On Thursday, November 17th at 7:30 p.m. ET, Rebecca Joines Schinsky and I will be hosting the first-ever FridayReads Live event. We will be discussing a new title from Crown Publishing: Enjoy Every Sandwich: Living Each Day As If It Were Your Lastby Lee Lipsenthal, MD.  It doesn’t matter if you’ve read the book, or not–come join us!

If you’re able to join us in person, come to Housing Works Bookstore at 126 Crosby Street (just south of Houston) between 7pm and 9pm, where Rebecca and I will be on our computers to host a Twitter Book Tour chat. Thanks to the good folks at Crown Publishing, we will have wine, beer, and sandwiches available. Meet me, Rebecca Schinsky, Iris Blasi, Erin Cox, and others as we chat, quaff, nibble…and tweet.

If you’re able to join us online, please connect with us online via Twitter by using the hashtag #EverySandwich. The easiest way to do this is to go to Tweetchat.com and log in using your Twitter name. Then enter the hashtag in the empty field at the top of the page and start reading and/or tweeting. (Tweetchat automatically adds the hashtag for you, so there’s no need to worry about watching the length of your tweets. If you “go over,” it will tell you “Too Long.”) If you don’t have a Twitter account, you should be able to track the #EverySandwich via Twitter’s search function here: https://twitter.com/?lang=en&logged_out=1#!/search/%23everysandwich

Before the chat, we encourage you to view the trailer for the book http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UIFbOfWwYE. We’ll be publishing a new blog post tomorrow with some suggested questions about the book/things to consider/bits of inspiration, so please watch for that, too.

If you have any questions at all, please email me: TheBookMaven at gmail dot com.

I really want FridayReads to hit 8K this week.

IF WE HIT 8K–and only if we do–I will give away three extra prizes.

Here they are:

1. A set of three slipcased, signed Indiespensables titles: Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante, State of Wonder by Ann Patchett, and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.

2. One $150 gift certificate to One More Page bookstore, my local indie. Don’t worry, they’ll be happy to take your online or phone order, wherever you live. They will special order anything you like.

3. A mega-set of Boots the Chemist bath goodies from Target, all full-size products, including three bath milks, three body butters, three body washes, and three hand lotions, plus an assortment of sponges, scrubbers, and other treats.

Interested in winning one of these prizes? Share YOUR FridayReads on Twitter or Facebook or tumblr–and tell a friend or three! Everyone who shares is eligible. For more information about FridayReads, check out our web site.

Thanks for your time and help, readers!

NOTA BENE: FridayReads is a proud sponsor of Club Read 2011–which is why I am providing this blog entry for all.

THE CLUB READ 2011 BOOK BLOGGER CHALLENGE

ONE free ticket (a $499 value that covers ALL meals and lodging and events on the program! The only things you have to pay for are your travel expenses, and any shopping crimes you commit) will be awarded to the blogger who accumulates the most over 5,000 points by 9.30.11.

Time period of this challenge is September 15-September 30, 2011

• One tweet about #ClubRead = 50 points
• One Facebook post about #ClubRead = 200 points (cannot be same as a tweet; has to have more substance)
• One blog post about Club Read (WITH TAG) = 500 points
• One verified recommendation that results in ticket sale = 2,000 points

For more about Club Read, click here.

For more about the Club Read schedule, click here.

For a list of authors attending, click here.

Drop a link to your blog post in the linky below!

OK, well at least that’s what I heard from Mr. Bethanne yesterday as we untangled dog leads from tote bags and vacuumed sand out of the car after a week on Cape Cod.

All good things, like summer and vacations, must come to an end. For the past few months I’ve been busy helping Shelf Awareness—our wonderful industry information source—to launch a version of its bookseller email newsletter for readers. It’s been a lot of fun, and in particular, I’ve loved getting the chance to work alongside my colleagues Robin Lenz and John Mutter.

I’m moving on, now, although not so very far. I’ll still be contributing the feature I developed, “Further Reading,” to each issue, and I’ll also continue to write author interviews and book reviews in Shelf Awareness for Readers. If you have any questions about this new publication, you can direct them to editor in chief John Mutter: john@shelf-awareness.com.

My own dance card is happily filling up with new projects. Next week I’ll be at the 2011 Southern Independent Booksellers Association (SIBA) Conference, talking with some of the country’s best booksellers about social media with my partner in business and crime, Rebecca Joines Schinsky of The Book Lady’s Blog. We’ll also be talking up October’s Club Read retreat (can’t wait to be there with Book Club Girl Jennifer Hart!).

Of course, one of the things we’ll also discuss at both places is FridayReads, a burgeoning community of passionate readers that is also a business supported by the publishing industry (for more information on that business and on how you can take part, contact business development director Erin Cox). If you’re reading this and don’t know anything about FridayReads, check out the Twitter hashtag #fridayreads, the Facebook page (#1 on Technorati’s Best Facebook Pages for Readers!), or the FridayReads web site.

Should you be interested in talking with me for an interview about social media (here’s an example) or books (here’s an example), or to discuss a project with me, you can reach me here: thebookmaven@gmail.com.

Blood on the Saddle by Rafael Reig – Reig, a well-known author in Spain, has finally had one of this crime novels translated into English. Blood on the Saddle is about Carlos Clot, a private eye who is hired to investigate three separate incidents. He must find a runaway, a cheating husband, and a character who has gone missing from a novel. And that’s when things start to get a little strange. The reader realizes that Blood in the Saddle is set in a Madrid that is not quite like the current Madrid. This is the kind of novel that boldly combines all genres and ends up with something truly unique.

