At Last! More To Read!

So, Flower, need some more to read? Tons, right?


Bloomsbury Publishing has re-issued more out of print titles in the Bloomsbury Group series. How nice is that? The new titles are: Let's Kill Uncle by Rohan O'Grady, Henrietta Sees Through It by Joyce Denny and Mrs. Ames by E.F. Benson. They join:  A Kid for Two Farthings by Wolf Mankowitz, Mrs. Tim of the Regiment by D.E. Stevenson, Love's Shadow by Ada Leverson, Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker, and The Brontes Went To Woolworths by Rachel Ferguson.   

At this moment these books are only available in the U.K. but since the previous four titles in the series were published here you can hold off on the panic. These will be published here as well at some point. Although buying books from the U.K. isn't impossible. The shipping is what can really add up so shop around.

If you visit Bloomsbury's website you can recommend other titles for them to bring back into print. What would I like? hmmmm..... I'd like Random Harvest by James Hilton, Troy Chimneys by Margaret Kennedy, The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart, Miss Bishop by Bess Streeter Aldrich...

Happy

Let The Thieves Of Manhattan Steal Your Precious Reading Time

Flower!


I am all for books that are... what? What is the common thread? Two things: entertaining and well written. They don't have to be: important, funny, sad, mysterious, romantic, historical, modern or classics but they have to be good storytelling. No, I am not about to tell you that those elements come together once in a great while and here is a book that is one of those books. Well here is a book that is one of those books but I find books that meet my demands all the time. Isn't that wonderful? Some fulfill the requirements more completely than others and The Thieves of Manhattan is one of those books, but in general there are so many terrific books to read.

Okay. Enough with the misty eyed gratitude. The Thieves of Manhattan, right? Right.

What a crack up! Author Adam Langer has taken James Frey, publishing insiders, misery memoirs, the stereotypical Manhattan artist scene and written a funny, funny novel. His hero Ian Minot, a failed writer, is a classic bad luck Shleprock. He can't get anything right and his timing is worst of all. His lack of success is thorough. He can't get his work published and his immigrant Romanian girlfriend, the current darling of the publishing world as a result of her memoir of life under Ceausescu, is about to throw him over for a con-artist author Ian sees as the epitome of all that is wrong in publishing, Blake Markham. Into Ian's trough of self pity and failure comes brilliant editor Jed Roth, himself a rejected author, with a plan. Revenge.

The rest of the plot is Top Secret. Read Thieves yourself and find it out. By the time you finish it you will have had the world's best internship in publishing. The book will not only entertain you but it will also make you think about the voracity of what you read--just because it's in black and white doesn't make it black and white or anywhere near true. The shadier the road to success becomes for Ian the more important the truth is to him. Langer's novel (his 4th) isn't just all mock and no soul. Langer obviously has great affection for his characters and books.

My only dislike in The Thieves of Manhattan is a minor one. I did not enjoy all the fake book slang. Calling a short sentence a Hemingway or an umbrella a Poppins certainly displays Langer's reading credentials, but I found it tiresome and affected. There is even a glossary in the back containing all these terms presumably for all of us who don't get it. So you get the dumbed down explanation instead of the reward for being as well read as the author. Aside from that quibble, Thieves was a pleasure.

And. It's in paperback! And. It's at independent bookstores everywhere! And. If you go to one of those stores as opposed to shopping on line at one you will find tons of other good books to read. Isn't that fabulous?

Happy

P.S. The Cover? Love it.

Confessions

Bless Me Flower For I Have Sinned.

Or Have I? I kind of think I have.

There are things I haven't read that people assume I have read and I don't contradict them. Maybe if I was not a book person or a book seller the perception of my reading chops would be different. When you work in bookstores customers expect that you have read 3/4 of the store's inventory, if not all of it and they know  like they know that babies are cute, Stepehn King will have a new 700+ page novel out every year and that each Jennifer Aniston movie will be worse than the last  that you have read everything ever published for the 14 and under set.

