Latest News from The Bookseller

Zoella relaunches WH Smith book club with author 'friends' Zoella has re-launched her book club with W H Smith, this time enlisting the help of fellow authors to select the titles.

Paddington Bear creator Michael Bond dies aged 91 Paddington Bear creator Michael Bond died at home on Tuesday (27th June) aged 91 following a short illness, his publisher has said. Described as “a giant of children’s literature” by HarperCollins, which published him for over 60 years, Bond's first book, A Bear Called Paddington, was released in 1958. Since then none of his titles have been out of print. He has sold 1.33 million books sicne 1998 totalling £7.9m according to Nielsen BookScan. Charlie Redmayne, HarperCollins c.e.o, paid tribute to "one of the great children’s writers".

Dawson pulls out of Bradford Literature Festival in protest about 'bigoted speakers' Juno Dawson has pulled out of the Bradford Literature Festival after expressing concern about what she called "bigoted" speakers slated to attend the event.

Kings Road launches 'leftfield' non-fiction imprint 535 Kings Road Publishing is launching a new non-fiction imprint this autumn called 535, hoping to turn "leftfield ideas" into bestsellers.

Jobs set to go as France's Sauramps finds buyer Over 60 jobs in total look set to go at French bookselling mini-chain Sauramps, after the Montpellier commercial court ruled in favour of an acquisition bid from the Lille-based Furet du Nord chain.

Concerns over Forest Hill Library plans to rent desk space Forest Hill Library in Lewisham has started renting out desk space at the cost of £200 a month.

Roberto Saviano returns to Pan Mac with two novels Italian investigative journalist and writer Roberto Saviano is returning to Pan Macmillan to publish his first two novels, about children's gangs patrolling the streets of Naples for the mafia.

Pullman to launch first Book of Dust at Southbank's Literature Festival Philip Pullman is set to launch La Belle Sauvage as part of The Southbank Centre's plans for this year’s Nordic-themed London Literature Festival.

William Max Nelson wins £20k Notting Hill Essay Prize The winning essayist of the third £20k Notting Hill Essay Prize is William Max Nelson for his essay "Five Ways of Being a Painting".

Headline Home pre-empts Burton-Hill's guide to classical music Headline Home has pre-empted a daily guide to classical music by arts broadcaster and journalist Clemency Burton-Hill.

ITV makes Vanity Fair with Amazon and Mammoth Screen ITV is making a seven-part drama Vanity Fair with Amazon Studios and production company Mammoth Screen.

Orenda signs Voss' 'masterful' crime book Orenda Books has signed crime writer Louise Voss in a two-book deal.

Bestsellers thisd week

 

 

 

Our Best in Children's Books

   Booksellers NZ

Our Best in Children’s Books – Capitalising on the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults   The New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults are our premier awards for children’s books. The shortlist was announced on June 7 and there are some excellent finalists this year. With plenty of social media and an eye-catching design for this year’s Awards, it’s time to get behind the best in New Zealand children’s titles. To find out what’s happening on the ground and why these Awards are important to booksellers, Stella Chrysostomou from the Book Awards Trust and VOLUME talked to Jemma Pirrie, Manager at McLeods Booksellers, John Vallely of Paper Plus Lower Hutt, Children’s Book Specialist Charlotte Molloy at UBS Otago and Helen and Mary Wadsworth, owners of Dorothy Butler Children’s Bookshop in Ponsonby. Read on.

 

 

 

 

The Roundup with PW

What the Books Editor Reads: Even the editor of the 'New York Times Book Review' hasn’t read everything: an interview with Pamela Paul.

Your Literary Idols and Their Wardrobes: On the fashionable stylings of Samuel Beckett, Zadie Smith, John Updike, Fran Lebowitz, Joan Didion, and more.

An 18th Century Adult Coloring Book: A scientist found 'The Florist,' a coloring book printed in 1760, in the library of the Missouri Botanical Garden.

A Friendship in the Archives: The friendship between Joseph Mitchell and Ralph Ellison has received little, if any, attention—but in Mitchell’s files, Ellison fills an entire folder.

A Chat with Jonathan Lethem: The Brooklynite author discusses writing, mortality, the works of Rodrigo Fresán, and more on the 'Two Month Review' podcast.

