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Welcome to November, book lovers. Are you ready for a looooong winter of holing up inside and reading? November's newsletter is loaded with books to fill those dark days and cold nights, as well as several events you won't want to miss. Scroll down to view this month's fresh crop of book club picks, readings, and reviews, reviews, reviews! See you soon!
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Andr é Aciman will be joined in conversation for FIND ME 'S Chicago book launch on Friday, November 8th at the Nettelhorst School Auditorium! Tickets are available now and include a copy of the book. Purchase yours here .
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"In this spellbinding exploration of the varieties of love, the author of the worldwide bestseller Call Me by Your Name revisits its complex and beguiling characters decades after their first meeting.
No novel in recent memory has spoken more movingly to contemporary readers about the nature of love than André Aciman’s haunting Call Me by Your Name . First published in 2007, it was hailed as “a love letter, an invocation . . . an exceptionally beautiful book” (Stacey D’Erasmo, The New York Times Book Review ). Nearly three quarters of a million copies have been sold, and the book became a much-loved, Academy Award–winning film starring Timothée Chalamet as the young Elio and Armie Hammer as Oliver, the graduate student with whom he falls in love. In Find Me , Aciman shows us Elio’s father, Samuel, on a trip from Florence to Rome to visit Elio, who has become a gifted classical pianist. A chance encounter on the train with a beautiful young woman upends Sami’s plans and changes his life forever. Elio soon moves to Paris, where he, too, has a consequential affair, while Oliver, now a New England college professor with a family, suddenly finds himself contemplating a return trip across the Atlantic. Aciman is a master of sensibility, of the intimate details and the emotional nuances that are the substance of passion. Find Me brings us back inside the magic circle of one of our greatest contemporary romances to ask if, in fact, true love ever dies." - FSG
Find Me will be released on Tuesday, October 29th.
In hardcover, fiction, 27.00; Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
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On Tuesday, November 12th at 7PM we'll welcome 2018 Man Booker Prize Winner and National Book Award Finalist Jennifer Croft back to the shop to discuss her new memoir, Homesick . Jennifer will appear in conversation with Frances De Pontes Peebles. A Q&A and book signing will follow the discussion.
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"Sisters Amy and Zoe grow up in Oklahoma where they are homeschooled for an unexpected reason: Zoe suffers from debilitating and mysterious seizures, spending her childhood in hospitals as she undergoes surgeries. Meanwhile, Amy flourishes intellectually, showing an innate ability to glean a world beyond the troubles in her home life, exploring that world through languages first. Amy’s first love appears in the form of her Russian tutor Sasha, but when she enters university at the age of 15 her life changes drastically and with tragic results." - Unnamed Press
In hardcover, non-fiction, 28.00; Unnamed Press.
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The wonderful Benjamin Dreyer will join us on Wednesday, November 13th to discuss his runaway bestseller Dreyer's English ! A Q&A and book signing will follow the presentation.
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"We all write, all the time: books, blogs, emails. Lots and lots of emails. And we all want to write better. Benjamin Dreyer is here to help. As Random House’s copy chief, Benjamin Dreyer has upheld the standards of the legendary publisher for more than two decades. He is beloved by authors and editors alike—not to mention his followers on social media—for deconstructing the English language with playful erudition. Now in Dreyer's English , he distills everything he has learned from the myriad of books he has copyedited and overseen into a useful guide for everyone who wants to put their best prose foot forward. As authoritative as it is amusing, Dreyer's English offers lessons on punctuation, from the underloved semicolon to the enigmatic en dash. Chockful of advice, insider wisdom, and fun facts, this book will prove to be invaluable to everyone who wants to shore up their writing skills, mandatory for people who spend their time editing and shaping other people’s prose, and—perhaps best of all—an utter treat for anyone who simply revels in language." - Random House
In hardcover, non-fiction, 25.00; Random House.
