A New Book...and we got to meet her!

Before I left my job at the bookstore, I bought a copy of Susannah Charleson's new book, THE POSSIBILITY DOGS.

      

SCENT OF THE MISSING was her first book. In it, we came to know Susannah and her dog Puzzle, the golden retriever she decided to bring into her life and train to work Search and Rescue (SAR). She had questions about her own ability to handle a dog for SAR, which is difficult work in and of itself. She and Puzzle have come to work together beautifully, and I felt privileged to learn about her journey in SCENT OF THE MISSING.*

In THE POSSIBILITY DOGS, she explores whether rescue dogs, dogs who have been through abuse or neglect, can be trained to work as service dogs. Would this be possible? Could she find rescue dogs that were trainable? What if she works at training a dog and he doesn't work out as a service dog? She asks these questions as she meets Jake Piper (that's Jake on the cover of the book!). When Jake came into her life, he was a cruelly neglected, starving puppy. Could Jake become a service dog, even with his rough start in life?

Her discovery that Jake was actually quite well suited to service work is only part of this wonderful book. Susannah talks about all kinds of service dogs, what is involved in assessing and finding dogs suitable for service work in the rescue population, the people who can benefit from service dogs (including perhaps herself), as well as living with and loving dogs as pets. Susannah has Puzzle and Jake, as well as several assorted Pomeranians and a couple of cats. She was, as she did so well in SCENT OF THE MISSING, brilliantly able to capture the joys and challenges of having, training, and loving dogs.

I loved the stories of handlers and how they got matched with dogs who were perfect for them. Bob was one, a traumatized firefighter and his dog, Haska, his psych service dog who can lead him home if he becomes disoriented. And Nancy, whose rescue/service dog Lexie can help calm her panic. And of course there is Jake Piper, who, through the course of the book learns, along with Susannah, how he can become invaluable as a companion and as a service dog. I must admit, there were some tears as I read this book. There was laughing too. She had some great descriptions of the Poms, some of which, she discovered, were also well suited to service work. Some of the other Poms were not, and her life with all of them is rich and wonderful.

Not only have we gotten to read this book, but lucky for us, Susannah Charleson came to town! She and Jake came to Powell's. We got to hear more about her, Jake, and her important work with her organization, Possibility Dogs. And we got to meet her...

     

If you look closely, on the table in front of us, you can see the certificate I got after handselling 100 copies of SCENT OF THE MISSING, which she graciously signed.

Clicking on the book covers will take you to Amazon's web page for each book. Clicking on the underlined book title may take you to the Barnes and Noble page for each book. Purchasing through these links helps support the blog...and the author and her work. You can like us on our facebook page, NOT The New York Times Book Review. You can also like Susannah's facebook pages, Possibility Dogs, Inc, and her Scent of the Missing facebook page. Thanks for stopping by!

*I have talked about and reviewed SCENT OF THE MISSING in several posts on this blog. I chose SCENT OF THE MISSING as my handsell when I worked at the bookstore. I sold over 120 copies of SCENT OF THE MISSING during my tenure there.

Is Handselling Dead?

J.E. Fishman wrote an excellent article. Here it is...go ahead, you can read it. I'll wait...

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/jefishman/2011/10/publishing-primacy-%E2%80%94-folio-29-hand-selling/

In the article, Fishman admits not being a loyal customer to one bookstore. If he were, a bookseller might know his taste in books well enough to personally recommend books to him. This is also known as "handselling". In addition to wishing he had a bookseller to recommend books to him to read, as a new author, Fishman laments the decline in bookstores and the decrease in booksellers who might handsell his new book, PRIMACY, to potential readers.

As people rely more on online book buying, there is less personal interaction between bookseller and book buying customer. He wonders how he, as a new author, will be discovered because of the decline in handselling.

His is a legitimate concern. However, I don't think he should give up. Handselling isn't dead. It just may occur in different ways and places than Fishman imagines.

When a customer makes a purchase at the bookstore where I work, the register spits out a list of other books the customer might like. Book related websites such as Amazon and GoodReads also provide computer generated recommendations. I agree with Fishman, these are often not very satisfying.

