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Author, Writer, and Editor Lisa Adams | 'Society of Stepmothers,' 'S'mores: Gourmet Treats for Every Occasion,' 'Feshy's Dreamworld,' 'The Evil Sweater and Other Stories,' and 'Why We Read What We Read,'

Author, Writer, and Editor Lisa Adams | 'Society of Stepmothers,' 'S'mores: Gourmet Treats for Every Occasion,' 'Feshy's Dreamworld,' 'The Evil Sweater and Other Stories,' and 'Why We Read What We Read,'

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Category: Bestsellers

Born Standing Up

LisaOctober 28, 2010January 22, 2014

Born Standing Up by Steve Martin
Narrated by Steve Martin

I know this is probably incredible for a person who, like, reads all the time and writes stupid book reviews, but I think this was the first biography I’ve ever read! I just…don’t really care about the lives of famous people. So there it is. But this one was relatively interesting and very short. If you’re looking for a good starter biography, you might want to check this one out.

Story: Steve Martin reflects on his years (and years and years) trying to make it as a stand-up comedian. Martin details all the hard work, all the failures, all the practice, all the mean reviews—and then all the humongous success. This isn’t the story of Martin’s whole life, just his childhood and his years doing stand-up. His life in the 80s and beyond remains a mystery.

Writing: I know what you’re thinking—this book is going to be hilarious! Well, you’d be wrong. This isn’t a book of comedy; it’s a book about comedy, and the life of a person who’s famous for it. Martin is certainly a competent writer and a smart dude, but if you’re looking for knee-slappers, this is not the book for you.

Themes: Damn, it’s hard trying to make it as an artist. And when you actually do, it’s overrated.

Best thing about it: It’s always good to remember that even the most famous among us had to work their tails off for decades to get where they are. And it’s good to remember that success is a mixed bag.

I really enjoyed hearing about Martin’s adventures in California, since I know the places. And, as weird as this sounds, I was able to confirm that my husband’s pronunciation of Knotts Berry Farm is probably right, since Martin says it the same way.

Worst thing about it: Because the book is driven by an actual life, it can lack shape; there are times it feels like just a list of places and people. And, well, it would have been better if it were funny.

Audiobook insights: Definitely get the audiobook. It’s cool to hear a book narrated by a voice you know and a person you can picture. And it takes the edge off some of the boring parts.

Final thoughts: This has nothing to do with my book review, but my husband thinks he performed the same night as pre-fame Martin at a Pasadena comedy club back in the 70s. Pretty cool, no?

The Island

LisaSeptember 9, 2010January 22, 2014

The Island by Elin Hilderbrand

Okay, I love my Kindle, but there is just one little problem with it that only major snobs like yours truly will appreciate: it doesn’t really let you see the covers, so you can’t exactly figure out what genre you are considering.

Thus me purchasing The Island.

Yes, I did read the sample, and that should have delivered a healthy dose of caveat emptor. But it didn’t (my brain was addled by vacation; I was trying to find something light; the sample mentioned weddings; I just went for it). And then I was stuck with incredibly lengthy chick lit that I was too, er, tenacious to stop reading.

Let me be clear, though: this isn’t a bad book. It’s just kind of a pointless one, and very long for a book that has neither a thrills-a-minute plot nor thematic depth. I thought chick lit was supposed to be short and sweet, maybe even funny and charming, but The Island is fairly serious. To me it’s lying in limbo, somewhere between a beach read and a literary novel.

Setting: Modern-day Tuckernuck, an ultra-rustic island off of Nantucket.

Story: Mom, two daughters, and aunt spend a month together at their family’s vacation home on a remote island. Each is dealing with a relationship issue: a divorce; a broken engagement; a dead husband and potential lesbian lover; and a lifelong crush that hasn’t materialized. Each woman must work through her issues, past and present, with her love interest(s) and her female relations.

Themes: Sibling rivalry; the nature of love; guilt and forgiveness.

Writing: It’s fine. Nothing that will knock your socks off, but nothing bad either. It’s just really long. (Have I mentioned that?)

Best thing about it: Lesbians?

Worst thing about it: It’s just doesn’t have enough depth for a novel that is all about feelings and relationships. And it has a ridiculously unbelievable stepmom sub-plot that had me rolling my eyes.

Final thoughts: The Island would probably make a satisfying beach read for many women, but I just wasn’t one of them.

Little Bee

LisaAugust 26, 2010January 22, 2014

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

Setting: Modern-day London and Nigeria.

Story: Okay, I’m going to go along with the book’s marketing team on this one—I can’t really tell you. But the fulcrum of the story involves a British couple, two Nigerian teenagers, and a horrific event on a Nigerian beach that—you know—changes their lives forever.

Writing: The narrative switches between the first-person perspectives of Sarah (the British woman) and Little Bee (one of the Nigerian teenagers). Little Bee’s language is especially entertaining and rhythmic, though at first I thought it was a little patronizing.

Themes: Some pretty heavy stuff underpins this novel: immigration and the treatment of refugees; globalization and its human cost; the meaning and impact of self-sacrifice; what makes a life worth living (or not). It’s meaty, man.

Best thing about it: Interesting plot and Little Bee’s perspective.

Worst thing about it: I found Sarah a bit tedious and her son a lot tedious.

Final thoughts: A good choice for book clubs. You can all ask each other what you would do during the big secret event that I can’t tell you about.