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Save the date!! Small Business Saturday will take place on Saturday, November 30th. We'll celebrate with store-wide sales, staff baked sweets, and more! Look for more details in your inbox later this month.
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The Lit Syndicate will meet to discuss Tell Them of Battles, Kings & Elephants on Monday, December 2nd at 7PM.
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"In 1506, Michelangelo—a young but already renowned sculptor—is invited by the sultan of Constantinople to design a bridge over the Golden Horn. The sultan has offered, alongside an enormous payment, the promise of immortality, since Leonardo da Vinci’s design has been rejected: “You will surpass him in glory if you accept, for you will succeed where he has failed, and you will give the world a monument without equal.” Michelangelo, after some hesitation, flees Rome and an irritated Pope Julius II—whose commission he leaves unfinished—and arrives in Constantinople for this truly epic project. Once there, he explores the beauty and wonder of the Ottoman Empire, sketching and describing his impressions along the way, and becomes immersed in cloak-and-dagger palace intrigues as he struggles to create what could be his greatest architectural masterwork. Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants —constructed from real historical fragments—is a thrilling page-turner about why stories are told, why bridges are built, and how seemingly unmatched pieces, seen from the opposite sides of civilization, can mirror one another." - New Directions
In paperback, fiction, 14.95; New Directions.
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The Queer Book Club will meet to discuss Holidays on Ice on Monday, December 9th at 7PM.
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"David Sedaris’s beloved holiday collection is new again with six more pieces, including a never before published story. Along with such favorites as the diaries of a Macy’s elf and the annals of two very competitive families, are Sedaris’s tales of tardy trick-or-treaters (“Us and Them”); the difficulties of explaining the Easter Bunny to the French (“Jesus Shaves”); what to do when you’ve been locked out in a snowstorm (“Let It Snow”); the puzzling Christmas traditions of other nations (“Six to Eight Black Men”); what Halloween at the medical examiner’s looks like (“The Monster Mash”); and a barnyard secret Santa scheme gone awry (“Cow and Turkey”).No matter what your favorite holiday, you won’t want to miss celebrating it with the author who has been called “one of the funniest writers alive” ( Economist)." - Hachette
In paperback, fiction, 12.99; Back Bay Books.
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In The Unwomanly Face of War , Svetlana Alexievich states that, “Everything we know about war, we know with ‘a man’s voice.’” But now comes The Shadow King , dedicated to “all the women and girls of Ethiopia who would not let themselves be completely erased by history,” full of exquisitely realized women characters (centering on the orphaned servant girl Hirut) who stepped out of the shadows of history, full of indignation and fury, to fight in defense of Ethiopia against Mussolini’s invading Italian army in 1935. There is a ferocity to this epic, cinematic, almost-mythological story; descriptions of battle are horrific, yet incredibly lyrical, and with all its colliding perspectives—from Hirut’s story to that of hapless Emperor Haile Selassie to the sadistic Italian colonel Carlo Fuselli to the conflicted Italian Jewish soldier/photographer Ettore Navarra—Maaza Mengiste has reshaped the narrative of war (noting that women’s bodies have always been battlefields,) creating a whole new complex mythology from a woman’s perspective. Ed LOVED this unforgettable, gripping, devastating, beautiful novel, and HIGHLY RECOMMENDS!
In hardcover, fiction, 26.95; W. W. Norton and Co.
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Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead follows Janina, an elderly woman hemmed in by an arbitrary political boundary and a society she cannot comprehend. A reclusive astrologer with a fondness for William Blake, Janina is the winter caretaker of a mountainous plateau on the border of Poland and the Czech Republic. There she witnesses the grisly slaughter of the region's wildlife at the hands of the nearby town's celebrated huntsmen. Known by the townspeople as an eccentric crank, Janina writes the police routinely to inform them of trespasses against the region's poaching laws. When men from town begin to turn up dead, she turns her gifts for translating the wisdom written in the stars toward demystifying their murders, insisting that the natural world is exacting it's revenge. As Janina bridles against an unjust system bent on silencing her voice, Tokarczuk probes two of the fundamental disconnects that define human experience: arrogance in the face of the natural world and the inscrutability of others. A prodigious character study that renders the contradictions that form the basis of Janina’s character in elegant detail, Drive Your Plow... is an astounding exploration of self-determination in a senseless & cruel world. Katharine loves and highly recommends!
