Polling the Masses: Picks from the Random House Phone Sales Team

Stacey's Pick--The Healing

Today is both Friendship Day and International Forgiveness Day, so it seems appropriate that we pick on some of our pals and hope they're forgiving, right?  I (Liz) spend my office days sharing space with Zorro at home and safely removed from my colleagues around the country, but Random House also has a telephone sales department.  These reps manage thousands of accounts across the country, an incredible task, and they also have to be social and interact in a real office environment.  I'd last about 20 minutes before committing a fire-able offense.  I thoroughly enjoy the company of the phone sales reps and seek out their company at sales conferences; they are a twisted group of weirdos who know how to take a joke, recognize bullshit when they see it, and possess passion for both books and the stores with whom they work.  I also enjoy emailing one phone sales rep with instructions to pick on someone else in the group.  (And this is why I'm stationed 1,500 miles away.)  I thought it might be a hoot to see what books have stuck in their heads as great reads and then share them here.

Stacey at sales conference
with John Grisham

Stacey shares some of my geographical territory--the Deep South--and obnoxiously good at various iPhone word games.  I don't like losing.  She speaks Italian and likes to vacation in Branson, Missouri, even though she'll photoshop herself into pictures of coastal Mexico and argue that that's where she went for her trip.  Here's Stacey's pick:

The Healing by Jonathan Odell is a wonderfully powerful book with some of the most memorable characters I’ve ever encountered. It’s the story of a young slave named Granada, and her journey to find her true self with the help of mysterious healer, Polly Shine. The story is beautifully written, with characters who will stick with you long after you’ve finished the final page. But what I love most of all is the book’s message:  sharing our stories is our most valuable gift.

Pam's cat Fred. Trying to
clean something that, well,
no longer exists.

Let's talk about Pam.  Pam loves Chuck Palahniuk books (Fight Club, etc), and she owns a cat that recently had, as Stacey phrased it, "sex change surgery."  Pam's cat Fred (Frida?) had a penectomy, and she's now sending me emails that say things like "Fred now tinkles like a girl."  I'm not making any of this up. See why I love these people?  Pam recommends a new release and one of my favorite books for this fall:

The Dogs Stars by Peter Heller is seriously one of the best books I ever read. Some have compared this to The Road and I can see that comparison, for its post-apocalyptic story. But this is an entirely different reading experience. The Road is a much darker read, and I was never able to get close to McCarthy’s characters. While reading The Dog Stars, I not only felt close to Heller’s characters, I embraced them and felt completely connected to them. These people are so real and so damaged, but at the same time resilient and strong. I loved all of them, and will think of them for a very long time. There is heartbreaking beauty in the scenery, but the sense of loss is evident on every page. Do yourselves a big favor and pick up a copy of The Dog Stars at your local independent bookstore on August 7th. 

Sherri is an integral part of the Random House sales team as a whole, sending out reports every week to all of us that allow us to actually do our jobs (it's the little things that make a huge difference).  Sherri is my pick from the phone sales team as "most likely to secretly be a serial killer."  She's friendly and professional and hard-working and she has a corpse hidden in her cellar.  Her neighbors are quick to tell reporters that she was so quiet and friendly....

Sweeping Up Glass by Carolyn Wall
Sweeping Up Glass is a mystery filled with love, devotion and the devastating damage caused by bigotry and secrets. A powerful story of great depth and beauty that you won’t want to end. [Gianna and I both loved this book too.  Got a book group?  This would be a great choice.]

Sarah is the lone children's book expert working out of the Random House Westminster, Maryland, offices.  That's a formidable amount of work, yet she was considerate enough to send a recommendation for this piece.  That's some bookish dedication.  That she picked a Texas author too suggests that maybe she's trying to win brownie points over here in Book Land, to which I say "Yes!  I absolutely can be bought! Sarah is, without question, the greatest sales rep in the country, by which I mean 'the universe.'  Gianna is getting herself knocked up just so that she can name her child after Sarah (boy or girl, doesn't matter).  We also accept chocolate and cash as bribes."  From Sarah:

Texas boy grows up and writes a heck of a good kid’s book – author Lee Bacon grew up in College Station, Texas, and though he has moved away he certainly got his writing skills started there.

Joshua Dread coming out September 25 is clever, fast paced, and funny. This book is the reverse side of all those PERCY JACKSON books, with Joshua having to hide the fact that his parents are supervillains (The Dread Duo), enduring his friend’s adoration of Captain Justice (his parent’s enemy), and finding himself suddenly having inexplicable powers to burn things!

Laugh out loud scenes with interesting interactions between Captain Justice and the Dread Duo and Joshua and an unexpected friend saving the day.

Don’t miss this middle grade book for all your readers.

Scott. Questionable
taste in baseball teams.

Scott is the token man in the phone sales department.  I hope for his sake that his desk isn't close to Pam's (see above).  Scott and I share some accounts, which I can only describe as a terrible strain that has aged me grotesquely.  He is great about following through with my dastardly plans to create office turmoil (by kicking Stacey's or Pam's chairs for me), but I think he's still within the hazing period for newish reps (Random House does not have a hazing period and condemns such acts), so at some point I'm going to have to pick on him at sales conference.  Scott recommends:

I just finished The Last Policeman by Ben Winters and I can't wait for the other two books to come out!!

 At first I must admit my reservations in reading this book. I thought to myself "How could I get into any other pre-apocalyptic books that would rouse me as did the catastrophe in The Age of Miracles (the slowing)?" Well, it did because the lead protagonist Detective Hank Palace is quite a character. He is hellbent on investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week. The story takes place in Concord, New Hampshire. This investigation is different, though, and Hank is determined to solve what he believes is a suspicious murder. The big picture is there is an asteroid en route to the earth with about six months left until impact. People are taking their own lives, giving up like there is no chance left, but not Detective Hank Palace. He is the only cop who cares and will stop at nothing to find out who murdered the late Peter Anthony Zell, a thirty-eight year old, Caucasian male, insurance salesman.

