We have winners!   Here is your chosen favorite Sci Fi cover for our May cover art contest – Haydyn Of Mars by Al Sarrantonio.  The cover art is by Matt Stawicki.  Although we picked covers for the competition by what made us smile, it was educational to learn more about the world of science fiction artists and their fans.  Very interesting!

The second place winner was the vintage copy of The Monster Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs.  The publisher, Ace, actually points out their choice of high quality artists for their reprints of Burroughs then out-of-print treasures.  The cover artist for this swamp man masterpiece from 1960 was Frank Frazetta.  Frazetta just died in 2010, and was a famous comic book artist as well as fantasy illustrator.  He has been inducted into at least two related artist Halls of Fame.  (Maybe I should up the price on this one!)  Who knew. 

The last three places went to 3rd place: Love Conquers All by Fred Saberhagen and cover art by Bob Adragna (1979).

4th place: Conan and the Sorcerer by Andrew J Offutt and cover art by Sanjulian.  I still think Sanjulian needs anatomy lessons, but it is artistic!

And my favorite, but the customer public’s least favorite was the cat people on Firebird by Charles L. Harness.  No cover art credit was provided.

The winners of the gift certificate drawing were Howard Wu (proving that daily entries really do improve your odds) and Marco Sharpe.  Congratulations!

Those of us behind the counter enjoy the Romance Cover contest in February so much we’ve decided to add another – so here it is!  The 1st Sci Fi Cover Contest!  Vote on your “favorite” in order to enter a drawing and a chance for a $25 East Side Books Gift Certificate at the end of the month.  I have not been searching out classic Sci Fi covers too long, but it is not hard to find some potential winners.  There are several decades to choose from and different Pokies styles, although buxom women seem to be as common as the romance covers…hmmm, definitely more cat faces though.

Here are the candidates:

#1     Firebird by Charles L. Harness ( 1981)

#2      Conan and the Sorcerer by Andrew J Offutt (1978)

#3     Love Conquers All by Fred Saberhagen (1974)

#4     The Monster Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs

#5     Haydn of Mars by Al Sarrantonio (2005)

You may vote on line or in the store once per day – come in and get a close up look at these wonderful artworks!

The famous and wealthy author Larry McMurtry also owns one of the largest used bookstores in the country – Booked Up – a mecca for book lovers without question.  He has decided to downsize, which is of course making the news.  We clean out by going to the Choo Choo Swapmeet, he has an auction of thousands of titles and makes national headlines. 

I just have to share two things from the Booked Up website, maybe East Side Books and Booked Up  really have a few things in common!  First from the Frequently Asked Questions:

I also want to share McMurtry’s explanation for the clean out:

TO OUR GUESTS:

The several hundred thousand books that we are putting in play constitute a kind of anthology of American bookshops past.  In our forty-one years as booksellers we have bought twenty six bookshops and some two hundred personal libraries, some humble, some grand.

So why push them out?

Because we believe that in the book world migration is healthy:  old pages await new eyes.  Yesterday in Lubbock, Texas I found a copy of Sons and Lovers in the oil-cloth Modern Library with my bookplate in it.  Twenty eight thousand volumes have my bookplate in them;  they reside in my big house in Archer City, and yet this one strayed.  How it got to Lubbock I’ll likely never know.  It’s home again now;  but hundreds of thousands of its cousins will be flooding into the great river of books that delights and refreshes.  Good reading and good luck!

     Larry McMurtry

In the book world, migration is healthy.  Old pages await new eyes.  We have a few creatively shelved old pages awaiting new eyes, come find some for your library!

In the early 1900’s, Harvard President Charles W. Eliot stated that a liberal education could be obtained by spending fifteen minutes a day reading from a collection of books that would fit on a five-foot bookshelf. Publisher P.F. Collier and Son took Eliot at his word, and asked him to compile the volumes of literature necessary to create a five-foot liberal education library. Eliot did, and the result was the wonderful Harvard Classics.

First published in 1909, the Harvard Classics are a fifty-one volume set. Each book is approximately 400 to 450 pages, and texts, such as The Odyssey by Homer or His Autobiography by Ben Franklin, are reprinted in their entirety.

P.F. Collier and Son sold over 350,000 sets in the twenty years that they were available. Says East Side owner, Diane Doonan, “The Harvard Classics were a new concept and became very popular. Everyone wanted to be self-educated.”

Along the same lines of the Harvard Classics, we have volumes of Will and Ariel Durant’s eleven-book series The Story of Civilization. The first volume, Our Oriental Heritage, was published in 1935. The remaining volumes were penned over a span of forty years. Although The Story of Civilization was intended to be an overview of Western history, the series ends with The Age of Napoleon due to the death of the Durants.

Both the Harvard Classics volumes and The Story of Civilization series are much sought after these days, and are often used for homeschool curriculum. We have individual volumes of Harvard Classics available for around $6.00 each. They are located along the top of the shelves in our Literature section. Please ask for assistance. We also have a complete set of Harvard Classics that will be sold as a whole. If interested, please speak with one of our staff.  We have many of the books in The Story of Civilization series available as well, and these are located on top of the Psychology section in the Non-Fiction room.

