The BEA10 Diaries - Editor's Buzz

The first official BookExpo America event that I attended was the Editor’s Buzz, held Tuesday afternoon in one of the conference rooms at the Javits Center.  This was the opportunity for editors from various publishing houses to share the one title that is most rocking their world for the fall (in in some cases, next spring) season.  They were:

From Algonquin, Chuck Adams presented Jonathan Evison’s second published novel, West of Here (2/2011):  Set in the mythical town of Port Bonita, on Washington’s rugged Pacific coast–with part of the narrative focused on the town’s founders Circa 1890, and another part set in 2006 revolving around the lives of their descendants–West of Here is part romance, part adventure, and a total reminiscence on the American experience as we’ve lived it via books and film and TV. In essence, it’s about the footprints of time, about the human spirit, both individual and collective, and about the echo of human life, how something that happens in one generation keeps reverberating through all the years that follow.

From Ballantine, Susanna Porter presented Anne Fortier’s debut, Juliet (8/2010).  This novel takes the reader between modern-day America and Siena, Italy, as a woman researching her family history uncovers a connection to the Capulet family of Shakespeare’s drama.

From Little Brown, Judy Clain presented the novel Room by Emma Donoghue (9/2010):  To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it’s where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.  Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it’s not enough…not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son’s bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.  Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.

From Twelve, Cary Goldstein presented Benjamin Hale’s debut novel The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore (2/2011):  Bruno Littlemore is quite unlike any chimpanzee in the world. Precocious, self-conscious and preternaturally gifted, young Bruno, born and raised in a habitat at the local zoo, falls under the care of a university primatologist named Lydia Littlemore. Learning of Bruno’s ability to speak, Lydia takes Bruno into her home to oversee his education and nurture his passion for painting. But for all of his gifts, the chimpanzee has a rough time caging his more primal urges. His untimely outbursts ultimately cost Lydia her job, and send the unlikely pair on the road in what proves to be one of the most unforgettable journeys — and most affecting love stories — in recent literature. Like its protagonist, this novel is big, loud, abrasive, witty, perverse, earnest and amazingly accomplished. The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore goes beyond satire by showing us not what it means, but what it feels like be human — to love and lose, learn, aspire, grasp, and, in the end, to fail.

The Buzz was rounded out with two non-fiction selections:

From FSG, Mitzi Angel presented Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science:  Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks (10/2010):  Have you ever wondered how one day the media can assert that alcohol is bad for us and the next unashamedly run a story touting the benefits of daily alcohol consumption? Or how a drug that is pulled off the market for causing heart attacks ever got approved in the first place? How can average readers, who aren’t medical doctors or Ph.D.s in biochemistry, tell what they should be paying attention to and what’s, well, just more bullshit?

Ben Goldacre has made a point of exposing quack doctors and nutritionists, bogus credentialing programs, and biased scientific studies. But he has also taken the media to task for its willingness to throw facts and proof out the window in its quest to sell more copies. Now Goldacre is taking on America and its bad science in this revised version of his runaway U.K. bestseller. But he’s not here just to tell you what’s wrong. Goldacre is here to teach you how to evaluate placebo effects, double-blind studies, and sample size, so that you can recognize bad science when you see it. You’re about to feel a whole lot better.

From Scribner, Nan Graham presented Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies: a Biography of Cancer (11/2010): a magnificently written “biography” of cancer–from its origins to the epic battle to cure, control, and conquer it.

As expected, the excitement of the editors’ presentations got the room buzzing (Cary Goldstein had us with “it’s not bestiality, it’s love” in reference to the relationship between Lydia and Bruno).  There was a stampede to the tables of galleys in the foyer (truly, isn’t there a better way?!); I came home with West of Here, Juliet, and The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore – and am looking forward to reading them.  I also want to read Room – the perspective of the 5-year-old narrator sounds fascinating!  And, of course, I’m a big fan of non-fiction, and will eventually read The Emperor of All Maladies and Bad Science (with a lighter tone, I expect).

Maybe my best approach is to read them in order of publication – what would you do?