The Shadow of the Wind (Spain)

LisaJune 15, 2010January 22, 2014

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Narrated by Jonathan Davis

Setting: 1950s Barcelona

Story: When protagonist Daniel is just a child, his father takes him to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books—a vast and secret library where books in danger of extinction live for all time. (Book nerds, start salivating!) Daniel’s mission there is to choose one special book whose existence he will protect for life.

Daniel sets out to investigate his chosen tome and stumbles upon a mystery—what happened to the book’s disturbed, talented, and wildly unsuccessful author? And why is someone seeking out and burning all his books? Along with Fermín, a hilarious friend and self-described ladies’ man, Daniel sets out to uncover the author’s secrets and stop his work from being destroyed.

Writing: Quite readable with some literary flair. (It’s a translation, however, so I can’t comment on the original.)

Best thing about it: Fermín is just a great character who lends some wonderful levity to the book. His relationship with Daniel is touching and three-dimensional—not the usual fare. I also love that the mysterious author is amazingly gifted, yet can’t sell a novel to save his life!

Worst thing about it: Shockingly, I can’t think of anything to complain about.

Audiobook insights: Highly recommended. Davis is a genius at distinguishing the characters from one another, especially in bringing Fermín to life.

Final thoughts: This literary mystery and coming-of-age story is a great read.

Re-read The Corrections

LisaApril 28, 2010January 22, 2014

In Why We Read What We Read, we talked briefly about Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections, using it to illustrate Oprah’s peculiar ways of reading literature. But we never really got to say what a wonderful book it is.

This was unfair. Franzen’s National Book Award winner is one of the best books we read on our bestselling journey, certainly my personal Fiction Top Five. It chronicles the lives of the five members of the Lambert family: stubborn, recalcitrant father Alfred, on a steady Parkinson’s-induced decline; nagging mother Enid, perpetually midwestern and disappointed with her children’s unconventional choices; prosperous son Gary, obsessed with proving how great his life is even as he loses the war against depression and his wife and children’s alliance against him; writer/academic son Chip, whose imprudent dalliances with an undergraduate cost him his career and his dignity; and daughter Denise, a star chef successful in all but the personal arena where she manages to get involved with both her boss and his wife.

Never has a book about so many wretched people been so hilarious. It’s not slapstick, just the perfect turns of phrase, the perfect big hunks of chapters that expose the neuroses and obsessions of these people in all their all-too-realistic glory.

Hardcover Nonfiction for 2007

LisaJune 17, 2008May 29, 2014

Just to follow up on John’s comments about the top political sellers for 2007, here are the actual top 15 nonfiction bestsellers:

1. The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. Atria/Beyond Words (11/06) 4,590,000
2. The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn & Hal Iggulden. Collins (5/07) 1,900,000
3. Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. Collins (10/07) 1,800,000
4. You: Staying Young—The Owner’s Manual for Extending Your Warranty by Michael F. Roizen, M.D., and Mehmet C. Oz, M.D. Free Press (10/07) 1,451,945
5. I Am America (and So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert. Grand Central (10/07) 1,422,876
6. Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Every Day by Joel Osteen. Free Press (10/07) 1,181,173
7. The Daring Book for Girls by Andrea J. Buchanan & Miriam Peskowitz. Collins (10/07) 1,000,000
8. You: On a Diet—The Owner’s Manual for Waist Management by Michael F. Roizen, M.D., and Mehmet C. Oz, M.D. Free Press (10/06) 998,324
9. Guinness World Records 2008. Guinness World Records (8/07) 980,000
10. The Weight Loss Cure “They” Don’t Want You to Know About by Kevin Trudeau. Alliance Publishing (4/07) 825,913
11. Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices & Priorities of a Winning Life by Tony Dungy with Nathan Whitaker. Tyndale House (07/07) 820,124
12. Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny by Suze Orman. Spiegel & Grau (2/07) 753,618
13. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. Farrar, Straus & Giroux/Sarah Crichton (2/07) 611,435
14. Clapton by Eric Clapton. Broadway Books (9/07) 600,756
15. Christmas with Paula Deen: Recipes and Stories from My Favorite Holiday by Paula Deen. Simon & Schuster (10/07) 580,000

Hmm. It must have been a good year, because only a handful of these titles make me sick. It really is incredible that only one political book—and a silly one at that—made the top 15. It sheds a few drops of moisture on the parched, cynical soil of my soul.

That’s not to say that these are particularly brilliant offerings, either. Still, one can’t get too worked up about (reasonable) diet, health, and recipe books. I find it interesting that The Dangerous Book for Boys outsold The Daring Book for Girls by almost double—quite a reverse in the typical trend. But I wouldn’t be surprised if girls are just reading up on the boy stuff.

Those goddamn girls.

You know what we think about The Secret and Kevin “The Felon” Trudeau. Who are the people buying these books? It’s like Mariah Carey—you can’t find a single person who likes her or owns any of her albums, but somehow she’s this amazing superstar. I’d like to put forth another crackpot theory: any person who likes Mariah also owns The Secret. Go on, prove me wrong.