Come browse these classical series and enhance your reading resume today.

Something new for sales this month – since so many authors have April birthdays, we are offering 20% off on their books on their birthday.  That way you can celebrate your favorites!  We have a list in the store, but if you do some research and show us another birthday author, you can have the sale price too!  I’ll try to make sure we get the daily list on the Facebook page at least.

Also, it is National Poetry Month, with some fun upcoming activities, and all poetry on sale all month.  Religion, Nature and Inspiration will also be on sale, and maybe more, who knows.  Keep checking back for updates.

Around the front counter, we love discussing food.  We also have lengthy discussions about growing and eating food that is better for us, better for our country, and tastier, so of course we have strong opinions on food books too!  I could (and might) write about one every day, however the book of the moment is Blood, Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton. 

Hamilton is a chef who chronicles her journey through many kitchens in Blood, Bones and Butter, before opening her own restaurant in New York called, get this,  Prune!  I want to read it just to see what is on the menu at Prune! All reviewers agree that not only is she adept at describing the foods and cooking, but her writing is “luminous” throughout. 

Chosen recently by a Bishop book club, we have several new copies available for members and others.  We’d be happy to order more as well!

Did I mention that if your book club orders new copies through us, we offer a 15% discount?  What a deal, right?

We had a lively discussion around our dinner table last night about what constitutes a hero and what type of person inspires us.  It was triggered by the Community Reads talk featuring Aron Ralston, the highly publicized climber who cut off his arm to survive being trapped by a boulder he had dislodged while climbing by himself in isolated Utah canyons.  He is also the author of Between A Rock and a Hard Place, now retitled 127 Hours after the movie.  Our discussion centered around personal preparedness, responsibility, and personal choices once a person has survived and is then famous.  We had a lot to compare with the unquestionably inspiring Jill Kinmont Boothe and her own life choices.  My two teen aged children had both listened to Ralston yesterday, and had very strong opionions, which did my heart good as a mom. 

I could not attend the mid-day public appearance, and expect many other adults missed it as well.  We still have several copies of the book in the store if you are interested in the story – let me recommend it for family discussion if nothing else!

Our “favorite” romance cover of the year, from those we selected for consideration, was #1

Apparently it had some appeal to both men and women, and was the most romantic of the choices offered!  #2   was the second choice, I won’t even try to explain that one….

The gift certificate winners wer Cora Heeg and Lolly McCue.  Thanks all of you for providing a month of entertainment for the staff.

Bishop lost two dedicated educators this month in Roberta Matlick and Jill Kinmont Boothe.  Both were remarkable women and amazing role models, and many others have more profound things to say.  However, I want to remember Mrs. Matlick here as the quintessential teacher and a woman with a true community spirit. 

I think she made every interaction a teachable moment, and certainly touched hundreds of lives through multiple generations.  I was in her math class as a “student teacher” (a high school student assigned to working with a small group of other students – not a student teacher working on a credential) before her retirement in 1984.  I don’t think she spent long away from the class room though, as she taught two of my three children in math and reading as a long term 3rd grade volunteer.  At the same time she worked with my mom at the Laws Museum to organize the Good Old Days celebration – teaching interactive history to another generation. I have no doubt she taught fractions with exuberance to three generations of more than one family.

Mrs. Matlick also loved a good mystery, so I saw her regularly here at the store.   Her enthusiasm and energy were truly boundless, which is why it seemed we would have her with us always, or at least longer.  She will be missed, though remembered when I straighten the J.A. Jance and Dana Stabenow shelves, or figure a sale percentage. 

Her family suggested donations may be made in her memory to the Laws Museum.

YES!  We got a late start, but the   Best (?) Romance Covers we’ve found during the year have been chosen and are now on display for your vote!  To make up for the late start, we’ve decided you may VOTE on your favorite cover once per day, either on line or on the store.  Simply come in and drop your name and phone number, along with the number of your choice in the bucket, or send an email with the same information.  Your choices are listed below.  Notice the bare chested Cowboy and Indian theme…can’t help it, it is just  too much fun to have a theme.  Enjoy!

#1.  Notorious Rake, Innocent Lady by Bronwyn Scott (last year’s winning author)

#2.   Pregnant by the Warrior by Denise Lynn

#3.     His Secret Life by Debra Webb  (chosen by our staff for Diane, not sure why, maybe the larger print)

#4     Brazen by Bobbi Smith  (speaks for itself)

#5.     Heartland by Rebecca Brandywine

We are not the only ones enjoying romance covers – here is a fun link to the abebooks website that admires some romantic winners.  Plus, they had the gumption to do their own staff “covers” – check them out!

http://www.abebooks.com/books/love-harlequin-mills-boon/romance-novel-covers.shtml