Looking back at 2011: the music

Like a lot of publishing sales reps, I spend a lot of time listening to music, both at home and on the road. This year, with the arrival in the US of Spotify, I was able to indulge in a more expansive sort of experimental listening. And that, combined with a renewed account at last.fm which meant I scrobbled nearly every Spotify track I listened to, gave me a fairly easy base for looking back at 2011's music.

My most-played & favorite artists/tracks from 2011

(A Spotify playlist of these Top 10 tracks and the honorable mentions.)

1. Wilco - I Might (spotify)
2. Feist - How Come You Never Go There (spotify)
3. Arctic Monkeys - The Hellcat Spangled Shalala (spotify)
4. Mike Doughty - Into The Un (spotify)
5. Dave Stewart - Can't Get You Out of My Head (spotify)
6. The Belle Brigade - Lonely Lonely (spotify)
7. The Watson Twins - You Showed Me (spotify)
8. Laura Marling - The Muse (spotify)
9. The Decemberists - This Is Why We Fight (spotify)
10. Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - Codeine (spotify)

Honorable Mentions

Bon Iver - Holocene (spotify)

Nick Cave & Neko Case - She's Not There (from True Blood) (spotify)

Real Estate - It's Real (spotify)

Florence + The Machine - What The Water Gave Me (spotify)

Elbow - lippy kids (spotify)

Fool's Gold - Wild Window (spotify)

Beastie Boys - Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win (feat. Santigold) (spotify)

Beirut - East Harlem (spotify)

The Jayhawks - She Walks in So Many Ways (spotify)

The Civil Wars - 20 Years (spotify)

Kathleen Edwards - Change The Sheets (spotify)

Ryan Adams - Chains of Love (spotify)

Lissie - In Sleep (spotify)

Josh Rouse & The Long Vacations - Diggin' In The Sand (spotify)

Wild Flag - Romance (spotify)

I Break Horses - Winter Beats (spotify)

Destroyer - Savage Night At the Opera (spotify)

Drive-By Truckers - Used To Be A Cop (spotify)

Foo Fighters - These Days (spotify)

The Mountain Goats - Damn These Vampires (spotify)

The Dodos - Don't Try and Hide It (spotify)

Fleet Foxes - Battery Kinzie (spotify)

Peter Bjorn and John - Second Chance (spotify)

My most-played & favorite albums released in 2011

1. Wilco - The Whole Love (spotify)
2. The Decemberists - The King is Dead (spotify)
3. Arctic Monkeys - Suck It and See (spotify)
4. The Smiths - Complete (spotify)
5. Mike Doughty - Yes and Also Yes (spotify)
6. Feist - Metals (spotify)
7. The Belle Brigade - The Belle Brigade (spotify)
8. Dave Stewart - The Blackbird Diaries (spotify)
9. Ryan Adams - Ashes & Fire (spotify)
10. Bon Iver - Bon Iver (spotify)
11. Death Cab for Cutie - Codes and Keys (spotify)
12. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues (spotify)
13. Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - Here We Rest (spotify)
14. Destroyer - Kaputt (spotify)
15. Drive-By Truckers - Go-Go Boots (spotify)

Honorable Mentions

Paul Simon - So Beautiful Or So What (spotify)

The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow (spotify)

Josh Rouse & The Long Vacations - Josh Rouse & The Long Vacations (spotify)

Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts (spotify)

The Jayhawks - Mockingbird Time (spotify)

Wild Flag - Wild Flag (spotify)

Elbow - build a rocket boys! (spotify)

Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know (spotify)

Gillian Welsh - The Harrow & The Harvest (spotify)

Foo Fighters - Wasting Light (spotify)

Author Leon Logothetis gives free rides in his Kindness Cab cross-country tour to promote The Amazing Adventures of A Nobody

The Channel 4 reporter seems intent on making this clip more about HIM rather than Leon and his cool story, but the bare bones do peek through.

Amazing Adventures of a Nobody
by Leon Logothetis
Bettie Youngs Books / SCB Distributors | 9780984308132 | $14.95 | Oct 2011

Spring 2012 Preview: No Crystal Stair by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson

Above, a photo from the Bettmann/CORBIS Archive.

No Crystal Stair: A Novel in Documents, Based on the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller
by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
illustrated by R. Gregory Christie
Carolrhoda LAB / Lerner | 9780761361695 | $17.95 | Feb 2012 

I read a book today that's coming out from Carolrhoda LAB/Lerner next February - a YA novel told in the form of an oral history - about Lewis Michaux, founder of the National Memorial African Bookstore in Harlem.  The book is written by his great-niece, Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and illustrated by R. Gregory Christie.

Michaux's was the first (the first!) bookstore specifically selling books by and for African-Americans. He had a sign up over the storefront that proclaimed it "The House of Common Sense and the Home of Proper Propaganda". 

The National Memorial African Bookstore was in the middle of everything and everyone from the Harlem Renaissance up through the Civil Rights struggle and into the Seventies: Langston Hughes, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Eldridge Cleaver, Nikki Giovanni and more. Thousands and thousands of regular bookstore customers' lives were enriched by the presence of such a passionate, intelligent bookstore owner in their midst.

Although Michaux's bookstore is no longer open – it closed in 1975 after a faceoff with the State of New York over the state's redevelopment of the blocks surrounding the store's original building and a brief tenure in a second location blocks away – Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and R. Gregory Christie have brought it back to life in these pages, accompanied by dozens of historical photographs.

Booksellers, bloggers and reviewers can obtain an advance copy now through NetGalley.

First Lines: "The Naturalist", from Maureen McHugh's After The Apocalypse

"Cahill lived in the Flats with about twenty other guys in a place that used to be an Irish bar called Fado. At the back of the bar was the Cuyahoga River, good for protection since zombies didn't cross the river. They didn't crumble into dust, they were just stupid as bricks, and they never built a boat or a bridge or built anything. Zombies were the ultimate trash. Worse than the guys who cooked meth in trailers. Worse than the fat women on WIC. Zombies were just useless dumbfucks."

After The Apocalypse: Stories
Maureen F. McHugh
Small Beer Press/Consortium | 9781931520294 | $16 | Oct 2011 

You can read a sample at Small Beer's site.

Angela Sherrill says this is the best short article on bullying and school policy you'll read.

This is strong stuff.

You'll want to click through to read the full post by guest poster and YA author Mike Harmon on book blog Random Acts of Reading.

Todd was quiet, personable, received good grades, and was a football player with scholarships in his future. He’d never been in trouble with the school or the law.

Then he threw two punches and it almost all fell apart. Garrett, a wrestler, bumped into Todd in the hall. Words followed. Garrett pushed, then tried to punch him. Todd threw two punches, breaking Garrett’s eye socket, nose, and fracturing his jaw. My son’s friend saw it happen. Blood flew everywhere, Garrett fell to the ground, and Todd walked away.

[Full post: Author Mike Harmon on Bullying and Schools]