Meet Marie Lu at Ravenna Third Place Books!

We are very excited to welcome Marie Lu to our Ravenna location on Monday, October 19th, at 7PM. Christina wrote up a little something to tell you why you should be excited too. 

The Rose Society, Marie Lu's sequel to the first title to Young Elites series, is an unrelentingly dark book. If you're familiar with The Young Elites, this is no surprise: the series focuses on the wonderfully complex Adelina Amouteru, who is much more villain than hero. The stakes are higher and the scope is broader in The Rose Society, as Adelina and her sister Violetta look for allies to help them in their quest for revenge on almost everyone - Estenzia, the Inquisition Axis, her former friends, and almost anyone who crosses her path. And along the way, more and more opportunities arise for Adelina to use her powers and escalate to more and more violent acts. And oh, does she take those opportunities! 

"Once upon a time, a girl had a father, a prince, a society of friends. Then they betrayed her, and she destroyed them all."

I love YA books but I know I'm very behind on current titles. When I learned that Marie Lu was coming to my store for a signing (October 19! 7pm!) I took that as encouragement to start The Young Elites series despite not knowing much about them. This series has powerful plotting, enough complex and intricate twists to keep any George R.R. Martin or Pretty Little Liars fan engaged. It has all the  characteristics found in other successful young adult series: colorful characters, troubled romance, love triangles, a vivid world with just enough similarities to historical times in our own world to be both familiar and interesting, and of course- super powers. Between them, Adelina and her associates can control the weather, call illusions, conjure fire, heal almost instantaneously, and fly using the wind.

But the heart of these books is Adelina, and she's fascinating! If you've ever felt a twinge of sympathy for characters like Darth Vader or Draco Malfoy, Adelina's plight might move you to tears. She's boxed in by a series of circumstances difficult enough to make anyone grudgingly accept her disruptive mayhem. But what makes The Rose Society, leaping into the scenarios set up by The Young Elites, such a page-turner is that Adelina, far from a passive victim, is aware of other options and typically chooses, of her own volition, the more ruthless and ambitious path. She develops a deep satisfaction in her ability to control others that Lu makes very clear:

"I have never known the mind of a wolf hunting a deer, but I imagine it must feel a little like this: the twisted excitement of seeing the weak and wounded cowering before you, the knowledge that, in this instant, you have the power to end its life or grant it mercy. In this moment, I am a god."

Of course, as soon as the reader becomes tempted to unilaterally condemn Adelina, the plot twists and it seems equally inviting to cheer the downfall of her aggressors instead. This is a tension that Lu sustains thrillingly throughout and makes it really difficult to imagine how this will be reconciled in the final book of the trilogy. (Like, seriously. Any ideas?) The Rose Society prompts you to wonder, at what point do we wash our hands of someone and declare them irredeemable? Because, of course, we want even our anti-heroes to be redeemed in the end, yet Adelina commits some truly unforgivable acts. And to what degree are others responsible for creating an environment in which Adelina's choices are so few?

Read The Rose Society and join me in speculation. I'm also here for your pro- or anti-Enzo feelings. And in signing off, may I direct your attention to The Rose Society's Goodreads page, where there are over 100 pages of fan-made reaction .gif sets to accompany you.

 - Christina

You Read to Me, I'll Read to You

I love reading aloud, and not just children's illustrated books, novels too. It's unclear where this love came from, because reading out loud in grade school would send me into a panic-freeze-doom-spiral. But by undergrad, my friends and I were always reading out loud. Mostly Harry Potter, and romance novels. We'd spend countless hours procrastinating on our homework, reading out loud, and giggling at the racy bits (of the romance novels, not HP).

But reading out loud is only fun when you have an audience. And when there's no one in your life with the time or interest to listen to you read, there's really no reason to do it anymore. And so for a long time, I didn't.

