Western Book Roundup

Denver Book Burglar Sentenced

By Jenny Shank, 7-16-08

	Book bandit Thomas Pilaar, photo courtesy of the Denver D.A.'s office.

Last year I mentioned the arrest of the Denver booknapper, Thomas Pilaar, who checked out about 1,400 books and DVDs from Denver-area libraries and attempted to sell them online. Pilaar pleaded guilty to theft and last week was sentenced to “10 years in prison and ordered to pay $53,549 of restitution,” according to Tille Fong of the Rocky Mountain News.  During the year between his arrest and his sentencing, it seems that the formerly moustached Pilaar took the time to further cultivate his facial hair.

I can’t think of a way to segue gracefully into the non-felon portion of today’s Roundup, so I guess I’ll just proceed: Steven Wingate emailed to point out a new book deal for a fellow Colorado writer, Irene Vilar.  Matthew Thornton of Publishers Weekly reported that Vilar recently sold her memoir Impossible Motherhood to Other Press.  Thornton writes:

“Vilar was a 16-year-old college undergrad when she embarked on a relationship with a 50-year-old professor that led to marriage—a union of impossible odds that was haunted by the multiple abortions she underwent as a result of his opposition to having children and her own childhood trauma. She is now remarried with two children. Other Press has also acquired world rights to reissue Vilar’s earlier book, The Ladies’ Gallery, about three generations of women in her family.”

I’m surprised I hadn’t heard of Vilar before, as she’s a very accomplished all-around literary type: a writer, editor, and agent, married to writer/musician Daniel Grandbois.  I’m looking forward to reading her book in the fall of 2009.

Sticking to our Colorado theme today, I wanted to mention local writer David Wroblewski’s continued success with his debut novel The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.  Patricia Cohen profiled him last week for the New York Times.  She reported his book is “climbing up the New York Times best-seller list, with more than 196,000 copies in print,” and sat down with Wroblewski at the dog run in Riverside Park, where they discussed his life and the dogs that passed by.

And finally, I have one New Mexico item to mention.  Albuquerque photographer Cary Herz won the “Communicator of Achievement Award” in the annual National Federation of Press Women contest for her University of New Mexico Press book New Mexico’s Crypto Jews.  According to a press release, the book “presents more than one hundred photographs that explore the lineage and traditions of conversos--Jews that were forced by the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions to convert to Christianity as they migrated from Mexico and its territories to modern day New Mexico beginning in the sixteenth century.” The award will be presented in September in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Have some regional literary news or events to share?  If so,

Like this story? Get more! Sign up for our free newsletters.