General
The Mindfulness Code: Keys for Overcoming Stress, Anxiety, Fear, and Unhappiness (New World Library, 2010) by Donald Altman stresses being in the moment. It gives step-by-step instructions on how to incorporate mindfulness into chaotic lives. Altman uses the term mindfulness in describing how to adapt and rewire the brain.
The four keys for unlocking mindfulness are the body, the mind, the spirit, and relationships. Altman presents practices for turning each key toward contentment, confidence, and joy, including shifting our mental and emotional perceptions, inhabiting the body and its “sense-abilities,” exploring spiritual connection, and tapping into the healing powers of community and relationship. Inviting and accessible to those new to mindfulness but comprehensive enough for more experienced practitioners, these powerful tools will help you transform your life from the inside out.
Altman created the term, Intentionally Centering Attention Now, I-CAN, to describe how mindfulness and meditation work to regulate emotions. Each of the words in the term make up the four qualities to living an aware life: Intention, Centering, Attention, and Now.
Intention is the goal-setting aspect of the mind. Altman says that by engaging our attention to the present, you will be able to shed negative habits and ruts. Centering is about fostering a compassionate attitude that will assist in finding peace, harmony, and hope. Attention allows several ways of learning, to establish purposeful intention. The last quality, Now, is vital for concentration, to cultivate curiosity, and to establish purposeful intention.
Altman’s book reminded me of an earlier work by Sharon Begley, who writes the bi-weekly Newsweek science column, essays and cover stories, as well as contributing to Newsweek.com.
Writing in Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain, she calls this rewiring of the brain neuroplasticity. Both authors work from the Buddhist premise that the human mind has tremendous potential for transformation. Altman, was in fact, a Buddhist monk. And, in Begley’s book, the Foreward was written by the Dalai Lama.
It seemed fortuitous that as I was beginning my review of The Mindfulness Code, I was sent a quote from tinybuddah.com, which was: “If we are not fully ourselves, truly in the present moment, we miss everything.” -Thich Nhat Hanh
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Southern indie booksellers have chosen a stellar collection of titles for the 2010 SIBA Book Awards. After a furious round of voting, the finalists skyrocketed out of the long list into the hands of the judges, and today the winners break out.
Children’s Winner: The Secret World of Walter Anderson by Hester Bass (Candlewick Press)
The Secret World of Walter Anderson was brought to the attention of booksellers in the first batch of Okra Picks and quickly found its way to the Southern Indie Bestseller List becoming a favorite among booksellers and readers throughout the south. Enter the fascinating world of reclusive nature-lover Walter Anderson, perhaps the most famous American artist you’ve never heard of. In this beautifully crafted picture book biography, writer Hester Bass and Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator E. B. Lewis pay homage to an uncompromising American artist.
Cooking Winner: The Lee Brothers Simple Fresh Southern by Ted and Matt Lee (Clarkson Potter)
The Lee Brothers Simple Fresh Southern was brought to the attention of booksellers in the south at the annual trade show of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance in Greenville, SC, last year. Long a favorite of southern indie booksellers, the Lee Brothers have delivered the goods again. From Bobby Flay: “These guys can cook! Just reading the recipes makes me ravenous for scintillating Southern dishes. Sign me up for Tuesday Fried Chicken and Sweet Potato Buttermilk Pie!” Siblings Matt & Ted Lee are homegrown and this cookbook proves it.
Fiction Winner: The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Amy Einhorn Books)
The Help has spent 35 weeks on the Southern Indie Bestseller List and is still there now. No southern bookseller is surprised to see this book take the winning fiction spot in the 2010 SIBA Book Awards. But did you know that The Help is soon to be a major motion picture coming from DreamWorks?
Nonfiction Winner: The Most They Ever Had by Rick Bragg (Macadam Cage)
The Most They Ever Had joins Somebody Told Me, Ava’s Man, and The Prince of Frogtown; all books by Rick Bragg and all winners of the SIBA Book Award. Southern booksellers and readers cannot get enough Rick Bragg. These nine stories, written to carry readers across space and time to the mill town of Anniston, AL, over a one hundred year span, will capture readers and booksellers alike. SIBA and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Rick Bragg again gives a voice to people who never even knew they had anything worth hearing.
