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| this week in booksmith |
We'd like to shout a great big THANK YOU to Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, and Kelly Link, as well as all of the folks who came to the Small Beer Press Fundraiser for Franciscan Hospital for Children. We'd like to give you a hug, too, as we were able to raise more than $700 to aid in their vital work in caring for children with special needs! I'd also like to give you a scalp massage and brew you some tea, but right now I have to keep writing the newsletter.
There are actually about a half dozen of my co-workers who are busy writing these days as well, on our fast-growing brookline blogsmith. If you find yourself wanting to know what Kate means by this:
"I am forced to wrestle with the non-sequitorial nature of the time-space continuum."
Or wish you had a little bit more back-story to explain why Eugenia:
"...had discernible love-feelings and excitement-based nausea that night, and it wasn't just because of the horrible Tutz."
Or wonder whether or not Dana ends up:
"...advocating for the destruction of cherished volumes..."
(I don't want to leave you in suspense about this one. She doesn't.)
then you should definitely get the answers to these questions, and so many more on the blogsmith.
We've got Elif Batuman here on Wednesday at 7pm to tell us all about Russian literary obsession, followed on Thursday at 7 by the voices of the non-profit art and publishing collective Ugly Duckling Presse, and then our monthly meet-up with the Breakwater Reading Series on Friday night at 7.
It's going to be a great week downstairs, and all over the store, and we hope to see you here. |
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>>click here to see upcoming events in the Writers and Readers Series.
>>click here to see upcoming events at the Wellesley Booksmith. |
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| books of the week |
Don't Cry
Mary Gaitskill |
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The Poisoner's Handbook
Deborah Blum |
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So Much For That
Lionel Shriver |
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All Other Nights
Dara Horn |
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Dead Aid
Dambisa Moyo |
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The Devil & Sherlock Holmes
David Grann |
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The opening scene of Chang-Rae Lee's powerful new novel takes place on the top of a Korean train heading south, as war breaks out in 1950. Among the multitude on the boxcar is an 11 year-old girl, fleeing with her two younger siblings in her charge. The Surrendered jumps ahead several decades to pick up the trail of this tragic and remarkable beginning.
Michael Lewis is back with a bang and a big pointing finger. He's been doing some research into just what the hell went wrong over the last couple years, and he's figured out exactly who's to blame. No politics here, just legwork and investigation, and of course his trademark sense of humor.
Laugh or cry, it's up to you. |
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| books of the week for kids |
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Passing By
Yona Tepper
Kane/Miller Book Publ.
Hardcover, $15.99
Ages 2-5 |
The Bear That Wasn't
Frank Tashlin
The New York Review Children's Collection
Hardcover, $15.95
Ages 4-8 |
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Yael is a little Israeli girl dangling her feet off the balcony, searching the city street below, armed with sharp eyes and a lot of questions. What's that and where's it going, and why did it make that sound? This book is all about paying attention and finding out, and it's also about that really great moment when Dad comes home from work. I remember my Dad coming from work, running up to him and hugging his legs, they're always cold from a winter's night, in my memory.
The Bear That Wasn't is a tale about knowing who you are until you've been told one too many times that you're not. Even though you know you are. This poor bear goes to sleep in the snowy woods and wakes up to the most depressing Spring ever. A factory has been built around him, and when he tries to leave he's told he's not a bear, so GET BACK TO WORK. The Bear That Wasn't is so very clever, and ultimately of course the bear does regain his bear-ness in the woods.
Also in the Kids' section right now, be sure to check out
our shelf full of Alice in Wonderland books! |
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| >>remain(der)s of the day |
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Unaccustomed Earth
Jhumpa Lahiri
Alfred A. Knopf, Hardcover
Orig. $25, Sale $5.99
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War Dances
Sherman Alexie
Grove Press, Hardcover
Orig. $23, Sale $7.99
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Jhumpa Lahiri's most recent book is a collection of interconnected short stories which explores dislocation in time and space from our family, our homes, our own pasts. Her penetrating insights into the family around which this collection revolves has earned this book the status of "better than its Pulitzer-winning predecessor", Interpreter of Maladies. Lahiri was awarded too soon, and she's not resting on her laurels.
War Dances is the most exhilarating book I've read in many years. Get it. Read it.
Then look me in the eye and try to tell me it didn't affect you. |
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| Remainders are clearance books which we sell for bargain prices. We have several tables of remainders at the front of the store, on which we offer some of your favorite authors at up to 75% off the cover price. Quantities are limited, so if something strikes your fancy don't delay! |
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| >>down in the ubc |
For an intensive UBC experience please click here.
