Archive for the ‘Book Channel’ Category

DailyLit News: Summer Starts

Note from the CEO
School’s out for the summer! The kids are thrilled, and although it’s been years since I’ve taken my last final exam, I’m as excited as they are. Now we just need to bust out the sunscreen and head to the water. Hope you all have a great beginning of summer!

Susan Danziger
Founder and CEO, DailyLit
sdanziger [at] dailylit [dot] com

Summer Big Read: Huckleberry Finn
What better way to launch the summer than with Mark Twain’s classic summer story of fun along the Mississippi? Join us in reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—for the first time or the umpteenth. Find it here.

Reader Challenge: 10 Word Summer Memories
We all have favorite memories of warm, lazy days of summer: an afternoon on a sunbleached dock, a family vacation, a runny ice cream cone at the county fair. We’re challenging you to share your favorite summer memory in just 10 words. Share your mini summer moments in our Reader Challenge Forum.

Readers’ Summer Reading List
We asked what you were planning on reading this summer, and you responded with a wonderfully diverse list. Here’s a sampling (and there’s still time to add your own list here):

The Sookie Stackhouse books—erinpayton
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. This is for 9th grade Honors English—spectrekitty
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson and Shanghai Girls by Lisa See—Moengey
Anna Karenina; The Great Gatsby; Catch 22; Moby Dick; The Count of Monte Cristo; A Tale of Two Cities; Dracula; 1984—digiworks8
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri—lolabean
The Crucible by Arthur Miller—hoelisha
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro—sdhomecare
War and Peace and American Prometheus—Ichasson

DailyLit’s Book Channel
Check out our book channel for recipes from Emeril’s latest book, Farm to Fork, which shows you how to use organic and locally-grown produce just in time for summer harvests. There’s also Heartbroken Open, an inspirational memoir about the woman who learns to live after her husband (author of “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff Stuff”) unexpectedly dies. And there’s Critical Care, a powerful, touching look at a hospital’s cancer ward through the eyes of a nurse. You can find these excerpts (made available courtesy of HarperStudio), and other bestselling, award-winning picks in our Book Channel.

Classic Shorts
With all this talk of summer reading we wanted to remind you about Classic Shorts: Eight Stories for Summer, a great collection curated by our friends at Poets & Writers. These shorts from literary masters—Tolstoy, Fitzgerald, Chekhov, Poe, and more—are ideal for getting some “serious” reading done without facing the 663 installments of War and Peace. Find Classic Shorts here. (Oh, and if you’re feeling inspired, War and Peace is here.)

Today in the Book Channel: A Publishing Insider Pick

Our publishing insider Carl Lennertz returns to the Book Channel today with an excerpt from Freshwater Boys. This collection of short stories that take place in Michigan–near the great freshwater lake, naturally–is a great pick for summer.

And of course, it wouldn’t be Carl if he didn’t also include a chatty introduction for DailyLit readers, with a few tips of his hat to publishers and bookstores who have been doing good work lately. Enjoy!

Sign up for the DailyLit Book Channel for hand-picked recommendations and excerpts from great books like those selected for Oprah’s book club and the newest titles from bestselling authors.

Henning Mankell in DailyLit’s Book Channel

Henning Mankell may not be a household name in the U.S., but the rest of the world knows him well. He’s the author of a long-running series of mystery novels featuring Inspector Kurt Wallander, a seasoned, gruff, but brilliant detective in Sweden’s police force. We gave some contest winners advance copies of Mankell’s latest, The Man from Beijing, earlier this year, and now that the book has been published we’re sharing a taste in our Book Channel.

Sign up for the DailyLit Book Channel for hand-picked recommendations and excerpts from great books like those selected for Oprah’s book club and the newest titles from bestselling authors.

This Week in DailyLit’s Book Channel

This week in DailyLit’s Book Channel we highlighted a new pick from guest curator Gotham Gal. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a look at the surprising ways one woman’s life has transformed modern science and medical care. It’s currently on the New York Times Bestseller list (and author Rebecca Skloot appeared on the Colbert Report last week).

We’ve also got another recommendation from publishing insider Carl Lennertz. First Contact is one of his favorite recent books and he’s heard from booksellers in his network who can’t say enough about their love for the book.

Sign up for the DailyLit Book Channel for hand-picked recommendations and excerpts from great books like those selected for Oprah’s book club and the newest titles from bestselling authors.

“An Education” in DailyLit’s Book Channel

I’ve seen photos of actress Carey Mulligan, the face of the film “An Education,” all over the place these past few months, so when Atlas & Co. asked if I wanted to check out the memoir that inspired the Oscar-nominated film I jumped at the chance. It’s the story of an Oxford “education” that takes place, as so many of the most important educations do, far from the classroom. Hope you’ll enjoy this taste of a classic coming-of-age story told in the sharply witty voice of award-winning journalist Lynn Barber.

Sign up for the DailyLit Book Channel for hand-picked recommendations and excerpts from great books like those selected for Oprah’s book club and the newest titles from bestselling authors.

Don DeLillo in DailyLit’s Book Channel

Don DeLillo is a nothing short of a modern literary master. For the last few decades he’s been writing literary fiction that has earned him high praise, major awards, and the admiration of folks all over–including by me. I’m delighted to feature an excerpt from his newest novel, Point Omega, in our Book Channel this week.

Sign up for the DailyLit Book Channel for hand-picked recommendations and excerpts from great books like those selected for Oprah’s book club and the newest titles from bestselling authors.

