Allison L. Recommends

Since I’m leaving BookPeople at the end of this week, I wanted to leave on a happy note, thinking about all the books I’m most looking forward to in the coming months. I hope everyone will be as excited about these as I am and rush to BookPeople to get them.

The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (June 16, 2009)

Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s first novel to be translated into English, was a huge success throughout the country, but especially here at BookPeople. Most of our staff devoured Ruiz Zafon’s first Gothic-inspired Spanish triller and were terribly excited to get advanced readers of his newest novel, a prequel to Shadow of the Wind. To tell you exactly how The Angel’s Game fits into the Shadow of the Wind universe would be giving too much away, so let me just say this: you won’t be disappointed. The new book is darker, more atmospheric, more thrilling, and just as perfect for every bibliophile’s heart. Who wouldn’t love to go to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books?

The Sheriff of Yrnameer by Michael Rubens (August 4, 2009)

Rubens is a former writer for the Daily Show, and Colbert gave his book a glowing review. (If you don’t automatically want to read it, you and I will probably never be friends.) This is a must read for everyone who loved Douglas Adams in their youth, and is a great addition to the comedy-scifi genre. Yrnameer is the last planet in the galaxy that has not been corporately sponsored, and its inhabitants are in desperate need of someone who can fend off a gang of Really Bad Men who want their food. Cole is a space-rogue (think Zaphod Beeblebrox but with one head and no political power) who has been having a really, really bad day. Can he reform his criminal ways and become what Yrnameer needs? Packed with alien-monsters, freeze-dried orphans, really stupid robots, and space-zombies, this is a tremendously fun and surprisingly touching read.(Did someone say ‘perfect plane book?’)

The Magicians by Lev Grossman (August 11, 2009)

I loved this book. I wish it had been three times as long, or that there were six volumes to follow, that’s how much I want to read more of the universe Grossman created. The story picks up with high school senior Quentin Coldwater heading for his Harvard interview, only to find himself sitting at the entrance exam for a secret college of magic in upstate New York. The college is loosely based on Hogwarts (but more adult), and the magical trials that Quentin undertakes call on the magic from T.H. White, Tolkien, LeGuin, and other great authors of high fantasy. It all culminates with a trip to Fillory (based on Narnia), where we are reminded that we really, really don’t want to live inside the books we love. This is both an homage to and a send-up of the classics of the genre, and watching Grossman establish the “physics” of magic in his universe is fun all by itself. But The Magicians is also a heartbreaking novel about growing up, living up to your potential, and the way friendships form and fall apart. This is one that everyone who ever loved high fantasy should read. The ending left me wanting more (which could be a serious criticism), but I loved reading it so much, I can’t possibly be upset.

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger (September 29, 2009) –cover still to come–

Full disclosure: I am only 2/3 finished with this novel, but I love it. And I loved her previous novel, The Time Traveler’s Wife. If you haven’t read it, I beg (BEG) you to get a copy and dive in. It won’t take you a weekend because you won’t be able to put it down. (Besides, I think the movie is FINALLY coming out in August, and you have to read the book first.) I love Audrey Niffenegger for her ability to take a supernatural event (in the new book, ghosts) and make it normal, believable. She’s also a wonderful creator of characters–the people in her novels are round and complex, never easily summed up, and they always elicit an emotional response. Her Fearful Symmetry concerns nearly identical twins who move into their deceased aunt’s flat overlooking a London cemetery. But their aunt is not so far gone as they believe, and there is much more history than they know.

The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt (October 6, 2009)

It’s so difficult to know what to say about a 700 page novel about everything, but even though it’s only June, I feel comfortable telling you this will be my favorite book of the year. Random House is publicizing The Children’s Book as a story about Olive Wellwood, the ‘J.K. Rowling’ of her day, and Olive is a key player, but there are two dozen other key players, as well. Set at the turn of the century (that’s the turn of the 20th century) in England, it is less a single narrative and more a collection of (extremely detailed, beautiful, touching) interconnected character portraits spanning several families. Parents and children, artists and writers, socialists and capitalists, these characters represent every possible walk of life, and yet they are all looking for essentially the same thing: happiness. Perfection, even. Needless to say, the search for perfection, in art and in life, is nigh impossible. Seeing the trials and triumphs of these characters as the 19th century gives way to the 20^th is touching and heartbreaking, and I had to remind myself on several occasions that they were fictional. A.S. Byatt is a tremendously talented author (which is why she won the Booker in 1990), and what makes her especially fabulous is how much effort she puts into studying the subjects in her books. She became an expert on Victorian poetry for Possession (the 1990 Booker Winner), and for The Children’s Book she became an expert in turn-of-the century art and pottery. She has also captured perfectly the conflicting ideas of the day, not just about culture and economics, but about raising and entertaining children–a key theme, as referenced in the title. It’s impossible to come away from reading Byatt without feeling like you’ve just had a history lesson, but probably the most entertaining, enjoyable history lesson you’re ever likely to get. I don’t know what more I can say about this book except that I loved every second of it, was absorbed in every moment, every tangent, every character. Highly recommended for anglophiles, biblophiles, and anyone who has loved Edward Rutherfurd (who also has a new book–New York–out this fall).

