Read This Book

You MUST read this book. Rude Cakes by Rowboat Watkins.

It's pretty much impossible to walk by this book and not pick it up. Just look at that cake! Adorable! In fact, so adorable, that we've made it Picture Book of the Week. The inaugural winner. Also, it's by someone named Rowboat Watkins. How is that not a selling point?

It's the story of an angry cake, and the lessons a case of mistaken identity can provide. All kidding aside, this is a delightful little book. Funny and sweet, but none of that cloying kind of sweetness that can plague other, more earnest picture books. Charming illustrations, and a great message. Plus, it's about cake.

Check out Rude Cakes, and then eat some cake. Both of our stores boast delicious bakeries. The Honey Bear in Lake Forest Park, and Vios Cafe at Ravenna.

Yum.

On Hating Books Part II

You are reading Part II of this post. The body of the post is hidden to prevent spoilers.

On Hating Books

I've been giving some thought to why we read. What is it we're looking to find in those pages? The answer is different for each of us. I read to learn, and to feel. I love a book because its characters charm me, or the story stirs me. But what does it mean when we don't like what we find between the covers? Recently, I had the opportunity to really ruminate on what happens when I hate a book.

For days, I'd been wrapped up in a certain novel--loving it. I was enmeshed in the world and emotionally invested in the story. In short, captivated. A friend of mine was reading it at the same time and we would text back and forth about the characters as if gossiping about friends.

And then the author did something so unthinkably cruel and awful, I felt like I'd actually been punched in the stomach. This book had me crying a few times, but at that moment all I felt was white-hot, visceral rage and I threw the book across the room. I'm serious. I've never done that before. It was automatic, an unconscious impulse. One moment I was reading, and the next, the book was hurling through the air. I went from loving it to hating it in one sentence.

I left the book lying where it landed for at least a day. But I did eventually finish it, fuming the entire time. I felt so manipulated, and so stupid for believing all the things the author had me believing.

And I could not let it go. It was all I thought about, all I talked about.

Around this time I came across a blog called I Hate Cheryl Strayed. Fans of Cheryl Strayed may want to steer clear, this woman's anger is for real. I read a few posts of her 39-part review of Wild. 39 parts!!!!! After that, she goes on to review the movie version, and then Cheryl's other book Tiny Beautiful Things. The blog is entertaining but I didn't really understand; if she hated the book so much, why waste so much time on it?

And I thought about the book I threw across the room. I wasn't writing a blog about it (though now I am), but I certainly spent a lot of time thinking and talking about it. And, after all, I did finish it. The writing is beautiful and the characters really did feel like friends. I wanted to feel something, and I certainly did. So, did I really hate it that much? Or perhaps the better question; did I really care that I hated it that much?

Whatever else this book was to me, it was an experience, and I'm glad I read it. And with a little time and perspective of what real book-hatred looks like, I can even say I liked it. I'm not saying there aren't books out there that I legitimately hate, I am not one to find value in a book simply because it's a book. And I'm not saying that the blogger above doesn't legitimately hate Wild. I'm only saying that I liked this particular book so much that it didn't matter that I hated it.

So the book I swore I would never recommend--I'm recommending it. I hesitate to reveal what book I'm talking about, worried that there may be inadvertent spoilers in this post. So, I'll leave it up to you. Click on through if you want to know.

Book News and Other Miscellany

Volume 2, Issue 1

Bringing this back. Various links to cool videos, websites, articles, and blogs about books. Enjoy!

***

You may recall the "squee heard round the world". Here's the trailer that accompanies said squee.

Do. Not. Tell. Me. Anything. The first episode was last night and I haven't seen it yet.  

***

I was trying to find a literary holiday for you to celebrate this week, but I found something better instead. Melville House's commentary on literary holidays, Major Literary Holidays Other than Read an e Book Day. International Lie About Having Read Proust Day is my new favorite holiday. It's "actually everyday, though it's officially recognized on August 13." I'll be exchanging gifts if anyone wants to join me. It was a serious toss-up between that and January 13th, Give Up Trying to Read 2666 Day.

***

The Man Booker International Prize was announced last week. If you think that's the ordinary Man Booker Prize, you're wrong. Don't worry, we didn't know what it was either. Everyday's a school day! The Man Booker International Prize is awarded to ...

one writer for his or her achievement in fiction. Worth £60,000, the prize is awarded every two years to a living author who has published fiction either originally in English or whose work is generally available in translation in the English language. The winner is chosen solely at the discretion of the judging panel and there are no submissions from publishers.

Where the regular old Booker Prize is given to one book, yearly, the Man Booker International Prize is awarded for a body of work every two years. Kind of like the Olympics. Actually, not at all like the Olympics.

Your new Man Booker International Prize winner...

László Krasznahorkai!!!!

Some of his more recently translated work includes Santantango and Seiobo There Below.

