Sue Trowbridge

@trow125.bsky.social

189 Followers 121 Following

Book reviewer at saturdayreader.net. Late night lineups at https://www.interbridge.com/lineups.html. Proprietor, interbridge.com.

Pavement playing at an outdoor festival
Coffee pods. Lots of them.
A very foggy view of Alcatraz
A Boston Terrier wearing a tropical shirt
The Quebecois band Angine de Poitrine and lots of polka dots
Victory celebration at the Valkyries game
News headline: Malmö "corpse" triggers major police operation, turns out to be sex doll
An old parking sign from the San Francisco 49ers, most likely from Candlestick Park
A man in a car. This photo was taken around 1915. The angle of the photo makes it look like the driver, a swimmer, is naked. (I'm sure he was wearing a bathing suit!)
Major publishers are shifting their focus to trade paperback as the format of choice both for originals and reprints. Even mass-market paperback publishers that prospered with genre literature like romance and science fiction are pushing their chips onto the larger trim size. This seismic shift is not just a matter of taste but also reflects the drastic change in the way books are distributed and displayed. The old mass market system—monthly selections delivered to candy store, grocery, and drugstore racks—has been largely replaced by bookstores whose shelves are better designed to stock and display trade paperbacks. This format is more economical in reprinting hardcovers because they are the same trim size and often use the same cover. The average return rate for trade paperbacks is considerably lower than the 40 percent or more for mass market paperbacks, because trade paperbacks have far longer shelf lives. Trade paper has become the preferred format for literary originals and reprints of most trade hardcovers, whereas mass market paperbacks are for the most part reserved for reprints of major bestsellers. (The exceptions are books in genres like science fiction, romance, westerns and horror, which continue to sell as mass market originals and are carried in big-box outlets like Walmart.) Another reason for the popularity of trade paperbacks is that when they go out of stock, publishers can replenish them using print on demand (POD), which reduces the risks both of overprinting or underprinting. In fact, print on demand is another reason why print books have prevailed. Books that used to die after their initial printings have a long, if not infinite, life thanks to POD technology. Although the term “long tail” was invented to describe a somewhat different business strategy, I felt that it applied perfectly to the infinite life of digitized books—and to the power of POD to make niche products like specialized books available to almost anyone, anywhere.
Valerie Perrine and the Village People in a scene from Can't Stop the Music
Steve the Grinning Handbag
A Boston terrier looking out the window at two wild turkeys
Brazilian/Swedish artist Junior Lerin wearing a blue and yellow outfit with lots and lots of feathers
Congratulations! You solved a Monday crossword in 1:50.
Forbidden Loveseat: A JD Vance and Usha Novel
Lala the dog being served Faithful Bitz
Alan Cumming in a Murrrder show
A Boston terrier lying on a red, white and gray blanket.
Theater marquee with Savor Kindness: Because Cruelty Is Always Possible Later
A Boston terrier.
Trump "truth" about COVID drugs
"I am prejudiced against because I'm a rich white billionaire"
Illustration of a man with a gun holding his hand over a woman's mouth, with a squirrel looming menacingly
Arty collage paperback cover featuring very weird proportions (giant eyes, hand)
A roadrunner on a cement block.
Headline in The Local reading, "Swedish Moderates pull plug on AI site after it sends greetings to Hitler and Idi Amin"
Oracle Park
A captcha: "Click on all the objects that you would put inside the example object" (a shopping cart)
Tom Cruise and Tramell Tillman
Connections result showing I solved it with no mistakes
This is not what I expected but I LOVED it. Normal Gossip podcast co-creator McKinney delivers a wide-ranging treatise on our complicated relationship with gossip. In a tone at once scholarly-adjacent and extremely chatty, she spools out both personal stories and research about gossip’s role in society as a whole. Her examples range from oral storytelling traditions and The Epic of Gilgamesh to contemporary touchstones like Elena Ferrante’s unmasking and the Mean Girls Burn Book. Along the way, she explores what makes gossip gossip exactly, its intersection with religion, the way it can be used as a means to power for marginalized groups, and its role as a social bond. And more! Smart, discussable, and extremely funny—I laughed out loud multiple times while reading.
I'm user 1,029,027
A Boston Terrier deep in thought
Joe Biden cereal box
Photo of James Kirchick from Wikipedia, wearing a tan suit
A black dog sitting in a desk chair wearing a red white and blue striped tie
Photo of a Boston terrier on green grass
Boston Terrier
Ocean Beach sign
ChatGPT refuses to produce an argument against trans rights
Set in the charming coastal town of New Port Stephen, the novel follows the journey of Emma, a woman seeking a fresh start after a series of personal setbacks. Emma's character is richly developed, and her emotional evolution is both relatable and inspiring. Alexander excels at portraying the complexities of starting over, capturing the fears, hopes, and triumphs that accompany such a journey.
Three "debut novels" that are definitely not debut novels
Bizarre AI generated image of Jesus wearing an oxygen mask
A giant Doggie Diner head on a flatbed truck.
A Toyota with Tesla stickers