Cody’s, Dirty Harry, RN Morris, Ian Rankin, Alex Carr, Charlie Stella
Wellington Leg: The tulip fields in Skagit County are showing color after a remarkable burst of sunlight on Good Friday. Your reporter navigated the Roosengaarte and surrounding fields of red, yellow, pink, purple, and variegated tulips at five miles per hour.
I finished Alex Carr’s AN ACCIDENTAL AMERICAN a novel I will review for the Philadelphia Inquirer. The novel is due out April 17 from Mortalis, a new program from Random House. The press kit indicates that Mortalis will publish “intelligent thrillers and stories of international intrigue.” The format will be trade paper; beyond that, I don’t know much about Mortalis but I wish them the best of luck.
Cody’s Bookstore is closing their Union Square location in San Francisco. Union Square is not the place I would open a bookstore unless it was a haute couture kind of place where exhausted shoppers fleeing Saks and Nordstrom might linger. Not only the high rent district, Union Square is the gateway to the Tenderloin where confused tourists can be stripped of their valuables and deposited on the Powell & Hyde for the return trip to the Bay. Since Dirty Harry retired the San Francisco Police Department has developed new strategies to fight crime: criminals are sternly criticized before being returned to Union Square refreshed and ready to mug again.
RN Morris’ A GENTLE AXE was reviewed by Patrick Anderson in the WAPO. Congrats, Roger, that’s the big time on these shores.
Ian Rankin’s latest The NAMING OF THE DEAD is good, really good, reminiscent of THE FALLS or RESURRECTION MEN, two of his finest Rebus novels. Good on ye, Ian.
Dan Conaway is joining Writers House as a literary agent. The news broke late last week via Sarah Weinman. Dan will be a terrific agent, and I’m sure we’ll be reading about him at Publishers Marketplace.
Pegasus is Charlie Stella’s publisher now. His latest novel SHAKEDOWN is out. It’s a good story set in Little Italy where Stella recalls the Colombo wars, the shooting of Joey Gallo at Umberto’s. I think one of Gallo’s crew actually robbed Ferrara’s way back when. Charlie would know: SHAKEDOWN is a great throwback stuff even if the mob has been downsized.
April 9th, 2007 at 10:33 am
The original Cody’s, the flagship of Berkely bookstores, also bit the dust a while back. Moe’s, the great used/new store, survives, but can it be far behind?
April 9th, 2007 at 10:38 am
I don’t know the rents on that stretch of Stockton Street but I do know that the Literary Hedge Fund is operating out of a garage in the Western Addition. I blame Rod McKuen, how about you?
April 14th, 2007 at 9:10 am
I used to live on Grand between Mulberry & Baxter, 1 block on Grand from Ferrara’s (which was robbed by one of Gallo’s crew and was one alleged reason Gallo was whacked … with actor Jerry Orbach sitting a few tables away in Umbertos when it happened). Roma’s bakery on Broome and Mulberry is way better than Ferrara’s … and it has genuine old world charm. Roma is across the street from Umbertos now (Umbertos moved from Hester Street). Try the cannoli cake … forgetaboutit.
And thanks for the kind words, David.
April 14th, 2007 at 10:22 am
Charlie, I used to work for a guy who lived on Baxter, his mom sold cannolis out of a place in the West Village up toward LaGuardia Place.
Where was the Dancing Chicken?
April 14th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Ah, the west village. I was born on Carmine Street (last time I looked, the bottom floor was a Turkish restaurant). You know the area well so I know you know and saw and can recite at least 3/4’s of The Pope of Greenwich Village. I used to drive a guy (back in my wannabe days) who had the audio of the movie recorded on a cassette tape. That movie got me started smoking (Camels, no filters) at age 30 (regular genius I am) … which I continued to smoke until age 45 or so) because of Geraldine Page. GREAT movie.