And then, last year on a particularly slow day at work, one of my then co-workers (and current read-aloud friend) found ourselves with only one advanced reader's copy of Miranda July's novel, The First Bad Man. We started reading small parts out loud, and because it was such a slow day, those small parts became longer and longer, until we had read an entire chapter out loud. We enjoyed ourselves so much we didn't stop and spent a lovely evening on her porch, drinking cool beverages, and reading to each other.

Both of us were struck by how much we missed reading aloud, and being read to. And that's how Grown-Up Storytime was born. We call it LoLS, The League of Literary Snobbery: Storytime for Grownups. Yes, it's a regrettable name born of an astounding lack of imagination, and that calling something "Adult Storytime" would generate an entirely different audience.

Every third Monday of the month at the Ravenna location, at 7PM, we gather in the Pub, get our drinks and adjourn to the Reading Room. And we read out loud. Mostly it's me reading, but others join in from time to time (we gladly welcome new readers). Sometimes there's a theme, and sometimes not. It might be an article, a short story, an essay, or a piece from a novel. Sometimes the occasional poem gets thrown around. We play it pretty fast and loose.

And, according to this completely unresearched (by me) link on the internet, reading aloud is good for you! It:

• Sharpens Your Focus 
• Increases Your Vocabulary 
• Results in Greater Comprehension 
• Gives you an Opportunity to Play 
• Exercises Your Body 
• Challenges Your Use of Intonation 
• Improves Listening and Reading Skills

You should join us. Tommorrow, Monday July 20th at 7PM. Meet in the Pub at Ravenna Third Place. I'll read to you, and you'll drink drinks, and there will even be popcorn...and air conditioning. Hope to see you there.

Meet the Author: Stuart Rojstaczer and The Mathematician's Shiva

We here at the Ravenna location are getting pretty keyed-up for our upcoming events. This fall is chock full of great author visits, and other awesome activities like a pajama party for kids, storytime for grown-ups, and some huge author luncheons.

First up, we are so excited to welcome Stuart Rojstaczer and his new novel The Mathematician's Shiva. Stuart has been a university professor, a dishwasher, a musician, a scientist, the nation's foremost expert on grade inflation, and now a novelist. To get you equally keyed-up, and as a sort of introduction, we've asked Stuart a few bookish questions.

Stuart will join us at the Ravenna location on Satuday, September 6th at 7 PM.

What is the last really great book you read?

The last new or newish book was The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson. The last older book was Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol (a re-read).

What are the next few books on your to-read list?

• Re-read Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev 
• 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel by Jane Smiley
• The Property by Rutu Modan
• The Possessed by Elif Batuman

If you could read one book again for the first time, what book would it be?
Candide by Voltaire. I think that was the first time I realized you could be smart and funny and still be important as a writer. I loved the feeling that recognition gave me and I'd love to re-experience it.

What book would people be surprised that you've read and enjoyed? 
Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. I read it to my daughter years ago. It's not well written, but it's a fun story about a geeky, brainy family. That's my kind of family.

How are your bookshelves arranged at home?
All fiction and letters of fiction writers are in one grouping arranged alphabetically by author. Then there is a travel section arranged alphabetically by city/country. Then there is a baseball section. Then there is an education section. Then there is the "everything else" section arranged alphabetically by author.

What is your favorite bookstore? 
Books Inc. in Palo Alto, CA. It's not only a great little bookstore with a knowledgeable staff, but that staff will also, on occasion, serve up a stiff margarita. Take that, Amazon!

Who are your 5 favorite authors?
That's a loaded question! If favorite means, ooh, a new book is coming out, I've gotta get it, then number one right now would be Ian McEwan. There are a boat load of contemporary authors I admire. In terms of living American writers who have paid their dues and would be first on a ballot of Hall of Famers (and there should be a Writers Hall of Fame somewhere in America): in no particular order, Doctorow, Smiley, Ford, Chabon, Pynchon, and Banks. That's six. I'll stop there.

Do you have any weird writing process quirks?
I say a little "prayer" in Yiddish when I start. It's a kind of summoning. Seems to set the mood quite nicely.
  
