Illinois Press Book Blog

This morning some communication bounced around internally regarding the possibility of an ad in a Chicago paper to be coordinated with an upcoming book fest. Perfect timing then to view this slideshow of advertisements that ran long ago in The New York Times.

Which Tom Wolfe bestseller should you read first?

(via Bookslut)

When I see a newspaper headline like the one above my heart immediately sinks with the publicist’s fear that the book in question is one of our titles. Whew! Thankfully, the focus of Jeff Salamon’s ire is not on our list. But, his review is pretty entertaining.

But Smith’s biggest problem is the precise opposite of pretentiousness: He’s a born publicist. Iggy and the Stooges, he tells us, were “the first true punk band.” Then, 28 pages later, “The Ramones were the first true punk band.” People, let’s keep our press releases straight!

Jeff, you know us too well.

CNN reports that a memorial bust of Sojourner Truth was unveiled in the U.S. Capitol today making Truth the first African-American woman to be so honored. To learn more about her life and times, check out Margaret Washington’s new biography Sojourner Truth’s America.

Editor & Publisher has posted a list of the top 25 daily newspapers by circulation in the United States. Any surprises here? I didn’t realize that the Wall Street Journal has double the circulation of the New York Times. Many more authors ask to be pitched to the NYT than the WSJ. And, New York’s Daily News at #6? Very few authors request that review copies ship there compared to the San Francisco Chronicle and Boston Globe, both of which are far behind the Daily News. 

Obviously, circulation doesn’t always reflect actual influence, but it’s interesting to compare intellectual perception with commercial reality.

Today’s Inside Higher Ed includes a small item on preparing for a Swine Flu outbreak.

“At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, more students than normal are seeking treatment for the flu, and officials attribute the increase to worries about swine flu, but no cases have turned up, the Associated Press reported.”

Terry Trilling-Josephson will be speaking today about Cafe Society: The Wrong Place for the Right People, the book that she wrote with her husband Barney Josephson who died in 1988. Hear her here:

-The Soundcheck program on WNYC radio, New York, 2:00-2:30 P.M. 
-Barnes & Noble Lincoln Triangle/New York, in conversation with Tom Santopietro, 7:30 P.M.

If you’re in New York, stop by B&N this evening and get a signed copy of her book.

Update: John Schaefer from WNYC’s Soundcheck blogs about Cafe Society.

Composer George Rochberg’s new memoir, Five Lines, Four Spaces published by the University of Illinois Press, comes out at almost the same time as Montclair State University in New Jersey opens the doors to the John J. Cali Music Building. Inside this new building is the George Rochberg Music Room dedicate to their prominent alumnus. John J. Cali and George Rochberg were boyhood friends who played jazz together but drifted apart, going their separate ways. They meet again in this new building after seventy plus years.

*****

Gene Rochberg met George in 1938 while both were students at what is now Montclair State University. They married in 1941. After they moved to Philadelphia, Gene studied at the Hedgerow Theatre School and the Barnes Foundation and was actively involved in theater and the other arts. She collaborated with her husband on a number of works, including the monodrama Phaedre and the opera The Confidence Man.

It’s finally morel mushroom season in southern Illinois where I live, which means, for these few weeks, I will be everybody’s total best friend. By August, I will be that local stranger again, that odd guy who spends a lot of time in the woods examining mushrooms that are not morel mushrooms.

Morels, of course, are the only mushrooms that matter to a lot of people. Thousands of Illinois residents storm the woods each year to find morels, and, while some morel hunters are quite good at finding these sponge-capped treasures, many others rarely find any.

Sadly, spring is the only time morels can be found. Knowing where to find this most popular wild mushroom in Illinois makes a person everybody’s best friend.

“Where can I find morels?” strangers ask me. They don’t always know me very well. They call me “that mushroom guy,” the local who knows enough about wild mushrooms to make these life-or-death decisions, including the decision of where to go hunting for morels. I usually smile kindly and shrug. “Morels are out there,” I often say. “You just have to find them.”

I know it’s an unsatisfying answer for these people, a vague scripture from an evasive leader. It’s not what people want to hear. What people want is plain, simple instructions to go directly to a place where they can find morel mushrooms, like one receives directions to a grocery store—just follow the directions, turn left or right, there you are. Pull into the parking lot. Load up. Morel hunting isn’t like that.

Recently a friend confessed to me: “I have come to the realization that what I really like is picking the morels,” she wrote while making a point. “Eating them is overrated; the true pleasure is definitely in picking them.”

Of course. When one is eating morels one is simply eating. And eating is great. Great food can really knock us out of our chair when it hits us. But eating mushrooms is only the finale to a deeper pleasure. When we are on our knees in the forest, collecting mushrooms, adding them to a pile, we are actually doing what people have been doing for thousands of years. Foraging for food is as ancient as anything we do. It’s as natural as we can be. I often say I enjoy doing what people have been doing for a long time. And my friend is right: There is nothing better than to be in the woods, foraging for food, participating in nature.

It’s a perfectly natural choice.

*****

Joe McFarland is a staff writer for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources magazine Outdoor Illinois and co-author of the new book Edible Wild Mushrooms of Illinois and Surrounding States. He lives in Makanda, Illinois.

The Unshelved comic has posted its new BookExpo edition featuring “frank feedback for publishers from librarians, booksellers, and readers.” 

My favorites:
-”Put dust jackets on library-bound books.”
-”In the book, tell us how to pronounce the author’s name.” (Sometimes even the publicist needs help with that one)
-”Put an index in nonfiction books.”

(via Shelf Awareness)

University of Illinois alum Roger Ebert and his wife, Chaz, have given the UI a sizeable gift to benefit the film program. Ebertfest is in full swing, with several UI staffers mysteriously absent today and tomorrow. (We call it the Ebert flu.) Urbana’s just put a nice plaque in front of Ebert’s boyhood home on Washington Street.

And Matt Dillon is here, for goodness’ sake. So I’ll be holding office hours on the Cowboy Monkey patio the rest of today and all of tomorrow. Just look for the woman in the Rumble Fish t-shirt.