Happy Friday, Readers! Today’s Random Fact of the Day comes to you courtesy of the delightfully quirky Melville House Press, whose website and twitter feed are among the most irreverant, informative, and, sometimes, bizarre in the publishing world.
A few days ago, the Melville House Press’ website addressed a growing trend in books that I have noticed when setting up displays, and several of our patrons have noticed as they select from our new books: why are they all so mind-warpingly yellow?
A number of these lemony-hued books have made it into our posts in the past, from Sunil Yapa’s Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of Your Fist to Marlon James’ Booker Prize winning A Brief History of Seven Killings. And even more are scheduled to come out soon. So what is the deal?
Well, it turns out that some 45% of book buying is done via online retailers like That One Named After A South American Rainforest. And on the pages of those sites, books appear against a white background. As the Melville House Press notes, “As a result, a lot of the books there — those whose covers are plain white, or too simple, or too detailed — look pallid and boring. In the fight for our precious attention, in a venue where only limited engagement is possible, these books lose out. In an attempt to solve this problem, publishers have been clothing more and ever more of their books in retina-cracking yellow.” They also quote Wall Street Journal journalist Lucy Feldman, who wrote, in an article on the art of the visual, “Yellow jumps off online pages and it can support both dark and bright type and graphics. Also, it carries no gender association and can signify anything from sunshine and optimism to a danger warning, making it a strong choice for a variety of genres and topics.”
So there is your factoid of the day, dear readers, and here are some new books (only some of which are yellow), that have made it on to our shelves this week!
The City of Mirrors: Yellow book alert! Justin Cronin’s enormous, post-apocalyptic trilogy has been hailed from its first appearance as a vampire series for adults, and, quite possibly, as a modern classic of American literature. Now the trilogy is drawing to a close with this final installment. The Twelve have been destroyed, and the survivors of their century-long reign of terror are beginning to emerge. But within the ruins lurks Zero, the father of the Twelve, dreaming of destroying Amy, who is being held up as humanity’s greatest and only hope for the future, biding time until their final confrontation. For readers who have been waiting for this trilogy to spin out before beginning, the wait is finally over, and, as Library Journal notes in their starred review, “Readers who have been patiently awaiting the conclusion to Cronin’s sweeping postapocalyptic trilogy are richly rewarded with this epic, heart-wrenching novel. . . . Not only does this title bring the series to a thrilling and satisfying conclusion, but it also exhibits Cronin’s moving exploration of love as both a destructive force and an elemental need, elevating this work among its dystopian peers.”
Iris and Ruby: This reprint of Rosie Thomas’ 2006 novel deals with family bonds and the stories we tell each other, that is bound to appeal to the armchair traveler. When her impulsive teenage granddaughter Ruby comes crashing into 82-year-old Iris’ life, Iris is forced to confront not only her family’s difficult relationships, but also her own memories, which Ruby is eager to hear. Together, Iris and Ruby explore Iris’ memories of Cairo during World War Two, and the love affair that defined her life. It is this story that will shape Iris’ life, and have profound consequences for the women of her family, as well. There is love and tragedy aplenty in this tale, but also plenty of danger, adventure, and intrigue, as well, giving The Times cause to rave, “Thomas can write with ravishing sensuality.”
New England Bound: Traditional history of the American colonies teaches that the Triangle Trade, which brought slaves to North American, helped the south prosper as a plantation economy. But Wendy Warren’s new, thoroughly researched work, reconceptualizes that history, showign how the northern colonies also grew rich on the ships that were coming and going from their harbors, bearing hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans in their holds. She also adds to the growing body of knowledge about how other peoples, including Native Americans and West Indies peoples were enslaved by the Atlantic Slave Trade, as well, showing just how pernicious and all-consuming this practice truly was, and how deep into American culture its roots spread. Review for Warrens’ work have been glowing, including this one from noted historian Linda Colley, who called it “A beautifully written, humane and finely researched work that makes clear how closely intermingled varieties of slavery and New England colonization were from the very start. With great skill, Warren does full justice to the ideas of the individuals involved, as well as to the political and economic imperatives that drove some, and that trapped and gravely damaged others.”
Smoke: Dan Vyleta’s gaslamp fantasy has been getting a great deal fo attention lately, and, while the cover isn’t yellow, has been catching quite a number of eyes at the Library. Set in an alternative London of a century ago, Vyleta has created a world where those who are wicked or sinful are marked by smoke pouring from their bodies–that is, that’s how it is supposed to work. But in an elite boarding school, three students begin to realize that there are those who can lie without causing smoke to envelope them…and the implications of that discovery could cost them their lives. Part thriller, part magical realism, part social commentary, and part Dickensian romp, this book seems to have a little something for everyone, and has Publisher’s Weekly raving that it is “A fiercely inventive novel . . . Vyleta’s bold concept and compelling blend of history and fantasy offer a provocative reflection on the nature of evil, power, believe, and love. Dickensian in its imaginative scope and atmosphere.”
Shrill: Lindy West is an essayist, a humorist, a feminist…in addition to being many other things, and this book of essays brings all her considerable talents to bear as she tackles what it means to be human, to be a woman, to be large, to be loud, in a society that seldom values any of these qualities separately, let alone together. This is a book that is at once laugh-out-loud-in-an-inappropriate-manner funny, and also a deeply searching analysis of how we see, and how we treat, those around us who don’t conform to the odd and unliveable rules that society has set for us. This book has been a hit with critics and readers alike, with Booklist cheering it as “Uproariously funny…Despite its serious subject, West’s ribald jokes, hilarious tirades, and raucous confessions keep her memoir skipping merrily along as she jumps from painful confession to powerful epiphany. Sure to be a boon for anyone who has struggled with body image, Shrill is a triumphant, exacting, absorbing memoir that will lay new groundwork for the way we talk about the taboo of being too large.”
Until next week, beloved patrons–happy reading!