In hardcover, fiction, 27.00; Riverhead Books.
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This book is such a gift. Beautifully translated from the French by Jordan Stump, The Barefoot Woman is both a memoir of Scholastique Mukasonga's childhood in Rwanda and an elegy for her mother, family, and neighbors killed in the genocide. Reading this book is a bit like going to a wake--it's moving and beautiful and surprisingly funny and joyful. It is also unspeakably heartbreaking. The book is composed non-linearly; reading it feels like listening to a wonderful storyteller chronicling a rich and full life. There is almost no space devoted to the genocide itself, and the book is in many ways more devastating for that. It is a potent reminder of how much there is to lose, how much is already lost. My recommendation: absolutely read this, but don't read it alone. Make sure you talk about it. So much of the joy of this book came for me later, when I began recounting the tales of Mukasonga's mother with friends who had also read it, laughing and smiling at the pure love of it. Audie highly recommends!
In paperback, non-fiction, 16.00; Archipelago Books.
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A journalist, a human rights activist, Pulitzer Prize winning author of A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide , trusted advisor to president Obama and our ambassador to the United Nations during his presidency, a fierce advocate for LGBT rights, government bureaucrat, and yes, an “idealist” who rejects the false choice between realism and idealism, Samantha Power is one woman making a difference: fighting for peace and international justice, focusing on solving, or at least mitigating or maybe preventing, the seemingly intractable problems of genocide and mass atrocities like we’ve seen in places like Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur, Libya, Syria and Burma. This is a fascinating personal memoir by an incredible woman, highlighting the role of tenacity and serendipity in a career, that also details the in’s and out’s of diplomacy and the true goings-on in the halls of power. Ed Loved The Education of an Idealist and Highly Recommends, especially for political junkies and those who yearn for the good years under Obama!
In hardcover, non-fiction, 29.99; Dey Street Books.
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The Topeka School by Ben Lerner is, on the surface, one family’s story: chapters alternate between Adam, the sometimes poet, wannabe rapper, and often inexplicably angry young man, his father, Jonathan, an amateur filmmaker in his free time, and an expert in dealing with unruly young men in his work, and Adam’s mother Jane, a renowned psychiatrist and bestselling author. In brief interludes between the family’s tale, another story emerges. As Adam’s bright future unfolds in his final turn as a high school debate champ, Darren, a former classmate, mentally impaired, and social outcast, has been left behind, though not entirely forgotten. Below this surface the novel builds up to questions of masculinity, misogyny, and confronts the spring of the US’s white, male, rage. Against the backdrop of high school halls raging with inconsequential debate and the intellectual musings of a ‘world famous’ psychiatric institution, The Topeka School grapples with the dangers of rhetorical free-for-all. As in his other work, Lerner’s deft hand displays a fascination with language; his stand-in Adam often muses about free styling, poetry, and “the spread.” This form of verbal bullying is a debate tactic used to overwhelm an opponent’s ability to comprehend and respond with unintelligibly spouted, sometimes unverified, often irrelevant information. It is the unfettered use of language as a weapon, not unlike the media drivel and political discourse of today. The Topeka School speaks to the seeming deadlock of American identity while maintaining the scale of a family saga. Matty recommends!
In hardcover, fiction, 27.00; Farrar Straus and Giroux.