Thank you Quirk Books and Ben Winters for this wonderful new adventure in mystery, sci-fi, whodunit.

Judy?  Well, Judy loves the Baltimore Ravens.  Like LOVES them.  She believes in the power of wearing purple on Fridays.  She also wants to get a tattoo to honor her father...who hates that she has tattoos.  She's also the category specialist for audio and large print, travel, and information books.  I think there's a chance that someday Judy's body will be the one found in Sherri's cellar, identified by her purple boots and fairy tattoo that she swears is actually an angel. Judy picked this audiobook:

Drift by Rachel Maddow

Read by the author, so the timing and inflection is natural and even funny at times; this is great storytelling mixed with simple to understand descriptions of complex policies.

Cheryl and Emily poses with
The Night Circus display.

Cheryl is the mystery specialist, but she reads all kinds of books and has great taste.  Don't think she's the exception to this group of freaks, though.  She's a twin.  Twins are extremely disturbing.  Cheryl is also passionate about horses, which would make me inclined to like her, except again there's that twin thing.  Cheryl offered up a selection of great picks:

The River Wife by Jonis Agee
This oldie but goodie is my “go to” when gal pals ask me for a book suggestion. This epic historical fiction is about 5 women connected to Mississippi River pirate Jacques Ducharme. The writing is beautiful and if you’re a sucker for historical fiction, be prepared to get lost in this rich, atmospheric read. 

The Road to Valor by Aili McConnon and Andres McConnon
Think Unbroken for the cyclist fans – this is the story of Gino Bartali, Tuscan peasant and two time Tour de France winner who sets out to save Italian Jews during WWII. Bartali is brave, loyal, and has so much inner strength he was able to carry himself through the difficulties of WWII. The authors are a sibling team who have created a magnificent story. The history, facts, and mere story telling are fabulous. In fact, this is the required history reading I wish I had in school! 

The Eighty Dollar Champion by Elizabeth Letts 

Based on the life of a Dutch immigrant who saves a plow horse, this extraordinary story is about an unlikely hero who stole the heart of the our nation during the 1950’s. This book will appeal to history lovers, readers of animal stories, or anyone who simply loves a good book!

Emily is tall, and I don't like tall people.  She also has a decidedly geeky side and loves uber-geek read Ready Player One by Ernie Cline and things like experimental aircraft at the Smithsonian.  I think that there will come a time when Emily and I are pitted against each other in a cage match for ultimate domination, and because of this inevitability I think it's best to harbor a strong, unfounded hatred toward her.  Emily performed the penectomy on Pam's cat.  (I may be making up some of this stuff.)  What really pisses me off is that Emily picked a book that I absolutely love, which is further proof in my mind that she's trying to usurp my position as most beloved rep ever [Gianna: Really?  Does anybody really believe that Liz is beloved?] [Liz: The answer is always 'Liz.']  Here's Emily's pick:

Chinaberry Sidewalks by Rodney Crowell 9780307740977

I have nothing in common with Rodney Crowell, who turns out to be a pretty famous country music composer and singer. Country music to me is what my husband sings when he really REALLY wants to annoy me. But I fell in love with Crowell after reading his incredible autobiography Chinaberry Sidewalks. Really it is a biography of his hard-drinking, abusive, but loving parents. Crowell’s father always wanted to be a famous musician but the most he accomplished were bar gigs where his wife would tackle the women-of-loose-morals that undulated in front of him during gigs.  Rodney took up the guitar and, for himself and his father, achieved the fame that had eluded his family for so long. From a house in Houston with paper thin walls and cockroaches that ran for cover when the lights came on, to marrying the daughter of Johnny Cash, Crowell lived a life that all of us can learn from.

Lori Zook is the intrepid manager of the phone sales department, and is responsible for this group of reps.  I include her last name here because she's legendary for casting a "Zook Look" at people when she's annoyed.  I strive to receive the Look, but sadly every encounter I've ever had with Lori has been pleasant.  Usually she's laughing at me.  She's worked for Random House since she was, like, seventeen years old or something, so she's pretty much seen it all.  Some of Lori's reps revealed to me that she's scared of birds, which helps to explain how someone so seemingly level-headed and kind assembles this team of oddballs.  Lori was on vacation when I asked if I could feature her department on our blog, but she bothered to respond to my query anyway with her blessing.  Then she asked if she had to pick a Random House book (never a requirement for our blog), but then didn't get back to me with her actual selection.  So I'm picking a book for her.  I'm sure she would approve.

Inspired by the Cold War and the threat of Soviet attack in the aftermath of World War II, The Birds by Daphne DuMaurier was a 1952 novelette that became the basis for the famous Hitchcock film.  It's the story of a farmer and his family who come under attack by seagulls assaulting them from the sky.  It's the best book I've ever read.  I read it before I go to sleep each night.

[Not featured: Amiee was on vacation while we were gathering picks, and I can only hope that, in the spirit of International Forgiveness Day, she doesn't believe that her exclusion is a reflection of anything other than that we needed to post something on the blog and this is what I had in my file. I mean, if anything, I would have excluded Emily, because she's shifty and troublesome. Or Pam, because she chopped off her cat's wee-wee. Sorry Amiee. Or consider yourself lucky?]

Sale Conference, More Awkwardness from the Land of the Socially Inept

Liz again here.  I returned from Florida and the Random House sales conference late on Sunday, and then have tried to recover and soothe the raving, blood-thirty beast (the cat).  Gianna says that I should post some more thoughts about sales conference.  I'm too scared of her not to follow her directions.

What's sales conference like?

Dr. Seuss hats for all!
Dignity for none!