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Waiting for the Nastiness

LisaMay 19, 2008May 29, 2014

This post by John Heath, whatever it might say above

Taking a look at the bestselling lists from 2007 and 2008, I have not been surprised that they generally look a lot like those from previous years. But perhaps my pessimism is premature. So far in 2008 there has been one major, wonderful change in America’s bestselling reading: the comparative absence of bestselling political spew. We are already over a third of the way through the election year and there have been only four bestsellers specifically about American politics (remember, in that last presidential election year there were 40—did I mention that I read them all?). And these four take a distinctly different tone than those from the previous decade. Steven Colbert’s I Am America (And So Can You) undermines conservatism through humor, not wrath; Glenn Beck’s conservative An Inconvenient Book can be wittily self-effacing. Even Newt Gingrich has climbed onto the bestselling lists by claiming we need Real Change and that America is not divided into red and blue (although, well, it’s still the Left that causes most of the problems). And the ultimate change-fan, Barack Obama, offers his now-famous optimistic take on the future in The Audacity of Hope.

These are the four bestsellers? These silly, hopeful, not-very-angry books? Get outta town.

We keep hearing that Americans are ready for change. Are the bestseller lists evidence that we are making it happen? Are these books a good indication of a change in the zeitgeist? (It’s a well-established law that every essay on culture must use the word zeitgeist—I held off until the last paragraph to keep you in suspense.) Does the success of a woman, an African-American, and a maverick in the primaries suggest we are fed up with acrimonious dichotomies offered us in 2004 in both our reading and our political choices?

We’ll see. Readers still have over half a year to start buying up the latest screed from the radio talk show hosts and New York Times pundits. Can we resist? My guess is that within a few months reasoned debate will be harder to find than Ann Coulter’s maternal instinct or Michael Moore’s copy of The South Beach Diet. But I’m hoping—really, really hoping—that I’m wrong.

Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers 2007: James Patterson gets even more annoying

LisaMay 12, 2008May 29, 2014

Okay, I’m serious now, people. Stop reading James Patterson! He’s just not that good.

The numbers, alas, say otherwise: in addition to the four paperback bestsellers already mentioned in my earlier post, the guy has five hardcover bestsellers as well! Here’s the full list:

1. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Riverhead (5/07) 2,201,865
2. Playing for Pizza by John Grisham. Doubleday (9/07) 1,445,000
3. Double Cross
by James Patterson. Little, Brown (11/07) 1,428,974
4. The Choice by Nicholas Sparks. Grand Central (9/07) 1,200,809
5. Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich. St. Martin’s (6/07) 1,116,828
6. Plum Lovin’ by Janet Evanovich. St. Martin’s (1/07) 1,080,686
7. Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell. Putnam (10/07) 1,027,000
8. The Quickie by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge. Little, Brown (7/07) 795,736
9. The 6th Target by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro. Little, Brown (5/07) 769,460
10. The Darkest Evening of the Year by Dean Koontz. Bantam (11/07) 740,000
11. Step on a Crack by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge. Little, Brown (2/07) 732,702
12. You’ve Been Warned by James Patterson and Howard Roughan. Little, Brown (9/07) 724,713
13. T Is for Trespass by Sue Grafton. Putnam (12/07) 716,582
14. Stone Cold by David Baldacci. Grand Central (11/07) 670,590
15. Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. Atria Books (3/07) 609,000

The saddest thing about this unsurprising list is that not a single new novelist made it this year. Though I’m not a passionate fan of Mr. Hosseini, I guess I can be glad that the number one title was a literary offering.

Mostly, though, I keep thinking about Sue Grafton. I honestly remember seeing these same Kinsey Millhone books in the store when I was a child. How can Grafton not be wanting to gnaw off her own fingers at this point? And does some brilliant psychotic meltdown await her when the alphabet runs out? I worry about her. I really do.

Bestselling Mass Market Paperbacks, 2007

LisaApril 28, 2008May 29, 2014

Here they be.

1. Blood Brothers. Nora Roberts. Orig. Jove (2,247,730)
2. Cross
. James Patterson. Rep. Grand Central (1,831,296)
3. Angels Fall. Nora Roberts. Rep. Jove (1,655,329)
4. Judge & Jury. James Patterson & Andrew Gross. Rep. Grand Central (1,653,623)
5. Beach Road. James Patterson & Peter de Jonge. Rep. Grand Central (1,645,810)
6. Honeymoon. James Patterson & Howard Roughan. Rep. Grand Central (1,638,139)
7. Next. Michael Crichton. Rep. Harper (1,600,000)
8. Twelve Sharp. Janet Evanovich. Rep. St. Martin’s (1,500,000)
9. At Risk. Patricia Cornwell. Rep. Berkley (1,445,075)
10. The Collectors. David Baldacci. Rep. Grand Central (1,286,410)
11. Two Little Girls in Blue. Mary Higgins Clark. Rep. Pocket (1,231,500)
12. True Believer. Nicholas Sparks. Rep. Grand Central (1,205,824)
13. Echo Park. Michael Connelly. Rep. Grand Central (1,068,053)
14. At First Sight. Nicholas Sparks. Rep. Grand Central (1,035,993)
15. Dead Watch. John Sandford. Rep. Berkley (1,005,314)

Look at James Patterson go! He’s clearly still well utilizing the practice of getting authorial hopefuls to write his books. Interesting, though, how the title that was Patterson’s alone—Cross—sold ever so slightly more copies. Coincidence? Or do people actually dislike diluted Pattersons?