In other news in this robust category, Salem Publishing will launch FamilyFiction, a Web site/newsletter/digital magazine at www.familyfiction.com/, focused on Christian fiction, this fall. It joins fictionfinder.com, a database and educational program launched earlier this year by American Christian Fiction Writers to help readers, librarians, and booksellers navigate the growing variety of genres and novelists. ACFW, with more than 2,100 members, announced at ICRS it has renamed its Book of the Year Award the Carol Award to honor pioneering editor Carol Johnson, a longtime champion of Christian fiction, who acquired author Janette Oke in 1979 for what is now Bethany House Publishers.
It’s war time, 
and the Carver family decides to leave the capital where they live and move to a small coastal village where they’ve recently bought a home. But from the minute they cross the threshold, strange things begin to happen. In that mysterious house still lurks the spirit of Jacob, the previous owners’ son, who died by drowning.
With the help of their new friend Roland, Max and Alicia Carver begin to explore the strange circumstances of that death and discover the existence of a mysterious being called the Prince of Mist–a diabolical character who has returned from the shadows to collect on a debt from the past. Soon the three friends find themselves caught up in anadventure of sunken ships and an enchanted stone garden–an adventure that will change their lives forever.
Carlos Ruiz Zafón is the author of six novels, including the 
international phenomenon The Shadow of the Wind. His work has been published in more than forty different languages, and honored with numerous international awards, including the Edebé Award, Spain’s most prestigious prize for young adult fiction. He divides his time between Barcelona, Spain, and Los Angeles, California.
The Prince of Mist is suitable for middle-grade and young teen readers.
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Upcoming young adult books made into movies:
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – opening July 14, 2010
Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage) is a master sorcerer in modern-day Manhattan trying to defend the city from his arch-nemesis, Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina). Balthazar can’t do it alone, so he recruits Dave Stutler (Jay Baruchel), a seemingly average guy who demonstrates hidden potential, as his reluctant protégé. The sorcerer gives his unwilling accomplice a crash course in the art and science of magic, and together, these unlikely partners work to stop the forces of darkness. It’ll take all the courage Dave can muster to survive his training, save the city and get the girl as he becomes The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
Ramona and Beezus - opening July 23, 2010
Follows the misadventures of young grade schooler Ramona Quimby from Beverly Cleary’s popular children’s book series. Stars Joey King as Ramona and Selena Gomez as Beezus.
Beastly – opening July 30, 2010
Written for the young adult audience, author Alex Flinn re-imagines Beauty and the Beast with a male lead. Kyle Kingsbury, the guy everyone wishes they were, with money, perfect looks, and a perfect life. But, he crosses a witch and she puts a spell on him. Stars Alex Pettyfer as Kyle, Mary-Kate Olsen as the witch, Vanessa Hudgens as Lindy and Dakota Johnson as Sloan.
The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud - opening July 30, 2010
Charlie St. Cloud
Starring Zac Efron as Charlie, and Amanda Crew as Tess, the movie (and book by Ben Sherwood) is a suspenseful, inspiring story about second chances and the liberating power of love. The tale begins with a young man narrowly surviving a car wreck that kills his little brother. Years later, the brothers’ bond remains so strong that it transcends the normal boundaries separating life and death.
Charlie St. Cloud lives in a snug New England fishing village. Every day he tends the lawns and monuments of an old cemetery where his younger brother Sam is buried. Every night at sunset he enters a magical world behind the iron gates. Graced with an extraordinary gift after surviving the accident, he can still see, talk and even play catch with Sam’s spirit. But townsfolk whisper that as long as he stays in the graveyard, Charlie will never recover from his loss.
Into his carefully ordered life comes Tess Carroll, a captivating, adventuresome woman training for a solo sailing trip around the globe. Fate steers her boat into a treacherous storm that blows her back to harbor, to a charged encounter with Charlie, and to a surprise more overwhelming than the violent sea itself. Charlie and Tess discover a beautiful and uncommon connection that leads to a race against time and a desperate choice between death and life, the past and the future, holding on and letting go.
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Air Show by Treat Williams with illustrations by Robert Neubecker (Hyperion, 6/15/2010 – for ages 3-7)
Treat Williams, an actor and certified flight instructor, debuts with an oversize picture book certain to capture the imaginations of young airplane aficionados. Headed to an air show, Ellie and Gill excitedly climb aboard a small plane piloted by their father. As he and his copilot run through the preflight checklist (“Radios on?” “Check!”….