• There's a lot of sitting in uncomfortable chairs, and for a conference at which books are discussed round the clock, there's never any time to actually read.  
• The bar in the hotel is designated as a hospitality suite, and if you wear your name tag you can drink as much as you want.  There are always a few people who think that gettin' sloppy with the colleagues is a great finish to a day...and there are always a few people who think that spending time in the hospitality suite is its own ring of hell.  
• Every company has its inside jokes and jokesters.  Some are actually funny.  More are not.  
• I always feel sorry for the tourists who are staying at the resort and are surrounded by hundreds of Random House employees.  That said, these people have the pool all to themselves all day.  I did have a view of the pool from my hotel room...so of course I took a bunch of pictures of the people with the man boobs testing the theory of water displacement eight floors below me.  
• Sonny Mehta is there.  Sonny is the Editor in Chief of Knopf.  We follow him into the bookish abyss with reckless abandon.
• Oh yeah, and we talk about a bunch of books, some of which are truly exciting.  

Here's an early tease for a book coming out this fall:

Andrew Porter teaches at Trinity University in San Antonio, and though Trinity is the hated rival of my alma mater, Southwestern University, I set aside petty rivalries of liberal arts institutions with Division III NCAA status (no scholarship athletes) for local authors.  Andrew wrote a brilliant short story collection, The Theory of Light and Matter, a couple of years ago, which ended up winning the Flannery O'Connor Award.  Now he's delivered his first novel, In Between Days.

Andrew Porter

In Between Days echoes John Cheever or Richard Yates, and I mean that as the highest compliment.  Much fiction these days either is post-apocalyptic or else off-putting-ly clever (clever for the sake of cleverness), and while I admire some narrative manipulation, it can also become tiresome.  Andrew Porter simply writes beautiful sentences about normal people in normal times...if one can claim that these are normal times.  His novel is set in Houston and is centered on a family coming apart.  The father, Elson Harding, an architect, has divorced his wife of 30 years, Cadence.  Their son Richard is adrift, still living at home after graduating from college and dabbling at writing poetry.  He's full of angst, naturally.  Their daughter Chloe suddenly has to come home from her East Coast college, though, and the circumstances around her arrival pitch the family into turmoil.  There's a tension here, as well as an attention to detail without getting lost in the details, that makes In Between Days one of my favorite upcoming novels.  I know it's very early, but jot down this title for the fall.  You'll thank me.

That's it from Florida, but here's one last picture for you:

Moobs.

Sales Conference, Or a Tale of Awkwardness

The view from my
hotel room

I, Liz, flew to Florida very, very early this morning for the annual in-person sales conference for fall books.  For those of you dozens of readers who aren't in the book business, basically this is the company pep talk meeting, awards presentation dinner(s), and discussion of new books.  Parts of conference are exciting...and parts involve socially awkward people attempting to interact with other socially awkward people, to varying levels of self-awareness.  It's a hoot.

Here are some observations before I have to turn in my computer so that the IT people can remove an entire cat's worth of Zorro fur from my keyboard.

A beautiful site.

• The Sanibel Resort is a Marriott property.  Marriott signed a deal with the devil (Pepsi).  My colleague Toni drove in from Tampa and brought me a case of Diet Coke, but she's staying in another building, so I had to claim my Diet Coke at the front desk.  I'm rationing.
• Here's the thing: I work from home, not an office.  I therefore don't see the same people every single day, so technically I could wear the same clothes every day if I wanted.  To come up with clothes for five days can be a challenge.  
• Also, we are book people.  We don't speak normal English...which is fine since the big boss, Markus, is German.  There is the whiff of desperation out there, the "Talk to MEEEEEEE!!!" of people who spend lots of time talking to the cat.
• My boss asked me to be on a panel. She claims that my participation isn't just to provide an excuse to fire me.



Sales people flock to receive
a signed book from Grisham.

• John Grisham.  I sat at his table for dinner.  He requested the vegetarian plate.  Considering the frightening slab-o-cow that was deposited in front of me, I ate the whipped potatoes and the salad.
• Speaking of Grisham, he has a new novel coming in April.  He's been a huge baseball fan all of his life (in spite of the fact that he's a Cardinals fan), and this is his first baseball-related story.  Calico Joe tells the story of a rising star playing for the Cubs, Joe Castle, and a struggling pitcher for the Mets, Warren Tracey, set during the summer of 1973.  Joe explodes onto the scene, breaking a record with his first few at bats.  He's a superstar in the making for the long-suffering Cubs fans (ask Gianna about her pain).  Warren Tracey's son Paul tells the story of these two baseball players, the baseball code, and a fateful August day when their paths collided.  It's a good read--reminiscent of The Natural.
• I "celebrated" my fifth year with Random House.  And then I pointed out to a colleague celebrating her 35th year that I have only been alive 35 years.  I'm classy like that.

Unless Gianna figures out how to post on the blog, there might be a couple of days hiatus.  Just remember, Liz is always the answer.

Coming April 2012

Quick Questions: More Holiday Books

Yesterday's post was so popular (and because we received some responses after we published last night), we've slapped together a follow-up entry.  Same two questions: 1. What was the best book you received as a gift this holiday season? and 2. What was the best book you gave/sold?  Here are the responses.

Caren Creech Berlanga – B&N Community Relations Manager & cat hoarder

Sorry...just now getting to this. For kids, If You Give a Dog a Donut, The Son of Neptune, and Janitors(Tyler Whitesides). For teens...Vanish...the new book by Sophie Jordan...also Through Her Eyes...a ghost story set in the panhandle. For adults...the Mike Leach book Swing Your Sword for sports fans. And David Liss, Joe McKinney and Rhiannon Frater...any of their books for fiction fans.

Tracy Kaempfe  - Hastings Entertainment buyer and one of the only people in Amarillo who still speaks to Gianna

I am back to reading the classics, or, more accurately the banned classics. Currently, I am reading In Cold Blood by Truman Capote and then will move on to Lolita by Nabakov, neither of which I was allowed to read in high school.

Brucette Beitz -- B&N Bookseller who can’t seem to retire

The ONLY book I received this year as a gift was, My Last Supper: The Next Course and it is a second after My Last Supper. 50 chefs tell what they would eat, who they would eat it with and who would cook it! I LOVE IT!!!!

