PaperCuts

It's amazing how much the cover of a book can affect your perceptions of it.  I'm fascinated by how book covers are designed and chosen.  Take the case of the US release of Liza Palmer's Seeing Me Naked.  Apparently, the picture to the left is what the US cover was originally going to look like, but the idea was nixed by the publisher. 

I personally don't see anything wrong with this cover, in fact I think it's rather eye-catching and would make me want to examine the book further to see what it was about.  Here is the US cover the publisher settled on (to the right).

It's not bad, but I think I like the first one better. I like them both better than the UK cover though (see below).

The line drawing style doesn't seem as appealing and to me it the illustration says that this is a cheeky romance novel, while the other covers seem to say it's more of a sophisticated book.

And isn't it interesting how as authors become better known their books are often re-released with different covers?  Check out these examples:

Continue reading "It's All In a Cover" »

Posted on January 19, 2008 by Deb at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Today Papercuts welcomes author Susan May Warren, who is stopping by on a blog tour promoting her latest release Chill Out Josey!  

In Chill Out Josey! readers get to follow Josey from Everything's Coming Up Josey around on her ongoing crazy adventures in Russia.  That's right, despite thinking that she was happily married and ready to settle down in her hometown of Gull Lake, Minnesota, it seems that God--and her new husband Chase--have other plans.  Josey fights the idea at first, but her desire to be the perfect wife leads her to follow Chase to the land of underfed women, designer knock-offs, and cold water baths.  Josey struggles to deal with all of this with a measure of grace, despite being jealous of her new husband's gorgeous co-workers, upset at being left alone while he becomes a workaholic, and discovering she is pregnant.  Josey, as you may have guessed, is the typical chick-lit heroine who exaggerates every situation and makes terribly bad decisions that get her into all sorts of trouble.  Josey will have you shaking your head at her stupidity, but also howling with laughter at the ensuing mayhem that she creates. 

A little more about Susan: Many of Josey's adventures come from the real life experiences of the author.  Susan, like Josey, grew up in Minnesota and spent several years as a missionary in Russia with her husband.  So those stories about a pregnant Josey's struggles to navigate the subway and find a bus seat were based on the author's real life.  Susan's Russian ties also show in some of her other fiction, such as the Mission: Russia series, thrillers in which a FBI agent and a Russian FSB agent cross paths.  Not all of Susan's stories have such exotic settings, for example the Deep Haven series is set in a small town on the shore of Lake Superior--a place Susan always dreamed of living.  And that is in fact where she and her family moved when they retired from the mission field a few years ago.  To find out more about Susan, her books, and maybe even win something in one of her contests, visit her website, blog, and contest pages.

Thanks for stopping by Susan, and I personally can't wait for you to write another Josey adventure!

Posted on January 10, 2008 by Deb at 02:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Version of the Truth by Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack

Cassie Shaw has never been much of a scholar. In fact, she dropped out of high school and got her GED because trying to thrive with dyslexia in an academic setting was just too frustrating. Now that she’s 30, and a widow, and living back home with her mom again, Cassie just wants to move on with her life.

Potential employers all want to talk about her education though, and even the temp agency jobs require a college degree. Cassie knows she doesn’t want to work with her mom at the wildlife center forever, so she lies on her resume to get an interview for an office job. It works; she’s hired to assist two psychology professors with typing and filing at the local university. Cassie has to work extra hard at tasks that involve reading and writing, and she is succeeding at her job. She even starts attending the animal behavior lectures of one of her bosses, Professor William Connor.  With her years of living in the wilds of Topanga Canyon and all of the time she spent at the wildlife center, Cassie immediately takes to the subject matter. It doesn’t hurt that Professor Connor is handsome, charming and a bit of a flirt. Cassie begins to transform herself to blend into the academic world. She changes her clothes, her hair, her hobbies, her friends – and not everyone agrees that these are improvements. Underneath all of these changes, though, is the big lie on her resume, the one she is trying to cover up, and possibly even to make true eventually. But for now, Cassie Shaw is only living a version of the truth.