Nora Roberts is also still pumping out the books and raking in the checks, though this year she only had two titles in the top 15, for a total of almost four million copies. Impressive, sure, but compare to last year’s four titles and nine million copies (not to mention the comparative 4.3 million copies that Eat, Pray, Love sold—further kudos to Elizabeth Gilbert!). Perhaps she’s finally decided to take it easy, publishing only, you know, ten books a year or so. Hey, even cyborgs need a vacation.

And one has to ask (though one wishes she didn’t notice) where is Dan Brown? In 2006 he scaled both the Trade Paperback and Mass Market Paperback lists with over nine million copies of his novels sold; this year not a single one of his books sold even 100,000 copies. The list-dominator has simply vanished! Is his own shocking disappearance part of an elaborate promotional plan for his next novel…or has every single person in America finally read The Da Vinci Code?

The 2007 annual bestseller lists are here!

LisaApril 20, 2008May 29, 2014

Okay, they’ve been here, it turns out, for almost a month. But Publisher’s Weekly has this sneaky way of burying each year’s numbers in its voluminous archives, hiding their presence even from its own search engine. Very secretive, those folks.

PW publishes four different lists: Hardcover Fiction, Hardcover Nonfiction, Trade Paperbacks (both fiction and nonfiction), and Mass Market Paperbacks (fiction, often of the genre variety). Shall we start with the top fifteen Trade Paperbacks? (Click here for the full list.)

1. Eat, Pray, Love. Elizabeth Gilbert. Rep. Penguin (4,274,804)
2. The Kite Runner. Khaled Hosseini. Rep. Riverhead (2,022,041)
3. Water for Elephants. Sara Gruen. Rep. Algonquin (1,450,000)
4. The Road. Cormac McCarthy. Rep. Vintage (1,364,722)
5. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter. Kim Edwards. Rep. Penguin (1,362,585)
6. The Pillars of the Earth. Ken Follett. Rep. NAL (1,310,419)
7. Love in the Time of Cholera. Gabriel García Márquez. Rep. Vintage (1,298,554)
8. 90 Minutes in Heaven. Don Piper and Cecil Murphey. Orig. Revell (1,273,000)
9. Jerusalem Countdown. John Hagee. Revised. Frontline (1,200,000)
10. Middlesex. Jeffrey Eugenides. Rep. Picador (1,000,000)
11. Measure of a Man. Sidney Poitier. Orig. HarperOne (1,000,000)
12. Skinny Bitch. Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin. Orig. Running Press (987,000)
13. Into the Wild. Jon Krakauer. Rep. Anchor (918,234)
14. Three Cups of Tea. Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. Rep. Penguin (843,390)
15. The 5th Horseman. James Patterson & Maxine Paetro. Rep. Grand Central (707,340)

The majority of these are no surprise. Eat, Pray, Love. Yes, yes. The Kite Runner. Yes, yes. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter—last year’s number two. A third of these books are associated with Oprah in some way.

It’s numbers 8 and 9 that make me think things went a little wonky in ’07. I’m dismayed to see that 90 Minutes in Heaven—a book detailing a near-death experience and resulting life of devout Christianity—has actually gained in popularity (it was #9 last year), now selling a total of around 2 million copies. Funny how James Frey gets skewered for fabricating parts of his memoir, yet anyone can write these “visit to heaven” books with no proof whatsoever of their authenticity—and no one seems to care!

Sure, 90 Minutes in Heaven could have been a flukey favorite, but number 9 suggests instead that America’s religious curiosity is all aflame. The purpose of Jerusalem Countdown, written by some nutjob pastor, is to demonstrate through biblical prophecy how America’s prickly issues with Iran may lead to the Apocalypse. And people bought 1.2 million copies of it.

Of course, the presence of religious books on an annual bestseller list can also indicate a general case of the societal willies. In troubling times, even the confused and indifferent start reading the darnedest things. The two titles here are so typical of our culture’s hysterical extremism: we want to scare the crap out of ourselves with looming conflicts both material and supernatural, yet be reminded that redemption is available with just a little faith. So different, yet so comforting: for even as his horrors spill from heaven, Pastor Hagee reminds us that a plan governs the universe and all our lives.

I’m sorry to see that no first-time novelists scored this year, though one certainly can’t begrudge literary author and relative newcomer Sara Gruen her number-three spot for Water for Elephants.

Best book on the list: The Road. Followed closely by Pillars of the Earth and Middlesex.

Worst book on the list: Jerusalem Countdown. I think I can safely say this without reading a single word.

Eatin’, prayin’, lovin’

LisaMarch 25, 2008May 29, 2014

Never has a woman embodied that old saying “when a door closes, another one opens” quite like Elizabeth Gilbert.

There she was, married and nesting, trying to get preggers, when she realized that women who really want husbands and babies probably don’t sob for hours every night on their bathroom floors. Three years and one nasty divorce later, Gilbert had lost it all. Broke and bereft, she had no idea where to go or what to do.

Then her publisher had a great idea. They’d give Gilbert an advance that would enable her to travel abroad for a year, writing the book that would become the mega-bestseller Eat, Pray, Love.

Some people have all the luck.

Gilbert segmented her trip—and her book—into three equal parts. The first stop was Italy, home of gastronomic and linguistic pleasure; next came India, where all the serious people go to connect with God; finally, Bali, to learn…erm…something about balance. If you’ve been trolling this blog for a while, you’ll know I was not particularly keen to read Eat, Pray, Love, but I will happily admit that the book was much better than I feared. Gilbert’s writing is witty and charmingly self-deprecating, and she has a wonderful way of drawing threads through the story that make the whole journey—or at least the resulting book—cohesive and complete.