What's next for you? 
Finish my next novel!

You should also check out Stuart's interesting Publisher's Weekly piece on the difference between doing science and writing novels.

The Mathematician's Shiva by Stuart Rojstaczer

“A brilliant and compelling family saga full of warmth, pathos, history, and humor.” –Jonathan Evison, author of West of Here 

“A hugely entertaining debut.” –Publishers Weekly

When the greatest female mathematician in history passes away, her son, Alexander “Sasha” Karnokovitch, just wants to mourn his mother in peace. But rumor has it the notoriously eccentric Polish émigré has solved one of the most difficult problems in all of mathematics, and has spitefully taken the solution to her grave. As a ragtag group of mathematicians from around the world descends upon Rachela’s shiva, determined to find the proof or solve it for themselves—even if it means prying up the floorboards for notes or desperately scrutinizing the mutterings of her African Grey parrot—Sasha must come to terms with his mother’s outsized influence on his life.

Spanning decades and continents, from a crowded living room in Madison, Wisconsin, to the windswept beach on the Barents Sea where a young Rachela had her first mathematical breakthrough, The Mathematician’s Shiva is an unexpectedly moving and uproariously funny novel that captures humanity’s drive not just to survive, but to achieve the impossible.

Read This Book

Every month at Ravenna we each pick a book and those Staff Picks are 20% off for the entire month (at the Ravenna location only...sorry LFP).  Well, In December, Ami chose the book I Love Dick by Chris Kraus.  But customers didn't really seem that interested in it.  Maybe it's because everyone was shopping for gifts and not themselves, or perhaps it's the title...

At any rate, Ami is bound and determined to get you to read it.  So, it's going to be her Staff Pick for January too.  And she threatens that it will remain her Staff Pick until someone buys it.  She has some amazing things to say about it.  I was talking with her about it and the words she uses to describe the book are pretty remarkable.  Here's the list:

• intense
• emotional
• academic
• provocative
• unique
• abrasive
• self aware
• uncensored
• prickly
• authentic

I don't think I've ever heard anyone describe a book as prickly, how can you NOT want to read it now?  Well, if you're still unsure here is Ami's full review:

Revolutionary, momentous, phenomenal. This true novel (or novelistic memoir?) chronicles Chris Kraus' infatuation with the eponymous Dick in a story of obsession, intellect and art that, despite its expansiveness, is tightly woven with confidence and purpose. Kraus is a bold, honest, vulnerable and highly intelligent voice, a radiant beacon through the haze of an aloof, indifferent world. A forceful accomplishment, equally detested and revered--if you can handle it, this book will change your life.

And here's a bit more on what I Love Dick is all about...

In I Love Dick, published in 1997, Chris Kraus, author of Aliens and Anorexia, Torpor, and Video Green, boldly tore away the veil that separates fiction from reality and privacy from self-expression. It's no wonder that I Love Dick instantly elicited violent controversies and attracted a host of passionate admirers.

The story is gripping enough: in 1994 a married, failed independent filmmaker, turning forty, falls in love with a well-known theorist and endeavors to seduce him with the help of her husband. But when the theorist refuses to answer her letters, the husband and wife continue the correspondence for each other instead, imagining the fling the wife wishes to have with Dick.

What follows is a breathless pursuit that takes the woman across America and away from her husband; and far beyond her original infatuation into a discovery of the transformative power of first person narrative. I Love Dick is a manifesto for a new kind of feminist who isn't afraid to burn through her own narcissism in order to assume responsibility for herself and for all the injustice in world; and it's a book you won't put down until the author's final, heroic acts of self-revelation and transformation.

I don't know about you, but it sounds like the next book I'm gonna read.

The most important section in the store

We've got ourselves a new section! All Stephen Colbert, all the time! Actually, I was just shifting some things around, to give our humor section a bit of room to stretch, but my love for Stephen sort of took over, and the greatest section in the store was born! Sadly, I doubt it will last long, so you better head over now!