In this story, the characters really drew me into the action. Cassie’s challenges are never explicitly referred to in terms of self-esteem, but her deceased husband was certainly not an encouraging or supportive man. Even though I personally am not into the great outdoors, I appreciated the beauty and comfort that Cassie found there. Without preachy environmentalism, the authors share a profound connection with nature and the benefits of heading out into the woods. Another sign of our times was that Cassie’s friend had a brother serving in the military in Iraq. While this was a minor part of the story, it seems fitting to acknowledge some of the ways that the current war is affecting families and friends back home in the literature of the times.  These authors, Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack, worked together previously on the delightful Literacy and Longing in L.A. which I reviewed here. This book again features intelligent writing, appealing romance, and (best of all) a multitude of reference to other books (this time with a natural and environmental focus).

Reviewed by Lissa Staley

Posted on December 26, 2007 by Lissa at 01:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Outside In is the 1^st novel of actress Courtney Thorne-Smith.  It is a light-hearted look at what happens when everything is falling apart.

I have a very eclectic list of books I've just finished reading that I really enjoyed:

The Mercy Seller by Brenda Vantrease: Anna grew up as the granddaughter of an illuminator in Prague--an illuminator who practices the dangerous act of copying the Bible into English. Anna is devastated when a wave of persecution breaks out against those who dare to oppose the church in this way, and several of her friends--including the man she was to marry--are killed.

Fleeing Prague, Anna has many adventures on her way to England, where she believes she will find safety with Sir John Oldcastle. But church officials suspect Oldcastle of being in league with the heresy, and they send a priest named Gabriel to collect evidence against him.

I enjoyed this look at an intriguing time in history, when people were persecuted for practices that seem so innocent today. The characters seemed real, though the circumstances they encounter sometimes have a hint of the miraculous to them. I loved the suspense that arose not only from the persecution but also the complex relationships. Those with an interest in religious history will especially enjoy this one, which by the way is a follow up to Vantrease's earlier novel, The Illuminator.

Monday Morning Faith by Lori Copeland: Librarian Johanna Holland thinks she is content with her life, she enjoys her work and taking care of her parents. But her life gets shaken up when her parents decide to move and she meets a man who takes an interest in her. 

Continue reading "Thoughts on Recent Reads" »

Posted on August 31, 2007 by Deb at 04:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kate has a great career in the city, lovely French provincial furniture, and 3 ex-fiancées.  Kate is also lonely, so her best friend Jessie decides it is time to quit sitting around waiting for Mr. Right to come along.  She just needs a plan; so they sit down and make a list of the qualities she wants in a man, distinguished, successful, and making 3 times his age, etc. Then she packs Kate off to a resort in Kentucky catering to the upwardly mobile business crowd.  Once Kate gets there her plan goes all wrong.  All of the upwardly mobile business types are pretty much carbon copies of the 3 ex-fiancées and she finds herself floating on the lake in an old row boat with the very sexy and annoying caretaker Jake during the day and saving the local bar at night. 

Manhunting by Jennifer Crusie was originally released as a paperback and has been one of my favorite books by her ever since.  It is funny with a lot of heart and female wisdom. Recently it was released as a small hardcover and in audio format as well.  Check out Kansas Overdrive to listen to it on your mp3 player, all you need is your library card.

Check out her great website to see her new releases and read the first chapter of her books.

Posted on June 28, 2007 by Shari at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted on October 27, 2006 by Meghan at 02:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Boo by Rene Gutteridge

Boo takes place in Skary, Indiana, which has built itself up as a local tourist spot based on its name and it’s resident horror author—Wolfe “Boo” Boone.  Ainsley Parker, the daughter of the local police chief, finds all of his extremely annoying.  She can’t even order normal food at the local diner, which has revamped its menu to include “bloody fingers” and “queasy quesadillas”.  Then Boone has a sudden conversion that means the end of his horror writing career, which puts the town is in an upheaval and causes Ainsley to feel confused about how she feels about Boone. 
My thoughts:  OK, this story seems somewhat hokey in places, but it is a story to be read just for the fun of it.  Particularly when characters like the meddling town mayor are so over the top that reality is stretched to the breaking point.  This story did have some scenes that made me think though, such as when the pastor shut down church one Sunday, simply leaving a note saying “Go and do what I taught you to do.”  What would you do if you were confronted with such a situation?  In a season where spooky books are highly sought after,  I would suggest Boo as a fun, non-scary but rather up-lifting alternative.