Carl Lennertz Now Serving as DailyLit’s Guest Curator

I’m truly thrilled to announce that Carl Lennertz is the new special contributing guest curator of DailyLit’s Book Channel. Carl is known for his impeccable recommendations and offbeat sensibility; he’s a real star in the publishing industry. I’ve been impressed with Carl for years now, ever since we both worked at Random House, and he’d circulate recommendations of books he loved that were published not just by Random House but by all different houses (quite scandalous, at the time, I’m sure). This week we’re featuring his first recommendation for our Book Channel, The Pig Did It.

He’s moved on from Random House since then, but I’ve remained a fan of his ever since. Here’s his current bio:

Carl Lennertz has been in bookselling and publishing since the death of disco, first in bookstores and then joining Random House as a sales rep. He was Marketing Director for Knopf, Pantheon and Vintage, and then Associate Publisher of Little, Brown. In 1999, Lennertz joined the Book Sense (now called IndieBound) campaign, initiating the Book Sense Picks and Bestseller Lists. In 2003, Lennertz returned to publishing as VP/Retail Marketing for HarperCollins. In 2004, Crown published his multi-copy selling memoir entitled Cursed by a Happy Childhood, and has now begun acquiring books for publication by Harper and Perennial, with 7 projects out now or coming. He also teaches the week of marketing each summer at the Denver Publishing Institute and is Harper’s liason with Delphinium Books.

DailyLit News: February 2010

Note from the CEO
I love snow days! I’m holed up in my house, kids outside sleigh-riding (no wonder it’s peaceful!), with time for myself—a real treat! Speaking of which, we have some real treats in store for you this month. We’ve got a short story from Alice Munroe’s new collection that everyone’s been raving about, and we’ve just launched a Berlitz French series, which follows on the heels of last month’s popular Berlitz Spanish course. Oh, and for you SAT-takers, check out our new Kaplan SAT series. Uh oh. Kids just got home. There goes that peace and quiet!

Susan Danziger
CEO/Founder, DailyLit
sdanziger@dailylit.com

Alice Munro: Our Big Read
Writer Alice Munro won the 2009 Man Booker Prize for her lifetime body of work, and people are over the moon about her latest short story collection, Too Much Happiness. We’re excited to feature one of her short stories (”Fiction”) as this month’s Big Read. Life, love and writing all intertwine in one woman’s life. Read it here.

New! Berlitz Essential French (and Spanish)
Given the amazing response we had from the launch of Berlitz Spanish Lessons, we’ve teamed up with Berlitz again to offer Berlitz Essential French. And while we’re at it, we’re offering Berlitz Essential Spanish too. Both series feature bite-sized lessons in vocabulary perfect for travelers (or at least arm-chair travelers), from culture to transportation and accommodations. Read Essential French here and Essential Spanish here. (And if you missed our exclusive Berlitz Spanish Lessons, you can find those here.)

Kaplan SAT Prep
Taking the SATs or have a friend who’s due? We’ve got a daily course for that extra little something—and it’s all on us! Read it here.

Reader Challenge: Love Bites
We heard about this challenge on Twitter and thought it would be a fun Reader Challenge for February. Tell a love story (your own or make one up) in 140 characters or fewer—that is, the length of a single tweet or short sentence. We’ll choose five winners who will each receive a copy of Us: Americans Talk About Love, a collection of folks talking about love. Post your love bites in our Reader Challenge Forum by 11:59pm EST on Sunday, March 7th to be included in the contest.

New Detective Story
We know from our recent survey that Laurel Dewey’s heroine, Detective Jane Perry, has become a reader favorite, so we’re excited to launch the fifth and final piece of original fiction featuring the detective, Promissory Payback. And if you missed the first four pieces, you can find them here.

Our Book Channel
Our Book Channel brings you excerpts from books hand-selected by DailyLit staff and those in the know in the book industry. We’ve recently featured the 2009 Man Book Prize winner for fiction; a new novel that O, the Oprah Magazine called “mesmerizing;” and the #1 New York Times bestselling Happiness Project. What’s up next? It’s a surprise, of course, but count on more bestsellers, award-winners, and buzzed-about titles—the ones everyone will be talking about. Sign up for our Book Channel here.

And, finally, thought you’d enjoy this love sonnet from Shakespeare (I’ve always heard the first line but never really read it myself):

XVIII
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

From Sonnets by William Shakespeare.

NY Times Bestseller and a Debut Novel in DailyLit’s Book Channel This Week

The first title in the Book Channel this week is Ali Shaw’s gorgeous debut novel The Girl With Glass Feet. I first heard of this book through this glowing New York Times review and fell in love with the book myself as I read it. It’s a beautifully told modern fairy tale–there is literally a girl with glass feet–and I hope you’ll enjoy this taste of the book.

We also have an excerpt of Jaron Lanier’s You Are Not a Gadget, a New York Times bestseller. In fact, the Times called it “necessary reading for anyone interested in how the Web and the software we use every day are reshaping culture and the marketplace.” Given that the web is already reshaping the way DailyLit readers read, I thought this would be a thought-provoking pick for the Book Channel.

Sign up for the DailyLit Book Channel for hand-picked recommendations and excerpts from great books like those selected for Oprah’s book club and the newest titles from bestselling authors.

Vogue and a Man Booker Prize Winner in DailyLit’s Book Channel

We’re featuring two different but great books this week in our Book Channel. First is The World in Vogue: People, Places, and Parties edited by Vogue editors Alexandra Kotur and Hamish Bowles. The stars were out in full glamour mode for this past weekend’s Golden Globes and inspired this pick, which features Vogue’s signature brand of glitzy sophistication.

Our other featured title this week is Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. Winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize and highlighted as a favorite by several DailyLit readers, this book takes you to the 16th century court of King Henry VIII, where the fact that the king went through six wives was just the most infamous example of the viciousness of court society.

Sign up for the DailyLit Book Channel for hand-picked recommendations and excerpts from great books like those selected for Oprah’s book club and the newest titles from bestselling authors.

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