Illinois Press Book Blog

The July 24 Fairfax edition of the Washington Post features a preview of Roni Stoneman’s upcoming weekend concert, background on this legendary performer, and a nod to her recent University of Illinois Press memoir.

“Veronica Loretta ‘Roni’ Stoneman may have celebrated her 70th birthday this year, but the woman often referred to as the ‘First Lady of Banjo’ shows no signs of slowing with regard to her performing schedule or her lightning-fast three-finger picking. . . . Last year, the University of Illinois Press published Stoneman’s memoir, Pressing On: The Roni Stoneman Story. The story, told through a series of interviews with Northwestern University writing professor Ellen Wright, includes tales from a lifetime in country music, chronicles Stoneman’s problems with abusive husbands and examines her relationships with her children.

PW Daily reported this morning that the Los Angeles Times is losing its standalone book section.

“Nancy Sullivan, executive director of corporate communications at the paper, confirmed that the book review staff has been cut from five to three and that, moving forward, book review coverage will be placed in the Calendar section of the paper where it will share space with features.”

The summer issue of Ms., just hitting the newsstands, features a piece by Stephane Dunn, adapted from her new book “Baad Bitches” and Sassy Supermamas: Black Power Action Films.

“While Cleopatra Jones, Coffy, and Foxy Brown played up the feminist-era persona of a bold modern woman who refused to stay in her place, the characters’ Afro hairdos and funky outfits also referenced the Afrocentrism of the concurrent Black Power movement. Indeed, the villains were often ego-tripping white women.”

UK’s The Wire magazine, modern music’s arbiter of good taste, recently reviewed John Cage, David Nicholl’s “very fine book” in our American Composers series.

“To the casual cultural onlooker, John Cage is such an instantly recognisable name that you may feel you know more about him than you actually do. . . . One of the more engaging aspects of David Nicholls’s study is the connections he makes with Cage’s personal life, his life outside composition.”

When I was a kid, I spent countless hours seeking out familiar places and unspeakable acts in the soldiers of local history standing at attention on my grandmother’s bookshelf: Gallatin County: Gateway to Illinois by Lucille Lawler; Murder in Little Egypt by Darcy O’Brien; A Knight of Another Sort: Prohibition Days and Charlie Birger by Gary DeNeal; and Bloody Williamson: A Chapter in American Lawlessness by Paul M. Angle.

Little did I know then that my future employer, the University of Illinois Press, would rescue Bloody Williamson from out-of-print oblivion via a new edition in 1993. We are lucky to have this classic on our backlist.

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College students received much of the blame (or credit depending on your worldview) for starting the file-sharing tide that has fundamentally changed the music business. They’re back! 

The Boston Globe reports, “Faced with soaring prices for textbooks, cash-strapped students have discovered a tempting, effective, but illicit alternative — pirated electronic books, available for free over the Internet.”

(Inside Higher Ed pointed the way.)

Today’s Chicago Tribune features a very funny article, “Who Moved My Cheese,” with a related link, “Top 10 fridge complaints.” Since I qualify as a “vigilante,” I thought I’d take a picture of the UIP fridge today and see how it compares. I have to say it’s not bad. At first glance (all that is recommended) there are no overpowering odors or 4th-grade science experiments. No reason for vigilante action, such as the recent excising of a jar of long-expired, mold-encrusted salsa competing for space with my lemon juice.  (That earned me the stink-eye from an overprotective co-worker!)

Inside Higher Ed has a piece this morning on SUNY Press taking over publication rights for Black Elk Speaks from University of Nebraska Press.

“For most university presses, a book that sells a million copies is a rarity. When that book relates to the history of the region in which the university is located and a much-loved literary figure in the state, well, that would be almost too good to be true.”

Last week I finally used a local independent bookstore birthday gift card that I had received in May. Last year I was excited to use a similar gift card on a Steve Reich box set* that I first saw in a Minneapolis bookstore during the 2007 AAUP annual meeting. I’ve listened to the Music for 18 Musicians disc a lot in the past 12 months, but not enough to get it into my Top 25. Anyway, I felt a bit guilty about using my gift card on CDs, so this year I pledged to use it on books.  I bought Don DeLillo’s Falling Man, and still have some money remaining for the new Curtis Sittenfeld book (”Isn’t that chick-lit?” the bookstore clerk asked me) when it comes out in September. If I use up my book club 15% discount, there might even be enough money left for one of the store’s clearance CDs.

*Note: I wanted to link to a page on the Steve Reich website but he links to Amazon so there you go.

Hear Dr. Alvin Jones interview Beverly Lindsay about her new edited book Ralph Johnson Bunch: Public Intellectual and Nobel Peace Laureate.