The end of this year is going to be absolutely packed with amazing books from amazing authors, and there will be no shortage of things to read, but I hope these give you something to look forward to!

Check out www.bookpeople.com for more information.

Allison L.’s Book You Should Have Read By Now

One of the best things about my job is getting advance readers of new and exciting fiction yet to hit the bookshelves. I’ve discovered some fantastic books this way, and I love to share them with anyone who will listen. But I also get the chance to read books that have been out longer—be it a few years or a few centuries—and they can be just as  fun to talk about. This month’s pick for a book you should have read by now is The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine.

Now in Paperback

Listen. Allow me to be your god. Let me take you on a journey beyond imagining. Let me tell you a story.

If you  have set foot in BookPeople in the past year, chances are great that you have seen me brandishing a brilliant blue hardcover book with a strange Arabic-sounding name, and begging everyone in sight to please, please, please read it. Well, it’s out in paperback, and even though you should have read it by now (because really, it’s fantastic), this is the hour to race to your local independent bookstore and dive in to the greatest novel published in years. Seriously.

Hakawati roughly translates from Arabic as “storyteller,” and our protag0nist’s grandfather was one of the best. Not authors or kindly volunteers entertaining children, these are men who sit in crowded, smoky cafes and relate the stories, myths, and legends of their culture–stories everyone in the room already knows. It’s not easy to tell the story of Aladdin so it seems fresh and new, so that the whole room is on edge as our hero walks into what everyone knows is a trap, but these are the skills of a hakawati, and they are also the skills of Rabih Alameddine.

Osama al-Kharrat has returned to war torn Lebanon in 2003 to stand by his father’s death bed. Family relations have been strained since Osama moved to San Francisco years ago, and the background of the family falls slowly into place as the story unfolds. All together once again, mothers, daughters, fathers, uncles, nephews, sons, cousins, and friends tell each other the stories that have always been important to them. Some are the stories of their family, some are the stories of their country, and some are the stories of all creation–pulled from religious texts (The Bible and the Quran), Arabic mythology (the Arabian Nights), classic poetry (Majnun and Layla), and the wonderful imagination of Rabih Alameddine.

In many ways this is a modernized (and westernized) Arabian Nights–stories told over a bed, staving off death. The story of Osama’s family is a wonderful psychological portrait of a liberal, westernized Lebanese family, but it is also the frame for a series of tales that are funny, bawdy, incredibly sad, and just…beautiful. I can’t say enough good things about this book, and I can’t stress enough that it’s the kind of book that has something for everyone. Lovers of literary fiction, those that prefer a breezy read, people that want a book to spark discussion in their book club, readers of classics, politicos who are interested in the Lebanese setting–everyone will love this book. And not like everyone ‘loves’ Dan Brown…I mean really love.

Rabih Alameddine has a gift for language that is at once poetic and completely natural–unf0rced, lacking in gimmicks, free of the obtuse, difficult language that is so popular in modern fiction–and it is a pure joy to read. This is another of the few books I’ve ever read that has left me with chills, but don’t let the fact that it’s powerful literature scare you. It’s also great fun.

So read it already!

In case need more input:

New York Times review

Rabih Alameddine’s website

Excerpt from the Random House website

RENT star at BookPeople this Wednesday!

Anthony Rapp, in Austin for performances of the smash musical RENT, is making a special appearance at BookPeople to talk about and sign copies of his memoir, Without You.  The event will be from 12:30-2PM on Wednesday, May 13.  This event was just added, so sorry about the late notice if you’re die-hard RENT fans!

About the book:

Anthony Rapp had a special feeling about Jonathan Larson’s rock musical Rent as early as his first audition, which won him a starring role as the video artist Mark Cohen. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Rent opened to thunderous acclaim off-Broadway — but even as friends and family were celebrating the show’s first success, they were also mourning Jonathan Larson’s sudden death from an aortic aneurysm. And when Anthony’s mom began to lose her battle with cancer, Anthony found himself struggling to balance his life in the theater with his responsibility to his family.