Tiffany's cat Wombat

Hand sold more vegan cookbooks than I can count!

Tiffany Gale – Bookseller at BookPeople

Got: Wolf: The lives of Jack London by James L. Haley- Recently read The Call of the Wild and White Fang and absolutely loved both of them so I'm excited to read this biography.

Gave: Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali- I've given this book so many times. It's an incredible story, told by an incredible woman.

And here's my cat: Wombat

Julie Bach -  BookPeople Publicist and one of our favorite people

Julie

The best books I gave this season were to my mom. The Art of Fielding and a signed copy of A Visit From the Goon Squad. She cried. Apparently she'd gone to her bookstore in Fargo, ND, half a dozen times debating whether or not to spend the money on a copy of Goon Squad and talked herself out of it every time (money's tight). Art of Fielding deals with baseball, and it's in hardcover, so it was a big hit.

The best book I got this season wasn't quite a gift. Well, it was a gift I gave myself - a reader of A Partial History of Lost Causes by Jennifer Dubois. It isn't out until March. This was the perfect book to take on the plane. It's big and made me look smart. But also, it's a great story. I was quickly and totally immersed in the world of Cold War Russia and the plight of one chess player to be World Champion, and the simultaneous story of a young woman dealing with her diagnosis of Huntington's Disease (and not dealing with it gracefully, either). Judging by her author photo, Dubois looks to be young, so I was skeptical when I picked it up because I don't believe anyone younger than I am can do anything very well unless her name is Tea Obreht, but man can this girl tell a story. Swept me right up. I can't wait to start handselling it.

What did I handsell the most - well, the Steve Jobs bio was probably in my hand more often than any other book, but....Okay, I didn't handsell this book the most, but I did handsell one copy of Gene Wilder's My French Whore to someone. Timeless Christmas classic, indeed. Probably hand sold The Tiger's Wife more than anything else.

Carla Buckley

Carla Buckley – Author of Things That Keep Us Here (which Gianna loved) and Invisible due out 2012

This year, I gave my husband Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, and sure enough, he can't turn the pages fast enough. I think it's a brilliant book, but really--that's like saying the Earth is round. I gave my older daughter Still Alice and Left Neglected by Lisa Genova, because she's an aspiring writer and I wanted her to see how any career path a writer chooses can shape and influence their work in marvelous ways. I gave, at her request, my younger daughter the Hunger Games trilogy because she had borrowed the copies she'd read and she wanted her own set to keep.

Dr. Who and James

This year, my husband gave me The Paris Wife because I'd done an event with Paula McLain last year and he knew I was eager to read her latest release. I LOVED IT. My sister gave me Before I Fall Asleep, and I gave myself The Drop because no holiday is complete without a solid thriller at hand. I think it's Connelly's best.

James Parker -- Hastings graphic novels buyer and unabashed geek

Best I got: (Graphic Novel) Finder: Voice by Carla Speed McNeil (one of my favorite indie graphic novel series). Best I gave: American Gods By Neil Gaiman (I have read this book at least 10 times. So good!)

Pat's cat Fred

Pam Kaufman -- Random House Telephone Sales Rep and Regular Words With Friends Loser (to Liz)

Hey watch who you call a loser, missy.  [Heh.] This is really sad, but I didn’t receive any books for the holiday, however I gave one of my favorite books to my mom.  And that book is Chinaberry Sidewalks on CD.  I thought my mom would really like this because she grew up in the South and I thought she would love Rodney Crowell’s story, which is full of humor and a great sense of place.  The bonus in the CD is that he reads it himself. 

Stacey

Stacey Carlini -- Random House Telephone Sales Rep and Words With Friends Loser (to Liz)

1) Sadly, I received no books this holiday season. I think after helping me move my entire book collection this summer, my friends and family firmly believe I own enough books!

2) I gave my ex-husband a copy of Monica Bellucci, a lovely Rizzoli book filled with 150 (scantily clad) photos of his all-time favorite actress. I think he wept.

Anne Holman -- Bookselling Goddess at The King's English in Salt Lake City, Utah

The best book I received is The Pruning Book by Lee Reich because a girl's got to know how to get rid of the dead wood. [...We don't think this statement is a euphemism for anything, but one never knows.]

The best book I read/sold was I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen because it is nothing short of brilliant. 

Generally Horrible Questions: Beth Meister

Beth Meister

Since all of our bookseller pals are busy making Christmas wishes come true by selling as many books as possible, we decided to feature one of the peeps on the other end of the book supply chain this week.  Beth Meister works for Random House (with Liz, and we're sure that this fact is taken into account when she has her performance evaluations) and is generally a bad ass.  After all, what was she doing on a Saturday night in December?  She was reading this half-assed blog.  That's dedication.  Other things to know: Liz thinks "Beth" is a lovely name, Beth's obviously brilliant since she loves baseball, and she's generally a kind, funny, good natured person...and into self-punishment as exhibited by her willingness to fill out our little questionnaire.

Welcome to Book Land, Beth Meister!

1.     What is your position at Random House?
My title is Director, Sales Management & Planning for Doubleday, Knopf, Pantheon, and Schocken


2.  What exactly does that mean you do?

The best way to describe my job is to say that I am the liaison between the sales department and the publisher’s office.  I work with the publishing group to make sure our sales reps have all of the information they need when they sell-in our titles and I communicate all information from the sales department back to the publishing group. [So you're Red from The Shawshank Redemption, the guy who can get things....or maybe The Wolf from Pulp Fiction, and Gianna is Jimmy, and Liz is obviously Julius.....]

3.  How’d you get that job?

While in college I went to a job fair in Manhattan over the holiday break. There were two non-banking jobs and I interviewed for both of them.  Random House was interviewing for their Associates Program.  This program was for up to a year and would rotate to different departments within a publishing group.  I was then hired for the Associates Program within the Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group and I started the summer after I graduated from college.  I stayed in that program for about 10 months and worked in the editorial and publicity departments.  From there, I was hired as an assistant in the department I work in now.  I eventually became the Associate Director, Sales Management & Planning at Doubleday Broadway and then stayed with Doubleday when we became part of Knopf.  And now I’m Director, Sales Management & Planning for Doubleday, Knopf, Pantheon, and Schocken. [Sheesh...so the exact opposite of sleeping with someone?]


