Marie Arana
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 6, 2005; 3:00 PM
"Well, dear reader, get ready for a horde of friends to overrun your house this fall: The sheer volume of book production is breathtaking. It's as if publishers had decided to bring out a book by every established author they could think of and tossed in a slew of fresh-faced novices for good measure. We've never experienced anything quite like this." -- Fall Preview (Book World, Sept. 4) Book World editor Marie Arana was online Tuesday, Sept. 6 to field questions and comments about the new season of titles, both fiction and non-fiction. Arana worked in the book industry for many years before coming The Washington Post in 1993. She is the author of the National Book Award finalist American Chica, a memoir about her bicultural childhood between Peru and America. She is also author of The Writing Life: Writers on How They Think and Work, which is a collection of columns from Book World. Her next book, a novel called Cellophane, will be published in the spring of 2006. Catch up on your summer reading with Great Escapes , Book World's summer reading guide. Join Book World Live each Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET for a discussion based on a story or review in each Sunday's Book World section. ____________________ Marie Arana: Welcome Book World readers! It's a beautiful day in Washington, Labor Day is behind us, the sand is off the shoes . . . and now it's time to think about books. The upcoming book season is huge. There are so many good forthcoming publications that it was impossible to get all of them into the small space of the Preview. (I've already heard from some authors with ruffled feathers!) Nevertheless, this venue should allow us to spread out a bit. Let me know what you're looking forward to this season. _______________________ Arlington, Va.: Thanks for the Fall Preview--always a BW highlight. I didn't see any mention of Jonathan Harr's "Lost Painting." What's the inside word on Harr's new book? Also, will BW review James T. Patterson's "Restless Giant?" Thanks Marie Arana: Jonathan Harr's upcoming book on the lost Caravaggio promises to be quite interesting, no? There's a great interest it seems in art and history this year. John Berendt--remember him? Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil?-- is publishing a book about Venice and its destruction and dramatic recovery after the terrible fire of '96. We're looking forward to that. Especially given the plight of our own New Orleans.(See Book World on Sept. 18) We're also looking forward to Patterson's "Restless Giant," which covers U.S. History from 1974 to 2000. Patterson is one of our eminent historians, always interesting in my view. _______________________ Bethesda, Md.: I was thrilled to see that the cover of last Sunday's Book World, which featured new releases for fall reading, showed Patrick O'Brian's name among the luminaries presumably being reviewed. But when I looked inside I found nothing by or about the recently deceased author. Did I miss it, or was it just a tease? And what is it? Marie Arana: Well, we love Patrick O'Brian, too. And as it happens, if you love O'Brian, you're in luck. There are two books that relate to him this Fall: First is his own first novel for adults, The Catalans. The second is a biography of O'Brian written by Nikolai Tolstoy. The reason he was on the cover but not inside (you are a very observant reader!) is that we just didn't have room to include everything. At the last minute, we found ourselves doing major triage . . . _______________________ Virginia: Hello. Can you include the ISBN number of all the books in Book World? A few titles have several authors when I searched on Amazon. Thank you. Marie Arana: We often get this question and certainly have considered it over the years. It's a matter of those cumbersome numbers! If there were some graceful way to do it, we'd definitely do it. We'd like you to have all the information you need. _______________________ Columbia, Md.: Hello Marie, Have you seen any parts of Ann Rice's forthcoming book? Any similarities to her vampire series? EBJ Marie Arana: Anne Rice's book is an astonishing departure. We're told that she plunged into the literature on New Testament scholarship, took issue with some of it, and decided to frame her novel "Christ the Lord" around her own conclusions. Naturally, it doesn't have all that lush New Orleans-y flavor of her vampire novels. Quite different all the way around. _______________________ Brooklyn, NY: Are there any good books about film coming out? Marie Arana: Thanks for this question. There's a big, big book on Lawrence Olivier coming from Terry Coleman. It promises to be truly interesting. But there is also a book I mentioned in the