Watermark Books and Cafe

August 25, 2011

In this issue:
News and Notes Worthy.
Upcoming Events.
Book of the Week.
Watermark Winner.
First line(s)...
Watermark Bestsellers.
"Other People’s Money" by Justin Cartwright, review by Todd Robins.
"Life, On the Line: A Chef's Story of Chasing Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining the Way We Eat" by Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas, review by Holly Nickel.
“Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” by Ransom Riggs, review by Cat Connolly.
"House of Holes: A Book of Raunch" by Nicholson Baker, review by Rebekah Rine.

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Watermark's having a Back-to-School Sale! Now through Sunday, buy one book at full price, get a second book 50% off. And then if you buy a third book at full price, you can get a fourth book 50% off! Are you detecting a pattern yet? (Now, if I could figure out how to make text-only e-mails change font size, this would be the fine print: Not available on consignment books. No other discounts are applicable.)

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Thanks to all who responded last week with what you're reading! I put the names of all who responded in a hopper and the winner of a signed first edition of "Rules of Civility" by Amor Towles is... Hannah Pauls! You can pick up your prize at the bookstore!

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Upcoming events...

Sunday, August 28, 2:00 p.m. Craft Book Trunk Show!

Join us at our Craft Book Trunk Show! Our publisher partners have sent us samples of their newest knitting, quilting, jewelry making, and other craft books. And we'll be on hand to talk about our favorites! Any craft books purchased or pre-ordered on this day will be discounted 20%.

Saturday, September 10, 7:00 p.m. Dr. Schuyler Jones, CBE, reading and signing of "A Stranger Abroad" at the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum (204 S. Main).

Join us at the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum as Dr. Schuyler Jones, CBE, gives a farewell reading and signing for his memoir, "A Stranger Abroad." We are taking reservations for a special slip-cased limited numbered edition. Call Watermark at 682-1181 to reserve yours.

Thursday, September 15, 7:00 p.m. Thomas Fox Averill reading and signing of "Rode".

When Thomas Fox Averill first heard Jimmy Driftwood’s ballad “Tennessee Stud,” he found the song hauntingly compelling. As he began to imagine the story behind the lyrics, he set out to research the song’s history—a tale from “along about eighteen and twenty-five” of the legendary exploits of the greatest horse that ever lived, the “Tennessee Stud,” and his owner.

Traveling the same route the song chronicles, from Tennessee into Arkansas, through Texas and into Mexico, Averill visited racetracks, Spanish missions, historical museums, a living history farm, and national parks, inventing characters of his own along the way. His novel captures the spirit of the ballad while telling the story of Robert Johnson, a man who holds love in his heart though adventure rules his time. Pursued by a bounty hunter, Indians, and his conscience, Johnson and his horse are tested, strengthened, and made resolute.

Thomas Fox Averill, a graduate of the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, is professor of English and writer-in-residence at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. An O. Henry Award winner, he is the author of several books, including Secrets of the Tsil Café, available in paperback from UNM Press in spring 2012.

Monday, September 19, 6:00 p.m. Cinda Williams Chima reading and signing of "The Gray Wolf Throne."

"The Gray Wolf Throne" is the third of four books in The Seven Realms Series. It will go on sale Aug. 30, 2011.

Han Allister thought he had already lost everyone he loved. But when he finds his friend Rebecca Morley near death in the Spirit Mountains, Han knows that nothing matters more than saving her. The costs of his efforts are steep, but nothing can prepare him for what he soon discovers: the beautiful, mysterious girl he knew as Rebecca is none other than Raisa ana'Marianna, heir to the queendom of the Fells. Han is hurt and betrayed. He knows he has no future with a blueblood. And as far as he's concerned, the princess's family as good as killed his own mother and sister. But if Han is to fulfill his end of an old bargain, he must do everything in his power to see Raisa crowned queen.