And if you haven't, you really should listen to Stephen's latest book on audio. It's perfect. My review below!

America Again by The Reverend Dr. Stephen T. Colbert DFA

NATION! The only thing better than Stephen's latest book is the audio version of Stephen's latest book. Why? Because it's read by the author. That's right! Stephen Colbert reading Stephen Colbert. Actually, much of it is shouted, but that's okay too. It's outrageous and informative, and I think the best way to enjoy it. But even if you already have the version with words, the audio is well worth it. More than worth it! Really, you need this. But be warned, this will make you laugh. Out loud. So, if you are on a bus and listening, you will laugh on the bus. And people will look at you.

Bookstore Perils

The other day I was at the cash register, and heard a terrible crash.

Looks like Mark shelved one too many books. Sorry the picture is a bit blurry, I was finding it difficult to laugh and hold the camera steady.

This incident got me thinking about the weight of books. So I googled "weight of a library" and found this great little piece on Snopes. Enjoy!

Bringing Law and Order to Political Science...at least order, anyway

Look at how beautiful my Political Science section is! It's SO beautiful. Please note the patriotic red, white, and blue display. Now check out some of the more recent political science, law, and related humor titles. You'll learn a lot, laugh a little, and most likely find yourself bemoaning the current state of our political system. Enjoy!


The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court
by Jeffrey Toobin

From the moment Chief Justice Roberts botched Barack Obama's oath of office, the relationship between the Court and the White House has been a fraught one. Grappling with issues as diverse as campaign finance, abortion, and the right to bear arms, the Roberts court has put itself squarely at the center of American political life. Jeffrey Toobin brilliantly portrays key personalities and cases and shows how the President was fatally slow to realize the importance of the judicial branch to his agenda. Combining incisive legal analysis with riveting insider details, The Oath is an essential guide to understanding the Supreme Court of our interesting times.

This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral-Plus, Plenty of Valet Parking!-in America's Gilded Capital
by Mark Leibovich

Tim Russert is dead. But the room was alive. Big Ticket Washington Funerals can make such great networking opportunities. Power mourners keep stampeding down the red carpets of the Kennedy Center, handing out business cards, touching base. And there is no time to waste in a gold rush, even (or especially) at a solemn tribal event like this.

Washington—This Town—might be loathed from every corner of the nation, yet these are fun and busy days at this nexus of big politics, big money, big media, and big vanity. There are no Democrats and Republicans anymore in the nation’s capital, just millionaires. That is the grubby secret of the place in the twenty-first century. You will always have lunch in This Town again. No matter how many elections you lose, apologies you make, or scandals you endure.

In This Town, Mark Leibovich, chief national correspondent for The New York Times Magazine, presents a blistering, stunning—and often hysterically funny—examination of our ruling class’s incestuous “media industrial complex.” Through his eyes, we discover how the funeral for a beloved newsman becomes the social event of the year. How political reporters are fetishized for their ability to get their names into the predawn e-mail sent out by the city’s most powerful and puzzled-over journalist. How a disgraced Hill aide can overcome ignominy and maybe emerge with a more potent “brand” than many elected members of Congress. And how an administration bent on “changing Washington” can be sucked into the ways of This Town with the same ease with which Tea Party insurgents can, once elected, settle into it like a warm bath.

Outrageous, fascinating, and destined to win Leibovich a whole host of, er, new friends, This Town is must reading, whether you’re inside the Beltway—or just trying to get there.