***

And now, a brand new section of Book News:
Cool books I really want to read, but haven't had a chance to yet.
Admittedly, not really news, just my sneaky way of pointing out cool and worthwhile books you might be interestded in.

The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas

A new edition of what is commonly seen as the legendary Norwegian writer's masterpiece, this story tells the tale of Siss and Unn, two friends who have only spent one evening in each other's company. But so profound is this evening between them that when Unn inexplicably disappears, Siss's world is shattered. Siss's struggle with her fidelity to the memory of her friend and Unn's fatal exploration of the strange, terrifyingly beautiful frozen waterfall that is the Ice Palace are described in prose of a lyrical economy that ranks among the most memorable achievements of modern literature.

***

And a book and a cat.

Last Words

A few months ago, Oliver Sacks announced that he has terminal cancer. He wrote a beautiful piece in the New York Times, and if you haven't read it, I urge you to do so now. It's here. His keen observations fill dozens of books, and even now, as he comes face to face with the end, he offers the same effortless wisdom. While I am cheered by his thoughts on a life fully lived, it's impossible not to be saddened by the thought of a world without his particular mind.

And that got me thinking about letting go of and saying goodbye to other great and creative minds.  It seems Melville House has been thinking about it too with their lovely series called Last Interviews. Each book in the collection features interviews spanning the career of various brilliant artists and writers, including the very last interview. The series currently includes Lou Reed, Hannah Arendt, David Foster Wallace, James Baldwin, and many others. These beautiful books offer insight and wisdom and the heady feeling of knowing you're reading some of the very last provocative thoughts of some of our greatest thinkers.

Speaking of great thinkers and Oliver Sacks, the man himself just published his autobiography last month. Check it out for more brilliant thoughts. And yes, that IS him on the cover. Super Hot Author Alert!

On the Move: A Life by Oliver Sacks

When Oliver Sacks was twelve years old, a perceptive schoolmaster wrote in his report: Sacks will go far, if he does not go too far. It is now abundantly clear that Sacks has never stopped going. From its opening pages on his youthful obsession with motorcycles and speed, On the Move is infused with his restless energy. As he recounts his experiences as a young neurologist in the early 1960s, first in California, where he struggled with drug addiction, and then in New York, where he discovered a long-forgotten illness in the back wards of a chronic hospital, we see how his engagement with patients comes to define his life. 

With unbridled honesty and humor, Sacks shows us that the same energy that drives his physical passions weight lifting and swimming also drives his cerebral passions. He writes about his love affairs, both romantic and intellectual; his guilt over leaving his family to come to America; his bond with his schizophrenic brother; and the writers and scientists Thom Gunn, A. R. Luria, W. H. Auden, Gerald M. Edelman, Francis Crick who influenced him. On the Move is the story of a brilliantly unconventional physician and writer and of the man who has illuminated the many ways that the brain makes us human.

Read This Book

Wow, this space has been a little silent lately.  *crickets*  I will blame the fact that I've been spending all of my time reading. And not just ordinary reading. I'm talking serious, off the charts, far afield, way out of my comfort zone reading. And all that experimental reading gives me the confidence to recommend this truly fascinating book! So here we go...

Erin says, "Read this book."

Thrown by Kerry Howley

Never.

I never, ever thought I would care about Mixed Martial Arts, (cage fighting if you need a visual) let alone read an entire book about it. It's violent, and dangerous, and just so stupid. But then I found this book; a world-expanding and wonderfully weird read about philosophy and obsession, failure and hope, and yes--cage fighting.

While bored out of her mind at a writing conference Kerry Howley decides to follow a group of men who lead her to a makeshift fighting octagon at the very same conference hotel. It is here she witnesses her first MMA fight and undergoes a transcendent experience that she doesn't fully understand, but longs to replicate. That night she meets one to the two fighters she will follow over the course of the next three years. Inserting herself into their lives as a "space taker," Howley chases that unexplained, otherworldly feeling while her fighters chase dreams of glory, fame, and brotherhood.

This book is wild. I learned more about MMA and phenomenology than I ever thought I wanted to (not that I actually ever thought about those things or knew what they were until now). It's absurd, and smart, and sad. In a word--captivating. Read it.

POETRY MONTH!

April is poetry month! At the Ravenna location, we are lucky enough to have a few really dedicated poetry aficionados who make it a habit to keep informed about all things going on the poetry world. This year, one of those aficionados, Sinead, has put together a few recommendations. Consider it your very own guide to poetry month. AND a reminder, all poetry is 20% off through the month of April, at both locations!