4.   What’s the most menial job you’ve had?

I started at Random House right out of college so I guess babysitting?  I also worked as a waitress at my summer camp but that was a lot of fun.  [See what we mean about Beth?  She describes waitressing for children as "fun."]

5.   What did you want to be as a kid?

When I was really little I wanted to work as a checkout person at the grocery store.  I thought punching the keys seemed fun.  Then in elementary school I wanted to be a teacher and a writer. [Here in Book Land we're about making dreams come true.  Here's a link to Trader Joe's job application.  Let us know if you need a reference!]

6.   What’s your most jaw-dropping, jealousy inducing, incredible experience working at RH? (Feel free to say “Meeting Liz.”)

Meeting Liz is the obvious answer here.  But what I think is the most jealousy-inducing is that I truly love my job.

7.  What book do you love people probably don’t know about?

I love Jonathan Tropper.  The first book of his I read was The Book of Joe.  It had been selected for a book club I was in and neither the flap copy nor the cover interested me at all. Then I started reading and I fell in love.  

8.  As a lifelong Mets fan, how can you stand being surrounded by so many Yankees fans in the office?  I mean, I guess since it’s New York City you can’t easily slash their tires in the parking lot….

It can be difficult at times but it helps when the Yankees lose in the first round of the playoffs.  I also enjoy it when the Phillies lose in the first round of the playoffs.

9.  Gianna or Liz?

I have learned that the correct answer is always Liz. [Damn straight.]

10. What book(s) changed your life?

I took a class in college called Girls Books.  It was the first English class I had ever taken that I actually enjoyed.  We read Ballet Shoes and I absolutely loved it.  Reading hadn’t been a huge part of my adult life at that point but that book got me back into reading. 

11. I've never read _____________ and I'm so ashamed.

Atonement by Ian McEwan.  I made a friend of mine tell me the ending because I had heard it had a shocking twist. [Fear not!  Liz and Gianna will act out the movie for you.]

12. I've read ______________ and I'm so ashamed.

I know that the correct answer here is Twilight.  However, I’m not ashamed of anything I’ve ever read.  I believe that it doesn’t matter what you read as long as you are reading. [We believe the same...unless it's Twilight. It's terribly shameful.]

13. What book(s) are you most excited about that haven’t yet been published?

Two books not yet on-sale that I just couldn’t put down are Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead and Top of the Rock by Warren Littlefield.  The characters in Seating Arrangements are so flawed that they broke my heart.  Top of the Rock is pure fun – it is a behind the scenes look at NBC in the 80s and 90s when shows like Cheers, Friends, and ER (with my all-time favorite, George Clooney) were on the air.  [Liz: I really love both of these books.  Great choices to jot down now so you don't forget.]

14. Who would play you in the made-for-TV movie of your life?

Sandra Bullock.  Mostly just because I think she’s great.

15.  What’s your all-time favorite book?

This is such a tough question!  I’m going to go with my two most recent favorites which are The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and Destiny of the Republicby Candice Millard.  The Night Circus is such a magical story.  I never have time to re-read books but I read this one twice and I loved it even more the second time.  Destiny of the Republic is the fascinating story of President Garfield and his assassination.  Candice Millard is an amazing author.

Beth and the team in NYC at the launch of The Night Circus

               

The Finest Eating Joint in Texas, Part 2

...We entered the restaurant in all its magnificence. Even though we had a reservation, our table wasn't yet ready, so we perused the extremely classy gift shop. Want your own longhorns for your Cadillac? They're $400 at The Big Texan gift shop. Want a Frisbee that looks like a cow paddy? Check! The visiting warehouse people were impressively captivated by the Texas-sized array o' crap.

And in case you might believe that the crap was confined to the gift shop, let's talk about the interior of the restaurant. Here's what a patron encounters as soon as s/he enters the building: The stuffed bear, the slot machines, the random flag-type stuff shoved in already cluttered areas, the ad for Elvis Impersonator Night--classy. And lest you think that Smoky the Bear was the only taxidermied beast in The Big Texan, think again. I think that they might even stuff anyone who takes the 72 ounce steak challenge and then suffers a terminal coronary in the process, at which point they preserve the dead glutton, prop him against a wall, and proceed to neglect dusting him for about twenty years. The place was covered in carcasses and the carcasses were covered in dust. That elk on the wall? That's not chin hair. That's a dust-covered cobweb. And because Valerie reserved a table upstairs looking down on the main floor, we were eye level with the corpse of Bambi's mom for most of our time in the restaurant. Did I mention that Gianna is a vegetarian? I don't think that The Big Texan's decorating choices swayed her from that path.

As we sat down, nine of us from the publisher present, with the two people from our account running late but expected to join us shortly, we ordered a smattering of appetizers--fried jalepenos, fried mushrooms, and potato skins with brisket on them--and our cowboy-dressed waiter, Trevor, took our drink orders. Chris, the bottomless stomach, ordered a 36 ounce beer, and most of the members of our table likewise ordered beer in large steins. I don't know their thinking, but I wouldn't have been surprised to discover that they were hoping that alcohol would distract them from the roadkill all over the walls. Brenda (the children's book rep) and Gianna were sitting on the far end of the table from Valerie, Brenda's boss Alan, and me, and the folks from our operations/warehouse staff plus the two empty chairs for our guests were in between. I found out later that Brenda ordered a margarita, it being the official cocktail of Texas. I was worried about triggering a migraine, having not slept for about four days and feeling a little loopy already, so I ordered a Diet Coke. Now, I understand that some restaurants stupidly accept the Pepsi incentives for carrying their products over Coke products, but here's the thing: Diet Pepsi is NEVER a suitable alternative to Diet Coke. I know that some people are polite and will settle for Diet Pepsi, but no one ever prefers Diet Pepsi to Diet Coke. And I am not one of those polite people. I suggested to Trevor that he send one of the limos to pick up some Diet Cokes from a convenience store and I'd wait, but I think Trevor knew that with a party of eleven his gratuity was included in the bill and he didn't seem willing to go the extra mile (literally) to help a junky out. I settled for water, and I think the restaurant itself gasped in disbelief that a diner wasn't choosing a beer that came in a mug that was twice the size of my fish bowl (I once kept a beta named Elvis Fauntleroy IV, until I acquired Zorro the cat and Zorro liked to drink Elvis's water). I don't think I fit in with the Big Texan mystique.

