Brookline Booksmith Online

If you missed our email over the weekend, please note that our Wed. 1/25 event with Ambassador David Scheffer has been cancelled. He had better things to do. In Cambodia. But certain other authors put their reading public first! Biographer Chip Bishop joins us tonight at 7, and the rest of the week holds a pair of visits from Frances Moore Lappé and Doc Hendley, authors who tackle crucial issues that dovetail perfectly with Brookline Climate Week.

And... Climate Week 2012 is here! Booksmith is proud to be a participant in the awareness campaign. Take a moment to check out the WaterBeacon display outside our front door. The WaterBeacon (in the third story windows of the Pierce Building across the street) is an LED light display that changes color according to how many times the word "water" is employed on Twitter. Tweet "water" and "Brookline" and the LED will flash magenta in recognition. This experimental use of social network technology introduces one possible tool for enhancing communal awareness of real-time water usage and related environmental issues.

Also, please remember that the literary world is now free to quote from and publish the works of James Joyce. At the dawn of the new year, the restraining power of grandson Stephen Joyce was abolished by English law. I don't know much at all about copyright law, much less English copyright law, but I don't need a crystal ball to tell you that gigantic, expensive James Joyce books will be released en masse in November and December.
The scholars are out of the gates.

	Tuesday, January 24th at 7pm Chip Bishop The Lion and the Journalist: The Unlikely Friendship of Theodore Roosevelt and Joseph Bucklin Bishop In this fascinating new biography, Chip Bishop traces the lives of two very different men—the journalist Joseph Bucklin Bishop and President Theodore Roosevelt—as their friendship takes them from cleaning up the streets of New York to carving a canal through the jungles of Panama.
	Thursday, January 26th at 7pm Frances Moore Lappé EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think, to Create the World We Want Co-sponsored by Climate Change Action Brookline Giant of the environmental movement, co-founder of the Small Planet Institute, and author of Diet for a Small Planet, Frances Moore Lappé visits the Booksmith to share her new book, EcoMind, which identifies and explodes the 7 key “thought traps” that keep us from making the changes we need to save the world
	Monday, January 30th at 7pm Doc Hendley Wine to Water: A Bartender’s Quest to Bring Clean Water to the World When small-town bartender Doc Hendley started a series of charity wine tastings, he never planned to be a hero. Yet, he soon found himself traveling to one of the world’s most dangerous places: Darfur, Sudan, where he set up an organization that is revolutionizing the quest to bring clean water to the world’s most impoverished places. A portion of the sales from his new book will go to Wine to Water.

Mr g: A Novel About the Creation Alan Lightman Pantheon Hardcover, $24.95
	Alan Lightman tackles tackles creation just as you would expect him to: thoughtfully, uniquely, compassionately and irreverently. Mr. g, who lives with his aunt and uncle out in the Void, decides after a good nap to create something called the Universe. Hilarity ensues. Well, kind of. This book, and the two others I've chosen to highlight this week, are the sort that hopefully will make you shake out the cobwebs, polish your spectacles, and take a fresh look at what you thought was the world you knew. Read a fascinating article at Salon by Lightman from a few months ago.
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking Susan Cain Crown Publ. Hardcover, $26
	The state of our culture right now is...loud. CONSTANTLY LOUD, right? Well, that's only on the surface. According to author Susan Cain, at least one-third of us are introverts. And from that sector of our community comes most of the good stuff. I'm paraphrasing, I'm sure. But her viewpoint (and those of the silent group of sensible, creative, compassionate people for whom she is boldly advocating) is one that we very much need to explore in a time when many of us are more inclined to spontaneously cast our thoughts out into the social networking sea rather than contemplate them with even a moment's meditation. I'm going to shut up now.
Design in Nature Adrian Bejan, J. Peder Zane Doubleday Hardcover, $27.95
	Let Adrian Bejan introduce you to Constructal Law, and you will see it at work in every facet of your experience of the world. "This extraordinary book proposes a law of nature whose power is matched only by its simplicity. Everything you lay your eyes on will blow your mind with fresh interpretation.” - David Eagleman (Incognito and Sum)