VIEW ALL »

Ashton Wylie Mind Body Spirit Literary Awards - Finalist Works Unlock Secrets to a Better Life

 

Unconditional love, mysticism, consciousness and death feature in this year’s Ashton Wylie Mind Body Spirit Literary Awards finalist works, written by New Zealanders from all walks of life and from all over the country.

The Awards’ judges’ convenor, Adonia Wylie, says it is always surprising the depth and breadth of writing in this specialised genre, which varies hugely year-on-year.

“The Unpublished Manuscript finalists in particular, are extraordinary. Ellaine Millard talks of mystical faith and information theory, Terence Green presents a scholarly and extensively researched work demonstrating the interconnectedness of all things, Hugh Major’s manuscript shimmers with a reverence for the mysterious life that seethes beneath the oceans’ surface and makes frequent reference to how our own lives and challenges have similarities to the complexities of underwater existence, Caryl Haley tackles that most difficult experience – the witnessing of a startling and profound spiritual phenomenon and Jeremy Cole offers a convincing argument for divine laziness in his profound, original and exemplary work.

“We face a considerable task in selecting a winner from such a strong line-up. “

There are ten finalists, five in each of the two categories - for published works and unpublished manuscripts. Each category winner receives a $10,000 prize.

The 2017 Mind Body Spirit Literary Awards Unpublished Manuscript category finalists are:

·         Paekakariki-based historian and lecturer, Terence Green’s Wisdom's Lament: A History of God and Science in the Modern Age

·         Whangapararoa-based retired teacher, Caryl Haley’s The Splendour of Light 

·         Matakana-based English and Drama teacher, Hugh Major’s Out of the Mouths of Fishes

*         Plimmerton-based web developer, Jeremy Cole’s Divine Laziness: The Art of Living Effortlessly

·         Whakatane-based holistic healer Ellaine Millard’s A New Mystic's Teaching & Testimony on Holistic Faith: Integrated Healing of Body, Soul & Spirit through Information Theory

Ms Wylie says this year’s Book category finalists are deeply personal works, each with powerful messages, to be read slowly and returned to over and over again.

“These published works are thought provoking and contain much wisdom. We are delighted to see 2014 Manuscript category finalist Cathryn Monro in this year’s Book category and encourage all unpublished finalists to persevere to publication stage.” 

 The 2017 Ashton Wylie Mind Body Spirit Literary Awards Book Category finalists are:

·         Wellington writer, artist, educator and mother Cathryn Monro’s Spilt Milk Yoga: A Guided Self-inquiry to Finding Your Own Wisdom, Joy and Purpose Through Motherhood (Familius)

·         Muriwai Beach-based writer Emma Farry’s Beloved (Be Loved Press)

·         North Shore, Auckland writer and coach Stephanie Harris’ Death Expands Us: An Honest Account of Grief and How to Rise Above It (Lion Crest Publishing)

·         Wellington social entrepreneur Scottie Reeve’s Twenty-One Elephants: Leaving Religion for the Reckless Way of Jesus (Scottie Reeve)

·         West Auckland Sangeeta Sharma’s Reality in Reflection: a Journey Towards Holistic Living (Blurb Inc)

 The awards are unique in the country for their encouragement of writing in the mind, body, spirit genre. The awards were established in 1999 thanks to a bequest from the late businessman, Ashton Wylie.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony at The Ashton Wylie Charitable Trust’s own venue, Hopetoun Alpha in Auckland on Friday 18 August, 2017.

Arts Journal - Words

The OED Has A New Last Word (And, Scrabble Players, It’s Worth 23 Points!)

WORDS Posted: June 29, 2017

 

Some other dictionaries have had the word before, but the Oxford English Dictionary has just admitted it. The definition? “a genus of tropical weevils (family Curculionidae) native to South America and typically found on or near palm trees.”

 

Read the story at Washington Post Published: 06.27.17

 

The Way The Biscuit Crumbles: A British Journalist Explores ‘Semantic Colonialism’

WORDS Posted: June 29, 2017

 

Sure, “the wonderful thing about the English language is its sponge-like ability to absorb, use and discard un-English verbiage and still be vitally itself.” But wait! Americanisms invading British English means “Britain, and young Britain in particular, has handed over ‘control of its culture and vocabulary to Washington, New York and Los Angeles.’ It is, Engel argues, ‘self-imposed serfdom.'”