The section on Italy will make you drool. Hell, it’ll probably make you fat. (Is there a volume of Eat This Not That for Italian food? It’s probably Not That! No, Not That Either!) Gilbert’s life in Italy is almost unbearably dreamy. She does nothing but whatever she wants, every day—mainly eating gelato and speaking Italian—for four pound-packing months.

Oh, it hurts not to be her.

But I stopped feeling so envious in part two, when Gilbert heads to India for four months of spiritual calisthenics. I’m sure her descriptions are all very insightful and magical…but if you are not especially spiritual or into meditation you may find this portion of the book boring. Or loony. I sort of wanted to pat her on the head the whole time and say, “Sure, lady. Mm-hmm.” (And I’m not the only one. I talked to two genuine grade-A middle-aged moms—the demographic voted Most Likely to Inhale This Book—and even they skipped parts of this section.)

Finally, Gilbert whiles away the final leg of her journey in Bali, and in her search for balance she’s back to her old witty ways. Her portrayal of the culture and characters of this tiny Indonesian island is both charming and fascinating. And by the end, the broken woman we met at the beginning of the story has become happy, balanced, and whole.

So I gotta say that overall I was pleasantly surprised. Hear me now—Eat, Pray, Love is a thoughtful and enjoyable book.

But I do have to bring up one teensy weensy little thing.

I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that so brazenly celebrated self-absorption. I know, I know—it’s the genre. It’s what Gilbert’s publishers paid for. I get it. Still, what is with female readers and their excessive navel-gazing? Unlike most literary works, which at least cover a number of characters and ideas, this book is literally about one person. It’s kind of about the pursuit of pleasure; it’s kind of about praying; it’s kind of about balance. But mostly it’s about Elizabeth Gilbert. In short, one of America’s very favorite reads for the past 61 weeks is about someone who spends a year doing nothing but thinking about herself. Is this the new American dream? Looking at our literature, it certainly seems that way. Too bad only the very very fortunate get paid for it.

Bestsellers that Count

LisaMarch 13, 2008May 29, 2014

This post is by John Heath. Yes, he deigned to write a blog post. Whatta guy.

Unlike my chatty colleague in crime, it’s been several months since I spent focused time with bestsellers. Let’s call it “Da Vinci fatigue.” Did you miss me? Hmmn. Well, let’s pretend you did, and that you’re excited that I’m starting to get the itch again. Maybe it’s the anticipation of the appearance of Publishers Weekly’s bestselling lists for 2007. Maybe it’s spring fever. Maybe it’s just that rash again (don’t ask). In any case, a few weeks ago I plunged right back into the bestselling pond. Well, okay, not so much plunged as put my toe in, scouring the bestseller lists so far in 2008. And it turned out the water felt awfully familiar.

Predictable names dominate the fiction lists: Patterson, Evanovich, Albom, Cornwell, and of course the unstoppable trio of Grisham and Roberts and King (oh my!). Fitness, diet, and cookbooks are still the rage. Spiritual guides clog many of the top spots, including the inestimable advice of Montel Williams. For those not interested in his Living Well, there are dozens of vampire tales for the living dead. Business guides flourish, of course, proving once again novelist Chris Buckley’s wisdom that the only way to get rich from a get-rich book is to write one.  The ephemeral joys of pop biography (Tom Cruise) and auto-biography (Steve Martin) continue to appeal. Adding increased auctoritas to a relatively mundane collection are such classics as To Kill a Mockingbird, Night, Green Eggs and Ham, and Good Morning Moon. Oh, and of course, there’s that perennial spellbinder, The Official SAT Study Guide.

But there are a couple major differences between previous years and the 2008 lists so far. One is the remarkable absence of political spew in an election year. (I’ll have more to say about what this may signify at a later date, but that’s actually a substantive issue and I’m trying to keep this as shallow as possible. You don’t want to dive too deeply too fast into this bestseller stuff.) The most striking deviation from the past is in the titles, and I think our Why We Read What We Read may have had a salutary influence on the industry. The publishing titans no doubt read our analysis and jumped into action. In our survey of bestselling books over the past 16 years, we noted that there was an odd reliance on the number 7 (see pages 40-1). But so far bestsellers in 2008 have provided an unprecedented and nearly algebraic variety: Three Cups of Tea (due out soon, its sequel: Eight Trips to the Bathroom), 4-Hour Work Week, The Five Love Languages, The Six Sacred Stones, 12 Second Sequence (no, it’s not about sex), The Thirteenth Tale, Nineteen Minutes, 21 Pounds in 21 Days, 90 Minutes in Heaven (which beats Nineteen Minutes by over an hour), and, pummeling all others in numerical dust, A Thousand Splendid Suns. The author of The Nine was apparently so confident in the number that he felt it could stand alone as a bestselling noun.

It’s nice to know we’ve made a difference.

Eat This Not That

LisaMarch 2, 2008May 29, 2014

Holy crap, what a dumb name for a book. I know it’s been on the bestseller charts for a while, but I’ve been ignoring it because 1) it’s a diet book, yawn and 2) its title is so exceedingly lame.

But last night John and I went out in the world and spied this little volume with our own eyes. And I realized when I saw the cover that this was not your typical benign-but-forgettable book of diet advice.