It's true.

I have no problem with the adult books that I have not read that people/customers think that I have. I say whatever. Retail is retail. If John Q. Public brings assumptions concerning my literary authority into the store the better for me. If he then holds up Crap Novel and askes if I think he will like it, like a cop looking down the barrel of a perp's gun I have to make a split second decision. I have to contemplate the author's reputation, the price, any recent reviews and/or customer feedback, Mr Public's customer loyalty and purchase history----Did he buy 2 books last week, 3? Well did he, Punk?----- all weighed against my desire to sell, sell, sell. Guess what wins? But then ask me how many people have ever been unhappy with me for really just quiting any am-I-wasting-my-money fears because that is all they want.

I feel differently about books for children through young adults. When it comes to books for that crowd I need my never quite at the surface integrity. I want to recommend books that will help keep youngsters reading and loving books. Not only because I want them to one day spend their hard earned at my bookstore but because I want them to have the joy, knowledge and companionship of books throughout their lives.

So. I am going to stop pretending that I have read Goodnight Moon and The Giving Tree.

Okay. I'm not going to do that but I will continue to feel bad about myself for doing it. Is that enough?

Happy

P.S. In case you were wondering if my opinions about the books on this blog are my real opinions? They are. If I had to comment on every book that comes into my hands they wouldn't be but here I get to pick and choose.

The Invisible Bridge

Flower!

In the world of English language historical novels there are 3 time periods that get the most play: Ancient Rome, Tudor England and WWII. Why? I'm not sure. There were big changes in those eras and even bigger villains but you can say that for Renaissance Italy and the French Revolution as well. My personal theory is that most people have at least a vague knowledge of those times from all the films made about those periods (Not to mention that WWII is recent history with hundreds of thousands of people who lived it still living!) and that makes reading about them more accessible than say Feudal Russia. Therefore that's what they buy and what they buy determines what gets published next and so on and so on.


It's a brave author that picks one of the Big Three as the setting of their novel because that built in familiarity is a double edged sword. The author can count on the reader bringing a certain amount of understanding and empathy to their book but the reader also brings a show-me-something-I-haven't-seen-before attitude. Amazingly enough author Julie Orringer manages to accomplish that literary miracle in her sensational novel The Invisible Bridge.

Three Hungarian, Jewish brothers are all taking their first steps in their adult lives. The eldest, Tibor, to medical school, the middle brother (our hero) Andras to Paris on a scholarship and baby brother drops out of school to pursue the stage. Their freedom and excitement is short lived. This is Europe in 1937. Horrific historical events that the brothers will need to survive to keep their family intact are just around the corner. Within two years the brothers will be even more scattered and very familiar with the worst the twentieth century has on the menu.

What sets Invisible apart from other World War II sagas is Orringer's focus on the details of everyday life. Here is where the payoff for the jaded war story reader is found. Orringer writes with singular attention about the daily lives of her characters. She never loses the epic sweep that you want in a novel about lives tossed about by war and evil but the focus is on the helplessness and day to day struggles and successes of her characters. Invisible is an intimate chronicle of a family trapped in terrible times determined to stay a family.

I was impressed by The Invisible Bridge. The story isn't new but Orringer's writing is fresh and beautiful. This novel demands your interest and consideration and in return gives you a powerful reading experience.

Happy

Ghosting As A Career Choice

Flower!

How much of yourself do you set aside every day when you go to work? Are you putting on a game face or do you become someone else entirely? In Ghosting, author Jennie Erdal writes about her years spent living a double life at work. Why? Money? Timidity? Power? Ghostwriting started out for Erdal as a convenient job for a mother of three. It became a very strange and morally murky career. The details of her 15 years ghosting for a well known publisher (Referred to as Tiger throughout the book. In real life he was Naim Attallah) and media personality are absorbing. During that time she wrote a huge amount of business letters, love letters, articles and even full length books that were published under Tiger's name. It's quite bizarre and absorbing.


