Chronicle Books Blog

Dear Google Earth,

First off, let me say that I’m a big fan. I can’t tell you how many hours of my life I’ve wasted zooming around the globe checking out cool stuff. Like my apartment. And Vice-President Cheney’s “secret” residence. (btw, “Pixelate” is one of my favorite Photoshop filters, too!) Oh yeah, and that amazing shot of the crater from the hydrogen bomb we dropped on Bikini Atoll… Who could have guessed that an island used to be there! Seriously, awesome technology, guys. Mad props.

1 Observatory Circle, Washington DC (a.k.a. Cheney’s house)

Congratulations on launching your brand new “Street View” feature! I was worried when Microsoft launched their “Bird’s Eye View” gimmick last fall to such fanfare, but since I’m a Mac user, that whole 3D thing never worked for me anyway. Besides, it’s way cooler to be able to actually look into people’s windows! You’ve totally smoked them on functionality. Feels good, doesn’t it?

Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands

Hey, have you seen what the gang over at BoingBoing is posting about Street View? One guy actually spotted his neighbor taking out the trash! That’s so rad. (And I totally disagree with the people who are freaking out about their privacy. I mean, if you’re going to have an affair or something, you should probably avoid standing near windows or walking out the front door anyway. That’s just common sense!)

Bob Arctor’s neighbor taking out the trash (Thanks, BoingBoing.net!)

However, I have to say that I’m a little miffed by the inexplicable lack of coverage on our block. In fact, that’s why I’m writing. I wanted to post a picture of our cool new Chronicle building to share with our readers, but when I typed in our address, I got nothing! I can’t believe your vans managed to loop practically every other block in downtown San Francisco and totally dissed one—just one!—block of 2nd Street. Is it because LookSmart is across the street?

The blue lines indicate San Francisco streets that have been photographed. The green arrow marks our location on the sad yellow block of 2nd Street.

I cobbled a couple of photos together from opposite ends of the block to try and give our fans a little taste of our neighborhood. But if you could do me a favor and send the crew around again to shoot our block, well, that would be great.

Our building is the brick façade on the left just behind the red ambulance.

Yours truly,

Guinevere Harrison

Looking down 2nd Street towards AT&T Park. Our building is way down the street, on the right-hand side, behind the big white trucks… Oh, never mind.

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I’m Alan, and I edit the art and design books here at Chronicle. It often sounds confessional to say that, perhaps because it’s a pleasure and honor to make our books come to light. Within our diverse offerings, there are a few books in particular that break boundaries and become true cultural events. We were so pleased to hear recently that Cartoon Modern: Style and Design in Fifties Animation won the prestigious Theatre Library Association Award for the best book about film, television and radio in 2006.

This is a great honor, and one that a Chronicle book has won twice in the past few years (The Invisible Art: The Legends of Movie Matte Painting won in ’02). Amid will receive the award in New York at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts on June 1—so the Book Expo will not be the only game in town that night.

Cartoon Modern was significant in a few ways, from concept to completion. Its author, Amid Amidi, is cofounder and host of the most thoroughgoing animation blog around: cartoonbrew.com. As an animator and industry insider himself, Amid is a rare author: articulate, upbeat, totally engaged with and deeply knowledgeable of his subject, and respected by his peers.

Development piece by John Hubley from UPA’s Rooty Toot (1952).
From the collection of Mike Glad.

The online buzz around the making of this book was unique in my experience, and attested to the convergence of the fusty old industry that is illustrated book publishing (read: slow) and the hypercatchy medium of blogs (fast). When Amid conducted an inclusive, non-binding poll of his readers to vote on the various jacket designs that had been proffered so far, the results were eye-opening.

What we had pragmatically hoped for—clear consensus—was not achieved. Instead, the big ideas behind the internet came to life: divergent, informed, impassioned opinions that represented the wide spectrum of the audience for this book. No cover direction was clearly favored, but the community around the book was invested in the process, pointing to potential new models of how we announce and make books.

Development piece by Mary Blair from Disney’s The Little House (1952).
From the collection of Mike Glad.

So congratulations to Amid and the readers of Cartoon Modern and cartoonbrew. You all helped make this book a success and taught a small but significant lesson to an “old media” company and editor.

From now until June 15th, use redemption code “cartoon” at checkout and receive free shipping when you buy Cartoon Modern on-line.

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I honestly don’t have a heck of a lot to say about this, but just had to share it with you. It’s a humidor that just happens to also be a sort of an architectural model of the capitol building, and it has recently appeared in the window of a strange little cigar shop on Market that I walk past everyday on my way home from work. And the thing that I’m not sure if you can tell from the photo is: this thing is big–like several feet across big. A giant humidor. In the shape of the capital building. No joke. I’m tempted to try and make some lame witticism now about cigars as lawmakers, or lawmakers as cigars, but I’ll spare you.

Special thanks and photo credit go to Melissa Manlove for agreeing to photograph it digitally, thereby saving me from my luddite self.

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Food and wine and cocktails and dessert and sweet and savory–these are the things that take up most of my mental space on a daily basis. I can’t complain–I get to work on how to market our cookbook and beverage books to the captive audience of people that like utilizing them, and hopefully to some folks that may be intimidated but want to learn how to bake a rustic fruit tart or muddle the perfect mojito.

Studious in the Chronicle Books archive room…

By blogging on our site I’m hoping to share some ‘inside’ information with you on our amazingly delectable, highly visual, and really beautiful cookbooks. I also plan on giving plenty of ‘coming soon’ scoop on what’s ahead and exciting on our future publishing lists, along with details of my constant culinary exploits throughout San Francisco and from my travels. I hope you are compelled to ask me questions, and that you share your impressions about our food and beverage books. Most importantly, if you know of a new chocolate maker in your ‘hood that I need to scope out I insist you let me know–I am a living and breathing chocolate-obsessed man on a mission to explore all the best chocos (dark only please) out there!

Peter Perez
Sr Marketing Manager | Food & Wine

My chocolate wrapper wall at work

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It’s a good day for a publisher when a photograph of a storefront window featuring a book you’ve been working hard to promote pops open in the morning e-mail.

That’s what happened to us last week, and here’s that picture of Old Mother Bear gracing the lovely window of Kidsbooks in North Vancouver.

This journey of the life of a mother grizzly, written by Victoria Miles and illustrated by three-time Caldecott Honor Book artist Molly Bang, was published last month and has already earned some sweet buzz, including two starred reviews which we’re shamelessly quoting below.

Thanks Kidsbooks, for calling attention to this special picture book. Thanks to you, our Canadian cousins at Raincoast Books, several mother’s day promotions, and bloggers like Ritchie’s Picks who helped get the early word out, we’ve sold out of the first printing!

Note to children’s literature lovers: If you spot any Chronicle Books for Children turning up in interesting locations, please snap a pic and e-mail it to kids@chroniclebooks.com. We’ll post them here.

Kidsbooks, Edgemont Village, North Vancouver, B.C.

“A beautiful introduction to these awesome animals.” –Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Audiences will be grateful for this gentle, genuine portrayal of a wilderness giant.” –Publishers Weekly, starred review

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