Preview about the man who discovered Rock Hudson, Tab Hunter and others-- a strong conservative in spite of the many homosexual actors he represented. _______________________ Capitol Hill, DC: Sunday's "Book World" included a column by Michael Dirda. Hurray! Has Mr. Dirda returned to writing his weekly essays? Or was last Sunday's article merely a teaser to remind us what we're missing when his column is omitted? (Alas, at age 62 I've decided that I want to be Mr. Dirda when I grow up.) Marie Arana: Everyone wants to be Michael Dirda when they grow up! But, as one who knows Michael well, let me tell you his secret: Michael's enthusiasms are downright boyish. He plunges into the most arcane subjects with delight. I hope he never grows up. . . Yes, he's back with us after a summer hiatus. We're delighted to have him back on our pages. Look for his review of Zadie Smith's new novel this coming weekend. _______________________ New York, NY: This year is the 50th anniversary of James Dean's death. Are there any books coming out about him or his movies? Marie Arana: There happens bo have been a book about Jimmy Dean by Wes D. Gehring from a small publisher (Indiana Historical Society). Our reviewer John DiLeo reports that it has a real Hoosier twang. _______________________ Flushing, NY: I love books about Hollywood in the thirties, forties and fifties. Are there any good books on this topic coming out? Marie Arana: This seems to be a perennial. There was a book not long ago (Living Dangerously) about the producer of King Kong that had a lot of good play on review pages. _______________________ Bethesda, Md.: I delighted to hear that I can look forward to a new Patrick O'Brian novel, but I was puzzled by your comment that it was his "first novel for adults." I devoured his Aubrey/Maturin series thinking, apparently mistakenly, that I WAS reading books written for adults. They certainly were much, much more than ripping good sea yarns. Marie Arana: Well, that's what you get when you read catalogs too closely. That's exactly the way O'Brian's publisher describes it. It seems a number of children's books preceded it. _______________________ Ashburn, Va: What in your opinion is the best biography of Winston Churchill? Marie Arana: I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours. I remember reading the Manchester biography many years ago when I was in the book publishing business. I thought it was splendid. But there are books about Churchill every year, it seems. Jon Meacham, who's now at Newsweek, published a very good one, although it was a double biography of FDR. It's called "Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship." There will be at least two more books about Churchill this year . . . _______________________ booker prize: I noticed that the U.S. versions of several titles on the longlist for this year's booker prize were included in the fall preview. The short list will be announced this week. Does BW have a policy of trying to review the shortlisted titles? Marie Arana: Thanks for this question. Prizes in general have such an interesting effect on a book's publishing history. I think we should do more pieces on them. But to answer your question: We have an uneven history and relationship with the Booker. Some years, the American public really pays attention: Witness "The Life of Pi" and its success. (Yann Martell was a complete unknown before that,although he had published two or three books in the U.S.) And other years, the Booker winners simply languish on our shores. I think there has been such a steady stream of excellent writing from Britain (from Ian McEwan to Salman Rushdie) that we can't afford not to pay attention. The Booker unearths some extraordinary books. _______________________ Idea for Book World Online: Marie, I can't resist the opportunity to beg you, plead with you, for a second Book World general chat each week. We love Michael Dirda---don't get me wrong. But one chat is just not enough, and a second host (you or someone else on your staff) would provide a different perspective and set of interests. Many faithful Book World chatters have seconded my plea. Please consider it! Marie Arana: What a lovely tribute to Michael and to Book World in general. Thank you. Yes. I've noticed that there's a big hunger to talk about books, especially the current spate. And it makes sense, doesn't it? How else to sift through the huge stores of publications that come our way every season? Human contact, personal recommendations -- these have always been the ways the best book sharing takes place. Nothing like a passionate endorsement. I promise you we'll take your request seriously. Some weeks ago we put our Audio Books specialist, Katherine Powers, online and her discussion was a smashing success. That fact didn't