...Next, the meal, or, "Sorry we're out of (blank)."

Rural Reading

I grew up in the sticks and I rep places like Texas, Mississippi, and Oklahoma, so I think I'm a little touchy about the fine line one must walk when writing about rural America. I once got in an argument with a coworker about the, in my mind ridiculously inaccurate, representation of East Texas by an author who claimed to know the area but exaggerated the idiosyncracies for "comedy." You know how you can disparage your family all day long until someone else takes a crack and then you're ready to kill? That's the way I feel toward rural areas.

Still, books that manage to capture life in remote areas and small towns without sensationalizing make me extra happy and become favorites, like Bastard Out of Carolina or The Liars Club. I also loved childhood classics that typically involved dead pets as well--Old Yeller, Where the Red Fern Grows, and my favorite, The Yearling. I recently read a novel that's coming out in paperback this August (and is available now as a hardcover from Poisoned Pen Press) called Sweeping Up Glass. Good? Yessiree. It starts with a woman and her grandson trying to stop the slaughter of a pack of wolves and to figure out who--and why--these wolves are being killed. Then the story flashes back to the woman's childhood, and there are echos of Scott Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird in her, Olivia's, adventures in town and with her veterinarian father growing up in rural Kentucky. Olivia's mother is absent in her early years, sent to a mental hospital, but returns to antagonize the girl through the rest of her life. There are sinister workings within the town as well; shady dealings, injuries, and deaths that are on the periphery of Olivia's life but hovering in the background, waiting for attention. The characters in this book are truly special--warm, hardworking people who are flawed and full of humanity. The author, Carolyn Wall, teaches creative writing to children in Oklahoma, and she's working on her second book now. That's a book I look forward to.

After finishing Sweeping Up Glass, I started reading another first novel, this one called Bloodroot and set on the side of a mountain in Tennessee. I am a couple hundred pages into it now and think it could be big. Telling the story of several generations of people living on the side of this mountain, this is rural fiction at its finest--full of big characters, folklore, humility, humor, and tragedy. This book is scheduled to come out in spring 2010. I don't know why I'm suddenly finding myself inundated with Appalachian lit, but for now it's a good place to be.

Traveling--Last week I visited Dallas and Oklahoma to sell fall books to my stores there. I found myself intrigued by the town of Edmond, Oklahoma, on this trip, even though I've visited Edmond half a dozen times now. Edmond is the home of gymnast Shannon Miller, for starters. I fully admit I'm a nerd, and I do follow my gymnastics for the same reasons I follow figure skating (the horrific flops and crashes--it's my NASCAR). I never was much of a Shannon Miller fan, preferring Kim Zmeskal...not for much of a reason really; I just liked the name Zmeskal. Oh, and because I always had the impression that Shannon Miller was probably a whiney cryer I'd endlessly torment if we'd attended high school together. She looked a little like the whiney cryer in my class. Anyway, the road I usually take to my store in Edmond is under construction, so I found myself driving through town for the first time. I turned onto a road called "Boulevard," and it is indeed a boulevard, but the name of the road is just Boulevard. No, Jackson Boulevard, or Edmond Boulevard, or even North Boulevard, or Boulevard Street. Just Boulevard. That's weird, right? I mean, what if it were something like Boulevard Lane, or Boulevard Road, or even Boulevard Boulevard? When I asked the booksellers at my store they couldn't explain the street name, but they did give me directions back to the highway that didn't involve taking Boulevard back. It might have been deliberate. I have decided I like Edmond, though, because I found this place called Eileen's Gigantic Cookies. I now kneel before Eileen, whoever she is. Bless her.

Identity Issues

It's eerie how often Gianna and I agree on books. Considering that we barely knew each other a little over two years ago (she actually walked up to me at Book Expo several years ago before I worked for Random House and I didn't have a clue who she was until she reminded me that we'd met before), we nonetheless seem to love many of the same books. We'll have these discussions where she'll call me and ask if I've read a book that I haven't thought about in years and I'll remember that I loved that book, and it turns out that she loved it too. So when Gianna recommends that I read a book, when she's so enthusiastic that she's sputtering with delight, I KNOW that I must read that title. She doesn't steer me wrong.

Back in January we began to find out what titles Random House planned to publish for this coming fall, and it's a phenomenal list to say the least. Gianna found out that there will be a new book from Dan Chaon, so she called me to see if I had read his previous books, AMONG THE MISSING and YOU REMIND ME OF ME. Of course I had, and of course I loved them. Chaon is one of the best writers out there and in a just world he would be a literary superstar and I would read about him on my cousin's Facebook posts instead of...the gagging drivel she reads and claims is "profownd" (sic). The new book, Gianna told me, was called AWAIT YOUR REPLY. Because it was on her side of the company, and because I needed to read about 15 other books before sales conference, I refrained from diving into the new Chaon book, the dessert to my meal of books that I would actually sell myself. Gianna kept teasing me, though. She sent me the first page of the manuscript, and she constantly asked, "Have you started it yet? You need to read it. I need to talk about it. Read it, read it, read it...."



