McKinley ... not sure which year I re-read it tho' ... could've been in '10. Love it, love it, love it. My fav vampire book to date.

Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemisin, her first book. Expansive fantasy freshly done. I will be reading the other two books in her Inheritance Trilogy.

The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell.
I fell in love with Temple .... And my only complaint was that it was waaay too short. :(

Soft Apocalypse, by Will McIntosh. Dystopian served up with a side of plausibility. Will look forward to other books by Will.

 

The Strain, first of a trilogy which I may not be completing, by del Toro and Hogan. Why not? Well, read it and we'll talk.

 

I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson ... easily a classic and nothin' like the movie starring Will Smith (although I liked that, too.)

Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss. I am going to hold off on reading book number two until book number three in the trilogy comes out. Mr. Rothfuss was at the book store and he is a scholar and a gentleman.

The River, by Mary Jane Beaufrand ... the beginning got me hooked ... I wanted to visit with these folk for real.  Mary Jane works at the book store sometimes, when we are lucky. She is an amazing bookseller and co-hort.

 And finally Icefall, by Mathew Kirby. Great main female adolescent character ... heroic. This is my seasonal book pick. Brrrrr! Definite thumbs up.

So, that's only nine ... yah, I know. I liked a lot of other books ... and would love to read your list(s.) With the final question that I pose to myself being: will 2012 be any different? Well, I may be hashing that out with you through my posts that follow ...

Jan

Caution: May Contain Cats

Finally! I have an excuse to post a picture of my cat on this blog. Here he is:



















Umm... were we interrupting something? Oh, just your unrelenting adorableness?
That's cool.

Back to books! This week we're giving away a copy of Crafting With Cat Hair by Kaori Tsutaya, the book that launched a thousand double-takes. Is it a joke? Nope. It's really quite earnest and sweet. Not only is it full of shockingly cute cat photos, it will also tell you what to do with that excess cuteness (aka cat hair). The answer? Felting!
In order to win this book, you must leave the name of your favorite cat (along with your e-mail address) in the comments. A winner will be chosen at random.
Shall we all say a collective "Awwww?"




**UPDATE**
Comments are closed for this giveaway. Thanks to all who entered! We have one more book to give away, and all you animal lovers will probably want to see what it is.
--Seija