What Is This Book?

[ennui]

we've got an embargoed title coming out on September 12th- the author, title and subject matter are all a secret.

I'm not very smart, so maybe someone can explain to me ... why would you want to do this? If it's so great, wouldn't you want your subject and title out there so people can pre-order? Wouldn't you want media hype and speculation, a la Harry Potter 7?

Or did Madonna do another sex book?

[chonies]

Ennui, in the book bidness fully embargoed titles are fairly rare. From my understanding, this is done primarily to generate publicity, in the hopes that the public will swoon from the mystery and be forced to buy the book out of sheer curiosity . In my experience, the books aren't that shattering, although they are on controversial topics, which reinforces the aura of mystery. It also cuts down on advance negative reviews and advance publicity costs, I would guess. The laydown I remember best was IBM and the Holocaust, which was more or less revealed in the 60 Minutes the Sunday before the laydown.

There's probably something in the author's contract about exclusive publishing rights, and simultaneous releases.

I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting; I mentioned this to my boyfriend, who is an asst. manager at a major chain and he didn't know anything about it. My guess is that it's by Osama bin Laden's mistress or something similar. There's an article regarding that in the newest Harper's, so I will look for clues.

ETA: Apparently, one of his mistresses has already written a book[/color]. Hmm. Will wait to see.

[satellite]

The blindness theme reminds me of a YA book I really liked. I guess it was written in the 70s, but I read it in the late 80s.

There was a teen girl who had an eye operation for I think degenerative blindness, but it didn't work and she was left totally blind. I think her name was Kathy. She was at home feeling sorry for herself, but her parents enrolled her in a boarding school for the blind against her will. I remember there was some social-worker type chastizing her for being a burden on her mother.

There was the usual roommate and adjustment drama- I think one of the bitchy girls stole a piece of her jewlery or something. Then she eventually meets a guy. When they first kissed, his breath smelled like onions and peppermint chewing gum, since he was trying to mask the breath from his last meal.

At some point she got a guide dog and was happy when she first went out by herself with the dog and could be independent.

[BinkyBetsy]

That was Light a Single Candle. I loved this book when I was a kid, because the author (who was blind herself) was so good with description. Necessarily, of course. Anyway, the girl's name was Cathy Wheeler. It was pretty much as you describe, except that the Mean Girls didn't steal from her. Rather, they scorned her for hanging out with the girl who was an outcast, on suspicion of her being a thief. She was pretty depressed and miserable at the school, and then one day she became convinced that she was actually dreaming the whole thing under anesthesia. So it was actually the bitchy girls giving her a hard time that brought her back to reality and made her forget that. It wasn't a dream, of course, and she stayed blind, but with everything she'd gained, she could deal with that.

I loved the dog, too. Her name was Trudy, and she sounded so cool, I was like "I want a Trudy!" But we were cat people, so my mom vetoed the idea of training a guide dog.

[Deleted]

we've got an embargoed title coming out on September 12th- the author, title and subject matter are all a secret.

Going in a different direction, I bet it's Oprah's story of how the Clams have been trying to suck her into $cientology for the past 10 years or so. Maybe it'll even have backstage pics and dirt on different Clammy celebs and the tactics they tried to use to draw her in.

[Deleted]

binkybetsy said:

That was Light a Single Candle. I loved this book when I was a kid, because the author (who was blind herself) was so good with description. Necessarily, of course. Anyway, the girl's name was Cathy Wheeler. It was pretty much as you describe, except that the Mean Girls didn't steal from her. Rather, they scorned her for hanging out with the girl who was an outcast, on suspicion of her being a thief. She was pretty depressed and miserable at the school, and then one day she became convinced that she was actually dreaming the whole thing under anesthesia. So it was actually the bitchy girls giving her a hard time that brought her back to reality and made her forget that. It wasn't a dream, of course, and she stayed blind, but with everything she'd gained, she could deal with that.

I loved the dog, too. Her name was Trudy, and she sounded so cool, I was like "I want a Trudy!" But we were cat people, so my mom vetoed the idea of training a guide dog.

I also liked the book's sequel, Gift of Gold. It skips ahead a few years to when Cathy is in college. The author, btw, is Beverly Butler. She wrote several historical fiction books (YA), a few of which were really good.

[petals]

A young adult, science fiction novel about a boy. His friends start disappearing, and then he finds out that they were all aliens, and that he's an alien too. A giant worm (?) alien. I think they return to their planet at the end. I loved this book, but everyone thinks I'm crazy.

My one true hope in this life is to find someone else who remembers this book, so that my sanity can be confirmed.

[chonies]

bagofbones said:

we've got an embargoed title coming out on September 12th- the author, title and subject matter are all a secret.

Going in a different direction, I bet it's Oprah's story of how the Clams have been trying to suck her into $cientology for the past 10 years or so. Maybe it'll even have backstage pics and dirt on different Clammy celebs and the tactics they tried to use to draw her in.

Ooh, interesting theory! I'm waffling between exploding with glee and the crushed disappointment that there will be less dirt than anticipated.

[everlynn]

q99 said:

^^The Unwanted by John Saul. For some strange reason, I spent an entire summer reading all his books.

No, that wasn't the book, but you pointed me in the direction of the right author! It was a John Saul book, but it was Second Child.

[satellite]

Thanks, Binky Betsy and stargirl. I had no idea that Butler was blind.