Meanwhile, some people will stop at nothing to prevent Raisa from ascending. With each attempt on her life, she wonders how long it will be before her enemies succeed. Her heart tells her that the theif-turned-wizard Han Allister can be trusted. She wants to believe it - he's saved her life more than once. But with danger coming at her from every direction, Raisa can only rely on her wits and her iron-hard will to survive - and even they might not be enough.

"The Gray Wolf Throne" is an epic tale of fierce loyalty, unbearable sacrifice, and the heartless hands of fate.

Monday, September 26, 7:00 p.m. Scott Phillips reading and signing of "The Adjustment".

Against the background violence committed by the returning soldiers trying to make an adjustment back into civilian life, Wayne Ogden attempts to destroy his former mentor and take down Collins Aircraft--the once fabled company that provided planes to Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, and Wiley Post.

Scott Phillips is the author of "The Ice Harvest," "The Walkaway," and "Cottonwood." He was born and raised in Wichita, Kansas, and lived for many years in France. He now lives with his wife and daughter in St. Louis, Missouri.

Wednesday, September 28, 7:00 p.m. Jon Scieszka reading and signing of the "SPHDZ" series.

Jon Scieszka is the first National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, named by the Library of Congress. He is the author of some of the best known and funniest books written for children including "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs," "The Time Warp Trio" series and the Caldecott Honor Book "The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Fairy Tales." He is also the creator of the "Trucktown" series. Jon is a former elementary school teacher and an avid promoter of literacy—particularly for boys. His website www.guysread.com focuses on his national campaign to get boys reading. Jon lives with his family in Brooklyn, NY.

Thursday, September 29, 7:00 p.m. Candice Millard reading and signing of "Destiny of the Republic" at the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum (204 S. Main).

James A. Garfield may have been the most extraordinary man ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, and a renowned and admired reformist congressman. Nominated for president against his will, he engaged in a fierce battle with the corrupt political establishment. But four months after his inauguration, a deranged office seeker tracked Garfield down and shot him in the back.

But the shot didn’t kill Garfield. The drama of what hap­pened subsequently is a powerful story of a nation in tur­moil. The unhinged assassin’s half-delivered strike shattered the fragile national mood of a country so recently fractured by civil war, and left the wounded president as the object of a bitter behind-the-scenes struggle for power—over his administration, over the nation’s future, and, hauntingly, over his medical care. A team of physicians administered shockingly archaic treatments, to disastrous effect. As his con­dition worsened, Garfield received help: Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, worked around the clock to invent a new device capable of finding the bullet.

Meticulously researched, epic in scope, and pulsating with an intimate human focus and high-velocity narrative drive, "The Destiny of the Republic" will stand alongside "The Devil in the White City" and "The Professor and the Madman" as a classic of narrative history.

Other author visits on the horizon include Donia Bijan, Robert Morgan, Deborah Niemann-Boehle, and Tony Horwitz. Stay tuned here or visit our website here:http://www.watermarkbooks.com/

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The Book of the Week is "Once Upon a River" by Bonnie Jo Campbell (W.W. Norton, ISBN 9780393079890, originally $25.95)

National Book Award finalist Bonnie Jo Campbell has created an unforgettable heroine in sixteen-year-old Margo Crane, a beauty whose unflinching gaze and uncanny ability with a rifle have not made her life any easier. After the violent death of her father, Margo takes to the Stark River in her grandfather's rowboat, with only a few supplies and a biography of her hero Annie Oakley, in search of her mother.

But the river, Margo's childhood paradise, is a dangerous place for a young woman traveling alone, and she must be strong to survive, using her knowledge of the natural world and her ability to look unsparingly into the hearts of those around her. Her river odyssey through rural Michigan becomes a defining journey, one that leads her beyond self-preservation and to deciding what price she is willing to pay for her choices.

Shop online or in the store, this week "Once Upon a River" is 30% off.

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This week's winner of a free lunch from Watermark Café is Judy Prater of Wichita. Thanks for signing up for News & Notes.

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First line(s)...