See, the title wasn’t just the result of a lazy or uninspired author. Eat This Not That is literally the point of the whole book: it provides specific suggestions for what to eat and what not to eat at some of America’s most popular chain restaurants. Try the chili onion rings, not the nacho cheese bacon poppers. Order the fried butter, not the ham-and-lard sandwich. In other words, eat this [unhealthy garbage] instead of that [even more unhealthy garbage]. The book features two pages for each establishment—Applebee’s, Taco Bell, Cici’s Pizza—providing a list of thises and thats for each beloved, nasty greasehole.

Boy is this the perfect “diet” book for the modern era. Only Americans could be so retarded as to think that eating a Big Mac instead of a Whopper with Cheese will help them lose weight (yes, this is actually one of the proffered suggestions). That people would seriously buy and recommend this book (it’s got almost five stars on Amazon)—and that someone in good conscience could publish it—absolutely boggles the mind.

The only merit to Eat This Not That, I would say, is that it exposes just how horrible and fattening this kind of food really is. Even I didn’t know that a plate of Denny’s pancakes packs a walloping 980 calories, and I’m pretty obnoxious when it comes to caloric awareness. The book also goes on to offer general suggestions for making healthier food choices, but frankly the main thrust of the content is so ridiculous that I can’t give Eat This Not That even the teensiest endorsement. But maybe that’s not entirely fair. After all, while dieting you could be kidnapped and forced to eat at Popeye’s, and then this book would be totally useful. Riiight.

Look, I’m not saying I never ever eat this type of food—I do—but never would I dream that it was going to result in anything but bulges and flab. The plain truth is that no dieter should even breathe the fumes of any of these restaurants, and the fact that thousands of people are buying a book like Eat This Not That shows we are nowhere near to facing, let alone solving, our ever-swelling obesity epidemic.

Three Cups of Whoop-ass

LisaFebruary 21, 2008May 29, 2014

You’d better think twice before slapping a fatwa on Greg Mortenson. Try to deny this dude his dream of educating Pakistani children and he will be all over your sorry terrorist-abiding ass. Oh sure, he’ll sit down with you, all civilized-like. But as soon as you’ve poured the tea, he’ll overturn the table and scald you with the requisite three cups, all the while screaming, “I’m gonna build you a school, mother****er!”

Oh, if only. Maybe that’s how the movie version will turn out.

Three Cups of Tea is a fine book. A fine book that could have used just a little spice. Journalist David Oliver Relin ably tells the story of unwitting hero Greg Mortenson, a mountain climber who gets lost during a K2 expedition and discovers not only a remote Pakistani village but his life’s purpose. Three Cups chronicles Mortenson’s efforts to build schools for the Middle East’s poorest children, thus fighting what he believes are the root causes of terrorism and religious extremism. Risking his life countless times, devoting himself in a way unimaginable to most of us, Mortenson is a remarkable and inspiring man who deserves every royalty he gets from this raging bestseller.

And yet this book didn’t quite grab me the way Reading Lolita in Tehran—to which it is frequently compared—did. I’m sure that’s partially because Lolita is about the transformative power of literature, and Three Cups is more vaguely about education—I dunno, math and crap. (I’m joking. I love math. But it doesn’t get me all misty.) It’s also, I think, because Three Cups is kind of a one-note inspirational experience, a reeeeaaaallly long Chicken Soup for the Soul selection. Mortenson is awesome. I believe it. But I believed it by page 10 and at that point there were still 320 pages to go.

That’s not to say I didn’t learn a lot. I learned about mountain climbing and construction and the Middle Eastern way of life (don’t rush it, man—the Pakistani chiefs are rather like the chilled-out surfers in my native Santa Cruz, though probably not as stoned). I learned that most Americans are into helping Buddhists but tend to shun the Muslims. And I learned that that’s just silly, because Muslims are poorer and will thus love you more when you lend a hand.

Okay, that’s not really the message of Three Cups, though the book says in no uncertain terms that Mortenson’s beneficent, education-bestowing presence in the Middle East combats terrorism and anti-American sentiment better than any military approach ever could. Passionate testimonials from all and sundry confirm the lasting dividends of both secular education and American lovingkindness, making the book positively pulse with a heartwarming (if heavy-handed) glow.

So: if you’re looking for an interesting plunge into another culture, a well-written chronicle of a real-life hero, Three Cups of Tea is the book for you. But if you’re looking for whoop-ass, even one cup of it, you’ll have to drink something besides Mortenson’s inspirational tea.

Help! I can’t finish anything

LisaFebruary 3, 2008

Don’t you hate it when you’re reading a bunch of books but none of them really do it for you?

That’s been my problem over the past couple of weeks. If only the books I’m reading were actually bad! Then I could stop—or (more likely) finish them right away and gleefully write them up in this blog.

So here’s what I’m slogging through:

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin—this is my “big bestseller” selection; it’s currently #6 on the USA Today list, enjoying its 47th week of fame. It’s about this dude, Greg Mortenson, who gets lost during a K2 climbing expedition and finds his way to a remote village in Pakistan. Befriending the natives, Mortenson agrees to return and build a school for the village children. Three Cups of Tea is the story of Mortenson’s personal journey from mountain-climbing hippie to nonprofit CEO, the story of what he gives to and learns from some of the poorest communities on earth.