The Beauty by Jane Hirshfield 
Hirshfield's latest collection (her first since being elected Chancellor of the Acadmey of American Poets in 2012), The Beauty ruminates on the place the body holds in the natural world. Beginning with poems like "My Skeleton," "My Proteins," "My Eyes," the collection goes on to explore mortality, memory, and time, intermingling observations about aging with the poet's own theories on beauty and our moral and societal imperative to remain wholly and entirely ourselves. Hirshfield's work is always a revelation, and this new book only adds to its collective beauty. Buy a copy if you haven't. Buy several.

Map: Collected and Last Poems by Wislawa Szymborska
Perhaps the most important book of poetry to appear in translation this year. Map brings together almost every poem ever published by Nobel Prize Winner Wislawa Szymborska. Her characteristic wit and candor reminds me of a more elevated Billy Collins, while her interest in rhythm and musicality will makes me wish I could read her in the original Polish. A translator in her own right, Szymborska spent much of her life writing and editing for prominent literary magazines in Poland, and was politically active from the first days of her career. Her death in 2012 was a deep loss for her nation-- and for literature in general. I like to think of her new book as a collection as well as a celebration, and I hope you'll love it as much as I do.

I realize now, having come to the end of the post, that I've only written about books by women, and that if you were to just read this, you would walk away with the impression that there isn't any new or exciting work out there by male poets. Not so! There are some great books coming out by some big names, including The Lunatic by Charles Simic, How to Be Drawn by Terrance Hayes, and Deep Lane by Mark Doty, not to mention the new John Ashbery, Breezeway, coming May 12th from Ecco Press. A long wait, I know, but you should have plenty of things to read until then. Enjoy!

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

OK. Just calmly sit down and brace yourself. Are you sitting down? It's your fault if you're not...

BBC America is making Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell into a mini series!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Are you okay? Do you need a paper bag? Here, you can use mine. I've finally got my breathing under control.

This. Is. Huge.

I'm talking as-big-as-the-book-huge. JS&MN (I just abbreviated it for you...trademark) is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE BOOKS. I will admit to having a huge crush on Jonathan Strange and I'm not even a little embarrassed by that.

I know a lot of people dread when their favorite books are made into movies. But ever since the Harry Potter era, I have reached a certain inner calmness with movies based on favorite books. It's easy for me to separate each version as it's own piece of art/entertainment. I never compare them and so one does not diminish the other. And anyway, it's BBC. They make Sherlock. Enough said.

Here's more info on the miniseries.

Now, does anyone get BBC America and want to invite me over to watch it?

Indulgence, Thrift, and Generosity

Working at a bookstore for as long as I have, there are certain rules I enforce upon myself. Without these rules I might not have enough money for food or shelter, but would have a truly spectacular library. So, for the most part I only allow myself to buy used books. And even then, those purchases are typically made using store credit. It's one of the serious benefits of working at a new and used bookstore.

Occasionally, a favorite author will have a new book out, or there's some awesome NYRB title that I HAVE to have, and I just cannot track down a used copy. That's when I really have to up my trade-in game. But there's something beautiful and satisfying about that too. My inner simple-living-master revels in trading in five old books for one, beautiful, new, truly desired book.

But then there are other times. Times when a new book by a first-time author or someone I've never read before arrives in the store. And I am inexplicably, magnetically drawn to it. Sometimes, it's the cover that grabs me, a review in the paper, or perhaps an errant remark made by someone who has read it. Oddly, it's usually only big, fat, brand new hardcovers. Whatever it is, I need to have that book. Immediately. So I buy it. With money.

This happens to me about once a year, maybe twice. The first time was in 2001, I was working at a bookstore in Tucson, Arizona, and A.L Kennedy's book Everything You Need appeared. And I NEEDED it. So, I splurged, and now she's one of my favorite authors. It just happened again yesterday with Hanya Yanagihara's new novel, A Little Life. And yes, I bought it.

I never feel guilty when I splurge like this and I always enjoy these books, even if they don't turn out to be favorites. It's something about the small kindness I have paid myself that gives me a feeling of warmth every time I pick it up.

Perhaps the success of that very first lapse in will power is what let's me continue with this small indulgence. Or maybe it's something a little deeper. When this very phenomenon happened with Lev Grossman's first book in the Magicians series, I was trying to explain it to a friend. And she remarked that sometimes, constantly being thrifty can make a person feel shriveled, and that maybe it is these occasional moments of generosity toward ourselves that allow us to be generous toward others. As much as that sounds like convenient justification, I think I believe it.

Goodnight Moon: A Critique

Believe it or not, I just read Goodnight Moon for the first time the other day. I was babysitting, and it was the book that the kid picked out. Why I had never read it, I can't say. I know it's a classic, but it has never appealed to me, same with Runaway Bunny. I'm pretty sure it's the art. It just does not do it for me. Which is too bad really, because the words are lovely. The sentiment, the cadence- that I can really get behind. But the art...it just looks weirdly diabolical.

