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Between the Covers, The Book Babes’ Guide to a Woman’s Reading Pleasures, will satisfy your reading urges in a most pleasing manner, providing well researched and well written recommendations for your every mood and need. Whether you want to “Make Peace with Mom,” “Save the Planet,” or “Get Involved” you’ll find a book that feels as if it had been hand picked for you. Halfway through the book, and over half a deck of post its later, I stopped marking each must read and decided to always keep this book nearby.

– Jozi Hall, BWB Aquisitions & Guest Reviewer

What’s great about Perkins’ books is they are written for real people like you and me who are not economists and who are not focused on this stuff on a daily basis.  Each region of the world is discussed not in mind-numbing detail but with just enough information to get you up to speed.  But what really makes the books are John’s real life experiences and observations.

I met John for the second time at the Seattle Green Festival and had the opportunity to sit down with him to talk about his work.

I hope you enjoy the interview!  Click here to check out the rest of the great authors talking about their books on our podcast page!

You can also catch the selections AND discuss the book here on the blog.

Our Latest Pick

THE ACCIDENTAL BESTSELLER by Wendy Wax

Last month I promised you a great beach read for June…so here it is.  To me a beach read is not necessarily all lightness and fluff, but rather a page turner where you care about the characters and are left feeling upbeat or hopeful at the end.  Wendy Wax’s latest doesn’t disappoint.

The Accidental Bestseller does for (or to) publishing what The Devil Wears Prada did for fashion mags:  gives you an under the covers look into a world you wouldn’t otherwise get to see.

Wendy uses the backdrop of the publishing industry to explore friendship, marriage and career and introduces us to four unique women who struggle with all of it.

Here’s a couple of questions the book brought up for me:

Does you career define you?  What would you do if you woke up one morning and it was over?

Do your friends have to know everything about you in order for them to truly be your friends?

How much would you risk to help a friend?

And here’s some trivia for you…there’s a character named after me somewhere in the book.  The first person to comment here on the blog with the page number I appear on gets a $25 gift certificate!

For more discussion questions and a tasty summer recipe, check out the book club email and feel free to leave some comments and let me know what you thought of the book!

– Dana

Great news!  As you probably already know, promoting literacy has always been woven into the fabric of our business.  Now we’re delighted to announce we’ve given an ownership stake to our non-profit literacy partners.   Yup…we’ve granted Incentive Stock Options to these partners - as far as we know, a first for social enterprise.

The purpose of the plan, put together with the help of our primary investor, Good Capital, is to ensure that our literacy partners can have a stake in and share in our financial success.

We’ve put aside roughly 5% of the company for use in stock option grants to an initial group of five literacy partners (with potential to add others in the future):  Books for Africa, Invisible Children, Room To Read, WorldFund and the National Center for Family Literacy.

One of our fearless leaders Xavier Helgesen puts it best:  “We created Better World Books to show that it is possible to do good while at the same time run a successful company.  Our literacy partners are essential to our mission, and we want them to flourish.  Today’s announcement ensures that as our company grows, our partners will too.”

Check out the press release to get all the details. Or read more about it at Change.org.

And it has paid off.  His books are a unique combination of page turning mystery and well researched historical fiction.

As a book lover, I was especially excited to meet Matthew and chat about his latest book, THE LAST DICKENS when he was in Atlanta on tour recently.  I dug in to the book and got the details on what is fact and what is fiction, along with the acceptable nicknames for Matthew and a clue about what he is working on next.

And since Matthew is fond of sharing “extras” that weren’t in the book on his website, I’ll share a fun fact with you that’s not in the interview.  As a gift to himself when the manuscript was finished, Matthew bought and original Fields & Osgood (Osgood is the main character in the book) copy of The Mystery of Edwin Drood.  He had it with him.  Super cool.

Enjoy the interview, and click here to check out the rest of the great authors talking about their books on our podcast page!

One of my favorite things about working for Better World Books is the amazing people I get to meet from across the country who share Better World Books’ vision to keep books out of landfills and support global literacy.

Last month, I had the privilege of meeting Kristin Putchinski of the Baltimore based band ellen cherry.  I met Kristin while she was traveling through Atlanta following a performance at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur, GA.

The singer-songwriter is one of many musicians using their talent to support and spread awareness of the noble efforts of Invisible Children to end the war in Northern Uganda.  I was happy to discover Kristin was already a fan of Better World Books and was eager to spread the word of  how students can support Invisible Children through the Book Drives for Better Lives program at her upcoming benefit concert.  Better World Books’ partnership with Invisible Children has brought in over 1.7 million books to generate unrestricted funding for Invisible Children in what is being called the largest book drive in history.

Two days after ellen cherry performed an Invisible Children benefit concert at Harford college in Maryland; I was contacted by a student group that attended the concert and plans to support Invisible Children through the Book Drive for Better Lives program!

Thank you ellen cherry for creating beautiful music and using your gift to support of the awesome work of Invisible Children.

But I was determined to meet her.  I had been reading Laura’s books since long before I ever had a bookstore or began working for Better World Books.  I just had to meet her - and share her work with you.

So, I jumped in my car with all of my equipment and drove across town to meet her.  Laura was gracious enough to wait for me and also allow me to interview her in her hotel room, since we couldn’t find another spot.

I loved the Tess Monaghan series (which starts with Baltimore Blues) mostly for the plot, if I remember correctly.  But the new book not only works  from a plot standpoint, but is incredibly well thought out with characters that are incredibly human, unique and believable.

Just so you know,LIFE SENTENCES is not about the death penalty or life in prison.  Instead the title works on many levels.  You’ll have read the book and come to your own conclusions there, or listen to the interview and get it straight from the author!

Enjoy the interview, and click here to check out the rest of the great authors talking about their books on our podcast page!

You can also catch the selections AND discuss the book here on the blog.

Our Latest Pick

ELLA MINNOW PEA by Mark Dunn

I actually read Mark Dunn’s Ella Minnow Pea several years ago for a book club I was part of and it stuck with me, so now I want to share it with you.  While clearly a literary exercise (as letters fall off a statue - they are removed from the written and spoken vocabulary of an island community by its totalitarian government), it is also a really good story and a thought provoking political statement.

I have read other books that felt like literary exercises to me.  Some work and some don’t.  The one that pops into my mind first is Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer.    The book was very highly acclaimed but I found myself distracted by some of his literary devices, and for me that took something away for the book.  I felt like it was a project for a graduate level writing class.  It would get an A for sure, but I want to feel the emotion and discover the plot rather than be cleverly deviced to death.

But back to Ella Minnow Pea.  In this book, the literary device framework does not distract.  Instead it lays a fantastical framework for character development and political observation.  Here are some of the questions the book brought up for me.

How silly are some of the things we worship or revere?

How long would you put up with rules or laws that made no sense to you?

Is there something other than language that we take for granted but couldn’t live happily without?

I could go on and on.  But I’ll let you discover the rest on your own.  If you haven’t already, check out the book club email.  It includes the discussion questions and a great recipe for Spiced Pecans from the Starwoodgal’s  Something’s Burning blog.

Let me know if you try the recipe, what you thought of the book and get ready for a great beach read next month!

– Dana