LISNews: Librarian News

From Publishers Weekly:

Costco is hardly the most likely account for Yale University Press. But since September 11, that\'s exactly what the discounter has become, ordering the house\'s Taliban by Ahmed Rashid in numbers that have helped send the book as high as number two on the New York Times paperback bestseller list.

After a decade of trying to move into the trade, university presses now find the trade moving to them. Authors like Princeton\'s Bruce Lawrence (Shattering the Myth) have made nearly 80 media appearances since the terrorist attacks, while Rutgers UP director Marlie Wasserman found packs of editors at Frankfurt clamoring for her attention.

\"Sometimes we labor in the vineyards producing books with good information while everyone else is doing celebrity bios. It\'s a real morale boost to know that people are still interested in what we do,\" said Wasserman.

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Val writes \"Chicago became one big book-club when the city initiated it\'s \"One book, one Chicago\" program, with Harper Lee\'s classic _To Kill a Mockingbird_ as the centerpiece.
The _Chicago Sun-Times_ brought together 6 artists and intellectuals to give their takes on the book. They reveal how the events of Sept. 11th have colored their reading and thinking about the novel.

Full Story \"

After a light dinner and some wine, the discussion began. What follows is an edited transcript of the conversation.

Lee Hadden writes: \"Annanova has a story where an Early English comic verse is offered to the British archives in lieu of inheritance taxes. \"The
Widow Edyth\" was written by Walter Smith, a servant in the house of Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) in 1525, and part of the action of the story takes place at More\'s home in Chelsea. It has ribald humor that compares to
Chaucer\'s \"The Wife of Bath,\" and is one of the rarest of early English tomes. Almost all the characters in the book, with the exception of the Widow Edyth, can be identified as real people who lived in Tudor England,
and gives insights into \"the social manners and mores (sic) of the period.\"
Sir Thomas More was executed by King Henry VIII in 1535, and subsequently beatified in 1886, and canonized by the Catholic Church as a saint by Pope Pius XI in 1935.
Read more about it.\"

Classic novels are making a difference in the lives of some troubled kids in a Santa Barbara detention center. According to the article, \"the Great Book Club began with one book, one member, and one librarian. Many juvenile offenders who used to \"flash gang signs, swear or just stare at the ceiling in their cells, now while away their evenings with Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway and Jack London.\" more... from Santa Barbara News Press.