Critics Notice Confluence Press Offering
Big publishing houses have big budgets behind them, which is one reason why so many second-rate books get undeserved media attention.
Smaller publishing houses are typically less fortunate. And Confluence Press, the publishing firm associated with Lewiston’s Lewis-Clark State College, is no different.
The press’ small stature is certainly one reason why its offering “Tony and the Cows: A True Story From the Range Wars” (115 pages, $20) ranks just 1,243,306th on Amazon.com’s sales chart.
By comparison, Richard Simmons’ memoir “Still Hungry After All These Years: My Story” (Good Times, 303 pages, $23.95) ranks 36,445th.
No. 1? “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” (Scholastic, 752 pages, $25.95), of course.
But “Tony and the Cows” — a study of one man’s death and, by extension, a look at the larger issue of public grazing — is getting some attention from critics.
“Baker, essayist and novelist, wrests from this unsolved case a crackling mystery, a jolting ecoparable and an extended meditation on humanity’s relationship to the planet,” wrote Publishers Weekly.
Sounds like something worth adding to that summer-reading list.
By the way, Booklist says this about the Simmons memoir: “(T)his book reveals the inner Richard Simmons. You have been warned.”
Book clubs
* A.S. Byatt’s “Possession” is the July selection of the Barnes & Noble Modern Fiction Book Club, which will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the store, located just east of the Spokane Valley Mall (922-4104).
* Nora Roberts’ “Irish Hearts” is the July selection of the Barnes & Noble Romance Club, which will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday at the store.
The reader board
* Torena O’Rorke, author of “Always Another Dawn,” will read from her novel at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington (838-0206).
* Poet Tom Davis, author of “The Little Spokane,” will read from his collection at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Barnes & Noble.
* R.W. “Rib” Gustafson, author of four fictionalized histories that include “Under the Chinook Arch” and “Room to Roam,” will read from his works at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Auntie’s Bookstore.