He says that bloggers don't provide personalized recommendations either.

Bloggers, myself included, write about books we like or don't like. Each blog post isn't directed at one specific person, however readers of a particular blog can get a sense of whether they agree or disagree with a particular blauthor (blog + author)* as he or she writes about book. This is actually pretty similar to being a bookseller in a bookstore.

I know this is so because I am both. As a bookseller in a bookstore and a blauthor here online, I recommend books all the time, in person and on the blog. However, I rarely make personalized recommendations on the blog or in the store. In the store there are not many customers whose taste I know well enough, and who also want recommendations from any of us. It's our regular customers who come in knowing what they want or where in the store to go to find their next good read.

Most of the people who ask us for recommendations in the store are people we've never seen before. They don't frequent bookstores very often, but they want a good read. Or they are buying a gift for someone they don't know very well. ("I need a book for my uncle. He likes to read. I haven't seen him in five years. I don't know what he likes to read. But you sell books, so...")

Here on the blog, the audience is too wide to make personalized recommendations.

But handselling isn't just about knowing a person well enough. It's also about knowing lots of good books in different genres.

If you've been reading the blog for a while, you'll know that we have had a 100 handsell challenge at the bookstore. Each bookseller chooses a book and tries to sell 100 copies of that book with a blurb on the Staff Recommendations bay as well as talking with customers about the book. I chose Susannah Charleson's SCENT OF THE MISSING, about Charleson's decision to train a dog to work Search and Rescue. A combination of CSI-like forensics and a great dog story, I thought the book would appeal to a lot of people. It turns out I was right. I was the first in our store to sell 100 copies of the book I chose!

Recommending books in the store with handselling is about finding what a customer is looking for in a book and getting it to them. When I was focused on selling SCENT OF THE MISSING, it was easy to talk to people about it. Lots of people have dogs and buy books about dogs. I kept copies of SCENT OF THE MISSING by my register and talked to people about it all the time. People who might not have heard about that particular title were introduced to it and lots of people (over 100!) bought it. People wanted good books about dogs and I had one.

I keep my eyes open for good books in any genre. I don't remember how I came across Fishman's article, but I'm glad I did. After reading the article, and knowing I wanted to write a blog post about it, I figured I would write a more informed entry if I'd read his book, PRIMACY. (PRIMACY is currently available in hardcover and also available for the Nook!) I bought it and read it.

     

PRIMACY is a thriller, with animal rights as its backdrop. Liane Vinson works in a primate lab at Pentalon, a large animal testing facility. Liane finds herself in a dilemma when she discovers that two of the apes she works with have an ability as yet unknown in the primate world. She risks her life to try and save the apes from the lab and its inherent brutalities. Not only is PRIMACY a taut thriller with characters to root for as well as to despise; the animal rights aspect provided a moral and ethical situation to care for.

I have already been talking about PRIMACY in the store. In addition, you just read about it here. I am betting that some readers of this blog, especially those who like thrillers, will take a look at PRIMACY and buy it.

I read what I like. I talk about what I like in the store and write about what I like here on the blog. Both are ways to get the word out about good books.


*Look for more about blauthors in an upcoming post!

You can order PRIMACY through the blog. Clicking on the book cover will take you to Amazon's web page for the book. Clicking on the underlined title will take you to Barnes and Noble's page for the book. Ordering through these links helps support the blog. Ordering PRIMACY through the blog helps support the blog...and J.E. Fishman!

You can send us email: 2of3Rs(AT)gmail(DOT)com. You can also "like" us on our Facebook page, NOT the New York Times Book Review. Thanks for stopping by!

Stop deprioritizing...Indeed! (part 2)

A few days ago I wrote about how I'm working on re-prioritizing my wordsmithy (you can read that post by cutting and pasting this link in your browser: http://notthenewyorktimesbookreview.blogspot.com/2012/01/stop-deprioritizingindeed-part-1.html).

Part of re-prioritizing my wordsmithy is making the writing process itself a priority. Another part of re-prioritizing my wordsmithy is valuing the finished product.

When I was married, my writing took a definite backseat to almost everything else. Admittedly, part of this was because I often put it there. However, part of it was that I didn't feel as though my writing was valued by my spouse.

