Author name: Booksquare

Dissecting the publishing industry with love and skepticism.

In Which We Suspect The Irony Is Missed. As Usual.

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Thanks to Booksquare’s top Secret Agent, we bring to your attention yet another case of parents and book banning. That the book is about free will and making choices seems to be lost on this small band of parents who feel the subject matter is inappropriate for their children. And, that, we agree is their right. However, for other kids, the book sends a clear message: “It [The Giver by Lois Lowry] is a powerful book,” said Dawn Vaughn, president of the American Association of School Librarians. “It is important for young adults who are at a point in their […]

Square Pegs

If We Can Put A Man on the Moon

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We do not believe books are going away — though, the more we think on the topic, it’s not so much the books as the stories our species craves. We love our stories. That many of them are contained in books is a major boon to natural readers. In a way, other methods of delivering stories, television for example, are just expansions of sitting our the campfire. Only the husbands are fatter and the wives clearly married down. Libraries haven’t been just about books since, well, the inception of libraries. They serve many purposes in their communities, and the fact

Square Pegs

A Curious Affectation

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We don’t often talk about books we’ve read (mostly because there are others who do such talking far more eloquently), but there was something curious in the last two books we read. Both featured a large cast of characters, all of whom were named. Except one. In both books, one character, the same character, was not given the dignity of a name, a persona. It was peculiar: two nameless husbands in a row. In both cases, the marriages were bad, but throughout both books, so were countless other relationships. It was unclear why these husbands were treated so cavalierly —

Tools and Craft

The Man Who Saved Christmas

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We know — a lot of you are anti-Amazon. We understand your reasoning, but at Chez Booksquare, Amazon has been a major lifeline. While we do not meet the traditional definition of shut-ins, the occupants of our household, especially male, have a strong aversion to shopping, crowds, and shopping in crowds. Online shopping has made the entire buying-something-wonderful-for-the-wife experience a pleasure. Also, it has strengthened our relationship with our UPS driver. While Amazon runs the risk of becoming the Evil Overlord of Online Shopping, it does so much good around here, we are turning a blind eye to the potential.

Square Pegs

For Those Hiding A Big Commercial Novel in the Closet

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We suspect we wouldn’t know a big commercial book if it hit us in the head, but apparently some authors write them, recognize them, and market them. If you have this particular skill set, Nicholas Ellison is looking for you. Also, it helps if you’re already established, but that’s not a requirement. Ellison, Jennifer Cayea, and Abigail Koons like the good fiction, the stuff that sells (and can, potentially, sell to Hollywood), the usual smattering of clever non-fictions, no romance, but humor is a big plus. Read the interview to discover if this is the match of your dreams. The

Agents

Singing a Song for the Dreamers

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It’s rough, being a literary icon. First, you must be written in a time before typewriters, much less computers. Then your author, that scamp, cannot find a single poet to sing your praises — once upon a time, this was the height of fashion in literary marketing. You must even undergo scrutiny from those souls who make New York editors seem like pussycats: the Inquisitors. Despite all this, you go on to be the kind of literary success that leads to your name becoming the basis for all types of excellent Scrabble words. And still, people complain: Detractors argue that

Books/Mags/Blogs

A Small Warning

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The spammers are cutting into our nap time, and while we have endless patience for creating filters and such, we (as evidenced by today’s posts) require a bit more sleep. Thus, we are reactivating a blacklist filter. Previously, we used this without a problem, until the day it started doing weird things to the comments feature. We’ll keep our beady little eyes on the process, but, if someone encounters difficulty, please do not hesitate to complain. Loud helps. Also, if spam should happen to get through to the site, please note that we: do not advocate gambling; it bores us

Square Pegs

Officially, We Are Abandoning News for the Day

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Far be it for us to question journalists and their facts, but Sixty Minutes started it. First off, they leapt without looking onto the “sex sells” bandwagon. Such is their girth that they never once realized that the soft landing was due to the many stories published on the topic about six months ago. Okay, we thought, we can forgive them. There’s a lot of news to cover, and they do not have our razor-sharp focus. Then we meandered down to the middle of the story and stopped. Cold*. Yes, we encountered a sentence that made us ponder and, then,

Books/Mags/Blogs

In Which We Edge Up to a Trend Piece

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While we cannot advocate the concept of getting organized (what next, a clean refrigerator?), we are as susceptible as the next person to media overload. Lately, we can’t pick up so much as a novel without someone suggesting that clearing clutter will help focus our mind. The brainwashing is working — yesterday, we looked at the bottom of our purse and thought, “Gee, we should maybe throw away some of those old Trader Joe’s receipts.” Never fear, we stopped that thought. Maybe you wear clean underwear in case of an accident; we keep old receipts so posterity knows we shopped

Tools and Craft
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