So finally I read it. Holy crap! I love this book. The early comparisons among the sales force are authors like Patricia Highsmith (Talented Mr. Ripley series) and Flannery O'Connor, and in the acknowledgements Chaon mentions writers who've inspired him such as John Fowles and Joyce Carol Oates. AWAIT YOUR REPLY contains elements of all of these masters of fiction. The novel focuses around identity and what it means to exist (or not) in this world. The opening page Gianna sent me? Let me set the scene for you. A son is cradling his arm and drifting in and out of consciousness. His father is driving the car and trying to reassure the kid that they'll make it to the hospital. And sitting between them in an ice chest is the boy's hand, cut off at the wrist. AND the boy isn't convinced that his father's even taking him to the hospital. Who doesn't want to keep reading a book that starts this way?

There are three stories swirling around each other through AWAIT YOUR REPLY, and what Gianna didn't tell me when she kept harassing me about reading the book is that one story line focuses on a set of twins. Twins are freaky and weird and a bit of an obsession for me and I'll read just about any book that features the multiples. It makes lots of sense that twins feature prominently in Chaon's book, too, since the theme is identity. Without giving away too much of the story, how do you know who you are? Say you don't have your name. Are you the same person? What if I weren't named Liz? Wouldn't I be a totally different person if I went by, say, Stephanie? I would have missed out on all of the elementary school "lizard" names. And people named Liz, in my experience, are smart asses. Nice, vapidly sweet Elizabeths are usually shortened to Beth. I am not a Beth. So twins further complicate self-identification. Here's your carbon copy(if you're identical, but to a lesser extent the same holds true for fraternals), yet you are two distinct people. At the same time, though, you cannot separate your identity from that of your twin. Twins know each other before they even meet their mother and they grow up with a mirror image of themselves against which to measure. Your life is a jumbled mess of identity politics. It's fascinating...and weird...and perfect for Chaon's book.

So, confession, I am a twin. I sometimes hate it, but I cannot imagine my life otherwise, and I hate to think of a world in which my twin no longer exists. I look at her and marvel that we're even siblings (she's an aerospace engineer) and I try to imagine what I would be like if I had followed her course in life. I still respond to her name when someone calls it because growing up people constantly confused us even though we're fraternal and she's friggin' blonde for crying out loud. More often we were just "the Sullivan twins." So I personally related to the parts of AWAIT YOUR REPLY that deal with twin brothers on different paths, seeking each other and running away. What if my twin were a hustler, or a Broadway singer, or Lindsey Lohan? Wouldn't I have a different identity if she were someone else? (The answer is yes.)

Dan Chaon is a terrific writer. I can't emphasize this point enough. This book works on so many levels--literary exploration, character study, thriller--and both Gianna and I are giddily anticipating the publication in August. AWAIT YOUR REPLY may be the best book I read this year.

The Help

We're between publishing seasons right now, wrapping up the summer sell-in and having just completed a teleconference to review books coming out in the fall. In a couple of weeks Gianna and I will hit the roads once more to sell the fall books, and what an amazing list it is--E.L. Doctorow, John Irving, Kathy Griffin (LOVE HER!!), and a terrific novel from Dan Chaon on Gianna's side, and great books from Jonathan Lethem, Margaret Atwood, Richard Russo, John Grisham, and, ahem, DAN BROWN on my side of the company. But that's a couple of weeks away. Right now we're sorting through mountains of material so that we can pretend to know what we're talking about when we walk into bookstores. These are office days. Our offices are located in our homes, and that means that we "enjoy" the company of our office mates. Mine is Zorro, the 25 lb. feline taskmaster who keeps me alert...by screwing everything up.
Teleconferences tend to last for several days, and we're on the phone all day. It's exhausting and I'm a bit phone-phobic (which is a handicap considering my job), but the saving grace comes in the form of a headset. I cannot imagine sitting for four days on the phone without one. I may look like an idiot from Star Trek with the thing hooked over my left ear, but I'd beat myself unconscious with the phone if I didn't have it to free my hands and shoulder and neck from the strain of 6 hours per day with a receiver held to my head. The only problem with my headset, though, is that the office mate, Zorro, seems to possess a bizarre headset fetish. I keep it out of sight when I'm just normally working at my desk, but I have made the mistake, on occasion, of leaving it out overnight between two sales conference days. Zorro likes to play with my headset. He likes to hide it (which is fairly remarkable, considering how lazy he normally is, and such devious actions require, well, action). One morning I dialed in to the call, reached for my headset, then discovered it missing. I found it, with just a minute to spare before a full day of title reviews with publishers, in my kitchen sink. First, it's amazing that the cat can even jump up to the kitchen counter. Second, why would he drag a headset to the kitchen, and in particular the sink? It's weird. I also found it buried in his litter box once...and replaced it with a new one that day.

Most of the time Zorro sleeps in his chair in my office, where he is now. (He snores.) He likes to play in the boxes that arrive, and chew on the bubblewrap and plastic packing material, and he LOVES the UPS delivery guy, running to the door to greet him. Trying to keep books and files organized is nearly impossible because of his "help," which usually involves sitting on things I need, or jumping in a box and clawing me when I attempt to remove the contents from under his girth, or shoving advance readers off my shelves so that he has the room to nap. What's worse, I confess I'm a bit scared of my cat. Most of the time he's sweet, and I will say that his ample posterior makes a great bookrest when he's sitting on my lap, but the cat has a bit of a violent, psychotic streak. He clawed my eyeball once in the middle of the night, which is a freaky way to wake up. He also has a nervous tic, where if you scratch his back right above his tail, he neurotically MUST lick his front paws. It's crazy. My sister will send me emails at random points throughout the day that say simply "Make Fat Zorro lick his paws!" (She calls him "Fat Zorro" but his name is just Zorro. What I call her dog Max...it's politically incorrect and I won't repeat it here.)