"Before the interview – in one of his two appropriate suits, this one a blue pinstripe – David Applelow, aged forty-three, passed the time forecasting: predicting first what his interviewer might look like, hoping for a beautiful woman, not merely attractive but uncommonly gorgeous, who would not only be so kind as to give him a job (that is, save his life) but also to offer herself as an immediate bonus, on the desk or the rug (if there was one) or the chair if it had no arms, her offer an act of the greatest generosity, because this kind of thing, however common to a man’s fantasy, never happened, particularly not to Applelow, and if it were to, he would be surprised for the first time in years."

... from “Ladies and Gentlemen: Stories” by Adam Ross (Knopf, ISBN 9780307270719, $25.95)

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Watermark Bestsellers.
1. "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett
2. "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien
3. "The Barnstormer and the Lady" by Mary Lynn Oliver and Dennis Farney
4. "Eight Wonders of Kansas" by Marci Penner
5. "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool
6. "The Surrendered" by Chang-rae Lee
7. "Turn of Mind" by Alice LaPlante
8. "Wizard of Oz Scanimation" by Rufus Butler Seder
9. "Rules of Civility" by Amor Towles
10. "State of Wonder" by Ann Patchett

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"Other People’s Money" by Justin Cartwright (Bloomsbury, ISBN 9781608192731, $15.00)

Julian Trevelyan-Tubal, a blue-blooded English banker with exquisite manners, has plenty of finesse work to do in Justin Cartwright’s novel, "Other People’s Money." As the narrative begins, Tubal and Co., the privately-owned bank that Julian leads, has run amok in toxic assets, thereby requiring the businessman to outmaneuver a host of worthy adversaries. Among these are an anonymous informant and reasonably alert journalists at a small newspaper in Cornwall. The journalists get going on the story when Artair MacCleod, the manager of a nearby theater company, complains that his grant from Tubal and Co. has gone dry. The journalists make note of it in a blog, and the informant emerges to provide details. Julian now has to prop up the bank and quell the story long enough to allow a sale to go through to a shrewd American financier. It’s a pleasure to watch Julian operate, relying as he does on sunshine instead of intimidation. His task is to keep everyone drinking the Kool-Aid until the numbers can be made to look legitimate. Replete with chicanery, delicious prose, and the theme of selling one’s soul vs. keeping the faith, Other People’s Money is a comedy lover’s treat.

Review by Todd Robins

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"Life, On the Line: A Chef's Story of Chasing Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining the Way We Eat" by Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas (Gotham Books, ISBN 97815924046012, $27.50)

Grant Achatz, founder of Alinea restaurant in Chicago, begins his memoir with a reminiscence of the evening in 2008 when he won the James Beard Foundation Award for "Outstanding Chef in America", and by thanking Thomas Keller, one of his first employers and the man who taught him "the push": "the discipline, the dedication, the intensity, the tenacity, and the drive that both the chef and all [of The French Laundry] cooks possessed." What follows is an exploration of a childhood that led him into the restaurant industry and of a passion for food that has led him to redefine the way visitors to Alinea experience gastronomy. Have you ever tried "candy cap mushroom ice cream with spun sugar muscovado sugar and maple syrup" presented on an antenna?

However, Achatz and his business partner, Nick Kokonas, who co-authors this memoir with him, are also telling the story of Grant's life, literally, "on the line". In June 2007, Achatz was diagnosed with stage IV tongue cancer and started down a treatment path that would, eventually, save his life and preserve his ability to speak and swallow, but would also rob him of his sense of taste. In an interview-style text that moves back and forth between Achatz and Kokonas's voices, the narrative of Grant's "push" to find the discipline, dedication, intensity and tenacity to survive cancer and recover his senses is impossible to read without emotion. As an editorial in the Chicago Tribune the morning after the "Outstanding Chef" awards asserted, "We'd venture to say that many people who have never unfurled a napkin at Alinea are cheering Grant Achatz,"

The alinea symbol is what editors use to mark the beginning of a new paragraph; it is the symbol that connotes a break in a previous chain of thought, or a new chapter. Readers of Achatz's memoir are going to to want to taste the world, and their food, deeply, and to discover Alinea.

