There was an article this morning in the Daily Mail mentioning a children’s colouring book, which Richard mentioned in a post earlier today.
Which reminded me of all the other coloring books not at all meant for children that I’ve seen starting in the 1940s, with the horrible racism and war propaganda, to the 1960s, with sexual liberation and drug experimentaion. And taxes, don’t ever forget to tell your four-year-old about taxes. They’ll love that.
According to CBC News, a first-edition of Charles Darwin’s On The Origin of Species went for £35,000 (almost $60,000 CDN) at auction on April 27th in London.
I love the name of the high bidder: Hamish Riley-Smith. With a name like Hamish Riley-Smith, he SHOULD be a wealthy collector. I hope he bid on a smoking jacket, too. What a great name. 
We have a pretty impressive array of collectible copies available on AbeBooks, from some very affordable copies all the way up to and including one priced at £110,000.00. Hint hint, Hamish – wouldn’t you like a matching pair? Or get one for a chum.
Little-known British author, Chris Cleave has caught the attention of Australian actress, Nicole Kidman with his book The Other Hand.
The Other Hand, published in the USA and Canada as Little Bee, sold just 3,000 copies when the 
hardcover edition was released last year. However as word spreads, readers are adding it to their personal libraries - over 100,000 copies have sold in the UK in the past two months.
Britain’s Sunday Times reports that Nicole Kidman, who read the book on a recent flight from Los Angeles to Australia, is so eager to star in a film adaptation, that she’s competing with several film studios to secure rights to the book.
The Other Hand is the story of a 14-year-old Nigerian girl, Little Bee who travels to Britain looking for a middle-class woman called Sarah. The synopsis reads:
WE DON’T WANT TO TELL YOU TOO MUCH ABOUT THIS BOOK.
It is a truly special story and we don’t want to spoil it.
Nevertheless, you need to know something, so we will just say this:
It is extremely funny, but the African beach scene is horrific.
The story starts there, but the book doesn’t.
And it’s what happens afterward that is most important.
A First Edition copy of The Other Hand, signed by Chris Cleave.
Once you have read it, you’ll want to tell everyone about it. When you do, please don’t tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it unfolds.
Signaling the growing popularity of author Chris Cleave, today’s Evening Standard features the article, Chris Cleave, the London novelist taking the world by storm.
Signed, First Edition copies of The Other Hand and Little Bee are still available at reasonable cost – prices start around US $30.00.
Introducing the 9-11 coloring book to teach kids about coping with disaster. Sometimes I just despair….
Penguin just posted an awsome covers collage of a number of their science fiction titles ranging from their classic orange covers to some really funky designs. With just a brief scan you can see Penguin’s reach when it comes to publishing: Cat’s Cradle, The War of the Worlds, Clockwork Orange, The Chrysalids, and more..
You can see the whole collage here
I came across this little exercise by Laura from Buttontapper.com
I liked the notion of listing books that would always stick with you, as opposed to favourite books or happiest books. I tried to answer mine specifically keeping in mind books that stuck in my mind. Certainly Lord of the Flies, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With our Families, and The Road aren’t on the list because they made me laugh, but rather because they were profoundly upsetting to me (particularly the nonfiction, of course, which should really be on a separate list entirely) and thereby memorable.
THE RULES:
This can be a quick one. Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Ready? Go!
Here are mine:
1. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
2. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
3. Ordinary People by Judith Guest
4. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
5. The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy
6. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
7. We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families by Philip Gourevitch
8. Franny & Zooey by JD Salinger
9. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
10. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
11. Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho
12. Life After God by Douglas Coupland
13. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
14. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
15. Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
Fun. Although this was less than five minutes, and I ended up with nineteen books and had to cut it down to fifteen. Heh.
What would your 15 be?
The Guardian writes about the apparent revival of exclamation marks. I’ve visited Westward Ho! in Devon and very impressed to see a huge ! on the signs. It has a lovely beach too. Imagine living there and being able to list Westward Ho! as your address.
I’ve never read Charles Kingsley’s historical novel but 1855 first editions of Westward Ho! are super collectible.
For me, exclamation marks should be used sparingly. When someone writes something and then goes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, they should be hauled out and horsewhipped.
… the ones that have 17 pounds of Heroin packed into them. (Via Bookninja)
“Good night, Gorilla”, says the zookeeper not realizing that Gorilla is taking the cage keys from his belt loop. 
It’s bedtime at the zoo and all the animals are going to sleep. Or rather they should be!
Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann is the tale of a zookeeper closing up for the day and saying good night to all the animals. All the while Gorilla is following behind him unlocking the cage doors and an animal procession ensues. One that leads right to the zookeeper’s own home!
There is very little text, really just “Good Night” and the animals’ names. But it’s a fun way to introduce animals to young children. The lack of text doesn’t take away from the book at all – the vibrant images and the parading animals are entertaining in themselves. Who could resist the toothy, mischievous grin of Gorilla?
Good Night, Gorilla was named as one of the Best Children’s Books of 1994 by Parenting Magazine and was included in the 1995 list of Children’s Books 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing from the New York Public Library.