Years ago, after getting through a long and very difficult situation, I wrote some poems. Writing them was cathartic for me, as well as being a brief foray into writing poetry.

The year that I wrote them, I printed the poems on nice paper, bound them with ribbon, and gave them to friends and family for Christmas, including my husband. One friend said it was the nicest gift she received that year. As soon as my parents took off the wrapping paper, my dad took the poems into the back room to read by himself. My husband? He didn't read them at first. When I asked him about them, he told me he couldn't read them, so he put them away in a box. After a while I stopped asking. As far as I know, he never read them.

His not reading them made me feel as though my writing was insignificant to him, my feelings were insignificant, and that I was insignificant.

I know that I have deprioritized my own wordsmithy. And so have others. While that is painful when it happens, it is part of the writing life. I have to value my wordsmithy first. I cannot control whether others will value it, even if I tie it up with a ribbon.

It is hard and scary for me to put my writing out into the world, out there into other people's hands. Yet this is an important challenge for me to work on, another aspect of re-prioritizing my wordsmithy.

I wrote a book about seven years ago, 7 STEPS TO FINDING YOUR SPIRITUAL LIFE. My husband at the time (yes, the same one who didn't read the poems) and I developed the ideas for the 7 areas of spiritual life over about 3 years. I developed the workbook concept and wrote the book.

     

One great thing happened early on with 7 STEPS TO FINDING YOUR SPIRITUAL LIFE. The agency that trains drug and alcohol counselors in Oregon selected it as part of their curriculum for training drug and alcohol counselors in the state of Oregon. I am on their training panel, working with drug and alcohol counselors on how to use the book most effectively with their clients.

The book's exploration of 7 areas of one's spiritual life seems to work well with people in recovery from addiction. I didn't write it specifically to be used with people in recovery, though I am glad it is helpful for that population.

Other than that, I have not promoted the book much (there's that deprioritizing again).

For those of you new to the blog, I work at a bookstore where we've been given a challenge. We are to select a book that we think we can sell to customers, and our goal is to sell 100 copies of that title. There is no time limit, just the exhortation to do what we can (feature it with a blurb, talk to customers about it, let our co-workers know about it so they can talk to customers about it as well) to let customers who might be interested know about it.

I just finished selling 100 copies of the first book I chose. SCENT OF THE MISSING is a wonderful book by Susannah Charleson about her decision to get a puppy and train her to be a Search and Rescue dog.

     

This was a great choice. Puzzle's gorgeous face on the cover was an invitation to customers, people would stroke her picture and comment on her. I'd start talking to people about the book and people either became more interested in the book or they bought it. Right now we've sold over 100 copies! I was pleased that Search and Rescue was getting a wider audience, AND that I beat the 100 handsell challenge! SCENT OF THE MISSING was an easy book to sell.

My book doesn't have a cute dog on the cover (maybe I should have thought of that!), and may take a little more explaining to sell it. But if I can't sell it, who can?

Here's what I wrote for the blurb at work...
"Used by drug and alcohol counselors across Oregon to help those in recovery rediscover their spiritual lives, this book provides concrete examples and exercises for anyone exploring their spirituality. I should know. I wrote it."

Already since I've had the blurb and the book featured (less than 2 weeks), two copies have sold. (It took 3 weeks for one copy of SCENT OF THE MISSING to sell when I first started featuring it.) I'm glad to be on my way...re-prioritizing my wordsmithy!

Thank you for reading the blog! Clicking on the underlined book title takes you to the Barnes and Noble page about the book. Clicking on the book cover itself takes you to Amazon's page about the book. Purchasing through these links helps support the blog. Thank you!

Back in the Saddle

Ahhhh...I am sitting in my favorite coffee shop (Longbottom Coffee Roasters in Hillsboro, Oregon). I love coming here, it's dedicated time for me to work on the blog, plus they have an amazing bumblebee latte (there's some delicious combination of honey and lavender in it).

It's been weeks and weeks since I've been here. The holidays at the bookstore have been incredibly hectic. It feels a little strange, as though I don't quite have the mentality to settle in. The only way to get back in the swing of things is to do it.