Speaking of books that made me think, another recent read entitled The Hidden by Kathryn Mackel made me do just that.  In it a family health crisis brings doctor Susan Stone back home to the ranch that she hasn't visited in years.  Family tensions run high, but the discovery of a badly burned body is even more alarming.  And then Susan stumbles across a young man chained in a deep crevasse after taking a tumble while horseback riding.  The young man seems to be suffering from amnesia and abuse, but as events unfold the mystery of who--or what--he really is builds, especially as violent and eerie occurrences multiply. 
My thoughts:  The mystery of this book centers on the chained man Susan finds—is he man, demon, or angel?  Who or what is behind the murders and attacks going on in the area?  This supernatural thriller had me pondering the nature of angels and demons, and whether Mackel’s interpretation of such entities was accurate or not.  All of this is laid within the framework of a tightly woven suspense story which kept me up late reading right until the end. 

And now for something completely different…my next read, Savannah from Savannah by Denise Hildreth.  Savannah is from Savannah, Georgia (hence the title) where her mother is the head of the tourism board.  Savannah has recently graduated from college and is determined to make her way based on her own merits, not based on the influence of her mother.  She lands a job working as a columnist at the local paper and becomes involved in an investigation involving the local beauty pageants.  There is some sort of scandal behind them that Savannah is determined to uncover—but she finds out that uncovering the truth can lead to a whole world of hurt.
My thoughts:  This light, breezy read is one that you don’t have to think about much, the reader can just sit back and enjoy Savannah’s antics as she overreacts to everything.  The portrayal of Savannah’s warm loving family was memorable, though at times they seemed too good to be true—particularly her doting father.  Savannah’s quirky ways and the southern charm of the setting make this story a fun way to enjoy an afternoon, while absorbing a subtle lesson about the power of our words to hurt or to heal.

Posted on October 07, 2006 by Deb at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I recently sat down with Gina Millsap, our director of TSCPL. She shared some of her favorite reads of the past summer, books she’s looking forward to reading this fall, childhood favorites, vampire novels and her take on Banned Books Week. Check it out! (Editor's note: during the book talk of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, I say the main female character is from Texas, but she is in fact from Arizona. My apologies to Ms. Meyer!)

Gina’s books of the summer.
Gina’s lifetime favorites.
The worst book ever written?
Fall reads and vampire fiction.
Gina’s take on Banned Books Week.

Swing by the East Wing to check out our brand new Horror display! For a complete list of books and authors mentioned, click on the link below.

Continue reading "What the Director is Reading: a TSCPL Podcast" »

Posted on September 29, 2006 by Meghan at 08:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

On September 2^nd, the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library had the privilege to host author Pamela Ribon for our end of summer reading celebration! Pam read excerpts from her new book, Why Moms Are Weird, took questions from the audience and drew the three names of our lucky Ticket to Read Grand Prize winners! You can read about her journey to Kansas, being on the same plane as Tone Loc, ending up on YouTube, and her reaction to meeting some of her fans.

In addition to entertaining us for a few hours, Pam agreed to an interview for our first PaperCuts podcast! Check out the following clips:

- Pamie talks about being a working writer.
- What would Pamie do if she met Oprah in the grocery store?
- Pamie talks about her mother.
- Pamie talks about writing Why Moms Are Weird.
- The Dewey Donation System and Pamie's experience with libraries.

Continue reading "Author Pamela Ribon speaks!" »

Posted on September 12, 2006 by Meghan at 09:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted on August 30, 2006 by Meghan at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

London singleton Jane Green started her career as a novelist after being inspired by Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity. Eight novels later, she is married to an American man, and living in Connecticut with their four children. Her busy life continues to inspire her irresistible, witty romantic contemporary women’s fiction, which just keeps getting better!