“Check avionics?” “Got ‘em”) and follow instructions from the tower, readers witness a takeoff firsthand. Neubecker’s (Sophie Peterman Tells the Truth!) buoyant cartoons capture the thrill of the flight (from many perspectives). At the busy air show, a foldout spread displays an arresting array of vintage and contemporary planes, each labeled with its name and year (the scene wouldn’t be out of place in a Where’s Waldo book, but all eyes would be on the planes). In the most exhilarating scenario, Ellie is treated to a ride in an open-cockpit stunt plane; as the plane (and text) makes an oval loop in the center of the spread, Ellie is seen in closeup on the periphery, her expressions ranging from apprehensive to gleeful. Creative typography, facts, and sound effects add to the fun of this exuberant excursion.
Thank you to PW for the original article.
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Nathan Dunne is either a very brave or a very stupid young man. At a time when a) the MP3 has supplanted the CD as the most popular format on which to listen to recorded sounds; b) literature as a physical artefact is coming under attack from the rise of iPads, Kindles and other digital reading devices; and c) the short story is as tricky to sell to publishing houses as it has ever been, Dunne has set up a new imprint called Underwood, whose remit is to produce 33rpm vinyl records featuring writers reading 20-minute short stories aloud. “Candidly, it’s an experiment,” he admits.
The first
release from Underwood, which takes its name from a Fionn Regan song that alludes to another largely obsolete piece of technology, the typewriter (“I’m changing the ribbon in this old Underwood”), is a lavish affair. Designed by American comic-book artist Jordan Crane, whose stylised bucolic cover picks up on themes on the disc’s two stories – Clare Wigfall’s Along Birdcage Walk and Toby Litt’s The Hare – it’s presented in a four-panel gatefold sleeve so beautiful that it’s easy to regard the artefact as visual art as much as a record.
“When I was growing up there were labels like Argos and Caedmon that brought out records of writers speaking,” Dunne recalls. “When James Joyce was reading aloud from Finnegans Wake it was like reggae to me; I didn’t understand half of what he was saying, but it had a lyrical and a melodic quality that absolutely made sense.”
For Dunne, the current emphasis on the portability and ease of circulation of recorded sound rather than its sonic properties corrodes the intimacy of the listening experience. The MP3 has an alien digital gloss. It’s streamlined, corporate, like a mainline train station. Listening to a short story on vinyl is the purest antidote to that. It’s more immersive. It heightens engagement.”
Read the rest of the article here.
Thank you to Telegraph.co.uk for the original article.
In the tradition of Martin Cruz Smith and Tom Rob Smith, Sam Eastland pulls us into the culture and politics of Mother Russia in his highly imaginative Eye of the Red Tsar
(Bantam, 278 pp., $25)
The “Eye” is Pekkala, Prisoner 4745-P, a former detective who is yanked out of the gulag in the late 1920s to investigate the most infamous crime in Russian history, the murder of Czar Nicholas II, his wife and five children during the Bolshevik Revolution. Pekkala’s formidable task comes straight from Joseph Stalin: Prove the Romanovs were indeed murdered more than a decade before and locate the bodies. History mixes with fiction in an exciting story that gets high grades for its clever premise. This novel is a must-have for the beach bag.
Blood Oath By Christopher Farnsworth (Putnam, 390 pp., $24.95)
Just when 
you think there’s nothing new to say about vampires, along comes Nathaniel Cade. The star of Christopher Farnsworth‘s Blood Oath is a secret agent/blood drinker. Think Jack Bauer/Dirty Harry of the supernatural world. He has been protecting America and its presidents from otherworldly enemies since the time of Andrew Johnson. This uniquely wonderful idea translates into a good if not great contemporary thriller in which Cade uncovers a plot to turn the corpses of American soldiers into a zombie-like fighting force. If every scene in this book involved Cade, it would rate five stars. He’s chillingly charismatic. Fans of Blood Oath can look forward to more of his adventures in future books. Film rights have been optioned.