Me the People: One Man's Selfless Quest to Rewrite the Constitution of the United States of America
by Kevin Bleyer

You hold in your hands no mere book, but the most important document of our time. Its creator, Daily Show writer Kevin Bleyer, paid every price, bore every burden, and saved every receipt in his quest to assure the salvation of our nation’s founding charter. He flew to Greece, the birthplace of democracy. He bused to Philly, the home of independence. He went toe-to-toe (face-to-face) with Scalia. He added nightly confabs with James Madison to his daily consultations with Jon Stewart. He tracked down not one but two John Hancocks—to make his version twice as official. He even read the Constitution of the United States. So prepare yourselves, fellow patriots, for the most significant literary event of the twenty-first, twentieth, nineteenth, and latter part of the eighteenth centuries. Me the People won’t just form a More Perfect Union. It will save America. Praise for Me the People

“I would rather read a constitution written by Kevin Bleyer than by the sharpest minds in the country.”—Jon Stewart

“I knew James Madison. James Madison was a friend of mine. Mr. Bleyer, you are no James Madison. But you sure are a heck of a lot more fun.”—Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin

The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America
by George Packer

A riveting examination of a nation in crisis, from one of the finest political journalists of our generation.

American democracy is beset by a sense of crisis. Seismic shifts during a single generation have created a country of winners and losers, allowing unprecedented freedom while rending the social contract, driving the political system to the verge of breakdown, and setting citizens adrift to find new paths forward. In The Unwinding, George Packer, author of The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, tells the story of the United States over the past three decades in an utterly original way, with his characteristically sharp eye for detail and gift for weaving together complex narratives.

The Unwinding journeys through the lives of several Americans, including Dean Price, the son of tobacco farmers, who becomes an evangelist for a new economy in the rural South; Tammy Thomas, a factory worker in the Rust Belt trying to survive the collapse of her city; Jeff Connaughton, a Washington insider oscillating between political idealism and the lure of organized money; and Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley billionaire who questions the Internet’s significance and arrives at a radical vision of the future. Packer interweaves these intimate stories with biographical sketches of the era’s leading public figures, from Newt Gingrich to Jay-Z, and collages made from newspaper headlines, advertising slogans, and song lyrics that capture the flow of events and their undercurrents.

The Unwinding portrays a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams, its elites no longer elite, its institutions no longer working, its ordinary people left to improvise their own schemes for success and salvation. Packer’s novelistic and kaleidoscopic history of the new America is his most ambitious work to date.

Animals Coming At You!!!!!

Ravenna is going crazy over ZOO 3D! Clearly, Ami can't get enough!

And Emily says ZOO 3D is, "way better than those other 3D books. It's got 3D pictures on every page! Not just on some pages!" And this month, ZOO 3D is 20% off (along with the rest of the August staff picks) at our Ravenna location.

Bookseller Top Tens! Part Two

You thought I forgot, didn't you.  It's okay, I would have thought that too.  I was just waiting until you were no longer burnt out from end-of-the-year, top-ten lists.  Clever, aren't I?  After great delay, here is the much hankered after, second edition of Bookseller Top Tens (Part One, here).  As a reminder, these lists are top ten books read in 2012, no matter when they were published.  Here goes!

Terry at Lake Forest Park
Despite instruction that the lists didn't need to be in any kind of order, Terry has labeled his number ones...what's more, he even separated his lists into fiction and non-fiction.  So organized!

Fiction

• #1 Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
• The Detour by Andromeda Romano-Lax
• May We Be Forgiven by A.M. Homes
• The Sea of Tears by Nani Power
• The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad
• We Sinners by Hanna Pylvainen

Non-Ficton

• #1 My Poets by Maureen M. McLane
• Empire of Liberty by Gordon Wood
• Never Say Die: The Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age by Susan Jacoby
• The Unknown Night: The Genius and Madness of R.A. Blakelock, an American Painter by Glyn Vincent 

Andrew at Ravenna
In one last brave, bookseller act before he heads off into the sunset, here is Andrew's top ten.  Happy trails, Andrew, we'll miss you!

1. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
2. Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
3. City of Thieves by David Benioff 
4. The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown
5. Bender by Dean Young
6. The Puppet and The Dwarf by Slavoj Zizek
7. Love : An Index by Rebecca Lindberg 
8. Lamberto Lamberto Lamberto by Gianni Rodari
9. Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain 
10. Guide to Getting It On by Paul Joannides

Adam at Lake Forest Park

Adam is one of my all-time favorite book recommend-ers (he's great for movies too).  His tastes are unusual, eclectic, often unknown, but always interesting.  It's a good idea to pay attention to what Adam is reading.