Zorro also loves when I'm on the phone in the morning, when he's most likely to be conscious. Every Friday our division of reps has a conference call to go over business. It's how we function (as best we can) as a group when we live all over the country. Anyway, Zorro will hear my voice and waddle over, then jump into my lap...which is a bit like dropping a bag of rocks on your lap, held to your legs with 20 claws. I feel like I must gasp in pain quite a bit on the phone. He will sit on my lap purring, loudly, and rubbing his cheeks against the phone. Sometimes I'm saved when the UPS guy shows up, but most calls involve a point where I try to convince my companion that proper office conduct does not include sharpening his claws in my thigh.
Am I alone in my devotion and indulgence of an unhealthy office environment? Definitely not. My boss has a Jack Russell terrier, Bonnie, who yaps like the building's on fire during at least one call per week. Gianna has a herd of dogs, one of whom ate the leather cover off of her Sony Reader recently. I rarely had to worry about an officemate plopping down in my lap before I joined Random House (though it actually did happen a few times before, weirdly enough), and I certainly never had to worry about the IT department yelling at me for the amount of grey and white fur in my keyboard. And while my previous colleagues threatened violence, they never actually cut me. It's a tough life we lead, and I'm getting to the point where I'm ready to hit the road again. A four day road trip might be time enough apart to put the cat in his place.

We Must Be Crazy (Or, How This Thing Started)

No sane person would enter the book business right now. Stores are closing, the daily industry newsletters tell of little but cutbacks and lay-offs at the publishers, and let's face it, I hear more discussion of Lost than I do of any book even when I'm in a bookstore. I entered the book business in 1998 after graduating from college with exactly $328 and no career aspirations whatsoever. I thought I would go to graduate school, but I couldn't afford it either financially or spiritually. I was burned out with school. So, moving to Austin, Texas, I decided to spend a gap year by working at a bookstore, if I could get a job, and recharge for my future enrollment in even more education. I started work at BookPeople, the large, independent bookstore in downtown Austin, on June 15, a week after my 22nd birthday, and earned a whopping $5.40 an hour. I was too economically ignorant to realize how stupid I was to take this job, but I've never really been motivated by money. I am a book nerd. I wanted to spend my days surrounded by the stories that inspired me to be an English major before over-analysis drove away the joy I found in reading. I also wanted to be around smart people and thought that a bookstore might be a mecca of well-read, fascinating thinkers. At the time I didn't realize that all booksellers are a bit nutty.

I spent almost 9 years at BookPeople, working my way from lowly closing shift bookseller to buyer and inventory operations supervisor with an office. It was a great education into a business I found more and more fascinating, at a time when the industry grudgingly was coming to terms with inevitable change (as it still is), from economic challenges to the digital revolution. I had the pleasure of meeting booksellers from around the country as well as publishing execs from New York, but by 2007 I found myself weighing my options. Stay at BookPeople and continue to make it the best bookstore in the country (indeed, it won Publishers Weekly's Bookseller of the Year in 2005, a fact for which I'm quite proud), or expand my horizons? When a Random House sales representative job came open in the Texas territory, I swallowed back my overwhelming fear of change and leapt. I moved to Houston, set up an office in my apartment, and spent many nights wondering if I was a complete idiot.

Random House is the biggest publisher in the world, and the company publishes a hell of a lot of books each year. On top of this, the sales force also acts as a representative for smaller publishers that aren't actually owned by Random House--houses like National Geographic, the art publisher Rizzoli, DC Comics, and fantasy giant Wizards of the Coast. We're talking thousands of adult books that need selling, so there are two sales reps per territory "out in the field" (the people selling the books to stores who don't live in New York and rarely visit the home office). When I joined Random House, I signed on to sell books in Texas, Oklahoma, and Mississippi, which geographically is a huge territory. My partner, selling the other half of the adult books, is Gianna, another Austin resident but Chicago native who found her own way through the book business ranks. We didn't know each other well when we started working together, but we're both book people, and one can always talk about books. About the time I started at Random House, we were instructed to start driving more and flying less, and as people who value our jobs, we followed orders. It's a long way from Houston to Amarillo--about 12 hours if you stop to pee or eat--and a long way from Austin, where Gianna lives, to Jackson, Mississippi--again 12 hours by car. For sanity and safety, we started making these long road trips together, so three times per year to each location, we'd load up a car with advance reader copies of the soon-to-be-published books and hit the road to bookstores far and wide.

Road trips have the potential to ruin even the soundest relationships. You're packed in a sardine can for hours on end with a radio and another person and the scenery outside providing the only distraction to the thoughts in your head. It turned out, though, that Gianna and I travel very well together. We both have a fine appreciation for the absurdity of situations, have similar interests in books and movies, and frankly, know how to shut up. We aren't gabbers. In fact, we're both introverts, but with senses of humor. And to dispel any visions of what kind of reps we are, I should point out that book reps are nothing like, say, the pharmaceutical sales reps who audition for Survivor and hook up with the "aspiring actors" after 27 days without showering. I would say that as a group, book reps are, like most book folk, introverted, semi-awkward, non-models. At least, that's me. Anyway, we started recounting stories of our travels, and typically the reactions from friends and colleagues alike started with gap-jawed disbelief that we would travel together in this way, followed by laughter at what we saw or experienced, and then came the inevitable "you should write a blog." So here you go, our blog.

What you'll find here--thoughts on the book industry as it goes through a period of great, perilous transition, commentary on the books we love both new and old, stories from the road and the stores we visit, and frankly anything else that captures our fancy but won't get us fired. There is a strong possibility that I will comment on the proliferation of giant, inflatable creatures that storm the tops of buildings between Houston and Dallas, or Gianna will recount how she once joined me in Amarillo wearing two mismatched shoes (classy), or we both speculate on what, exactly, is sold at a business called "Unclaimed Furniture" outside of Oxford, Mississippi, or ponder how many horseshoeing campuses there are in Oklahoma as we pass the south branch on our way to OKC. No doubt we'll highlight our favorite restaurants, our quirky routines, what we do to amuse ourselves after four days of almost constant driving, what shenanigans our office mates (meaning our pets--we work from home when not traveling) have pulled, and, of course, we'll talk about books. If nothing else, at least we won't hear "you should write a blog" again. Be careful what you ask for.