I've started brief drafts of blog entries, taken notes on what I want to write about, new customer events happen almost every day, it's a new year (shouldn't I be doing a "best books of 2011" or "books I'm looking forward to in 2012" post?); I'm a little overwhelmed and scattered thinking about what to write about.

Right now, though, it's really good to be here.

I have many things pulling to be written, but for now...IndieBound posted on the blog's facebook page (NOT the New York Times Book Review) about World Book Night...

http://www.us.worldbooknight.org/about-world-book-night/what-is-world-book-night

(And I apologize. There is a way to add a link on the blog post creation page, but it doesn't seem to work. So you'll have to cut and paste.)

I'd never heard of World Book Night before this morning and it sounds like a wonderful idea. It's interesting to me that World Book Night is on April 23. Not only is April 23 the birthdate of Shakespeare and the anniversary of the death of Cervantes, it is also St. George's Day, a holiday celebrated in Spain. It is a day on which you give your loved one a book and a rose. (J., the manager of my store and I commented a few years ago about St George's Day. We wondered why our bookstore wasn't all over this, a holiday specifically FOR giving books? It seemed like a pretty perfect opportunity to get people to buy more books.)

Maybe World Book Night is the next iteration of St George's Day, or a U.S. expression of it. In any case, it's a great idea, getting books into the hands of people who don't generally read all that much. I'm going to keep my eye on this event. I hope you'll check it out as well.

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Other bits and pieces...

I did sign up with Barnes and Noble's affiliate program. I haven't set up any links yet, but will very soon. (Thank you again, Observant Co-Worker, for reminding me to do this.)

The other day I posted on facebook that I sold my 100th copy of SCENT OF THE MISSING by Susannah Charleson at my bookstore! We'd been given a challenge, to select a book and try to handsell 100 copies of the title. I am the first in my store to make it to 100 - beating the next person by about 50 books! (not that I'm competitive). And it is pretty darn satisfying. Not only did I beat the challenge, but I know that (at least) 100 more people will be learning more about Search and Rescue. I am grateful to have had such an easy book to sell!

Some blog post ideas I am considering...

-more customer stories
-books I really liked in 2011 (I actually have a draft of this one started)
-books I'm reading right now
-other book reviewer/lover blogs
-next 100 handsell challenge pick

I really appreciate your comments and encouragement...either here on the blog or on the facebook page or by email: 2of3Rs(AT)gmail(DOT)com. Thank you for stopping by!

More Dog Books!

I had German Shepherds when I was growing up. Our first dog was Jody (which was pronounced Yody, with a German "J"). Freda, one of my mother's college roommates, trained German Shepherds for show, and she arranged for us to get Jody. Jody was bred as a show dog, but he had hip dysplasia, so became undesirable as a show dog. As a family dog, however, he was wonderful.

Jody came to us when I was 9. His coat was mostly black, with gold highlights and it was coarse, except for his face and his ears, which were velvet soft, and he had lovely brown eyes. He was a guard dog absolutely, he'd bark loud, scary barks when anyone came to the house, but was gentle to all of us and anyone we deemed friendly. He encountered skunks a few times, and so endured (and so did we) baths in tomato juice. He ate steak left out on the counter to thaw. In other words, he was a dog. A great dog. The best dog.

At work I saw an advance reader copy for RIN TIN TIN: The Life and The Legend, by Susan Orlean. This is Susan Orlean of THE ORCHID THIEF fame. Interesting! While I never watched Rin Tin Tin on TV, I was certainly aware of him as a famous dog. And he was a German Shepherd. I wanted to read this.

          

Orlean begins by talking about Lee Duncan, the man who found the original Rin Tin Tin in World War I in France. There is a picture in the beginning of the book of him and his unit in uniform, sitting on the ground somewhere in France, and he has a gorgeous German Shepherd puppy in his lap. The puppy who would become Rin Tin Tin.

Orlean talks about how Lee Duncan bonded with this dog so closely, almost certainly in part because of his childhood, in which his father was absent, and his mother sent Lee and his sister to an orphanage for four years so she could get back on her feet financially. Duncan seemed to find solace and connection with his dogs as he got older, and his best and closest connection was with Rin Tin Tin.