• The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas 
• The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture by David Mamet
• On the Overgrown Path by David Herter
• The Animal Family by Randall Jarrell 
• Diary of an Early American Boy by Eric Sloane 
• The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul
• The Public Image by Muriel Spark
• Cardboard by Doug TenNapel 
• All Quiet on the Orient Express by Magnus Mills
• My Kind of Girl by Buddhadeva Bose

Emily M. at Ravenna

We got ourselves another Top Eleven...wouldn't you know it, the other person who picked eleven; also named Emily (Check out Top Tens Part One).  Cheaters!  I wonder if all Emilys are cheaters.  Well, I suppose they are forgiven, but I've got my eye on them.

• Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin
• Finally by Wendy Mass
• Smile by Raina Telgemeier
• Slinky Malinki by Lynley Dodd
• Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare
• Family of Poems edited by Caroline Kennedy
• Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip Stead
• Lessons From a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles
• Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
• A Year of Mornings by Marie Vettese
• Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

Jessica B. at Lake Forest Park
One of the great things about the top ten lists is finding out who has similar tastes.  Turns out, I should probably read some of Jessica's picks, because there are quite a few on her list that I have loved.  Also, I think she has the best title...The Interrogative Mood: A Novel? Question Mark!

• And the Pursuit of Happiness by Maira Kalman
• People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• The Interrogative Mood: A Novel? by Padgett Powell
• Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
• Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
• Glaciers by Alexis Smith
• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
• A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver
• Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Owen at Ravenna
Owen says that his number one for the year is How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti.  I don't know, Owen.  You tell me.  How should a person be?

• Last Good Kiss by James Crumley
• Another Country by James Baldwin
• Lizard Music by Daniel Pinkwater
• Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
• How Should a Person Be?: A Novel from Life by Sheila Heti
• City of Bohane by Kevin Barry
• Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine Saint-Exupery
• King City by Brandon Graham
• The Carter Family: Don't Forget this Song by David Lasley and Frank Young
• Sea Runners by Ivan Doig

Jane at Lake Forest Park
Jane is another bookseller who had trouble narrowing her favorites down.  But she says that her #1 of 2012 is Leon and Louise, but that is subject to fluctuation...depending on the day...and the weather.

• Life : An Exploded Diagram by Mal Peet
• Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
• Papa Hemingway by A.E. Hotchner
• The Bartender's Tale by Ivan Doig
• The Orchardist by Amanda Copland
• Leon and Louise by Alex Capus
• Grace by T. Greenwood
• Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
• Reunion at Red Paint Bay by George Harrar
• House Girl by Tara Conklin

Annie at Lake Forest Park
Annie says that Garth Nix is her second favorite author after Michael Ende.  Well, Garth Nix is pretty awesome, so maybe we should check out this Michael Ende character.

1. A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix
2. Hold Me Closer Necromancer/Necromancing the Stone by Lish McBride
3. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
4. Heir to the Empire: The 20th Anniversary Edition by Timothy Zahn
5. Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
6. Passion Play by Beth Bernobich
7. The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne Valente
8. Wild by Cheryl Strayed
9. North of Beautiful by Justina Chen
10. Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

Erin B. at Ravenna

Hey!  That's me!  Saved the best for last...am I right?

• The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
• America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't (the audiobook) by Stephen T. Colbert 
• The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
• Just Kids by Patti Smith
• The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
• Moominsummer Madness by Tove Jansson
• The Terror by Dan Simmons
• Color of Violence: The Incite! Anthology by Incite! Women of Color Against Violence 
• The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne Valente
• Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson

So that's it.  A great sampling of what we loved last year.  And already we are hard at work on our 2013 lists.