 

Read the story at The New Statesman (UK) Published: 06.26.17

Off the Shelf

9 Books We Can’t Stop Talking About June 29, 2017 By Off the Shelf Staff

 

“Read. Recommend. Repeat.” That’s more than just a motto here at Off the Shelf. Sharing the books we love is a big part of how we move through the world. Bonding over our favorite authors is how we connect with new people and how we get closer to those we love most. In that spirit, here are 10 books we can’t stop talking about. READ MORE

Publishers Lunch

Today's Meal

People, Etc.

Marlene Kelly has been promoted to senior marketing manager for Amazon Publishing.

Meg Reid has been promoted to director of Hub City Press effective July 1. Founder and current director Betsy Teter will retain the title of editor and director of development. Also starting July 1, Hub City Press titles will be distributed by Publishers Group West.

Alongside his attorney and his existing representation for publishing, novelist John Irving signed with Gersh Agency for theatrical representation.

Antonia Byatt will serve as interim director of English PEN.

The Guardian conducted an informal study investigating the gender gap in UK book publishing, "following up anecdotal reports that women were being kept out of the top tiers despite making up the bulk of the industry's workforce." Speaking to 80 women and 12 men, they found that "the majority felt women had been increasingly excluded from the top tier due to a variety of factors: institutional sexism, inflexible working practices, and opaque promotional and pay structures that result in men consistently being paid more than female colleagues in the same role." As one women put it, "Diversity is a keyword for the company, but trying to achieve equality for men and women in senior positions does not seem to be a concern."

Quartz was given the first 50 pages of Milo Yiannopoulos's self-published Dangerous, releasing next Tuesday, and Gizmodo obtained a complete copy. Neither is impressed -- but then, neither is likely the audience for the book either, which will sell to fans and the faithful. Gizmodo concludes, "Dangerous is dreadfully dull. Beneath the regurgitated propaganda arguing against a fair, multicultural, egalitarian society is a portrait of an e-celebrity without an audience, a blogger without a publisher, and, above all, an attention-seeking troll whose playbook of goads no longer elicits any emotion whatsoever. To the detriment of the book, self-reflection is utterly absent." They say the new book is close to the prior manuscript that Simon & Schuster's Threshold Editions cancelled, though it has a new introduction and some other adjustments. "The substance of the book has remained largely unchanged in the six month interim. It remains a tedious and at times bitter self-defense written by a man who claims to enjoy the negative attention he sought out. Dangerous is not offensive, shocking, or thought-provoking. Had it met its original release date of mid-March, many of the topics contained within would still have felt well past their prime."

Book launch Invitation

The Pacific Room’ the debut novel from Michael Fitzgerald

Michael Fitzgerald’s debut novel The Pacific Room (Transit Lounge $29.95) tells of the last days of Tusitala, ‘the teller of tales’, as Robert Louis Stevenson became known in Samoa where he chose to die.
In 1892 Girolamo Nerli travels from Sydney by steamer to Apia, with the intention of capturing something of Jekyll and Hyde in his portrait of the famous author. Nerli’s presence sets in train a disturbing sequence of events.
More than a century later, art historian Lewis Wakefield comes to Samoa to research the painting of Tusitala’s portrait by the long-forgotten Italian artist.

On hiatus from his bipolar medication, Lewis is freed to confront the powerful reality of all the desires and demons that R. L. Stevenson couldn’t control. Lewis’s personal journey is shadowed by the story of the lovable Teuila, a so-called fa‘afafine (‘in the manner of a woman’), and the spirit of Stevenson’s servant boy, Sosimo.

Set in an evocative tropical landscape haunted by the lives and spirits which drift across it, The Pacific Room is both a love letter to Samoa and a lush and tender exploration of artistic creation, of secret passions and merging dualities.

 

Available 1 July  at all good bookstores .
RRP - A29.95  -  Transit Lounge Publishing, Melbourne

Author pic right.