Orlean does a skillful and fascinating job chronicling Rin Tin Tin and his life with Duncan, his rise to fame in the movies and then in television (these would be descendents of the original Rin Tin Tin, though it really doesn't matter), as well as talking about dogs' roles in the military and in family life. She talks about how obedience training came into fashion, not just to train dogs for military or farm and ranch work or show business, but for dogs who live with families. I'd never really thought about it, but obedience training is a relatively new phenomenon, started in the 1920's and 30's. It caught on in a big way.

I am loving this book, and all I'm learning about Rin Tin Tin and dogs... I think I need to see a Rin Tin Tin movie! Evidently, his screen presence is amazing. Does Netflix carry Where the North Begins or Clash of the Wolves? I need to find out.


The next dog book I'll be reading is PACK OF TWO by Caroline Knapp. She wrote the brilliant book about her recovery from alcohol addiciton, DRINKING: A LOVE STORY, and this is her story of her getting a dog after getting sober. Therapist has been recommending this book to me for several years now. And I finally bought a copy so I can read it.

                    



And again, not that this is about winning (okay, maybe it is a little bit), but I am over halfway in the 100 handsell challenge at work! We had been given the task of picking a book that we can handsell in the store, by talking about it with customers, writing staff recommendation blurbs, and getting people to know about it and buy it. The book I chose was Susannah Charleson's SCENT OF THE MISSING, her fascinating book about her decision to get a puppy and train her to work as a Search and Rescue dog. I loved the book, loved learning about Search and Rescue (of which, I admit, I was woefully ignorant), loved reading about her training Puzzle and Puzzle becoming her partner in Search. So far I've sold 53 copies...wahoo!

          

Did you know that you can learn more about any of the books mentioned by clicking on the cover? You'll be taken to Amazon's site where you can read more about the book, and order it if you'd like. Hopefully Barnes and Noble will be restarting their affiliate program soon as well. Thanks for reading the blog!

Scent of the Missing and a Stroke

A woman with short dark hair, wearing a black linen dress wrapped in a large purple scarf came to the counter. She saw SCENT OF THE MISSING, which I have displayed next to my register.

       

I told her about the book, how Susannah Charleson trained Puzzle, the dog on the cover, to work Search and Rescue, how hard the training is, how amazing it is what the dogs can do.

"I know, dogs are amazing," she said. "I had a lab, well, I've had two labs. The yellow lab I had before was wonderful. I've had three strokes. After one of them, I was using a walker. At the same time, my in-laws were also using walkers. When we came into the house, the dog would come greet us, and back up in front of all of us, backing, backing, until we were all seated. She was keeping an eye on all of us, making sure we made it to the seat safely. She knew we were fairly precarious!"

"Oh, wow. That's wonderful, what a great dog."

"Yes, I miss her. Now I have a chocolate lab, and he's also amazing. After another one of the strokes, one of my legs would tremor really badly. When it did that, he would come and lay his body on top of my leg. And it would stop the tremor." She shakes her head and smiles, remembering. She reaches out and touches the cover picture of Puzzle. "I think I need to buy this. It would be good for me."

I happily sold her a copy.

You can send email to: 2of3RsATgmailDOTcom. You can also like our page on Facebook - NOT the New York Times Book Review. And comment right here on the blog. Thanks for stopping by!

Is Scent of the Missing a God Wink?

A woman, in about her early 30's, frosty long blond hair, wearing a turquoise blue shirt and a necklace with turquoise blue and brown wooden beads came up to the counter. She was buying two magazines. She looked at the cover of SCENT OF THE MISSING, which I have displayed by my register for the 100 handsell book challenge.

       

"Look at this!", she said. "Is this good?"

"It is, it's a wonderful book," I said. "It's about a woman who is a pilot and works search and rescue and she decides to get this dog (I point to Puzzle's picture on the front). She trains her to be a search and rescue dog. It's about her decision, her love for her dogs, training the dog, search and rescue; it's really great."

"You read it?" she asked.

"Oh yes. She already had six Pomeranians at home, then decided to get this dog for search and rescue. SO much hard work goes into training search and rescue dogs, I had no idea before I read the book. It's amazing."