Bookseller Top Tens! Part One

So, it's a little late in the countdown list game, but here are our bookseller top ten lists for books read in 2012.  There are very few rules for this...books listed can be published this year, or not; they can be in English, or not; they can be old favorites, or new; the lists can be ordered, or not...really anything goes, as long as they're books, and even that's negotiable.  I'm breaking this into two posts, because I got so many responses from both our Lake Forest Park and Ravenna booksellers.  Without further ado...

Robert at Lake Forest Park

Robert says that all these were published this year except for Williams 1965 neglected classic Stoner – a beautiful and sad book that he would recommend to anyone who loves literature.

• 1. May We Be Forgiven by A M Homes 
• 2. Stoner by John Edward Williams 
• 3. The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson 
• 4. Lazarus is Dead by James Beard 
• 5. These Dreams of You by Steve Erickson 
• 6. Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain 
• 7. A Million Heavens by John Brandon 
• 8. By Blood by Ellen Ullman 
• 9. Mr Penubra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan 
• 10. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

Michael at Ravenna
Michael says he doesn't really have a favorite, but if forced...he would pick The Life of Objects

• Canada by Richard Ford 
• The Life of Objects by Susanna Moore 
• The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin 
• The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison 
• Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter 
• Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd 
• Eating Dirt by Charlotte Gill 
• Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple
• Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz 
• Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst

Emily A. at Lake Forest Park

Emily cheated and picked 11- although I did say there were few rules...well played, Emily.

• Alif The Unseen by G Willow Wilson 
• The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin 
• The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison 
• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce 
• Mrs. Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn 
• A Very Minor Prophet by James Bernard Frost
• Leon and Louise by Alex Capus 
• The Round House by Louise Erdrich 
• Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson 
• The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey 
• Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain

Ami at Ravenna

Ami is super stoked to see what everyone else picked for their top tens!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• 1. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace 
• 2. Almost No Memory by Lydia Davis 
• 3. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf 
• 4. Pan by Knut Hamsun 
• 5. Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin 
• 6. Songs of the Dragon Flying to Heaven by Young Jean Lee 
• 7. Girl With Curious Hair by David Foster Wallace 
• 8. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov 
• 9. All the Days and Nights by William Maxwell 
• 10. Sex at Dawn by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha

Stan at Lake Forest Park

Stan's top ten is titled, Untitled...edgy, Stan!

• 38 nooses: Lincoln, Little Crow, and the Beginning of the Frontier's End by Scott W. Berg
• Mrs.Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn
• On the Overgrown Path by David Herter
• The Luminous Depths by David Herter
• Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age by Bohumil Hrabal
• Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror and Deliverance in the City of Love by David Talbott
• Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
• Better Off Without 'em: A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession by Chuck Thompson
• The Fat Years by Chan Koonchung
• Mission to Paris by Alan Furst

Mark B. at Ravenna
I've never heard someone praise a book as much as Mark praised Gone Girl.

• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 
• Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes 
• Elegies for the Brokenhearted by Christie Hodgen 
• Far North by Marcel Theroux 
• The Odds by Stewart O'Nan 
• Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy 
• The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes 
• Immobility by Brian Evenson 
• Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell  
• Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

Patti H. at Ravenna
Patti makes a bold move and says that Icefall, is not only her number one for the year, but maybe one of her most favorite books...EVER!

• Icefall by Mathew Kirby 
• Graceling by Kristin Cashore 
• Dark Unwinding by Sharon Cameron 
• Across the Universe by Beth Revis 
• Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 
• Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood 
• Books of Elsewhere (series) by Jacqueline West 
• Every Day by David Levithan 
• Paladin Prophecy by Mark Frost 
• The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens

Erin J. at Lake Forest Park
Erin finds the task of whittling her list to only ten books particularly daunting.  Agreed!

• Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman 
• Glaciers by Alexis Smith 
• You Are Not Like Other Mothers by Angelika Schrobsdorff 
• Radio Iris by Anne-Marie Kinney 
• The Long Ships by Frans Bengtsson 
• The Widows Children by Paula Fox 
• Under the Glacier by Halldor Laxness 
• The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey 
• Steps and Exes by Laura Kalpakian 
• Magic For Beginners by Kelly Link

That's it for Part One.  Stay tuned for the sequel, chock full of even more, awesome books!

Funny, Ha Ha

Need a laugh this summer?  Here are my suggestions for some good giggles...

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The Emily Dickinson Reader:  An English-to-English Translation of Emily Dickinson's Complete Poems, by Paul Legault

This one is great for all you newly minted English undergrads.  Here's a great example:

Original:

Artists wrestled here!

Lo, a tint Cashmere!

Lo, a rose!

Student of the year!

For the easel here

Say repose!

Translation:

There's paint all over the place.

It looks like a couple of painters got into a fight and

got paint paint all over the place.  Actually, it's a sunset

See!  Super helpful!

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I Could Pee on This: And Other Poems By Cats, by Francesco Marciuliano

This is everyone's new favorite book.  EVERYONE'S.  All day long, people are picking this up and giggling and guffawing over it.  It really is literary genius.


Here's Ravenna Regular, Katie, with an impromptu poetry reading of her favorite poem.  THANKS, KATIE!

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The McSweeney's Book of Politics & Musicals, edited by those McSweeney's peeps

If you're into current events, this one is for you.  From the back cover...

Ever since John Hancock broke into song after signing the Declaration of Independence, American politics and musicals have been inextricably linked. From Alexander Hamilton's jazz hands, to Chester A. Arthur's oboe operas, to Newt Gingrich's off-Broadway sexscapade, You, Me, and My Moon Colony Mistress Makes Three, government and musical theater have joined forces to document our nation's long history of freedom, partisanship, and dancers on roller skates pretending to be choo choo trains.


And some of the good stuff you'll get:

• Fragments from PALIN! THE MUSICAL 
• Barack Obama’s Undersold 2012 Campaign Slogans 
• Atlas Shrugged Updated for the Financial Crisis 
• Your Attempts to Legislate Hunting Man for Sport Reek of Class Warfare
• Donald Rumsfeld Memoir Chapter Title Or German Heavy Metal Song? 
• Noises Political Pundits Would Make If They Were Wild Animals and Not Political Pundits 
• Classic Nursery Rhymes, Updated and Revamped for the Recession, As Told to Me By My Father And much more!

Ravenna Reads Too

Most likely you know, but maybe you don't...Third Place Books has two locations.  And our Ravenna location has been raving about Jess Walter's new book, Beautiful Ruins.  Both Micheal and Caitlin are crazy for this hilarious new novel

Michael says:

This is the perfect summer read.  It is entertaining as all get out and smart and well written to boot.  AND it is a great introduction to a great writer...indulge yourself.

Caitlin says:

Beautiful Ruins is the perfect summer read. It begins in 1964 on the sun-drenched coastline of Italy and unfolds over the next 50 years through multiple perspectives and settings. The twists in this novel kept me interested, and Walter's style kept me laughing throughout. I have to recommend Beautiful Ruins because of its character depth and the portrayal of life as 'a glorious catastrophe'. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying.

And the story begins again today, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio's back lot - searching for the mysterious woman he last saw at his hotel decades earlier.

What unfolds is a dazzling, yet deeply human, roller coaster of a novel, spanning fifty years and nearly as many lives. From the lavish set of Cleopatra to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Walter introduces us to the tangled lives of a dozen unforgettable characters: the starstruck Italian innkeeper and his long-lost love; the heroically preserved producer who once brought them together and his idealistic young assistant; the army veteran turned fledgling novelist and the rakish Richard Burton himself, whose appetites set the whole story in motion - along with the husbands and wives, lovers and dreamers, superstars and losers, who populate their world in the decades that follow.

Gloriously inventive, constantly surprising, Beautiful Ruins is a story of flawed yet fascinating people, navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams.