Will another Chicago Catholic memoir really hold up?
Those who follow publishing all know the story of John Grisham, who as an unknown author started out self-publishing a little book called A Time to Kill , driving around selling it out of the trunk of his car.
While most self-published authors don't see Grisham's kind of success, with a little persistence it can happen. Former Chicagoan John Bernard Ruane is getting a shot with his memoir Parish the Thought: An Inspirational Memoir of Growing up Catholic in the 1960s (Roswell Press, $19.99), which found its way into the book room right about the time I took over the job of Books Editor last year.
Anyone who grew up Catholic wlll relate to Ruane's stories of growing up in a Chicago parish, where he served as an altar boy and was schooled under the influence of nuns and priests in the 1960s. (One can't help recall John R. Powers' fictionalized memoirs about growing up Catholic in the '50s — The Last Catholic in America, Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?)
Ruane, who now makes his home in Roswell Georgia, printed only 5,000 copies last summer. Most of the hardcovers have sold out and now Pocket Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, will publish the paperback edition this fall.
None other than our city's own archbishop, Francis Cardinal George blurbs the book on the back cover:
"John Bernard Ruane writes about a truly memorable parish, St. Bede's in the Archdiocese of Chicago. His witty but moving recall of his years growing up is a marvelous tribute to his mother and father and to the parish itself. Chicago priests and parishes have shaped literally millions of Catholics, and all of us now have reason to be grateful to John."
Chicago-based author Jon Lellenberg, along with his co-authors Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley, was recently nominated by the Mystery Writers of America for a 2008 Edgar Award in the Best Critical/Biographical category for Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters (Penguin Press, $37.95)
Publisher's Weekly had this to say: "This fascinating collection of previously unpublished letters from the creator of Sherlock Holmes offers a revealing glimpse of a Renaissance man fated to be overshadowed by his most famous character. Beginning with correspondence from Doyle as an eight-year-old in 1867, the editors offer a warts-and-all picture of his life until 1920, 10 years before his death, covering the author's frank accounts of life at a boarding school, his struggles as a young doctor and aspiring writer, and his political advocacy. This will be essential reading for all fans of Conan Doyle and his sleuth."
The Edgar Awards —named after Edgar Allan Poe, of course — "are considered the Oscars of the mystery genre." The award ceremony will take place May 1 in New York. For more information: www.theedgars.com.
As part of the One Book, One Chicago program, The Outfit, a group of area crime fiction authors, has been asked to write about different aspects of Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye. The group began blogging about the book yesterday and will continue through the next two weeks. Sara Paretsky started things off. Check it out.
Other members of The Outfit include Sean Chercover, Barbara D'Amato, Michael Allen Dymmoch, Kevin Guilfoile, Libby Fischer Hellmann and Marcus Sakey. Several members have new books out:
Check this out. Bikini-clad Pamela Anderson is caught on camera reading local author Anne Elizabeth Moore's book, Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity.
Congratulations to Chicago author Dwight Okita, who you might remember from a March 19 posting on this blog. Okita was one of 10 finalists in Amazon.com's Breakthough Novel contest, in which the public voted for the winner.
Okita didn't win for his book, The Prospect of My Arrival, but he did get enough votes to make the Top 3, who were all flown to New York for the awards ceremony. The winner was Bill Loehfelm, for his book, Fresh Kills, about an estranged son struggling to find his father's killer and make peace with the past.
Here's a note Okita sent out to his supporters last night:
Hi all,
As some of you know, I got the exciting phone call from Amazon telling me that I had made it to the Top 3 in the novel contest! They flew us to New York last weekend for the awards ceremony. Though I didn't win the publishing deal, I made many great connections in the business and hope to find a happy ending to my novel yet. Thanks to everyone for their support of my novel. More to come later.
Dwight
And here is what Publisher's Weekly had to say about Okita's book:
In Chicago of 2025, the experimental Pre-Born Project at the Infinity Medical Center has inserted the consciousness of a fetus into the unoccupied body of a 30-year-old man, who will visit seven Referrals before deciding whether he chooses to be born. In lesser hands, this odd premise might have veered into political diatribe or slapstick. Instead, the protagonist, called Prospect, takes the reader on an engrossing and moving journey into the meaning of life, filled with fresh observations and memorable characters. Addressing the reader with a voice that skillfully blends innocence and wisdom, this latter-day Candide discovers unexpected connections among his Referrals and lands in jeopardy that keeps the pages turning until its satisfying and touching conclusion. The reader will find many insights and turns of phrase (curtains that "move like jellyfish in the summer breeze") to savor along the way.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, his state’s first black governor and a close ally of presidential candidate Barack Obama, is writing a memoir that will be published by Broadway Books in 2010.
Gov. Deval Patrick
The deal is worth $1.35 million and nine publishers competed for the book, currently untitled, according to agent Todd Shuster of the Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Literary Agency. Patrick will donate some of his royalties to A Better Chance, a nonprofit educational organization that helped Patrick attend the Milton Academy, south of Boston.
‘‘Drawing upon his extraordinary journey from Chicago’s Wabash Avenue to the Massachusetts State House on Boston’s fabled Beacon Hill, Gov. Patrick will offer in his book a series of lessons and insights on life and leadership,’’ according to a statement released Friday by Broadway Books, an imprint of Random House, Inc.