The Eye of Jade: A Mei Wang Mystery by Diane Wei Liang - This mystery, set in the 1990s, is the first in a planned series by Chinese ex-pat Diane Wei Liang. Being a private eye is an illegal practice in China, so when Mei Wang sets up her detective agency, it’s safe to say her family isn’t pleased. A family friend, Uncle Chen, offers her first chance at a job: finding a missing jade that disappeared during the Cultural Revolution. This novel exposes China to Western readers who might be unfamiliar with what it is like to live in modern China, but at the same time is, at its heart, a really great crime novel.

Double Blank by Yasmina Khadra - Double Blank is the second series in Yasmina Khadra’s Inspector Llob series, a collection of crime novels set in Algeria. Once again we have an author who used a pseudonym, but this time a male soldier who chose to write as a woman to avoid strict military censorship that he surely would have faced for his brutally honest portrayal of life in Algeria. When the primary suspects of the murders in Double Blank, a group of fundamentalist Muslim men, start becoming the victims, this crime becomes something very different from what Inspector Llob originally thought.

Maine perfectly examines what it is like to be a part of a large Irish-Catholic family and this identity is central to this story, along with the novel’s setting on the Maine coast. For this Further Reading, I wanted to highlight other family sagas that have, at their core, a cultural identity and strong sense of place. What connects all of these stories is the fact that, despite their distinct cultural differences, anyone can connect to the characters.

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth - In post-colonial India in 1950, four families represent a microcosm of Indian society, especially Lata Mehra as she decides between pleasing her family and marrying the Muslim man she loves.

Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela - Set in northern Sudan right before independence, Lyrics Alley is the story of the Abuzeid family. Like Lata, Nur is conflicted about maintaining his culture and embracing Western ideals. Lyrics Alley is a story that focuses entirely on one family, stuck in the middle of a changing world, but their story is a universal one of faith, love, and culture.

The Complete Essex County by Jeff Lemire – Essex County is a family saga that is set in a fictional Canadian county. Like the other novels in this Further Reading, the setting is integral to the story, especially since this is a graphic novel that relies on a strong sense of place and space to tell the history of one Canadian family. The story begins with the youngest member of this family, Lester, who lives with his uncle after his mother’s death. From there, the story slowly unfolds backwards and forwards in time as the true story of this family is revealed.

There are plenty of world events that cause us to sit back and think about how drastically they changed our world. In all of these novels, something about our world or our history is different. All three authors answer that important question: “What if?”

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick – This is one of the more famous examples of an alternative history, since The Man in the High Castle won the Hugo Award in 1963. In 1933, a man assassinates Franklin D. Roosevelt, which means the United States is never brought out of the depression and, because of isolationist policy by the president who replaces him, the US never enters WWII. Without the help of the American army, the Allies are defeated by the Axis powers. Pearl Harbor results in the destruction of the Navy and results in Japan taking over the West Coast, creating the Pacific States of America. Though the differences between our world and this alternative reality are clear from the beginning, the history is revealed slowly. Though I gave you the basics here, this is a richly detailed story that examines how drastically different our culture would be if the Axis had won.

The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey – What if Richard III is not the evil man that history has made him out to be? When Inspector Alan Grant sees a painting of the monarch, he simply cannot believe that a man with such a kind face could be so evil. So Grant decides to solve the mystery of who Richard III really was and who really killed his nephews, if not Richard III himself.

The Black Tower by Louis Bayard – This book takes several real people from the years following the French Revolution and posits that Louis XVII of France, son of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, didn’t die as is claimed in 1795, but escaped his prison. With Eugène François Vidocq, the infamous criminal-turned-first private detective, as the narrator, this historical fiction tale is full of mystery and intrigue.

The word “discoverability,” when used in the book publishing context, tends to focus on how readers can find authors and books that are new to them. But another part of the discoverability challenge is how readers can find authors and books that are new to the world, as in recently or soon-to-be published. As brick-and-mortar bookstores close and newspaper book review sections fold, it’s harder to stumble across publishers’ latest offerings.

A new, free online newsletter for consumers, titled Shelf Awareness: Enlightenment for Readers—from the editors ofShelf Awareness—aims to introduce everyday readers to the best new books. And while that sounds like an obvious goal, the fact is that it is much easier for consumers to learn about upcoming movies and music than it is for them to learn about new books. “Movie houses put up their trailers many months in advance and show previews every time you’re at the movies,” says Jenn Risko, Publisher of Shelf Awareness. “You start seeing ads on iTunes for upcoming albums in advance and they usually release the hit song before the whole album….I’ve wished for a long time that I knew what was cool and new [in books]. This is our answer to that.”

[...]

“The reviews will be honest, but they’ll be positively honest,” says Bethanne Patrick, consumer editor of the new publication, “not because we’re against running critical or negative reviews but because we’re trying to set up the 25 best books for people to pay attention to in their local bookstore. That’s the goal behind it. We’re not reviewing everything and we’re not trying to do critical analysis.” However, reviews of exceptional books will be starred, “in recognition that it often takes a starred review for a library or bookstore to stock a title.”

Shelf Awareness: Enlightenment for Readers also aims to differentiate itself from Kirkus and PW by the backgrounds of its over 60 freelance reviewers, who include booksellers, critics, book bloggers, and librarians with “great street cred” in a variety of genres. The reviewers are paid more than the reviewers forKirkus or PW. Patrick and book review editor Marilyn Dahl will select the books to be included each week.