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Children's Comics Reviews: 1/4/2010
Hope Larson's Mercury, Jake Parker's new Missile Mouse and a new offering from Toon Books highlight this month's graphic novels for younger readers.
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Short Order: January 4
When the New York Times asked novelists Chang-rae Lee and Jane Smiley which books they'd weed out of their collections, both writers mentioned cookbooks. That makes more Alice Waters (who just signed another deal with Clarkson Potter) for us. Also: a food writing panel in NYC, more "best of '09" cookbook lists, and an Escoffier-themed novel.
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2010's Most Exciting Food Books
There’s a lot to look forward to in 2010. I’ll be watching Chronicle to see what food and drink titles it decides to publish with compatible mobile applications and enhanced e-books; and can’t wait to see the results of crowd-sourced cookbook projects. As for specific titles, here’s what I’m anticipating.
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Cooking the Books with Rozanne Gold
When James Beard Award-winning cookbook author Rozanne Gold heard that Condé Nast was selling Gourmet’s collection of 3,500 cookbooks and that NYU’s Fales Library wanted to buy them, she couldn’t stop herself from getting involved—and giving the library $14,000 to acquire the archive.
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Eat Your Books Indexes Cookbooks
As cookbooks come up against increasing competition from online recipe repositories, sites have sprung up attempting to reinvigorate the medium. There’s Cookstr, Cookbooker, and now, Eat Your Books, which makes cookbooks you already own more useful to you.
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Short Order: December 21
In our final round-up of cookbook news for 2009, Fleisher's (the butcher shop where Julie Powell trained) signs with Clarkson Potter; YouTube sensation Clara Cannucciari celebrates the release of her book at Carmine's in NYC; cooking site Food52 launches a shop selling cookbooks; NYU's Fales Library buys Gourmet's cookbook collection; John Besh signs cookbooks in New Orleans; and Real Housewives of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice lands a cookbook deal.
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Gotham/Avery/Dutton Holds 8th Annual Bake-Off
Out-for-blood corporate softball teams may have given the idea of inter-company competitions a bad name, but a skinned knee has nothing on 10 stitches in your finger after testing recipes for the company bake-off. That’s right: Dutton assistant editor Jessica Horvath was trying out desserts for the 8th Annual Gotham/Avery/Dutton Bake-Off when she sliced her hand on the blade of an immersion blender, wound up in the emergency room and walked out with 10 stitches.
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Cooking the Books with Clotilde Dusoulier
Clotilde Dusoulier talks about her translation and adaption of the French classic I Know How to Cook, first published in 1932, with more than six million copies in print in France. As holiday shoppers snap up the just-out DVD of Julie & Julia, Dusoulier discusses I Know How to Cook versus Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
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Cookbooker, A 'LibraryThing' for Cookbooks, Launches
As anyone who frequents recipe sites like AllRecipes, Epicurious or FoodNetwork.com knows, user reviews are some of the most valuable content on the sites. They’ll tell you if a recipe is a flop, a star, or better with more garlic. And while Amazon can tell you the new Thomas Keller cookbook is beautiful, how's the book's recipe for Brined Pork Tenderloin? Enter Cookbooker, a sort of social networking site for cookbook users.
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Comics Reviews: 12/21/2009
Starred reveiws of books from Justin Green, Gahan Wilson and Larry Marder plus a new manga by
Jun Mochizuk and a new Hellblazer original graphic novel. -
Smith's Rasl Explores Science and Formats
Bone creator Jeff Smith's eagerly awaited new story Rasl hasn't just been an entertaining yarn, it's an experiment in exploring publishing formats for specific book markets. Smith is best known for Bone, his bestselling kid-oriented fantasy-work. But Rasl, about a scientist turned art thief who builds a device to travel to parallel universes, deals with more adult themes and topics, fusing noir, scientific ideas such as string theory, and Native American symbolism.
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Starstruck Shines Brightly Once Again
The cult classic comic Starstruck—well ahead of its time when initially released in 1985—has found a new life at IDW. An SF series that spanned galaxies and influences, Starstruck began as a stage play before its initial publication in Heavy Metal Magazine, later finding homes at Marvel’s Epic imprint and Dark Horse.
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December Comics Bestsellers
Books 3 and 4 of Jeff Kinney’s hyrid comics and prose Diary of a Wimpy Kid series take the top two spots followed by R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis. Next is comics Viz’s Vampire Knight and Harper and Tokyopop’s comics adaptation of the Warriors series. Naruto is #6, followed by Bloomsbury’s Logicomix and Yen Press’s manga adaptation of Maximum Ride volume 2.
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Soapbox: Fringe Benefit
I think I suffer from hypochondriasis, that curious syndrome wherein the individual—usually a medical student—perceives herself or others to be experiencing the symptoms of the disease(s) she is studying. I'm not a med student, but as the frequent editor of prescriptive health titles, I have a similar up-close view of far too many gory bodily functions and medical misfires.
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Bard Press Bets On a Diet Book
A small publisher with a string of bestselling business books has hopes for similar success in the diet arena. Bard Press, based in Austin, Tex., with a full-time staff of exactly one (Ray Bard), will release The Full Plate Diet: Slim Down, Look Great, Be Healthy! in time for the diet book crunch, on January 4.
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Roger Clemens's Former Trainer Self-Publishing a Memoir
Brian McNamee, the onetime personal strength and conditioning coach for former Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays and Astros pitcher Roger Clemens, is self-publishing a book that will supposedly reveal his perspective on Clemens’s steroids controversy. Death, Taxes, and Mac: Brian McNamee in His Own Words, written with Marc Zappulla, will drop February 17, 2010, the same day Yankee pitchers and catchers report for spring training in Tampa, Fla.
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Joe Sacco Returns to Palestine
In his new book, Footnotes in Gaza (Metropolitan Books), Joe Sacco returns to the Gaza Strip to look into the shrouded history surrounding two little known and brutally violent events—massacres of unarmed Palestinian refugees by Israeli troops in November 1956—that took place in the towns of Khan Younis and Rafah.
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A New Brooklyn Comics (And Graphics) Show
Organized by Dan Nadel, publisher of indie comics publishing house PictureBox, and Gabe Fowler of comics shop, Desert Island, the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival was a whirlwind of intense comics activity and relentless crowds of fans that jammed the exhibition space at Our Lady of Consolation Church in Williamsburg despite the miserable weather.
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Lobo Rocks Out with Ian and Kieth
Though Scott Ian has enjoyed a career in the entertainment industry that’s spanned over 25 years, the longtime Anthrax guitarist, TV personality and poker pro had never managed to meld his lifelong obsession with comic books into his work. So when DC Comics approached him about writing a mini-series, he knew he had to jump at the opportunity.
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Recipe Report: Great Smokies Pork, Leek, and Wild Mushroom Soup
James Villas’s Pig: King of the Southern Table (Wiley, April 2010) is an impressive-looking tome, and Villas is an acclaimed food editor and cookbook author. So I was disappointed that the book’s Great Smokies Pork, Leek, and Wild Mushroom Soup wasn’t tastier.