A Bird in Winter Helene Kerillis, Stephane Girel Prestel Publishing, $14.95 Ages 4-8
	Belgium, the sixteenth century. Kerillis and Girel set the scene with spacious watercolors and characters whose lively cartoon faces speak volumes. The story, drawn from the authors interpretation of Brueghel's The Hunters in the Snow, is of a little girl who saves a bird in the snow, and ends up needing saving herself.
Extra Yarn Mac Barnett, Jon Klassen Balzer + Bray, $16.99 Ages 5-8
	Everyone on the staff with an eye for kids books has been ooohing and aaaahing over Extra Yarn. Annabelle is an irrepressible knitter, and she wraps happy friends family and neighbors up in rainbows throughout each page of the book. Oh, wait, there's a crabby teacher and a wicked Archduke who are not so pleased...don't worry, our heroine makes it all right in the end. The illustrations are from the same guy who brought us I Want My Hat Back. Here is more of Jon Klassen's work.
Children Make Terrible Pets Peter Brown Little Brown Books, Orig. $16.99, Sale $7.99 Ages 4-6
	A terribly funny inversion is at work in Peter Brown's Children Make Terrible Pets. Lucy the bear is so gleeful throughout; she is now one of my favorite picturebook characters.

Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons Penguin Classics Paperback, $16
Natasha:	"A smart and hilarious satire of British country novels. Flora Poste, newly orphaned, decides to live with her misfit relatives in the English countryside in order to tidy up their lives. Chock full of awesome one-liners that you'll quote often."
My Abandonment Peter Rock Mariner Books Paperback, $13.95
Bonnie:	"My dear and trusted friend Camilla (who works at Changing Hands in Arizona) recommended to to me, and as with all of her recommendations, I LOVED IT. I have been suggesting it to friends right and left, and now, dear customers, I am telling you to read it, too. I will say no more."
Ready Player One Ernest Cline Crown Publ. Hardcover, $24
Julia:	"As far as I'm concerned, you can't really go wrong with a book that combines dystopia, classic video games, giant robots, 80's pop culture references, and social commentary into one epic adventure story. Of course I'm a huge nerd, but this book engrossed me just as much as The Hunger Games."

Select volumes from the Petite Encyclopédie de l'Art Tudor Publ. Co., 1961 Used Paperbacks, $3 each
	Art books the way they should be. postcard sized, almost zero text, and cheap. A whole handful of great painters to choose from.
Coming of Age in the Milky Way Timothy Ferris Anchor Books, 1989 Used Paperback, $6
	Beginning with the seekers mounting the steps of their ziggurats to get closer to the stars, and coming all the way up to (relatively) modern scientists who listen all day and night for clues to the shape of the universe in the echoes of the Big Bang, Timothy Ferris charts the progression of the art and science of cosmology through the ages. I want to read this book so bad. Why isn't there a telescope in our house? Remember Carl Sagan?
Journey into China National Geographic Society, 1976 Used Hardcover, $20
	A team of National Geographic journalists takes a spin through the cities and wide expanses of China of the 1970's, exposing through the lenses of their intrepid army of photographers a world that many in the West had not yet been introduced to. This was before the Three Gorges, before the manufacturing explosion, before we got all freaked out about not being number 1 anymore. It's fascinating reading, in a gorgeous package.