Carl's musings and recommendations are now on the Used Cellar Blog. |
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Baby Let Me Follow You Down: The Illustrated Story of the Cambridge Folk Years
Eric Von Schmidt and Jim Rooney
Univ. of Massachusetts
Press, 2nd Ed., 1994
Used Paperback, $25 |
Titus Groan
Mervyn Peake
Tusk Books, Overlook Press
Used Paperback, $8 |
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Baby Let Me Follow You Down delves into the mid-20th century Cambridge folk music community, a time and place rich with legendary folksingers who drew American folk music back from obscurity and into the light. Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and their comrades revived this essential music that inspired a generation of Americans who were yearning for a new place to start, and a new, better vision of themselves and their country.
Titus Groan is the starting point for one of the greatest works of fantasy ever. Strike that and make it greatest works of fiction ever. Mervyn Peake's labyrinth-like castle puts all other fictive locales to shame. His utterly bizarre characters are drawn in such sharp relief that they remain burned into your mind forever, and his compassion for every last tragic flaw in humankind, as well as his penchant for INCREDIBLY EXCITING mano a mano battles to the death make for one of the most engrossing reading experiences you will ever have. We have the entire trilogy in mass markets in the UBC, as well. Or, at full price upstairs, the trilogy all in one volume, with the tantalizing beginning of the unfinished fourth book suggesting how much bigger this amazing creation could have become. |
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These and other treasures can be found in the Used Book Cellar in the basement of booksmith. We buy back your used paperback fiction and non-fiction Wednesdays through Saturdays from 10-4. [ubc@brooklinebooksmith.com]
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...and among those books |
the UBC find of the week |
"I can write comedy! No doubt about that."
As evidenced by the totally tasteful joke at the bottom.
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| To see everything else we've found in the UBC, visit the find archive. |
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| >>the card & gift room presents |
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It's Saturday around dinner time, and Kerri and Bonnie have been wandering in to my office at least once every five minutes or so with a new line of a bath soap, a stylish baby bib, maybe an adorable small tote with elephants and flowers printed on it along with the words "An Elephant and a bunch of Flowers." They've been busy unpacking boxes of elegant and funky new jewelry, new laptop carriers, grow-your-own-edamame kits, baby bird adoption centers, cellophane tie rack repair buckets, and a whole bunch of awesome new water bottles.
Some of those things aren't real.
But, and I mean this when I type it, the Card & Gift Room
is, at this very moment, being stocked with some of the best stuff we've ever had. Stop in this week to see the new lineup! |
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The next book club meeting is
Monday, April 5th @ 7:30pm
Kim
Rudyard Kipling
No need to sign up, just show up!
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>>>around town
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Come to the Coolidge Corner Theater for an off-site event with two of the artists from The 2010 DeCordova Biennial. Join Laurel Sparks, Xander Marro, and Jeff Daniel Silva, co-founder and co-curater of the Balagan Experimental Film Series for an evening of art, art films, discussion, and Q&A. Film to be screened include: Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome dir. Kenneth Anger, 16mm,
Early Abstractions dir. Harry Smith, 16mm, and Valentine's Day Girl dir. Ryan Trecartin, video. That's Monday, March 29th at 7pm. Click here for more info.
Local best-selling author, and breast cancer advocate, Alice Hoffman, author of many novels including, Practical Magic, The Third Angel, Story Sisters, and soon to be published Green Witch, will host "An Evening with Your Favorite Authors" at the American Repertory Theatre on Monday, April 26, 2010 to benefit The Hoffman Breast Center at Mount Auburn Hospital. In addition to Alice, the following authors will be in attendance and will read from their latest works: Chris Bohjalian, James Carroll, Drew Gilpin Faust, Elinor Lipman, Jill McCorkle, Richard Russo, and Anita Shreve. Tickets to this amazing fundraising event are $250, and for more information, please call at 617-499-5656, e-mail kmcdade@mah.harvard.edu or click here.
The Cypress String Quartet invites you to a performance of Bel Canto, an original composition inspired by Ann Patchett's novel. The concert is on March 17 at 8pm at Wellesley College, and any book clubs that attend have the chance to attend a postconcert
reception with the artists of the Quartet and composer Elena Ruehr. |
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| ...and therefore |
I've never read Sherman Alexie before.
War Dances just tore through me in a day. I haven't read a book in one day in years.
Hey Kate, thanks for recommending this one enough times.
Everything is in here.
Thanks for reading,
Paul
Write to paul@brooklinebooksmith.com, if you'd like to make this a conversation.
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currently reading Jenny & The Jaws of Life by Jincy Willett..
currently listening to this. |
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