In Without You, Anthony tells of his exhilarating journey with the cast and crew of Rent as well as the intimacies of his personal life behind the curtain. Marked by fledgling love and devastating loss, Without You is an exceptional memoir of the world of theater, the love of a son for his mother, and maturity won far too early.

Allison L.’s Books You Should Have Read By Now

One of the best things about my job is getting advance readers of new and exciting fiction yet to hit the bookshelves. I’ve discovered some fantastic books this way, and I love to share them with anyone who will listen. But I also get the chance to read books that have been out longer—be it a few years or a few centuries—and they can be just as fun to talk about. This month’s pick for a book you should have read by now is Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.

Cloud Atlas

It’s tempting to call this a collection of six short stories/novellas–and it is–but unlike the majority of short story collections, these stories add up to something much, much greater than their sum: they make up a novel. And an exceptionally good one at that. Instead of being told in normal linear fashion, they fit inside each other like Russian nesting dolls. Each story is broken off mid-action (in one case, mid-sentence) to give us a slice of the next story, and then we go backwards. It sounds crazy, and I think that if any other author tried this, it would have crashed and burned…but David Mitchell succeeded in a way that’s just mind boggling.

A story of sailing from New Zealand to the Americas in 1850, the tribulations of an unreliable narrator in Belgium in 1931, a race to expose a nuclear plant as a ticking time bomb in the 1970s, the horrors of being forced into a modern day nursing home, a dystopian near future in which clones are used as slaves in a corporatocracy, and adventures in post-apocalyptic Hawaii. These are radically different scenarios spread generations apart, but they all speak to the same truths about human nature and the possibility of redemption, individually and as a society. And the narrators all have a lot more in common than you would think at first glance.

My personal favorite story is the one in the dystopian near-future (because who doesn’t love a society run by corporations who enslave ‘genetically inferior’ people?), but what’s amazing about this book is how Mitchell links these stories together. His incredible writing, especially the turns-of-phrase that make you pause and reflect, keeps you reading when the first novella stops mid-sentence, but as the stories begin to fit together — as the parts begin to give you a glimpse of the whole — it’s suddenly mind-boggling and amazing and impossible to put down.

I’ve read a lot of good books, some of them so good that it’s nearly impossible for me to come up with a favorite, or even five favorites, but there are only a few that approach this level of truly transcendent writing–the kind that’s so good, so immense, so personal, so beautiful, so true, it gives you chills. When’s the last time a book gave you chills?

Yes, you should have read it by now, but it’s never too late. Just come by BookPeople or click the link above and get yourself a copy of Cloud Atlas, a finalist for the 2004 Booker and Nebula award. How can you pass that up?

Top Shelf for May 2009

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet

Part of me is tempted to sum up this book as: “What would happen if John Hodgman wrote a novel.” I don’t pay this book that complement just because it includes a chart of hobo signs and their meanings, although that did contribute. It’s mostly because I can’t come up with a comparable work of fiction to this incredibly unique debut novel that is packed with fascinating characters, complex relationships and observations about the world—not to mention just the right amount of magic. Tecumseh Sparrow Spivet, the fictional narrator whose selected works make up Reif Larsen’s stellar novel, is the kind of character you just can’t help but love. Part scientific genius, part naïve twelve-year-old boy, his maps and drawings have been published in numerous scientific journals, but he’s still at a loss to understand the complicated inner workings of the adult mind, or even the world outside of rural Montana.

One day, while mapping the process of his older sister shucking corn, T.S. receives a call from an official at the Smithsonian informing him that he’s won a prestigious award for his maps. Not boring old cartography by any means, T.S. is responsible for maps that overlay the vast network of modern highway systems onto the migratory patterns of the buffalo, maps of his father’s whiskey sipping frequency and maps of human facial movements. These works present a unique way of viewing the world, and they are incredibly beautiful (and included in the margins of the book). The only problem? The Smithsonian doesn’t know that their prize-winning cartographer is twelve. T.S. sets off on his own nonetheless, leaving behind his dysfunctional family and their Montana ranch for adventure as he heads towards the mythical East, a reversal of the traditional American route of discovery and adventure. As he “hoboes” across the Mid-west on a train, following east the exact railroad lines that carried his ancestors west, his family’s past opens up to him and to us. His mother, a scientist who essentially gave up her career to marry an uneducated rancher, seems largely ignorant of his national success. His father, who has never understood his love of maps, sees him walking towards the train with carefully packed luggage and doesn’t stop him or ask where he is going. His younger brother, Layton, was killed in a tragic accident mere months ago, and even T.S. isn’t quite sure how much of that was his fault. These family relationships are explored in the way that children explore family relationships: More questions are raised than answers given (because even a child genius can’t really understand his parents), but there’s a beautiful process of self-discovery to be found in just asking the questions.

