NY Times Expanding Bestseller Lists

We all hear about how newspapers are cutting back or eliminating book reviews, often as a cost saving measure. Well, as the saying goes: It ain’t necessarily so.

A report in the online newsletter “Publishers Lunch” from publishersmarketplace@yahoo.com reports that the New York Times is expanding its bestseller lists.

Publishers Lunch says “Coverage began in a variety of blogs and today runs in Crain’s New York. TBR (Times Book Review) editor Sam Tanenhaus tells Crain’s, “Now you have a list that corresponds closely to what we review in the section and what we gauge our readers are interested in.” The downside is that the lists take up an extra page, and for now that comes out of the editorial well.” And the reason is that it’s good business.

“The Times says book ad revenue is a growth area for them. VP of business development Todd Haskell says the TBR’s ad sales grew 10 percent last year and should growanother 10 percent this year, while “book-related ad revenue online is up 131% year to date.”

If it’s a growth area for the New York Times, it also should be for other newspapers. We all know that newspapers are a business and carry what customers and advertisers want.

Could many newspaper editorial and sales departments be asleep at the switch? – Larry Moniz, larrymoniz.org

The iPhone Book, Kelby & White (Peachpit Press)

Today it was announced that the iPhone has hit the one million sales mark in just 74 days. The timing then could not be better for Scott Kelby and Terry White’s third party guide to making the most from this much ballyhooed device. Besides all the information included in the official Apple pdf manual for the device, the authors give a host of inside tips (called, cleverly enough, iTips) to go beyond the official manual into some of the more obscure workarounds that they quickly came up with. In offering more than the official 124 page version of the manual, Kelby and White, both longtime computer, software and gadget speakers and writers, have tried, successfully to come up with every imaginable angle on this very useful device. Whether you are interested in playing music, showing photos or movies, interfacing with the iTunes store, You Tube or Google maps, not to mention it’s incredible seamless user interface with a broad array of specific Mac applications (Safari, Mac Mail, Address Book, etc.) or even making phone calls, ‘The iPhone Book’ will go a long way to insuring you are getting the maximum value out of this year’s must have device – no matter what price you paid for it. – Tim Devine

The Almost Moon, Alice Sebold

Startling. Dark. Dysfunctional. Enlightening. These are all words that came to mind as I pushed my way through Alice Sebold’s most recent effort. Despite the author’s intensely brilliant writing, I immediately felt bogged down in the suffocating world of Helen Knightly. But what can one expect from a tale that begins with a statement about how easy it is to kill one’s mother? The first third of the book was tough going, but once Helen’s ex-husband, Jake, arrives to help her through the nightmare she’s begun, the story finally takes off. I grew especially fond of Mr. Forrest, Helen’s childhood neighbor, became more attached to the story, and eventually came to realize that the discomfort I was feeling was very likely purposeful on the part of the author. If you stay to listen, Sebold has a lot to say about mothers and daughters, reminding us that sometimes fathers have the power to redeem us all. – Beth Henkes

Save Me From Myself, Brian “Head” Welch (Harper Collins):

Brian “Head” Welch, Save Me From Myself (Harper Collins): The latest in the newest subgenre of born-again rock confessionals, it’s hard to work yourself up for the plight of ex-Korn guitarist-turned-born-again Christian Brian “Head” Welsh after reading Nikki Sixx’s over-the-top mea culpa. I mean, who woulda thought being a rock star was such an utter drag, filled with the sound and fury of sex, drugs and adoring fans, but signifying nothing but offstage boredom. Like Sixx, Welsh traces his problems with relationships and addiction back to his childhood, but in his case, he was neither abandoned, abused nor unloved, just the victim of an alcoholic father’s sudden temper tantrums, which apparently caused him to avoid confrontation his entire life. Well, wah-wah-wah… Of course, the only thing stronger than the absence of love in your life is the attraction of drugs and alcohol, which drew Welsh like a moth to flame. And while wracked with the guilt of addiction, Welsh’s only real crimes are selling a few stolen drum machines and almost cheating on his not-yet-wife while touring. Sure, he gives up an early child for adoption and develops a psychosis-inducing meta-amphetamine habit, but that hardly seems a reason to start thumping a Bible and babbling in tongues. I mean, Nikki makes this guy look like a real pussy. Of course, the endings of both stories are remarkably similar. Both Brian and Nikki must succumb to a higher power than themselves, and while Sixx does not acknowledge that force as God, Welch embraces his lord Jesus Christ as thoroughly and completely as he did the heavy metal lifestyle while a teenager growing up in Bakersfield. Like The Heroin Diaries, Save Me From Myself describes the void at the heart of the sex, drugs and rock & roll lifestyle that aches for meaning and, ultimately, love. Not even hero worship and living out all your adolescent dreams can fill up that vacuum, and that’s the strength of Welch’s story. He has the courage to walk away at the peak of his career, and if his reasons don’t make sense to the non-believer, you still have to be impressed he had the balls to put those convictions before his ambitions… It’s amazing what people will do to feel wanted and a part of something. You can just imagine a generation of future believers asking themselves: “What would Head do?” – Roy Trakin

Exposure, Kurt Wenzel (Little, Brown)

Los Angeles, 2017. Everywhere you look, massive moving image billboards (MIBs) usurp attention 24/7 with long dead Hollywood icons (reStars) electronically resurrected to hawk the most mundane wares. Any surface ? the moon, your house, your body parts ? is a platform ripe for digital branding. Ruthless talent agencies rule the business roost, the lines between entertainment and advertising now totally obliterated. In the name of anti-terrorism, random Homeland Security Checkpoints (HSCs) trample constitutional freedoms with impunity. And Bliss, the designer drug du jour, is tooted throughout the day in private executive washrooms all over the Westside. Reality is obscure, ethics are toast, and paranoia reigns.

This is the flawed future of Kurt Wenzel