Gunshot Road: An Emily Tempest Investigation By Adrian Hyland (Soho Crime, 368 pp., $25)
Adrian Hyland‘s first Emily Tempest novel, Moonlight Downs, won an Australian award for best first novel. We return to Emily’s world in the atmospheric Gunshot Road. Set against the backdrop of the untamed Outback, the novel opens with Emily assuming her new role as Aboriginal Community Police Officer. There’s a lot of guts, bravery and bravura packed into Emily’s compact frame. Her understanding of life in the Outback, its people’s idiosyncrasies and their deep-rooted culture serves as an informative travelogue. But it’s her dogged determination to discover the killer of an old geologist that makes the book so enticing. Emily is an admirable addition to the list of female investigators on the international fiction scene.
The Good Son By Michael Gruber (Henry Holt, 383 pp., $26)
Michael Gr
uber, the author of The Book of Air and Shadows and Tropic of Night, undertakes a most admirable study of Muslim culture and the age of terrorism in The Good Son, a thriller that resonates strongly with the current state of world affairs. When Sonia Bailey Laghari, a controversial American Muslim writer, is taken captive during a visit to Pakistan, her Pakistani-American son Theo hatches a tangled plot to rescue her. An assassin working for a secret military agency, Theo was also a child soldier fighting the Russians in Afghanistan. Gruber’s portrait of Theo is a fascinating evocation of what it must be like to be both American and Muslim. Gruber’s colorful dog-eat-dog portrayal of American intelligence operatives is equally compelling.
Thanks to USAToday for the original article.
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The Devil’s Star by Jo Nesbo is reminiscent of Ian Ranking, Michael Connelly, and Henning Mankell, who writes the Kurt Wallander mystery series. The detective in The Devil’s Star, is Harry Hole, a periodic binge drinker, who is opposed to being a team player. Though the most competent detective on the force, Hole’s drinking keeps him in trouble with his superiors and in his personal life. There are eight Hole novels in the series, but not all of them have had English translations, yet.
In this novel, several women have been killed. Each one has had a finger cut off and a red star-shaped diamond left somewhere on the body. Harry is put on the case with Tom Waaler, a colleague he neither likes nor trusts. Harry has been investigating Waaler on the side as he believes Waaler is the head of a gun-smuggling operation.
For the most part, the translation to English works. There are a few slang words and some turns of phrase that may sound stilted to American readers.
Nesbo won the Riverton Prize 1997 for Best Norwegian Crime Novel of the Year, The Bat Man, his debut Harry Hole novel. He has also won the 1998 Best Nordic Crime Novel of the Year (The Bat Man), the Norwegian Booksellers’ Prize for Best Novel of the Year 2000 (The Redbreast), and The Norwegian Book Club Prize 2008 for Best Novel of the Year (The Snowman), and many other awards for his writing.
Nesbo has written two children’s books with the title character of Doktor Proktor and several stand-alone novels. He is also the main vocalist and songwriter for the Norwegian rock band Di Derre.
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There are 10 women and 10 men, satirists and modernists, from Miami and Ethiopia and Peru and Chicago. And none of them were born before 1970.
The New Yorker has chosen its “20 Under 40” list of fiction writers worth watching, a group assembled by the magazine’s editors in a lengthy, secretive process that has provoked considerable anxiety among young literary types. The list will be published in the double fiction issue of The New Yorker that arrives on newsstands Monday. All of the writers were told two weeks ago that they had made the cut.
They are Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 32; Chris Adrian, 39; Daniel Alarcón, 33; David Bezmozgis, 37; Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, 38; Joshua Ferris, 35; Jonathan Safran Foer, 33; Nell Freudenberger, 35; Rivka Galchen, 34; Nicole Krauss, 35; Yiyun Li, 37; Dinaw Mengestu, 31; Philipp Meyer, 36; C. E. Morgan, 33; Téa Obreht, 24; Z Z Packer, 37; Karen Russell, 28; Salvatore Scibona, 35; Gary Shteyngart, 37; and Wells Tower, 37.
The entire article can be read at The New Yorker.
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Ten years of great southern lit for $9.95!
Ordering Information:
Bookstores: Available from Ingram, 978-0-9825205-0-5, SRP $9.95
Consumers: Available at Southern Indie Bookstores.
How well do you know your Southern lit? We dare you to use a pen on these crossword puzzles, each inspired by one of the winning titles of the SIBA Book Award, honoring ten years of the very best in Southern literature as chosen by the people who would know...Southern Independent Booksellers! A great gift for your book club, for puzzle-lovers, and anyone who loves Southern literature.