‘‘Among the subjects he will address are self-truth, grace, faith, courage, and compassion, as well as the importance of forgiveness, and embracing optimism and hope to make good outcomes possible.’’
Obama, a black Illinois senator who wrote Dreams From My Father and Audacity of Hope, is similar to Patrick in several ways: Both are Democrats who graduated from Harvard Law School, have Chicago ties and ended up seeking elective office on the strength of their backgrounds.
Patrick, 51, was out of state last week when his casino gambling plan, a cornerstone of his economic program, went down to defeat, leading to speculations about his whereabouts: He was in New York, shopping his book.
Patrick briefly became an issue in the presidential campaign when it was discovered that Obama had been using some of his lines, saying that while words matter, actions mean more, leading Obama’s rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, to call him the candidate of ‘‘change you can Xerox.’’
Patrick, one of Obama’s strongest supporters, dismissed the charges as ‘‘sort of a tempest in a teapot.’’
Publisher pulls book about Chicago's Four Seasons Hotel
By HILLEL ITALIE
A gossipy book by two ex-concierges at Chicago’s luxurious Four Seasons Hotel has been pulled by Three Rivers Press because the authors were legally banned from writing about their experiences.
‘‘Despite previous and repeated inquiries made by Three Rivers Press, we recently learned that Abigail Hart and Nancy Callahan did not disclose that they had signed confidentiality agreements with their former employer, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts,’’ publicist Katie Wainwright told The Associated
Press on Thursday.
The book, Great Reservations: Two Concierges Dish About Outrageous Requests, Celebrity Encounters, and Guests Behaving Badly at a Luxury Hotel, had been scheduled for a June release. It featured anecdotes on such celebrities as Madonna (who had a ‘‘phobialike aversion’’ to air conditioning) and Sir Anthony Hopkins (who asked that he simply be called ‘‘Tony’’).
Although advance copies had been sent to the media, the book had not yet been shipped to stores and a print run had not been determined, Wainwright said.
Three Rivers Press is an imprint of Random House, Inc., which is owned by Bertelsmann AG.
AP
Note: Here's what the book would have looked like had it made it to store shelves:
Chicago author Dwight Okita is one of 10 finalists in an "American Idol"-type competition for the literary set — and you can help him win by voting online. Okita's book, Prospect of My Arrival, is a science fiction story set in Chicago in the near future: 2025.
There were nearly 5,000 submissions for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, which is sponsored by Amazon.com, Penguin Group (USA) and HP.
Voters can download, read, rate and/or review excerpts of all the finalists' work by logging on to www.amazon.com/abna. Voting ends March 31 and the winner will be unveiled in New York on April 7. The finalist with the most votes wins a publishing contract worth $25,000.
Check out Okita's Web site for more information about the author and the contest.
Author Michele Weldon, an assistant professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism takes a fresh look at the changing face of newspapers in her latest book, Everyman News: The Changing American Front Page (University of Missouri Press, 280 pages, $39.95).
You might remember Weldon from a few years ago when she appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," with her 1999 memoir, I Closed My Eyes: Revelations of a Battered Woman.
It's February, which means Black History Month, Lincoln's birthday, Washington's birthday and, of course, Valentine's Day. We'll cover all of these on the blog throughout the month. First up is a collection of stories compiled by Jeffrey Eugenides — a former Oprah Book Club author for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Middlesex.
My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead (HarperCollins, 587 pages, $24.95) features love stories from writers past and present, including Vladimir Nabokov, Alice Munro, Raymond Carver, William Faulkner, Lorrie Moore, Bernard Malamud, Grace Paley, Denis Johnson, Stuart Dybek and many more.
The coolest thing about this book is that, according to Amazon.com, all proceeds from this book will go directly to fund the free youth writing programs offered by 826 Chicago, which is part of the network of writing centers across the United States dedicated to supporting students with their writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.
Here's a review of the book from the Associated Press...
Oprah goes self-help route with new Book Club selection
Oprah has chosen Eckhart Tolle’s 2005 self-help guide, A New Earth, as her latest book club selection. Oprah made the announcement today on her talk show, which also featured novelist Ken Follett, author of her previous book club pick, The Pillars of the Earth.
"Being able to share this material with you is a gift and a part of the fulfillment of my life's purpose," Oprah said on the show. "It was an awakening for me that I want for you, too."
She's so dedicated to the cause that she's going to co-host, with Tolle, a series of live, interactive classroom discussions via the Internet. Each discussion in the free, 10-week program (March 3-May 5) will focus on a specific chapter theme. (To pre-register for the class, click here.)
According to a press release issued by Harpo Productions ...
The more children's books I look through, the more I'm convinced there is a lot for adults to learn by paging through them.
Today's book of the day is Chicago History For Kids: Triumphs and Tragedies of the Windy City (Chicago Review Press, 173 pages, $14.95) by Owen Hurd...
Today's book has a Chicago connection (also a new category on this blog), which is one of the reasons I chose it. The other reason was that I was taken by the story behind the story.
The author of The Blind Doctor: The Jacob Bolotin Story (Blue Point Books, 236 pages, $19.95, paperback), Rosalind Perlman, died at age 93 in 2004, three years before the book would be published. ...