Erdal grew up in Scotland, studied Russian literature, married, divorced, married and in between had three children. She writes about all these events with grace and humor. However it's her symbiotic relationship with Tiger and especially how she got to that point, that is the fascination here. This is no misery memoir. Tiger, while the antihero isn't a villain. Some of Ghosting is quite amusing. Erdal as her alter ego, writing Tiger's erotic novel and the trip to France to write his first novel when she has no idea at all how to write fiction. There is some unpleasantness: temper tantrums, office politics and an ego the size of the universe to deal with on a daily basis.

Ghosting is a remarkable life portrait about an intelligent woman in a very curious situation. She not only thrives in that situation but survives and overcomes it as well.

Happy who is really someone else but writes all her own stuff as this other person

The Hand That First Held Mine

Flower!

Did you like or maybe love The Vanishing Act of Esme Lenox? I did, love it I mean. That was my first experience with author Maggie O'Farrell. It made me go back and read her backlist-- excellent -- and be excited by the prospect of any new titles by her. Now----Ta Da! A new novel by Ms O'Farrell, The Hand That First Held Mine. Do I like it? Do I love it? Love it.


What a thrillingly (Is that a word?) expert writer O'Farrell is. Every word is a perfect choice and not one is wasted. Her novels are all about relationships. That sounds very boring and potentially awful but don't worry. To say that O'Farrell writes about relationships is like saying Fred Astaire can dance. You get a starting point but you actually have no idea of the talent, seemingly effortless skill and artistry that they bring to the job.

The Hand That First Held Mine covers the lives of two independent women. One of the women's stories is set in the 1950's and the other woman is in a contemporary setting. The novel is also about motherhood and time. In the earlier part of the story Lexie Sinclair is at the start of her career. She is a working journalist, in love and we're told going to die young. In the present day Finnish (Will this count as Scandinavian appeal?) artist Elina Vilkuna and her boyfriend Ted excitedly await the birth of their first child. After Elina almost dies during labor motherhood becomes an isolating and fearful experience. For Ted fatherhood brings up memories that distance him from his new family. Of course the parallel lives will somehow converge. How that is going to happen isn't telegraphed to you. There are subtle references but O'Farrell lets you discover the gaps in these lives as she builds tensions.

There is poetry in the writing of Maggie O'Farrell. She writes with such color and strength about the everyday and yet the novel is absolutely gripping. I have heard O'Farrell compared to Daphne Du Maurier and I agree. In the books of both of these writers are interesting, completely realized women coming to terms with the mysteries of fate. The Hand That First Held Mine is a wonderful puzzle that O'Farrell presents to you and she is the kind of writer that lets you have all the fun of solving it.

Happy

P.S. The U.K. cover? What do you think? Neither cover really appeals to me. The U.S. cover is flat and has a YA feel to it and the U.K. cover looks like the entire novel takes place in the 1950's. I don't like the balance of the U.K. cover either. It's very top heavy with all that varying type below.

The Target Is My Heart

Oh Flower the humanity!

Ok. Ready? The Back To School shopping area is already set up at Target. And. It's not new today. Oh no it's been up for over a week. Have I been Rip Van Winkle-ized in some way? Is it now mid August and I just didn't know it? Do our children need to be exposed to this before they finished even one chorus of  No More Teachers, No More Books?

Back to school paraphernalia in the beginning of July? Talk about a buzz kill. Poor little guys.

I am all for getting the Christmas merch out in October. I love seeing it all and it makes the holiday last a little longer. Ditto for Easter products making the shelves in January, Flag Day party plates ready for purchase in March, and calendars on the sales floor by August. But in the name of all that is sacred and holy put the school supplies back in the store room. It has been many, many years since I was in school and still after all these years seeing notebooks, calculators and pencil cases all in a row breaks my heart.

So Un Happy