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How to Hide an Empire suggests that we should think of the United States differently--not just as an association of 50 states or the contiguous portion we call the mainland, but that PLUS its overseas possessions and territories--all the islands, atolls and archipelagoes it has taken and governed over time, acknowledging our country’s imperial and colonial dimensions. “The history of the United States is the history of empire” is the premise of this book—a history of expansionism, colonies, conquest and territories, an American Empire notable for its invisibility and marked by an indifference toward the people who populate its territory (witness the treatment of the Puerto Rican people after Hurricane Maria!), and although the shape of power has changed (GLOBALIZATION has succeeded COLONIZATION), the effects of empire linger today. How To Hide An Empire is solid history, an endlessly fascinating and eye-opening account of the greater United States, including the Philippines, Cuba, Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, the Northern Marianas and our current “pointillist” map of over 800 U.S. military bases around the world. ED LOVED AND HIGHLY RECOMMENDS!
In hardcover, non-fiction, 30.00; Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
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Hugely influential disco and Hi-NRG dance music pioneer Patrick Cowley has existed as a cult -figure for decades, often revered and mythologized, but with few details about his personal life. Behold: Mechanical Fantasy Box: The Homoerotic Journal of Patrick Cowley , spanning from 1974-1980, that sweet spot of gay liberation post-Stonewall, pre-AIDS, where rampant sexual hedonism and exploration was a lifestyle for many. The brazen shamelessness and unapologetic sexual appetite of Cowley is exhilarating and inspiring, but there is more than just sexiness here; there are moments of pure poetry, of yearning, of dream-like, surreal passages and moving observations, made all the more poignant with the reader's foreboding that it will eventually all come to an untimely end. This is a fascinating chronicle of one man's gay sex romps through the years, but it also exists as an important historical document and cultural artifact of a lost era. The zeitgeist of the gay 70s is perfectly captured within these pages, and the accompanying illustrations by Gwena ë l Rattke are simply out of this world amazing. Shane loves!
In paperback, non-fiction, 24.95; Dark Entries Editions.
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Gods of the Upper Air is a deeply engaging collective biography and social/historical narrative, the story of cultural anthropologist Franz Boas (1858-1942) and the small band of renegade cultural anthropologists--contrarian researchers, forward thinkers, intellectual giants and scientists—who helped establish anthropology as a discipline, reject the old idea of racial hierarchies, and shape the open-minded way we think today. Led by “Papa Franz” the group included Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, Ella Cara Deloria, Gregory Bateson and Zora Neale Hurston (yes, she was an anthropologist first, a fiction writer second, doing groundbreaking fieldwork on folklore among African Americans in towns across Florida!) Charles King offers captivating, exquisitely detailed portraits of these remarkable individuals, while connecting the dots from Boas' time to ours, making it especially timely reading for our own era, helping us to better understand the historical dimensions to our country’s present situation and our society’s ready embrace of racism and intolerance. With its riveting storytelling, imaginative prose and comprehensive research, this is a truly fascinating, intellectually thrilling book, probably the most important book I’ve read all year! ED LOVED AND HIGHLY RECOMMENDS!
In hardcover, non-fiction, 30.00; Doubleday Books.
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Owen loved this gritty (but tender) character-driven love story set in rural Missouri. Zee's sister, LaReigne, may or may not have been involved in a prison break. Enter Zee's knight in shining armor, Gentry, who fancies himself an Arthurian hero and vows to serve Zee in whatever way he can. Flawlessly written, compelling, and very rewarding, this book is both a great escape as well as a bold meditation on vows, chivalry, and the importance of kept promises.
In hardcover, fiction, 26.00; G. P. Putnam's Sons.
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Now in paperback!