Reif Larsen

Reading T.S.’s thoughts reminded me of hitting those first early teenage years when I began to really understand that my parents had had lives before I came into the world, and that they were defined by a lot more than I could understand. And that all those things I couldn’t quite understand were somehow a part of me, too. Larsen captures perfectly the heady feeling of discovery, not of the natural world, but the complicated social one, and T.S. Spivet is a character that I believed in completely. And loved completely. Which is not to say that this is a completely serious novel—it’s laugh-out-loud funny, too (thus the inescapable John Hodgman comparison), making it a joy to read.

What really sets this book apart, though, are the intricate drawings and maps done in the author’s own hand. Filling the margins of almost every page, these show us T.S.’s work and give our narrator’s often-hilarious reflections on the strange things that happen to him as he crosses the country and after he reaches Washington, D.C. More than mere textual notes, they are themselves a part of the story, and they add a depth to this book that elevates it from good fiction to something completely extraordinary. The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet is truly a gem, and I urge everyone to come to BookPeople on Wednesday May 13, pick up a copy and meet this phenomenal new author. This is one you don’t want to miss.

Woodsburner

Woodsburner by John Pipkin

Before he moved into his cabin at Walden, before he published his most famous text, before he wrote that most of us “lead lives of quiet desperation,” Thoreau was a big fat nobody. In fact, he was even worse than a nobody.

Almost a year before he embarked on his Walden experiment, Thoreau was responsible for a forest fire that consumed over 300 acres of Concord’s woods–which, given that there were fewer trees in Concord than there are today, is actually much worse than it sounds. Despite the fact that this accidental fire melts into the background of most of his biographies, there has always been debate about how much his guilt over this fire impacted the rest of his life–most particularly his decision to move into the cabin in the woods.

Was he just trying to escape the whispered calls of “Woodsburner” in his home? Was he guilty over destroying property? Or did it spark the naturalism that he is so known for today?

Local author John Pipkin has added his two cents to the debate with his novel Woodsburner. Pipkin draws on the feelings of isolation and indecision that eat at a man who is doing less than he is destined to do, creating in Thoreau a character that we can all identify with. On the day of the fire, Thoreau meets with three very different and very entertaining characters who are all deeply affected by his mistake.

Fans of historical fiction, and particularly historical fiction about real people, have something to be really happy about. And you don’t have to take my word for it either. My favorite historian, Doris Kearns Goodwin, had this to say about Woodsburner:

“What a terrific tale John Pipkin spins! He has taken a dramatic episode in the life of Thoreau and the history of Concord, Massachusetts, where I have lived for over thirty years, and transformed it into a gripping and profound work of fiction. More than a century and a half ago, my fellow Concordian, Ralph Waldo Emerson said of Walt Whitman. ‘I greet you at the beginning of a great career.’ The same can now be said to the wonderfully talented Mr. Pipkin.”

We’d like to invite you to come to this very special event at BookPeople on Thursday, May 7 at 7 PM to get a copy of this great book and greet this talented new author at the beginning of what will surely be a great and prolific career.

Allison L. Recommends…

Best Cover Ever?

Pride & Prejudice & Zombies by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith

If you’ve been living on Mars, in a cave, with your fingers in your ears, it’s possible you haven’t heard about Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. Possible, but not likely. But just in case…

It’s Pride & Prejudice…with Zombies!

The natural reaction to a mash-up of Jane Austen’s original text with bone crunching zombie mayhem is either excitement or revulsion–generally excitement from those who dismiss Austen as chick lit and revulsion from those of us who love her. Well, I’m here to say that both factions can rejoice–P&P&Z has something for you.

If you’ve never been a fan of Austen, or of British Lit in general, the discussions of social niceties can be confusing. And when reading someone like Austen, if you don’t know the societal norms, you can’t appreciate the way that she undermines them. Seth Grahame-Smith has solved this problem. Why did Mr. Darcy separate Jane and Bingley? Why is it unseemly for Elizabeth to walk to Netherfield alone? Why did Charlotte marry Mr. Collins? And why would Elizabeth even pretend to suffer the foolishness of Lady Catherine? The answers in Austen’s time might have been complicated, but in P&P&Z, they’re simple. Zombies.

