Volume 256 Issue 50 12/14/2009
Galley Talk: The Postmistress by Sarah BlakeElaine Petrocelli, Book Passage, Corte Madera and San Francisco, Calif.
Dec 14, 2009
I opened The Postmistress (Amy Einhorn Books, Feb.) with no particular expectations. By the time I finished the first page, WOW! I was mesmerized. Sarah Blake has given us a wonderful and important novel, set in the early 1940s. The scenes in the small Cape Cod community, contrasted with the bombings in London and the Jews trying to escape from Europe, brought home the early days of WWII. Blake makes the period so real that I thought I was there—chatting in the post office, huddled underground with exhausted Londoners during the Blitz, on the train with the people fleeing the Nazis, and listening to the radio as Edward R. Murrow and Frankie Bard brought the reality of the war to the American people. The characters will haunt me for years. I can't wait to start talking to my customers about The Postmistress—one of those rare gems that makes bookselling such an addictive pleasure.
Publishing news from across the Web
Ten employees will be affected. Clair Willcox, editor in chief, declined to comment but did note that neither he nor any of the staff knew about the change before a midmorning meeting.
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"Sesquipedalian." Just kidding.
The ABA has launched a new video campaign that captures unscripted and impromptu testimonials about independent bookstores from authors, customers, and indie supporters around the country. The initiative “Why Indies Matter” will debut under the IndieBound marketing umbrella during BEA.
| Guilty Wives | Audio Fiction |
| Killing Lincoln (unabr.) | Audio Nonfiction |
| Serpent's Shadow | Children's Fiction |
| Duckling Gets a Cookie!? | Children's Picture Book |
| Hunger Games | Children's Series & Tie-ins |
| Blue Exorcist, Volume 3 | Graphic Novels |
| Deadlocked: A Sookie Stackhouse Novel | Hardcover Fiction |
| Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson | Hardcover Nonfiction |
| The Lucky One | Mass Market Paper |
| Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy | Trade Paper |