Unsheltered , combining gripping storytelling with social commentary, is a powerful lament for the American dream. A crumbling house turns out to be a solid metaphor for this striking, time-shifting tale of a nation adrift, where a home on the verge of collapse speaks volumes about the strains within American society and the crumbling dreams of its families. Kingsolver’s narrative uses interwoven timelines to trace the lives of two families living in the same house a century and a half apart (1870 and 2018) in Vineland, New Jersey (which is now far from the “utopian community” it was founded as in the 1800’s.) The parallels between the two eras are apparent--echoes of demagoguery, suppression of the press, social turmoil, crises in health care, the tangled mess of patriotism and religion, and families living on the edge resonate in both tales. Barbara Kingsolver told an interviewer, “I don’t understand how any good art can fail to be political,” but because Kingsolver excels at her craft, her story is never overwhelmed by her progressive politics. The adroitly told story (including the great use of metaphors) carries the day, and her particularly well-drawn, compelling characters jump off the page; I especially loved the intriguing female Darwinian biologist from the 1870’s, Mary Treat (based on a real person!) One reviewer asked, “Is this the first great novel of the Trump Age?”; I think it very well might be! ED LOVED AND HIGHLY RECOMMENDS!!
In paperback, fiction, 17.99; Harper Perennial.
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Now in paperback!
Two brothers, immigrants from Trinidad, are living their lives on the outskirts of Toronto, trying to fit in, trying to find themselves. This is the core of Chariandy's Brother, a novel that completely caught me off guard with its searing emotive force. Chariandy is a commanding, dazzling writer; there's a musicality and rhythm to the tight prose that propels the story's elegiac qualities with a poet's intensity and heart. Bursting with tenderness and sorrow, brutality and gritty realism, this slim but essential novel speaks to many urgent political, social, and familial issues without ever losign sight of the crucial question, how does one cope with a dream and a future denied? This is literature as cruel truth, a voice for the voiceless, a testament to the sheer power and importance of storytelling. Shane loves this moving and haunting masterpiece.
In paperback, fiction, 16.00; Bloomsbury.
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Now in paperback!
The literary novel is *not* dead, and Rebekah Frumkin is here to prove it. This seamlessly interwoven intergenerational epic follows two Cleveland families linked by drug abuse and mental illness. The Comedown opens in 1973 as Leland Bloom-Mittwoch leaps from a Tampa rooftop into the sunrise and to his death, leaving behind a yellow briefcase of arcane provenance and a family in ruins. The mystery of the circumstances surrounding Leland’s death unfolds through a constellation of powerfully drawn character studies spanning fifty years. Frumkin’s lucid and muscular voice allows her to juggle multiple disparate perspectives while simultaneously investigating the social, psychological, and philosophical factors that inform lived experience. The overarching story that emerges is tightly structured, richly layered, and deeply satisfying, preferencing inquiry over resolution. A remarkably accomplished debut! Katharine loves.
In paperback , fiction, 17.00; Henry Holt and Company.
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Now in paperback!
Upstream is a collection of essays by beloved poet Mary Oliver; most were previously published elsewhere, but reshuffled here to show how Oliver has spent a lifetime observing the natural world with a kind of spiritual awe. There is a richness and exhilarating joy to these essays--part revelation, part instruction, part artistic contemplation--that emphasizes the profound beauty to be found in both the natural world and the world of literature. Of Walt Whitman Mary Oliver writes, "I reveled in the specificity of his words," but the exact same can be said for Mary Oliver and the wondrous essays included here. Ed love and highly recommends!
In paperback, non-fiction, 17.00; Penguin Books.
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Now in paperback!
I loved Deborah Levy’s 2 novels, Hot Milk and Swimming Home , but now I have a new favorite-- The Cost of Living , a slim memoir, an eloquent manifesto, “an elegant, candid meditation on the fraught journey to self-knowledge” (Kirkus Review), essays filled with short bursts of brilliance and many moments of quiet grace. It is about women and their dreams (quoting Marguerite Duras, Audre Lorde, Simone de Beauvoir along the way), about her own shipwrecked marriage and being tossed about in midlife, about finding her voice as a writer (and finding her “room of one’s own” in the shed of a friend!), about wanting more life (one beyond nurturing others.) The power of this book stands in inverse proportion to its small size—it feels big and personal and urgent and essential, and it was a giant pleasure to read. ED LOVED AND HIGHLY RECOMMENDS!!
In paperback, non-fiction, 16.00; Bloomsbury Publishing.
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