There is nothing inherently bad about this book. The writing is quite good and the story is interesting, even inspiring, a la Reading Lolita in Tehran. But god-dang is it detailed. I’m halfway in and Mortenson still hasn’t finished his first school. It makes me feel a bit like I’m in school with a bad case of senioritis.

Next up is Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Now I realize this is a cult classic. I also realized within about 10 pages that this was a cult to which I was never going to belong. I find the writing amusing (this is a good thing; I’m supposed to) and I always applaud the silly people who manage to make it in the arts. But I just don’t, can’t, care about anything that happens in this book. Just don’t. Just can’t. In the introduction, the authors write about rabid fans who’ve read this book so many times it has been dropped in puddles, baked in souffles, and incorporated into their nervous systems. My mind is boggled by such ardor. But I am happy for the authors all the same.

I’m also slowly climbing through The Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, a real literary work with an excruciatingly clever organization scheme that I am legitimately enjoying. The problem here is that I actually have to concentrate on this book and I am fresh out of brain cells most evenings.

So instead I’ve been turning to Over the Hill and Between the Sheets, a lighthearted collection about sex and love in middle age, edited by Gail Belsky. I actually picked this up as research for a project I’m beginning, but it turned out to be a fine read, especially when I was feeling too exhausted for school-building, random silliness, or excruciating cleverness. Marriage, divorce, adultery, botox—all are covered here. But my favorite selection of the bunch is Stephan Wilkinson’s “Mechanical Failure,” a story about life—and sex—after prostatectomy, “the all-too-common operation performed to excise prostate cancer” that “often snips the nerve that provokes an erection” and shortens the penis, to boot. Wilkinson speaks with candor and good humor about his adventures with penis pumps, hypodermic needles, and ultimately choosing life over intercourse.

But I finished the book, sadly—no more avoiding the rest! Since it’s raining today and I don’t do football*, I will attempt to free myself from at least one of the literary rocks so assiduously lashed to my ankles.

* unless someone brings me tasty snacks

A Thousand Splendid Suns

LisaJanuary 24, 2008May 29, 2014

So, Afghanistan pretty much sucks.

Not inherently, of course. (I’m sure it’s lovely in the springtime.) But it’s had various inhabitants over the past 30-odd years that have made it really hard to kick back and enjoy the scenery. Especially if you’re a girl.

Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns has oft been described to me as “the sequel to The Kite Runner, told from a woman’s point of view.” That’s half true; it’s not a sequel (as I mentioned in an earlier post), but it is told entirely from the perspectives of two women. The novel begins with Mariam, the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy man. Forced to marry, Mariam finds herself wedded to a strict husband whose brutal tendencies begin to emerge as she proves incapable of bringing a child to term. After nearly twenty miserable years, Mariam’s husband takes another wife, Laila—a beautiful young woman, newly and secretly pregnant, who agrees to marry so she can save her reputation and protect her absent lover’s unborn child. The relationship between the two imprisoned and abused wives is the essence of the story.

I’m having a hard time pinpointing what I think about this novel. The writing is good; the story is good. And it does an excellent job of exposing the misery and helplessness endured by women in the clutches of an extremist society. But I do think Hosseini veers toward the simplistic in both his books, creating bad men who are too one-sided to be interesting. Of course, his subjects are abusive husbands and Taliban bigwigs: what choice does he have? Still, I would say that at times his “big” stories and “bad” characters undermine the best parts of his novels—those that bypass the inarguable evils and explore simple humanity.

My Bestseller Article on BeneathTheCover.com

LisaJanuary 20, 2008May 29, 2014

Hey! My article, “How NOT to Write a Bestseller,” went up last week, but I just discovered it! I’m so on top of things. Beneath the Cover is a great place to find articles on all aspects of the book industry.


A Thousand Splendid Novels about Afghanistan

LisaJanuary 17, 2008May 29, 2014

…this is what it seems we can expect from Khaled Hosseini. I just finished the man’s second work, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and will review it here soon. But the book got me thinking about the relationship between branding and creativity, and I just had to share.

Hosseini of course is famous for his super-selling first novel, The Kite Runner, a story about a boy growing up in Afghanistan who later comes to the United States, eventually returning to his native country to fight (one member of) the Taliban and make amends for childhood crimes. Then came A Thousand Splendid Suns in 2007. I can’t count how many people have told me that this was the sequel to The Kite Runner.

But I just read it. And it’s not a sequel. It’s a book that happens to be set in Afghanistan, a book whose cover has the same color scheme and typesetting as Hosseini’s first—but a book with completely different characters.

It may be a simple mistake, yes. But I wonder how much the “branding” of literary authors affects what they write and how readers perceive what they write. It used to be that only genre authors were expected to produce the same kind of book over and over, but more and more I see literary authors being “tracked” in the same way. Oh, Khaled Hosseini writes about Afghanistan. Oh, Mitch Albom writes sappy stuff. So-and-so writes about lonely coal miners. Every book might as well be a sequel because the major characteristics don’t change.

I think it says a lot about our shifting reasons for reading literary fiction. The repetitive nature of genre fiction makes some sense: readers are often looking for a certain kind of repeated experience when they pick up a thriller, mystery, or romance novel. But the reasons for reading literary fiction used to be, I think, quite different: readers wanted a unique experience each time. They didn’t want the same book. They didn’t want the same themes. They didn’t want the book to conjure the same emotions. They didn’t want to look at a novel’s cover and instantly associate it with the author’s fourteen previous offerings.

