At least pastrami will never go out of style

Linda Sappenfield — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:20:00 GMT

Just my luck.  According to Weather Underground's Manhattan forecast, all the days I'll be vacationing in New York City next week indicate a chance of showers. Of course, the lowest probabilities coincide with the days I'd be indoors anyway at the Book Expo. Rainy weather icons for the 10-day lineup resemble a bakery window--an orderly display of weird blue and gray cupcakes.

The good news: temperatures at least 20 degrees cooler, so cardigans just earned a slot (along with the umbrella) on my mental packing list.

I'll take along most of my black garments, safe bets anywhere but especially in NYC.   Not that anyone would mistake me for a local; once I've questioned why the Second Avenue Deli is on 33^rd Street or stopped to exclaim, "Hey, isn't that the church from Ghostbusters?" , no amount of neutral attire will mask my tourist-ness.

I even thought about picking up a defiantly not-black new sweater. Sadly, the trendy hues ordained by the fashion industry for this season (neon--really?) aren't for everyone and certainly not for me.

Fortunately, having devoted more time to pondering what to read in-flight than what to wear on arrival, I can assure you that the book market continues to offer its customers multiple options
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As in fashion, certain themes--hoarding and Titanic (mentioned in last week's post); World War I and Downton Abbey-related fictional scenarios; mysteries in increasingly exotic locales--will naturally be promoted.   The difference is that readers can still expect to find other choices calibrated to their tastes.

Should you find hoarding a bit too real or off-putting, you can enjoy empowering tomes like How to Organize Just About Everything or Throw Out Fifty Things: Clear the Clutter, Find Your Life or other volumes from the catalog subject heading "orderliness".

If you've dutifully adopted recipes from low-fat, heart-healthy recipe collections, you'll find that Rosie's Bakery: All-Butter, Cream-Filled, Sugar-Packed Baking Book either confirms your virtue or at least provides a guilty pleasure.   For a culinary vantage point devoid of judgment, there's Off the Menu: Staff Meals from America's Top Restaurants or Kitchen Wisdom: Stories That Heal. And then you can revert back to the straight and narrow with Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection.

Tori Spelling's recent books (starring Tori Spelling)--sTORI telling; Mommywood, Uncharted terriTORI; CelebraTORI: Unleashing Your Inner Party Planner--are popular here.   For other personal revelations and viewpoints (but with a non-Hollywood slant) you could seek out Scholars with Autism Achieving Dreams, edited by Lars Perner or Bruce Isay's All There Is: Love Stories from StoryCorps.

As for me, I'm packing some Playaways. They're compact, tasteful, and rainproof.

Cloudy with a chance of spaceships

Linda Sappenfield — Tue, 24 May 2011 04:54:00 GMT

Another chilly, rainy day--in New York City, at least. This evening, the 51^st floor view reveals Manhattan towers disappearing into lowering clouds. Three neighboring skyscrapers equipped with illuminated spikes glow eerily in the mist. I'm fascinated, and not just because the precipitation is more frequent and the scenery more vertical than in Round Rock. This place looks like a sci-fi book cover.

That visual theme parallels the rest of my day-- attending Book Expo America. Every session I chose considered two issues: the future, and emerging trends related to digitization.

The term "speculative fiction", often preferred by SF readers, is even more apt for discussions like the panel moderated by NPR's Steve Inskeep. He and four publishing experts contemplated such matters as crowdsourcing, "native apps", and the diminishing role of the editor.

That thoughtful interchange generated as many questions as answers: What makes a book a book--ISBN, identifiable author, or simply its lack of interactive, multimedia, immersive experience? When does an interactive version--an app--reach beyond that identity and become something else? And, in a digital environment where publishers are increasingly numerous, how do they achieve "discoverability"?

Earlier in the day, a Book Industry Study Group survey revealed that the typical "power e-book buyer" is female and around 44 years old, has a household income of $77,000, and purchases primarily fiction (58%), particularly in the Romance genre. You won't be surprised to learn that the BISG study sought to answer questions, e.g., How will trends in ebook use/purchase affect stakeholders in the book industry?

The last event I selected today--also the most popular--presented a lineup of six editors from major publishing houses, each passionately heralding the impending availability of a new fall fiction title. All of the novels sound wonderful: Diana Abu-Jaber's Birds of Paradise, Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, Chad Harbach's The Art of Fielding, Naomi Benaron's Running the Rift, Justin Torres' We the Animals, and Sere Prince Halverson's The Underside of Joy.

We can all enjoy speculating about these books' success.

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At least pastrami will never go out of style

Cloudy with a chance of spaceships