Elizabeth Strout

The number of parties has dwindled and there are fewer blockbuster celebrity authors, but the actual business of book publishing looks a little brighter this year.

Book Expo America, which kicks off at the Javits Convention Center today, is designed to bring independent booksellers together so that publishers can hype books they think will be big sellers in the coming months.

Yesterday, the Alfred A. Knopf imprint announced “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy,” the third book in British writer Helen Fielding’s mega-selling series about the travails of a single woman. The first two books became international sensations in the 1990s

 Now that I’ve directed you to satisfying summer reads , it’s time to return to the books that inspired my love of backlist. The third book in the “Book Lust Rediscoveries” series is Frederick Dillen’s wry, funny, and touching novel Fool , which introduces us to one of the most complex main characters in contemporary fiction. “For Christ sake don’t become a fluffmeister” are the last words Barnaby Griswold’s father ever says to him. Yet a fluffmeister, a fool, is Barnaby’s default position in life, as much as