"Six? Wow," she paused. "This is kind of incredible, but I am an occupational therapist and I'm going for six weeks to train dogs as service dogs. I'm not much of a reader, but I think I this might be a good book for me."

"It might be great for you," I said. "And what I like about this book is that it's not like each chapter is a cliff-hanger, you can read some and put it down and come back to it. There are also pictures..." I open the book and show her pictures of Puzzle in training.

"Okay. I need to get this. And just so you know, I wouldn't have gotten it if you hadn't read it." She paused. "Do you know the book GOD WINKS?"

I think for a moment. "It sounds kind of familiar, I'm not sure..."

"It talks about how little coincidences are really ways God is leading us in the right direction. I think seeing this book is a God wink."

"Oh, good!" I said. "Where are you going to train the dogs?"

"It's Bergin University in Santa Rosa, it's the only accredited college for training service dogs in the country."

"I'm from that area," I said. "I grew up in Marin and lived in Lake County."

"Oh. My. Goodness.", she said. "I think you and I could stand here and talk for an hour. I think this is another God wink. It looks like we might be moving down there. I moved a lot when I was younger, a military brat, and I absolutely love it here in Portland. I haven't wanted to move there. Do you miss it?"

"I love it here too. I do miss some people there. I don't miss living there, though sometimes I miss the weather. And it is a beautiful area and there is a lot going on culturally."

"Okay. I think I just need to make a go of it. Wow. I'm amazed that you were here and this book was here." She shakes her head and smiles. And she buys the book!*

I looked up the God Wink book, and Squire Rushnell is the author...

       

*I'm still ahead in the contest!

Thanks for stopping by the blog! You can send email to: 2of3RsATgmailDOTcom.

Contest, Books for Vacation (or not), and an Author Collaboration

There is a contest at work (see the March 14, 2011 blog post, "Scent of the Missing, Revisited")...

We're supposed to sell 100 copies of a title we choose. I chose Susannah Charleson's SCENT OF THE MISSING. We're not competing with each other, and there is no time limit on the contest. We're just supposed to handsell 100 copies. While the contest isn't about doing better than the other booksellers, I have to admit that I am a little bit pleased that (so far) I am selling the most copies! SCENT OF THE MISSING is a great book to sell...an easy one to talk about. People are interested!

         

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In the April 1 post, "More Important Than Clothes", I talked about the books I'm thinking of taking on our upcoming vacation. Last week, a co-worker told me about his 100 book, Stephen King's NEEDFUL THINGS. I bought it based on his recommendation, and put it in my "books I'll probably take on vacation" pile.

Therapist saw NEEDFUL THINGS and told me that she thinks it is one of the creepiest of Stephen King's books, really pretty intense. Which may not be the most relaxing for vacation.

And then I went to work today and "Twyla" suggested that I not take P.S. I LOVE YOU by Cecilia Ahern on vacation because it causes much crying. "You don't want to be crying on your vacation, do you?" Well, no, not really.

So I'm not sure if either NEEDFUL THINGS or P.S. I LOVE YOU is going to make it into the suitcase. Hmmmm.

         

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I am reading HEADS YOU LOSE, by Lisa Lutz and David Hayward. Lutz and Hayward used to be a couple, and decided to collaborate on this book, even though they may be, um, less than friends. They write alternate chapters. Unlike most other books with more than one author, this one includes the emails they sent to each other at the end of each chapter, as well as footnotes they wrote in the each other's chapters.

While the story is about Lacey and Paul Hansen (brother and sister) who find a headless body on their property, David and Lisa's relationship also features as a large part of the book. As I started reading I thought it was clever, reading their comments (and commentary) as well as reading the story. And then, about 80 pages in, I thought, "Okay, I get it." It felt gimmick-y, almost contrived. Then I came to the end of Chapter 13. I read their end-of-chapter comments and the beginning of the next chapter and started laughing loud (rare for me).

         

So it's working. I'm liking it. I am eager to see what happens to Lacey and Paul...AND Lisa and David!

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You can send email to: 2of3RsATgmailDOTcom. Thanks for reading the blog!