Under The Cover

Under the Cover follows the life trajectory of a single work of fiction from its initial inspiration to its reception by reviewers and readers. The subject is Jarrettsville, a historical novel by Cornelia Nixon, which was published in 2009 and based on an actual murder committed by an ancestor of Nixon's in the postbellum South. Clayton Childress takes you behind the scenes to examine how Jarrettsville was shepherded across three interdependent fields—authoring, publishing, and reading—and how it was transformed by its journey. Along the way, he covers all aspects of the life of a book, including the author's creative process, the role of the literary agent, how editors decide which books to acquire, how publishers build lists and distinguish themselves from other publishers, how they sell a book to stores and publicize it, and how authors choose their next projects. Childress looks at how books get selected for the front tables in bookstores, why reviewers and readers can draw such different meanings from the same novel, and how book groups across the country make sense of a novel and what it means to them. Drawing on original survey data, in-depth interviews, and groundbreaking ethnographic fieldwork, Under the Cover reveals how decisions are made, inequalities are reproduced, and novels are built to travel in the creation, production, and consumption of culture.

This well loved writer effectively uses his personal mistakes to illustrate riveting truths about repentance and forgiveness. As he focuses on the true authority of God, he is careful to explain by example the important difference between "submission" and "obedience." The same struggle with divine authority is also represented through the lives of John the Baptist, the Apostle Paul, and other biblical figures. An especially helpful book for Christians who want to develop a serious pursuit of God.

Bookshop owner and maid of honor Addie Greyborne vows to catch the killer who crashed her best friend’s wedding . . . It promises to be Greyborne Harbor’s wedding of the year. The impending nuptials of Serena Chandler and Zach Ludlow will take place aboard his family’s luxurious super-yacht, currently moored in the harbor and the talk of the town. But on the day of the wedding, a man’s body washes up on the beach with no ID, only a torn page from a book in his pocket. As owner of Beyond the Page Books and Curios, bibliophile Addie is called in to identify the book, but she cannot. The morning following the extravagant ceremony, a second body washes ashore and Addie has a sinking feeling that the two deaths are connected. While the guests are held on the yacht as the police investigate, at least Addie can peruse Zach’s father’s rare books library on board. A copy of Agatha Christie’s first Hercule Poirot novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, provides a clue that the killer may still be on the ship—but narrowing down the suspects without becoming the next victim may prove a truly Herculean task . . .

A well written, thoughtful challenge to the honored notion of social work as an institutional instrument of caring. Margolin (counselor education, U. of Iowa) doesn't pull punches in this assessment of the history of social work, pointing out through case records that the field developed an access to the private space of clients, fostered an imposition of middle class standards on the "underclass," disguised a language of power as one of sympathy, and eventually created the current atmosphere of "doublespeak" in which workers burn out or decide to move to private practice. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

A rare book inspires a crime of passion in the fourth novel in the New York Times bestselling Bibliophile Mystery series. When she receives an exquisite copy of the Kama Sutra from her best friend, Robin, to appraise and restore, bookbinder Brooklyn Wainwright anticipates recreating a beautiful book and spicing up her love life. But before Brooklyn can get started, Robin winds up in big trouble: her apartment’s been ransacked, and the great guy she recently met lies murdered in her bed. Now Robin is the #1 suspect. Luckily Brooklyn’s boyfriend, British security expert Derek Stone, has moved to San Francisco and is ready to help. And not a moment too soon as Brooklyn’s own apartment is found thoroughly searched. Obviously, exploring the Kama Sutra’s bliss will have to wait until after Brooklyn finds the killer...

This is a true story that every husband and wife should read. Bob and Audrey Meisner had it all: a fruitful ministry, three beautiful children, a picture-perfect marriage. Their future seemed secure and their prospects bright-- until adultery threatened to bring it all crashing down. Faced with the greatest personal crisis of their lives, Bob and Audrey found hope and rescue through godly counsel an through learning the biblical principle of covering to protect their marriage and their family.