escape us. _______________________ Picking Titles for Fall Preview: Hi Marie. Can you tell us on what basis you pick the titles to highlight? I'm sure there isn't enough room for all you'd like to feature. Also, how many of the books have you actually read (perhaps in proof form) before including them? Last, if you and your staff have had the chance to actually read many of hte titles, what are the must-reads in fiction, in your opinion? Thanks! Marie Arana: Thanks for this. Let me say it outright: I have read none of the books in the Fall Preview. (Okay, I take it back. Now that I think of it, I've read about 4 of them). The idea behind the Preview is to let book readers know what's coming. We have yet to know how our reviewers will weigh in on them. Which is why you're unlikely to find any truly wonderful first novels on that list: We just don't know how they'll pan out. The books chosen for the list come from a culling of all the catalogs (hundreds of them) publishers send us. I go through page by page and pull out the titles I think will interest our readers most. We never have space for them all, though. It always hurts to see the original list get trimmed back so dramatically. _______________________ Sterling, Va.: Any word on the new book by Vince Flynn due out in October? Marie Arana: "Consent to Kill." Funny you should mention. We've been talking about Vince Flynn a good deal in Book World. I can tell you the book is out for review, but how our reviewer comes down on it I have no idea. The rumor is that he's definitely a writer to watch. _______________________ Alexandria, Va.: I hear Simon and Schuster has a new book coming out about the making of Rebel without a Cause. Any word on how good it is? Marie Arana: Is that "Live Fast, Die Young"? Should be interesting and, I believe, out this month. I'm a fan of Jimmy Dean--the heart-throbbing variety of fan. But it would take a great book to approximate what we see up there on the screen. _______________________ Marie Arana: Speaking of movies, a friend just sent me this list of movies that are based on books and being released this year: Oliver Twist Capote (Gerald Clarke bio) In Her Shoes Shopgirl Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Zathura (Chris Van Allsburg's Polar Express) Pride and Prejudice Memoirs of a Geisha The Chronicles of Narnia All the King's Men Interesting, no? _______________________ Audio Books: Me again---the one who suggested a second Book World general chat. Yes, the Katherine Powers chat was very, very interesting! I've found myself unable to listen to some audio books because the narrator's voice or narration style were so disagreeable to me. So the comments of Katherine and the other chatters were very helpful. The topic of vendors or online lending libraries of audio books would be another interesting subject. Marie Arana: Here's something I'd like to suggest to you. Send me your ideas of topics you'd like to discuss (that have to do with books, of course). Send them to aranam@washpost.com. We'd love to consider your notions of what would make for a good third online discussion venue (besides Book World Live and Dirda on Books). _______________________ cap hill manager: Any word on Mary Gaitskill's new novel "Veronica"? I love her work!!!! Marie Arana: We'll see that book come October. It's had some very good prepublication reviews. I remember seeing a starred review in Publishers Weekly (for those of you who don't know, PW is the trade journal and a starred review months before publication raises the ears of editors like me). I can tell you the book is out for review to a very, very good writer . . . _______________________ Rockville, Md: Have you read the new Rushdie novel. And if you have, is it has a more cohesive structure like'Shame'or scattered like 'Satanic Verses'? Marie Arana: Thanks for asking this. It allows me to say that you'll see a review of this book in this coming Sunday's issue of Book World. I've read a good portion of the book already (inspired by our excellent review) and I'm very impressed. I thought that Michiko Kakutani's review of it this morning in the NYT seemed very picky, given its considerable attributes. To answer your question, it's neither like Satanic Verses or Shame. More like Moor's Last Sigh or The Ground Beneath Her Feet. _______________________ Marie Arana: Well, it looks as if it's time to sign off, folks. Thanks very much for joining me today and thanks for being such good readers of Book World. Don't forget to stick with us this Fall to see what our reviewers think of those books in the Preview. The ones that don't make it onto that list(the ones that surprise us) are, very often, the best books of the year. Happy reading! _______________________ Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.