Close Encounters of the Authorish Kind

A customer placed an order with us. When books on order come in, we print a paper with the customer's last name in large block letters that we place on the spine of the ordered book. Books on hold are arranged by customers' last names.

Customer's book came in, and a hold slip was printed. Her last name is an unusual one, one shared by a famous author. (Famous Author wrote a book that might have a title that rhymes with Might Flub, and Famous Author might live in Portland. Famous Author might have written other books about potentially disturbing subjects.)

Seeing the book on hold with Customer's (and Famous Author's) last name, several booksellers wondered if Customer was any relation to Famous Author.

I placed the call to Customer.

"Hello, this is Barnes and Noble, you ordered a book with us, and it's here for you."

"Oh, right. What was the name of the book I ordered?", she asked.

"Um, let me see," I said, unwrapping the book. "It's called the HALLELUJAH DIET," I told her. "We'll have it here for two weeks; you can come and get it any time."

     

"Oh, that's right." She paused. "Oh, dear, we're leaving the state tomorrow afternoon for a trip and tonight we have Bible study...my husband might be able to pick it up after he stops off at the church tomorrow...but I don't know if he can. Darn, I really want it, too!"

"We can hold it a few days longer for you if you'd like," I said.

"Oh, that would be great! Thank you so much! God bless you!"

After the call I didn't think that Customer and Famous Author were related. (But you never know.)

******************************

I had my coat on and had gathered my things to go at the end of my shift today. C. was gathering up all the copies of DEFENDING JACOB from the back room and putting them on a V-cart.

"Why are you getting all of those?" I asked.

"The author is here and he's signing them," C. said.

"The author of DEFENDING JACOB is here?", I asked.

"Yeah, he's at Info."

I walked out of the backroom and headed toward our Info desk. A dark haired man in a black, grey and white jacket was bending over copies of DEFENDING JACOB. Another man in a grey jacket was standing to the side of the Info Desk, talking to a bookseller.

     

I walked up to the Info desk and the dark haired man looked up. "Hi," I said, diving in. "I work here. Did you write DEFENDING JACOB?"

He smiled. "Yes, I did."

"Well, I just wanted to tell you that I read it and I loved it."

His smile got bigger. "Thank you very much."

"You're welcome. Thanks for stopping by the store. It's good to meet you," I said.

"Sure!", he said. "Thanks for reading it!"

I left the store, tickled to have met William Landay.

DEFENDING JACOB is a courtroom drama, a family drama with psychological aspects. It's narrated by Andy, a prosecutor who starts out investigating the murder of a 14 year old boy. Well done.

This is one of those great books where it's good not to know too much about it before reading it. So don't read reviews! It's too easy for there to be spoilers. And just so you know? You're going to want to talk about it when you're done. Let us know what you thought of it!

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