Review by Holly Nickel

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“Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” by Ransom Riggs (Quirk Books, ISBN 9781594744761, $17.99)

"'Find the bird. In the loop. On the other side of the old man's grave. September third, 1940.' I nodded, but he could see that I didn't understand. "Emerson—the letter. Tell them what happened, Yakob.'"

Since he could remember, Jacob Portman had listened to his grandfather's stories with a sense of wonder. Grandpa Abe Portman's childhood escape from a war-ravaged Poland was the stuff of adventure, and his new "family" in a Welsh children's home, run by the enigmatic Miss Peregrine, sounded like something out of a dream. Grandpa Portman even had photo evidence of his fellow orphans—a little girl who could levitate, a scrawny boy lifting a boulder above his head, a standing suit that was supposedly supported by an invisible young man. There were even terrifying stories of the monsters on the Continent that chased Abe and children like him, intent on destroying them for being "different."

But growing up has a way of robbing our minds of magic and belief. When a teenage Jacob decides that his Yiddish grandfather's stories were a way of explaining the terrors of the Third Reich, he throws away the once-cherished notions that he would one day be drawn into an adventure like Abe. Consigned to living a boring, Floridian existence stocking adult diapers at his mother's family drug store chain, smoking (and choking on) the occasional cigarette with his only friend, Jake has all but forgotten the honesty with which his grandfather had once revealed his frightening past. But a frantic phone call from Grandpa Portman leads Jake rushing to find the old man lying in the woods behind his home, his body torn apart by something neither animal nor human. His grandfather's cryptic last words haunt him to the point of recurring nightmares, as does the image of the ghastly figure he saw fleeing the scene that awful night...

"Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children," by Ransom Riggs, has every element of a classic Gothic novel. Young Jake must fumble his way through wracking self-doubt to decipher obscure clues and final words left by the grandfather he hardly knew, eventually leading him to Wales in search of Miss Peregrine's orphanage and any living person who might hold answers to the secrets Abe Portman left behind. And only when he encounters these answers does he discover the frightening truth behind his grandfather's past, and the realization that whatever killed Abe may be after him, too.

Rife with haunting photographs of the "Peculiar Children" who once inhabited (or do they still?) Miss Peregrine's home, this book reads as if one of Ann Radcliffe's plots were put into modern prose by Scott Westerfeld, making it accessible both to young adult readers and adults alike. And if you never believed the tales your granddad spun like spider webs around the crumbling photographs in his photo album, “Miss Peregrine” may have you taking a closer look... perhaps you will find something fantastic there.

Review by Cat Connolly

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"House of Holes: A Book of Raunch" by Nicholson Baker (Simon & Schuster, ISBN 9781439189511, $25.00)

We are not kidding with the subtitle of this one (A Book of Raunch). Oh, it's raunchy... hilariously filthy. Just check out these book trailers to get an idea of what you're in for with Nicholson Baker's latest novel: http://pages.simonandschuster.com/houseofholes/videos

My favorite is the Simon & Schuster staff trying to keep it together while reading a list of vocabulary from the book. Bruce Jacobs told me that Nicholson Baker loves words (and sex). And here's the proof.

This read isn't for everyone (or even many). But if you're in the mood for a smut-filled romp of magical realism, then pick up this guy.

Review by Rebekah Rine

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Apparently, last week I was remiss in not mentioning a long-awaited visit from Steven Pace. He is the national sales director for Workman Publishing, a fantastic house that has given us "Water for Elephants," "What to Expect When You're Expecting," and (on our current bestseller list) "The Wizard of Oz Scanimation"!

I did learn during his visit that Steven never reads to the bottom of News & Notes, so this is probably moot. But if you're still reading, thanks Steven!

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Later.
Beth