Winner of the National Book Award for fiction, 2009

Dave Eggers, accepting the Literarian Award at the National Book Awards, declares “publishing is in a golden age.” Colum McCann, winner of the 2009 National Book Award for fiction, would have to agree. The scene was the awards ceremony for the 60th annual National Book Awards in New York City. McCann’s novel, Let The Great World Spin, loved by booksellers here at the King’s English, is a sweeping social novel set in the dazzling land that was New York City in the 1970s. The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, by T. J. Stiles, won for nonfiction, and the poetry award was given to Keith Waldrop for Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy. And Phillip Hoose, author of the true story, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice was joined on the podium as he accepted his award by Claudette Colvin herself.

The cookbook!!

The King’s English is gearing up for our Pioneer Woman Cooks event—we’re less than 24 hours away from “Pioneer Woman” Ree Drummond’s only appearance in Utah! It’s also one of her few appearances out West, so don’t miss it! Ree has charmed her way into hearts across the country with her insanely popular blog and website, recently named one of Time Magazine’s top 25 of 2009! In her brand new book, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl, Ree not only shares recipes for her incredibly homey, hearty, and delicious food, she also shares her unique experience as a rancher’s wife, mother of four children, photographer, and homemaker. Trust us, this is one event you don’t want to miss!

And if cookbook and food events are your thing, save the dates now for our friend and author Ann Byrn, the wildly popular “Cake Mix Doctor” as she brings her new book The Cake Mix Doctor Returns to The King’s English on November 18th, and also Everyday Food Magazine editor and author of Mad Hungry Lucinda Scala Quinn who’s coming to visit on December 4th!

For a long time now, Mina has been devouring any sort of book that is related to doctors or medicine. Her first love is Doctor Meow, she will sit forever and “read” it to all of her friends. In Doctor Meow’s Big Emergency, Doctor Meow, the cat in the new series that takes place in Whoops-a-Daisy World, gets a call from Tom Cat who has fallen from the apple tree. Dr. Meow and Woof, the ambulance driver, rush to help and bring Tom Cat back to Kiss-It-Better Hospital.

Doctor Meow enters our  life practically every day. When we were in Turkey this summer, it was a favorite game to play while out to dinner. My uncle would take his cell phone and call my aunt on her cell phone and say “Emergency! Emergency! I have fallen and hurt my leg! Is Dr. Meow in? I need an Ambulance!” My aunt would hand the phone to Mina and Mina would respond, “This is Dr. Mina, how can I help you? Stay right there and don’t move!” And when we got back to Utah, the game continued with my husband, Tolga. He would fall down and Mina would become Dr. Meow and fix him with her doctor kit.

Then we discovered The Berenstain Bears Visit the Dentist and she learned about how easy it was to go to the dentist and how she should always brush her teeth so she wouldn’t get cavities. And keeping with the dentist theme, we moved onto Doctor De Soto, the little mouse dentist. Doctor De Soto and his wife help treat many of the animals in town except those who would be dangerous for mice, like cats! One day, a Fox rings the bell. He has an awful toothache and the dentist takes pity on him and lets him in. As the book continues, the Fox thinks about eating the mice, but the Doctor De Soto and his wife come up with a really interesting plan to outfox him!

One day, as Mina was looking for the The Berenstain Bears Visit the Dentist, she found Little Critter: My Trip to the Hospital. Little Critter has broken his leg on the soccer field and has to go to the hospital to get a cast. He says, as the doctor starts wrapping him up, “I feel like a mummy!” and Mina asks, why? What is a mummy? And this is where our path diverges into the plains of the Sahara and into Egypt.

Mina asked Sally, a bookseller, if the bookshop had any books about Egypt. Sally picked out a few nice ones, but the Dorling Kindersley Ancient Egypt book was the winner. We sat down on the floor with Little Critter, and the DK Egypt book open to the mummy page, and Skippyjon Jones in Mummy Trouble and Mina was able to see the correlation between all the books.

Now, we can’t stop reading books about Egypt and we are learning all the different gods and goddess’ names. One day, on our way to the bookshop, Mina said “In ancient Egypt, Anubis takes care of the mummy and wraps him really tight to keep him safe and warm and then puts him to bed in his sarcophagus. Mama, what does Horus do again? I’ll ask Sally the next time!”

These days, with Halloween around the corner, there are tons of mummy books out on display. After looking at a few, Where’s My Mummy? and The Runaway Mummy, Mina makes a most observant statement: “Mama, those mummy’s need to clean their pyramids more often—look at all those cobwebs!”

The reading last Tuesday evening by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Richard Russo, was well attended and warmly received. A humorous speaker and truly genuine person, Russo had nothing but praise for independent bookstores. He urged everyone present to continue to support The King’s English and other independent bookstores like us, saying that for if not for indies, he would not be the recognized author he is today. He starts off talking about how this was his first visit to Utah and he was a little surprised at a few of the amenities at his hotel.

Have a listen…

At the signing after the reading

Donald Revell waiting "off-stage" while Claudia Keelan reads.

Friday night’s poetry reading by Claudia Keelan and Donald Revell was magical: a good time had by all (authors and 65-plus-member audience), thoughts exchanged, poems read, wine consumed, etc. Claudia Keelan read first, followed by her husband, Donald Revell. The Gods of Poetry do exist, we are now certain, as stars aligned and festivity and conviviality reigned.

Introducing the poets

Long-awaited, highly-anticipated, critically-acclaimed! And really, really good! Her Fearful Symmetry is being released this Tuesday, September 29!  Come in and get a first edition and receive two free tickets to her reading at TKE on January 20, 2010. Yes. The day has finally arrived…

The author, Zoe Murdock

On Saturday, September 26, 2009, from 2:00-3:30 pm, The King’s English Bookshop will present Zoe Murdock in a reading and discussion of her new novel, Torn by God: A Family’s Struggle with Polygamy. This riveting family drama chronicles the devastation brought upon the Sterling family when the father has a vision that leads him to become involved with polygamy. It is based on real events that happened when Zoe was a child, but it is more than one family’s tragic story; it explores the controversial association between mainstream Mormons and fundamentalist off-shoot groups such as the one led by Warren Jeffs. At once chilling and informative, Torn by God exposes the destructive power of religious indoctrination and control.

Torn By God

I love the annual Arty’s awards that City Weekly presents each year. It’s all about LOCAL. It’s local people like you and me voting for local people who we have seen, heard, read, etc. during the past year. Salt Lake is awash in talent; even the voting is difficult because you could choose any nominee and be content if they won. One of my very favorite nominees was the play about Leonardo Da Vinci, Di Esperienza, that Plan-B Theatre produced this year. Four actors…for an hour and a half–It was glorious! I wouldn’t be a self-respecting bookseller without a special shout-out to this year’s literary arts winners:

Best Fiction, Shannon Hale, The Actor and the Housewife
Best Poetry Collection, Kathryn Cowles, Eleanor, Eleanor, not your real name
Best Nonfiction, Terry Tempest Williams, Finding Beauty in a Broken World
Best Sister History, Terrell Harris Dougan, That Went Well
Best Multi-Challenged Personal History, Lance Allred, Longshot

Congrats to one and all and thanks to City Weekly for the annual reminder that we live in a pretty great place. To see all the winners visit City Weekly.

From left: Shannon Hale, Eleanor, Eleanor, not your real name, Terry Tempest Williams, Terrell Harris Dougan, Lance Allred

That’s right, The King’s English is 32! Come in today and receive 32% off any single item in the store. And here’s to many more….