Today’s reading suggestions have been inspired by Erinne Sevigny’s travelogue / blogging project, The Great Canadian Publishing Tour: a coast-to-coast look at Canadian book publishing.

I learned about this neat project from the Arts East blog and was thus inspired to offer up some publishing/bibliophile related titles as reading suggestions.  I’ve even included a couple murder mysteries just for fun.

I encourage you to checkout Erinne’s blog, but to also read the Arts East article, as it contains additional details about Erinne’s visit to Nova Scotia.

Book: a futurist’s manifesto : essays from the bleeding edge of publishing(M)
edited by Hugh McGuire and Brian O’Leary

The ground beneath the book publishing industry dramatically shifted in 2007, the year the Kindle and the iPhone debuted. Widespread consumer demand for these and other devices has brought the pace of digital change in book publishing from “it might happen sometime” to “it’s happening right now”—and it is happening faster than anyone predicted.

Yet this is only a transitional phase. Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto is your guide to what comes next, when all books are truly digital, connected, and ubiquitous. Through this collection of essays from thought leaders and practitioners, you’ll become familiar with a wide range of developments occurring in the wake of this digital book shakeup.”

Golden Legacy : how Golden Books won children’s hearts, changed publishing forever, and became an American icon along the way (M)
by Leonard S. Marcus

“Since their launch in 1942, Golden Books have occupied a singular and beloved place in children’s literature. Leonard S. Marcus explores their history in Golden Legacy: how Golden Books won children’s hearts, changed publishing forever, and became an American Icon along the way.

Marcus traces the books’ development from the years leading up to their first appearance (selling 1.5 million copies in their first five months on the market) through their roster of acclaimed artists (including Margaret Wise Brown, Mary Blair and Richard Scarry, to name a scant few) and the titles that continue to be treasured to this day (The Poky Little Puppy and The Golden Egg Book among them). William Joyce, Harry Bliss, Avi and others reflect on the influence of the books, and readers of all ages will thrill to the decades’ worth of archival illustrations. Stately and comprehensive, this hardcover volume stands in lush contrast to the tiny cardboard-backed titles themselves, but it pays handsome tribute to a publishing phenomenon.” -Publisher Weekly

Women Who Love Books Too Much: bibliophiles, bluestockings & prolific pens from the Algonquin Hotel to the Ya-Ya sisterhood(M)
by Brenda Knight

“More about writing than book lovers, this book consists of short (mostly 500- to 1000-word) essays on over 70 women writers as diverse as Sappho, Danielle Steele, and Zora Neale Hurston, as well as many lesser-known writers. Knight, author of the American Book Award-winning Women of the Beat Generation, divides the book into well-known women writers, famous writing families, spiritual authors, banned writers, prolific writers, style-setters, and “adored” authors.

Material on most of these authors will already be a part of library collections that support women’s studies curricula. However, the volume’s easily understandable and inspiring style, augmented by concise entries, an appendix on book groups, and a resource guide, make it an entertaining introduction to women writers.” – Library Journal

~fiction~

Foul Matter (M)
by Martha Grimes

“Author Paul Giverney is between publishers. Despite stratospheric sales of his books and frenzied competition to sign him up, he lives modestly in New York’s East Village and nurses a secret ambition of a very different sort. In fact, he has a byzantine plan for accomplishing it: the #1 condition of his proposed contract with the literary giant Mackenzie-Haack. They must drop Ned Isaly, a brilliant but far less successful author, and assign his equally gifted editor to Paul. In the hornets’ nest of preening egos and cutthroat career moves this stirs up, ambitious editor Clive Esterhaus covets the glossy megastar Paul for himself. But Isaly’s book contract is unbreakable and Clive never dreams how a very different kind of contract will force him-and his ambition-into a very foul matter, indeed.” – Publisher

Desert Shadows: publishing can be murder (M)
by Betty Webb

“At the ripe old age of 76, Gloriana Allerton, doyenne of Scottsdale, Arizona, high society, was murdered during a reception at a book exposition, just as her imprint, Patriot’s Blood Press, was starting to earn acclaim in Southwest publishing. To Lena Jones, an ex-cop turned private eye, the accused–Owen Sisiwan, an Afghanistan war vet who worked for Gloriana doing odd jobs to help support his family–seems an unlikely suspect. As Lena starts digging into the circumstances surrounding Gloriana’s murder, a slew of potential suspects emerge, opening up an Agatha Christie-like whodunit replete with greedy relatives, extremist politicians, and hate groups. Simultaneous with this investigation, Lena faces her own past as she reluctantly uncovers the mystery behind her nightmares.

This third in Webb’s series makes good use of both tony Scottsdale and the small-press publishing scene. Lena makes a refreshing heroine; being raised by nine different foster families gives her unusual depth. Solid series fare.” Booklist