Maybe it’s just me. I have always admired authors with broad talent, those who tackle varied subjects, characters, and approaches. That’s not to say writers don’t have their favorite themes and trademark styles; that’s always been the case. But today’s authors—at least the bestselling ones—seem to write in a much narrower range than writers of yore. And I wonder if the current obsession with branding is increasingly going to prevent talented authors from branching out, pressure them to remain within one tiny niche for the duration of their careers.

I truly hope not. One of the best things about reading literary fiction—about reading anything, in my view—is the element of surprise. And I don’t mean which bad guy will die first or how. I mean what the book will really be about, the questions and themes it will raise in my mind. For reading to be intellectually valuable, I think it has to be at least somewhat diverse.

So if Khaled Hosseini writes another novel about Afghanistan, I probably won’t read it. Not because I don’t like his writing. But because I don’t want a brand—I want a book.

Wait, Avoid, Ignore

LisaJanuary 8, 2008May 29, 2014

Okay, so should I read Eat, Pray, Love? I know it’s #1 on the USA Today list right now. I know it’s been a bestseller for 50 weeks, and it’s surely going to be on the annual bestseller list for 2007. And I know that reading it will give me untold insights into the American psyche. Well, maybe.

But its name just totally bugs me. I know that sounds stupid, but I’m really into names, and this one is just…ugh. It smacks of A Female Journey, all serious and misty.

Am I wrong? Am I a jerk? Is this book wonderful? Please enlighten me!

Money for Nothing

LisaDecember 30, 2007May 29, 2014

In Why We Read What We Read, John and I discuss how many of the business/finance books of the 90s contain a spiritual element, a conviction that material success could (and should) be linked to emotional well-being. These warm ‘n’ fuzzy notions seemed to be petering out in the last several years, as evidenced by the giant sales of amoral hits such as Good to Great. Well, the success of Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek may be proof that America is over the touchy-feelys once and for all.

It’s not like Ferriss encourages readers to make money by kicking lepers and killing endangered frogs. But a book of good, old-fashioned values this is not. Just so you know what kind of dude we’re dealing with, here are a few of Ferriss’ more questionable suggestions:

1) Trying to dream up an online business? Ferriss says sell whatever will sell—his own fortune (around $40K a month) comes from peddling sketchy nutritional supplements.

2) Trying to make the jump from office-based to home-based (and thus sun-soaked paradise-based) employment? Just deceive your boss by looking much more productive from home, and then work about two hours a day thereafter, collecting the same salary.

3) Tired of dumb, time-slurping chores? Hire an overseas personal assistant for a few dollars an hour to make travel arrangements, buy gifts, do research—you name it.

4) Want to do something extraordinary? Exploit the technicalities. Ferriss himself won the gold medal at the Chinese Kickboxing National Championships thusly:

Using dehydration techniques I now teach to elite powerlifters, I lost 28 pounds in 18 hours, weighed in at 65 pounds, and then hyperhydrated back to 193 pounds. It’s hard to fight someone from three weight classes above you. Poor little guys…[He continues] If one combatant fell off the elevated platform three times in a single round, his opponent won by default. I decided to use this technicality as my single technique and just push people off. (29-30)

To be fair, these seedy tidbits are sprinkled throughout what seems to be pretty good advice on a number of topics. First, Ferriss takes time explaining the mentality of the “New Rich,” as he calls them—which is to enjoy life now, filling it with hobbies and learning and “mini-retirements” rather than doing endless soul-sucking work to save up money for some long-distant and vaguely conceived retirement. (Hard to argue with that one.) He also offers helpful productivity tips for both employees and entrepreneurs, including specific techniques for preventing interruptions and severely limiting time spent on meetings, phone calls, and e-mail.

But the best way to make money and free yourself to do what you wish, Ferriss says, is to own a small, automated, online business that brings in the income you need (it doesn’t have to be a ton—just enough to pay your bills and make your “dreamlines” possible, whatever those may be). For best results, this business should sell a product costing the customer $50-200 and be marketed to a very specific niche. Ferriss provides detailed instructions on how to test out the selling potential of a product, then how to automate the selling process so that the lucky business owner has to do as little as possible.

Does it work? How the hell should I know? It sounds good, but of course the magic part is coming up with the right product to create, resell, license, or manufacture. Ferriss can’t help you there; you have to rely on your own imagination and expertise. In other words, most of us are screwed.

Finally, Ferriss uses the end of the book to provide tips for long-term world travel and residence and—most unnecessarily, I suspect—how to keep that spring in your step when extraordinary wealth grows boring and angst-inducing.

The writing is sarcastic and funny, though the book is a bit scattered, since it’s basically a manual for living like a man who places a heavy premium on regular world travel—which may not be possible or even desirable for those with kids, dogs, or airplane phobias. Still, it’s easy for the reader to pick and choose the chapters that appeal. The book also provides lots of cool online resources for everything from how to register oneself as a media expert to how to rate charities.

But ultimately, I have to predict that most readers will not achieve a 4-hour workweek or anything close after reading this book, and not just because they lack the courage to think outside the box. The 4-Hour Workweek is probably most useful for true entrepreneurial spirits and those who already have successful online businesses and want to automate them. Most of us slouches, I fear, will find the ideas exciting, the fantasy tantalizing, but the brilliant products—and the resulting cold hard cash—all too elusive.

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