It’s also very easy to find activities to do with children relating to this book. Here are some good examples:
I just finished A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. What a marvellous, detailed, bittersweet book. It perfectly captures the lonely, confusing, exciting feels of growing up. I plan to write a review soon.
For now, though, I came across an article on NPR about Cookbooks for lean times, and it reminded me of the book I just finished.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is the story of Francie Nolan, a little girl living in Brooklyn in the early 1900s. Francie and her family are very poor, to the extent that while they never end up homeless, rent is a concern every month, and putting food on the table is a constant struggle. The only kind of “poverty” I ever experienced in childhood went about as far as having a secondhand bicycle instead of a new one. I’ve never gone hungry a day in my life, and reading about the Nolan family’s daily battle with hunger was humbling and sad. It was also fascinating, reading some of the creative solutions Francie’s mother came up with, and the myriad original and even delicious-sounding things she could do with stale bread.
The three cookbooks T. Susan Chang reviews on NPR sound along much the same lines – learning to do with what you have, but have the skills and knowledge to do it well and creatively. Read:
Tasty, by Roy Finamore
If there’s a prize for Creating a Sensation with the Fewest Ingredients, I think it has to go to Tasty, by Roy Finamore. Marinate a cheap steak in beer and molasses! Watermelon and red onion — chilled in gin! In recipe after recipe, familiar friends from the supermarket rub shoulders in intriguing new ways. I’ve only had this book for two years and it’s already sporting the frayed jacket and smudged Post-its that are a cookbook’s badge of honor. And I swear, with every recipe I make from this book, I cook a little smarter.
Perfect Vegetables, by the editors of Cook’s Illustrated magazine
Speaking of smarter, sometimes I hate the editors of Cook’s Illustrated, because they’re always right. But that doesn’t stop me from constantly using their books. Perfect Vegetables is my vegetable Wikipedia — the source I turn to when I’m stupidly standing over a cutting board holding a bulb of kohlrabi. Name any item from the produce aisle, and Cook’s Illustrated has grilled it, steamed it, baked it, roasted it or done whatever it takes to wheedle out its vegetable essence. Show me a cook who spends eight hours a day testing 12 batches of zucchini, and I’ll show you someone who has no time for boring.
The Art of Simple Food, by Alice Waters
OK, now I’m going where many have gone before. Yeah, I’m gonna talk about Alice Waters’ latest book. In fact, I like to read a little passage of Alice Waters every night before bedtime while listening to public radio and tucking a little sprig of chervil under my pillow. NPR cliche aside, there’s no denying the facts: In The Art of Simple Food, Waters does more with celery, carrot, onions and parsley than anybody else I can name. Like the beggar in “Stone Soup,” she reintroduces people to simple ingredients as if they’re treasures hidden in plain sight — and at the end, there’s always a meal that turns out to be more than the sum of its parsnips.
So, whether you’re a fat cat, a social butterfly or a lone wolf at a table for one, there’s no reason not to eat well even in times like these. With these three books — and the mad cooking skills you’ll have once you’ve read them — the table’s set in style every night, even if you have to start with just a kettle full of water and one plain stone.
Jesse Livermore was a flamboyant stock trader in the early 1900s. He made and lost vast fotunes twice, including racking up over $100 million dollars by the end of 1929, before writing the book How to Trade in Stocks in 1940.
Constant comparisons are being made between the investing climate in 1929-1932 and the current bear market and many are looking towards this charismatic trader for a way to make the most of a poor investing climate.
How to Trade in Stocks is still in print after nearly seventy years, and a first edition signed copy carries a hefty price tag of $15,000.
You can read more on AbeBooks about Jesse Livermore and his book How to Trade in Stocks.
The finalists for the BC Book Prizes have been anounced, AbeBooks is a supporter of these prizes sponsoring the Hubert Evans Prize for non-fiction. Here are a list of the winners for a few of this years awards:
Fiction
The Man Game by Lee Henderson
Non-Fiction
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction by Gabor Mate
BookSellers Choice Award
Madness, Betrayal and the Lash: The Epic Voyage of Captain George Vancouver by Stephen Bown
You can see the full list of winners at the BC Book Prize website
The National Film Board of Canada will be making Margaret Atwood‘s non-fiction book Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth into a film documentary.
The book, which won Silver in the 2008 Axiom Business Book Awards — Business Ethics category and is a finalist for the 2009 National Business Book Award, takes a look at the concept of debt as a thematic element of religion, literature and human society.
I wonder what Dr Daniel Kalla is thinking right now as the concerns about Swine ‘Flu grow and grow. It would appear many people turned on the Internet this morning and began researching the symptoms of this ailment. Kalla works as an emergency room physician in a Vancouver hospital, but is also the author of Pandemic – a medical thriller published in 2005. He wrote Pandemic after the SARS experience in 2003 and the thriller picked up some decent reviews at the time.
Pandemic concerns a bird virus that spreads from chickens to mankind. His hero is Dr. Noah Haldane, of the World Health Organization, who tackles the problem and uses lessons learnt from the great influenza pandemic of 1919 that killed more than 20 million people in less than four months.
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