June 15, 2009 This week we'll be interviewing Macmillan Publisher's Rep and voracious reader Ellen Pyle! KB: So Ellen what book, if you spot someone else reading it, makes you feel intrigued to know them better? Ellen: That's a tough one. The Best in Tent Camping: New England: A Guide for Car Campers Who Hate RVs, Concrete Slabs, and Loud Portable Stereos I was reading it last night as a matter of fact. KB: Let's make a mental note not to book a sales appointment when The Samboree comes to the Farmington Fairground. KB: What are your absolute favorite titles on the Macmillan fall list, one adult and one kids? Ellen: Justice. Sandel is a brilliant teacher. He teaches the most popular class at Harvard. He spoke at our sales conference and thoroughly engaged 40 people immediately with his Socratic teaching method. KB: And in kids? Ellen: Hmmn, from Henry Holt, Jeremy Draws A Monster. It's a new drawing style for him. Even though he's already won a Caldecott Honor medal, this is the first time I think he's written and illustrated a book that kids are going to go gaga about. KB:As someone who is a reader to the core what would you pick as the ultimate just before falling asleep book Ellen: I usually read a mystery before bed. I love mysteries! I just finished The new Lee Child and Laurie R. King books. KB Thanks Ellen! Here they are! Our weekly picks for the two best: two hardcover, two paperback, and two children's books. The very best new arrivals to leap out of the box and onto our shelves this week. Call or email us if you want more information on any of these titles, or to have us hold you a copy. Or stop in and check them out in person. We'd love to see you. Thanks as always for sharing your reading with us!     The Angel's Game By Ruiz Zafon, Carlos 2009/06 - Doubleday Books 9780385528702 - Hardcover  See Other Formats List Price $26.95 - Your Price: $21.56 Availability: Available This is only the second of Zafon's books to have been translated and released in the United States. A point to note is that the first, Shadow of the Wind was a sensationally entertaining modern gothic, mingling history, antiquarian bookselling, earthy. appealing characters, and atmospheric mystery. The ingredient list looks similarly appetizing for ....More   Last Journey: A Father and Son in Wartime By Griffin, Darrell Petreaus, David 2009/06 - Atlas 9781934633168 - Hardcover List Price $25.00 - Your Price: $20.00 Availability: Available   Preorder Title Back Order This is an unusual book well worth a look, in which a father who lost his son in the Iraq war essentially co-wrote a book with his son, Darrell Griffith. Griffith had been writing a memoir during the war, and his father took the material, along with letters and a journal, and completed the book, incorporating his own search for understanding and meaning, integrating his son's letters and journal entries. ...More   The Old Man and Me By Dundy, Elaine Heller, Zoe 2009/06 - New York Review of Books 9781590173176 - Trade Paper List Price $15.95 - Your Price: $12.76 Availability: Available NYRB is on fire lately with their reprints of literary gems. A masterpiece of black comedy by all accounts, how can one not read a book of which P.G. Wodehouse reported that "There isn't a dull line in it."...More   The Monster of Florence By Preston, Douglas J. 2009/06 - Grand Central Publishing 9780446581271 - Trade Paper  See Other Formats List Price $14.99 - Your Price: $11.99 Availability: Available The Monster of Florence easily earns The Weekly Top 2 DBBTONIP (Deserving Big Book That's Out Now In Paperback) rating. It has has an intriguing enough premise that one feels Preston and Spezi would have to trip over themselves to come up flat. Preston moved to a Florentine Villa with his family several years ago. He soon learned from Italian journalist Mario Spezi that an orchard adjacent to his property had been the site of a murder by an Italian serial killer known as The Monster of Florence, who had killed only young couples. The case was never solved and as Preston and Spezi began to investigate they brought a police investigation down on themselves. ...More   Along for the Ride By Dessen, Sarah 2009/07 - Viking Children's Books 9780670011940 - Hardcover  See Other Formats List Price $19.99 - Your Price: $15.99 Availability: Available Sarah Dessen's consistent excellence has made her a premiere Young Adult novelist. She certainly doesn't break stride in Along For the Ride which deals with a young woman whose parentified childhood is finally on the chopping block in her last summer before college begins. ...More   Panda and Polar Bear By Baek, Matthew Baek, Matthew 2009/06 - Dial Books 9780803733596 - Hardcover List Price $16.99 - Your Price: $13.59 Availability: Available This story of learning to appreciate the value of differences through friendship has a really lovely quality. A baby polar falls off the edge of his polar home into a bamboo world where he is befriended by a baby panda. Okay it does seem kind of like cheating to feature both baby pandas and baby polar bears in one picture book, but Baek's gentle story and appealing watercolors are loaded with charm. At the end it is revealed visually that the story is set in a zoo, thought he scale feels much larger and more open throughout. This makes perfect sense from a child's eye view. ...More