Her first novel, Straight Talking, is about the real world of modern dating. Jemima J: A Novel About Ugly Ducklings and Swans is the chronicle of one woman's quest to become the woman she's always wanted to be. Mr. Maybe is about the business of netting a man when your head and your heart have different requirements. Bookends delivers a sparkling tale of old friends reunited and old jealousies rekindled when one of them opens a bookstore. Babyville keeps things sexy and romantic while exploring how three friends’ lives are changed by the blessed event of motherhood. To Have and To Hold offers a sizzling, highly entertaining look at romantic relationships after we say "I do." The Other Woman delivers warm, witty, and touching look at mothers-in-law and marriage and what they teach us about ourselves. Swapping Lives is a wry tale of two women who discover the grass is not always greener on the other side of the Atlantic.

If you like Jane Green’s novels, you might also enjoy Helen Fielding, Marian Keyes, Sophie Kinsella, or Laura Zigman.

Posted on July 02, 2006 by Lissa at 03:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When life gets tough, do you escape into a good novel? Then You'll love Dora in Literacy and Longing in L.A. by Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack.

Posted on June 14, 2006 by Lissa at 09:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted on May 03, 2006 by Meghan at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

According to Harvard’s paper The Crimson, Viswanathan’s book How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life not only plagiarizes Megan McCafferty’s works, but other well known authors as well. Among the list are Megan Cabot’s The Princess Diaries, Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories, and Sophie Kinsella’s Can You Keep a Secret?.

From The Crimson:

“Page 12 of Meg Cabot’s 2000 novel ‘The Princess Diaries’ reads: ‘There isn’t a single inch of me that hasn’t been pinched, cut, filed, painted, sloughed, blown dry, or moisturized. [...] Because I don’t look a thing like Mia Thermopolis. Mia Thermopolis never had fingernails. Mia Thermopolis never had blond highlights. Mia Thermopolis never wore makeup or Gucci shoes or Chanel skirts or Christian Dior bras, which by the way don’t even come in 32A, which is my size. I don’t even know who I am anymore. It certainly isn’t Mia Thermopolis. She’s turning me into someone else.’  The italics appear in the original.

And page 59 of Viswanathan’s novel reads: ‘Every inch of me had been cut, filed, steamed, exfoliated, polished, painted, or moisturized. I didn’t look a thing like Opal Mehta. Opal Mehta didn’t own five pairs of shoes so expensive they could have been traded in for a small sailboat. She didn’t wear makeup or Manolo Blahniks or Chanel sunglasses or Habitual jeans or Le Perla bras. She never owned enough cashmere to make her concerned for the future of the Kazakhstani mountain goat population. I was turning into someone else.’”

Continue reading the article here.

Thanks to staffers Michelle and Meghan for the update!

Posted on May 02, 2006 by at 04:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From the NYTimes.com:

The publisher Little, Brown and the author Kaavya Viswanathan have agreed to withdraw all editions of her chick-lit novel, "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life," from the market, the publisher said today in a statement.

"Little, Brown today sent a notice to retail and wholesale accounts asking them to stop selling copies of the book and to return unsold inventory to the publisher for full credit," said Michael Pietsch, senior vice president and publisher of Little, Brown.

In an interview on Wednesday at the office of Little, Brown, Ms. Viswanathan, who has admitted copying portions of her novel, offered new details about how the book was written.
Continue reading this article here.

Get the original work (Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings, plus Charmed Thirds and Sixteen for kicks) and support Megan McCafferty!

Posted on April 28, 2006 by Meghan at 04:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

There was more drama over the McCafferty/Viswanathan plagiarism debacle today. See previous entries on this topic here and here, an update on the story, and check out books about plagiarism from the library.

Thanks to staffer Meghan for the update!

 

Posted on April 26, 2006 by at 03:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There have now been found up to twenty-nine passages that are similar in the books Sloppy Firsts, Second Helpings, and How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life. Kaavya Viswanathan has released a statement that the copying of Megan McCafferty’s work was “unintentional” and “unconscious.”  She “internalized” the words without realizing it.  The publisher will be changing the wording of future editions of Viswanathan’s book.

Check out the news updates here, here, and here.

Posted on April 26, 2006 by at 08:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)