Little Apple Bookstore

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Apple Seeds - September/October 2005
Sandy Pauly, Owner

Dean Koontz’ “Frankenstein” series: A reader brought in the first two books, and when asked what he thought of the novels, I got a blink and a blank stare. Finally, he muttered, “Um…weird. Just…bizarre.” Ooooh, creepy.

James Patterson: Neat notation by Publisher’s Weekly: “Patterson’s first novel, The Thomas Berryman Number, was published in 1976 by Little, Brown after it had been turned down by more than two dozen publishers. It went on to win the Edgar Award for best first mystery.” Two dozen publishers? Good thing they aren’t paid by commission. (They aren’t, are they?)

Can’t remember an author’s name? Not to worry—there are thousands of them out there! Looking through the roster of bookseller association conventions, I discovered I haven’t heard of most authors listed in the East, the West and in the South.

The Midwest Bookseller Association has a few familiar names such as William Kent Krueger, Alice Hoffman and Ridley Pearson, and a host of others that must be known only in the Metro Area.

Eileen Dreyer: (Found her website on www.stopyourekillingme.com) I just finished “With a Vengeance” and it was an all-nighter! She has written 5 forensic thrillers (non-series) with “Sinners and Saints” out in September.. Oh, yes, she is “really” Kathleen Korbel, who pens romances and romantic suspenses.

Our area author Tom Chapin: “Poachers Caught” (a best seller for our store) now has a companion book “MORE Poachers Caught” in print and ready for family gift buying. Great color pictures! Autographed, of course. Pen Names: Most of you know that Diana Palmer also writes under Diana Blayne, Katy Currie and Susan Kyle, but did you know that Henry Patterson has 6 pseudonyms, including Jack Higgins? Here’s a good one: Robert Silverberg has 32 (yep, I said 32) pen names.

John Lescroart: Got into his website, a-n-d saw two sections: One for his books and one for his MUSIC. (Didn’t know that!) Anyhoo, we’ve been trying to figure out how to pronounce his name. It’s “less-kwah”. (I was close, but didn’t pronounce the ss in “less”). Music, huh?

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Most of you have figured out that our Prof. Bill is the Bill Johnson, owner of Johnson’s Clothing. Well, Prof. Bill is retiring after 37 years in the retail business. Johnson’s Clothing has always been a major draw for the city of Walker’s tourism industry. We are all going to suffer the loss of the biggest retail attraction for our fair city. Bill is the nicest, smartest and kindest man we have ever known. And doggone it, he had better keep up his daily visits! And his word lessons, and his book critiques and his friendly conversations! Hugs and happiness, Bill!
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Oh, Prof – in case you take up Texas Hold ‘em—there’s a “cheat sheet” in the August 15 Publisher’s Weekly. You could always copy it onto the palm of your hand! One guy took home $7.5 million from Vegas last month. 7.5! First he had Orchid Beach, then Orchid Blues and Blood Orchid. Stuart Woods’ Iron Orchid (hardcover) is the newest in his Holly Barker Series, and should hit the stores sometime in October. You can catch his Two-Dollar Bill (Stone Barrington Series) in paperback also in October. By the way, I was the 487,951st visitor to his website, which started in 1996.

A collector’s challenge: Star Trek entered our TV world September 8, 1966. Did you know that Pocket has published more than 500 Trek Books? And there’s more to come!

50 years! That (nasty) little book Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov is now reprinted as a special 50th Anniversary Edition. Wonder how she’s aged?

Just read a mediocre review of Maggie Shayne’s latest in her Night Wings (or Twilight) Series and almost had a complete meltdown. Edge of Twilight (Book 10—2004) received a review, but said there seemed to be too many secondary characters. …well…but…oh, for moonlight’s sake, the reviewer had NOT read the preceding nine books! Remember the first? Twilight Phantasies. In addition to her other books, Shayne also has a series of Witch novels.

Picked up the October Country Woman magazine, and found they now have a “CW Book Club”. This month’s book is Standing in the Rainbow by Fannie Flagg. They even have a section for Book Discussion Questions.

Are audios (cassettes and CDs) expensive because most have TV/Movie-Star readers??? We had a visitor here this summer who had the most amazing voice; deep and clear—like cold, cold well water. Anyway, he “reads” tapes for the blind.

Stephen King read Sandra Brown’s Hello, Darkness, and gave it a terrific review in his Entertainment Weekly column.

To those who’ve been asking: No, we do NOT have Sue Monk Kidd’s The Mermaid Chair. It is still in hardcover and was #10 on PW’s Hardcover Bestseller/Fiction List. This is so cool, I hope I don’t get in trouble for plagiarizing or plagiarism or whatever from PW. “Asked for her opinions on book reviews, (Susan) Wiggs said, ‘The good ones are all true. All are written by intelligent people of impeccable taste. You should believe every word of them. The others…well, asking me what I think of those who diss my books is like asking a fire hydrant what it thinks of a dog.’” No wonder her books always sell right away.

Our website is good to go any day now. Look for www.littleapplebookstore.net. Just need to update it every month and tweak it now & then.

Mr. P’s pantry is so totally full. The latest addition was apple juice, which is addictive. We had to get rid of a really, really tall tree that twisted and groaned in strong winds—and had several feet topped off other way-up-there trees. He always trims and shapes the rest of the 72+ trees in the yard, so it’s looking good.

Life of Pi is still on the bestseller list, after being there for 86 weeks. The author’s name is Yann Martel. Please help me remember that name.

Just got an e-mail from area author Terry Mejdrich. The THIRD book in his Northern Minnesota suspense series is coming out in print!!!! It’s called “The Devil’s Kettle”.

Look for:
Nora Roberts: October hardcover release of new novel “Blue Smoke”.
Diana Gabaldon: 6th Outlander Book in October, A Breath of Snow and Ashes.
John Jakes: Hardcover in October, Savannah, or, A Gift for Mr. Lincoln.
Michael Connelly: Two hardcovers this year, The Closers (May) and The Lincoln Lawyer (Oct.).
Philip Caputo “10,000 Days of Thunder: A History Of The Viet Nam War”. A hardcover that says it’s For All Ages.

Big sigh for all the hardcovers printed!

Gotta go…bye for now………

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