Insectopedia Hugh Raffles Pantheon Books, Hardcover Orig. $29.95, Sale $7.99
	It would take 63 praying mantises (manti? manta?) to lift this book. Or, 74 ants. Hey, bugs. Look at this. ONE HAND. Ok, wow. While I was trying to impress the insects, the ants built a raft and set sail for Nantucket. Didn't know ants could build rafts? Find out this and countless other mysterious insect abilities with Hugh Raffles, as he introduces you to the astonishing lives of the creatures who we mostly would like to forget exist.
New Complete Vegetarian Rose Elliot Sterling Publ., Hardcover Orig. $30, Sale $14.99
	"At the age of three, she made the connection between fish to eat and the living creatures themselves and decided to become a vegetarian." (thanks, wikipedia) Rose Elliot has literally spent her entire cooking life perfecting the art of vegetarian cooking. She also will do an astrological reading for you. Not in this book, perhaps, but she will nonetheless.
The Last Knight Norman F. Cantor Harper Perennial, Paperback Orig. $13.95, Sale $4.99
	The perpetrators of the Hundred Years' War just hacked and slashed their way through the late fourteenth century. But for all the horrific violence, they made amazing cultural and literary advancements as well. At the center of it all was John of Gaunt. Cantor's fascinating biography of the 'last knight" paints a vivid portrait of the brutality and brilliance of the era. Check out John of Gaunt's seal. I'm gonna make myself one of those. Can't use those on Twitter, though, or am I wrong about that?

Is it going to be snowing? Do you see yourself curling up with a mug of peppermint tea?
Or might it be in the fifties? Will you break out the flip-flops and pass a tall glass of iced tea across your damp brow?
Such is life in the winter of 2012. It's maddening. Must be prepared.
Look at that little creamer in the shape of a crouched bunny! And that stately pitcher, so proud and beautiful. It's every season out there! Let's celebrate topsy turvy-ness!

The American Library Association has announced the top books, video and audiobooks for children and young adults – including the Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, Newbery and Printz awards. A Ball for Daisy, illustrated and written by Chris Raschka, is the 2012 Caldecott Medal winner. Dead End in Norvelt,written by Jack Gantos, is the 2012 Newbery Medal winner. See the complete list here.

The National Book Critics Circle awards finalists have been named. And our own Edith Perlman is one of them! If you haven't read her acclaimed (and hopefully soon-to-be-award-winning) Binocular Vision, you are missing out. Winners will be announced March 8 at the New School in New York City. The NBCC's Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing went to Kathryn Schulz, and the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Robert Silvers, editor of the New York Review of Books. Click on the link above to find the complete list of nominees.

Climate Week 2012 is here! Climate change is everyone’s business. Some people are just getting started, while others are on their way to mastering home energy efficiency. How can you make a difference? Find out at over 40 events and displays across town during this week, Jan. 21st-29th. Click here for more information or download a printable map of all the events, activities, times and locations.

This Sunday, Jan. 29 from 12-3pm, the 2012 K.I.D.S. Opportunity Fair rolls into town! Over 80 summer camps and enrichment programs will be on hand, providing families with convenient "one-stop shopping" for children and youth summer activities. Camps focusing on everything from art to computers, dance to academic enrichment, and more will display their programs. Traditional day and overnight camps, as well as teen internships offer numerous choices for kindergarten through high school. Steps to Success will have a 2012 Camp Directory on hand to distribute to families at the Fair.

When I first started working here one of our regular, nightly customers was a tall scholar in a black fedora who could, and would (in fact, seemed incapable of not doing so) alter the natural flow of any conversation into a lecture about Joyce. It was very sad, when it wasn't enraging. He talked as though he was forever imagining himself behind a lectern, with a room full of awe-struck undergrads trying to catch every word. It was grotesque. I think Joyce would've approved.

"I've put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that's the only way of insuring one's immortality."
--James Joyce.

Thanks for reading,
Paul

currently reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susannah Clarke.
currently listening to First Aid Kit.

email me, if you'd like to make this a conversation.

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brookline booksmith
279 Harvard St.
Coolidge Corner, Brookline
an easy block from the Coolidge Corner T-stop on the C line
617.566.6660
thestore@brooklinebooksmith.com
Dana Brigham, Co-owner and Store Manager

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