And ninjas. Don’t forget the ninjas. (One of them has his still-beating heart plucked from his chest and eaten. By Elizabeth Bennet.)

As for fans of Austen, a group with whom I strongly identify, you guys have to pick this up. Seriously. It’s a terribly fun read, very quick, and Seth Grahame-Smith actually bases a lot of his humor on minor tweaks to Austen’s original words. How funny would Lady Catherine’s remark:

“No Ninjas! I’ve never heard of such a thing! Five daughters brought up in a house with no ninjas!”

be if you didn’t know the original? Plus, you know Elizabeth Bennet is a badass at heart. And if she could have, Austen would have had her bash Darcy’s head on the mantle for his terribly rude proposal.

Summary: I don’t care who you are, come get a copy of P&P&Z. And then hold your breath in anticipation of:

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer.

Posted by Allison L

Top Shelf of April

You’ve already heard us mention Philipp Meyer’s new novel American Rust when he was coming to the store last month, but we liked the book so much we made it our Top Shelf pick for April.  Kester Smith, our New & Noteworthy Book Club leader, had this to say about American Rust.

I have been waiting for almost 15 years for someone to write American Rust. Philipp Meyer finally did it.

This might take a paragraph or two to explain.

I am a rabid Bruce Springsteen fan. And, in the fall of 1995, Springsteen released an album titled The Ghost of Tom Joad. The title was clearly inspired by John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, but the songs were as much about the Texas/Mexico border or Pennsylvania steel towns as they were about the classic trek to California. They were songs about real people, and acted as a compliment to Springsteen’s earlier (and best) work, Nebraska.

I spent the last two months of 1995 listening to these two albums on repeat and wishing I had the time or the skill to write a film or a book that was populated by characters like these. Given that I lacked the time (or, quite possibly, the skill), I wished that someone, somewhere, sometime might take the task upon himself.

And, almost 15 years later, Philipp Meyer completed this task, and beautifully.

Some authors create characters that do what you think they’ll do. Some authors create characters that do what you hope they’ll do. Others create characters that do what they “ought” to do.

But a certain type of author, a particularly gifted sort, allows his characters to do what they would actually do; allows them to live and breathe as if they were real.

Philipp Meyer is that kind of author.

American Rust is set in a Pennsylvania steel town and is centered around the friendship of Isaac English and Billy Poe, two recent high school graduates bound by a desire to escape the fate of their families and friends, stuck in a town that is slowly dying. On the day they manage to finally make good their escape, Isaac and Billy find themselves caught up in an act of violence that threatens to trap them forever.

American Rust is already being compared to the works of Cormac McCarthy and John Steinbeck, and with good reason, but as I read Meyer’s book, I was most reminded of the soul and sadness of a Springsteen song. American Rust is a powerful debut about life and death and loyalty and love. Meyer captures the danger and darkness that run through the heart of our American landscape and the rust and decay of our American dream.

We currently have signed copies available, and BookPeople highly recommends this great local author!

Also, check out his appearance on NPR’s All Things Considered.

New This Month

Emergency:  This Book Will Save Your Life

Wondering about the apocalypse is nothing new–as long as people have lived on Earth, they’ve wondered when the end will come. But I’ve heard it said that my generation (the one composed of people who did most of their growing up after the Cold War ended) has been the first to really think about what comes next. Yeah, civilization as we know it is going to end because of economic collapse, war, zombies or Biblical prophecy…but then what?

That question is a perpetual topic of conversation here at BookPeople, so Neil Strauss’s new book has been an instant hit. After The Game, his somewhat-creepy but undeniably fascinating non-fiction best-seller about “Pick Up Artists,” Strauss turned his attention to more serious subjects. Just what would a city boy do if a natural disaster or terrorist attack knocked out his power for weeks? How would he survive without stores and hospitals?

Seeing the world through “apocalypse eyes,” Strauss sets off to figure out just what he would do to keep himself and his loved ones safe if (when) the unthinkable happens. This is a great how-to book for low-tech self-sufficiency, and is especially helpful if you’ve lived in big cities your whole life (like me).

Have you heard the latest gossip?

Well if you haven’t, you can bet that Perez Hilton has!

The self-proclaimed ‘Queen of all Media’ and creator of perezhilton.com will be at BookPeople this Saturday at 2PM.  For those of us (ie the marketing office at BookPeople) who read his blog religiously, this book signing should be a total blast.  Hilton’s new book, Red Carpet Suicide, must be purchased from BookPeople in order to get it signed.  Wristbands for the signing line will go out at 12:30PM and photos are welcome.

Check here for full event rules and make sure you get here early because we expect to sell out!