Well, I am pleased to report that I clearly am not the only person who feels this way. There is a hilarious, genius of a blogger over at The Ugly Volvo who has really taken Goodnight Moon to task. Give it a read. I promise it will brighten your day.

All of My Issues With the Goodnight Moon Bedroom by The Ugly Volvo

Read This Book

One of the greatest perks of bookselling has to be the advance reader copies (ARC); bound galleys of books that come from the publishers, meant to be read by reviewers, booksellers, and so on. But one of the of the worst things about ARCs is that they haven't been reviewed yet, and there are just so many coming into the store everyday. Most of the time it's not even possible to keep track of every ARC that comes in, let alone read them all. 

And sadly, I am the absolute worst at just picking up an unknown book/author. I have so many other books that I know I want to read, I just can't justify picking up a book by an author I've never heard of. I can't handle that kind of risk. I need someone to tell me to read it. I need to know that it's good. Well, luckily for me, and new authors, and ultimately you (to whom I recommend all the great new books I read), I have a boss with excellent taste in books. And he shares that good taste with his less adventurous booksellers.

So the other day, when our boss told me that he thought I would really love Barefoot Dogs, a new book of short stories by Antonio Ruiz-Camacho, I put everything else down and read it. Keep in mind, this is the same boss who recommended Stoner to me, which is now on my Super-Awesome, Mega-Elite, Best Books Ever List. The funny thing is, I had the ARC of Barefoot Dogs just sitting at home-- like for months. But because I had never heard of the author, and no one had told me to read it, I never picked it up.

I really, really need to resist this urge in the future, because this book is AMAZING. And I could have been gushing about it months ago. I would have looked so cool for being the first one to like it. And I really love looking cool. Oh well. Read this book anyways, even if I'm not cool.

Barefoot Dogs : Stories by Antonio Ruiz-Camacho

This is my new favorite book. I very nearly read it entirely in one sitting-- I was just propelled forward by these amazing characters, and beautiful language. It's a collection of stories, but they are all linked so it reads much more like a novel. The head of a wealthy Mexican family is kidnapped; and in fear for their safety, his adult children and their families flee to places all over the world. It's funny, edgy, sexy, terrifying, and bold. Really, it's just all the good adjectives. READ IT!  -Erin B

An unforgettable debut of linked stories that follow the members and retinue of a wealthy Mexican family forced into exile after the patriarch is kidnapped.

On an unremarkable night, Jose Victoriano Arteaga--the head of a thriving Mexico City family--vanishes on his way home from work. The Arteagas find few answers; the full truth of what happened to Arteaga is lost to the shadows of Mexico's vast and desperate underworld, a place of rampant violence and kidnappings, and government corruption. But soon packages arrive to the family house, offering horrifying clues.

Fear, guilt, and the prospect of financial ruination fracture the once-proud family and scatter them across the globe, yet delicate threads still hold them together: in a swimming pool in Palo Alto, Arteaga's young grandson struggles to make sense of the grief that has hobbled his family; in Mexico City, Arteaga's mistress alternates between rage and heartbreak as she waits, in growing panic, for her lover's return; in Austin, the Arteagas' housekeeper tries to piece together a second life in an alienating and demeaning new land; in Madrid, Arteaga's son takes his ailing dog through the hot and unforgiving streets, in search of his father's ghost.

Multiple award-winning author Antonio Ruiz-Camacho offers an exquisite and intimate evocation of the loneliness, love, hope, and fear that can bind a family even as unspeakable violence tears it apart. Barefoot Dogs is a heartfelt elegy to the stolen innocence of every family struck by tragedy. This is urgent and vital fiction.

This One's for the Ladies

So, a few months ago I stumbled on a 50 Coolest Books of All Time list. The list comes from Shortlist which I admit, is something I've never heard of, so their expertise is maybe a little questionable. But, of the list of 50 books, there are only four books by women. And two of those books are by Ayn Rand (blech). Am I really supposed to believe that of the 50 coolest books of all time, 92% were written by men? Hmmmm. I may not be very good at math, (you know, because I'm a woman) but that seems a little off. I will say, that Shortlist also has a list of the 50 Coolest Authors of All Time. This one isn't quite as bad, they were able to list ten women. But that still means 80% of the list is men. I guess it was a nice try.

Flavorwire is another source of these top 50 lists, and they have several women centered lists:

• 50 Excellent Novels by Female Writers Under 50 That Everyone Should Read
• Girl Canon: 50 Essential Books About the Female Experience

And that's nice, but I wonder when did books by or about women become a genre. Chick lit, women's fiction, 50 Shades of Grey...it all makes me a little hysterical. Especially considering that readers are more likely to be women, and women read more than men. So, I made my own list. It's a mashup of cool authors, and cool books. Enjoy. It's longer than 50, and it's not at all comprehensive. Think of it more as proof that it is possible to name more than four cool books by women. Happy International Women's Day!

• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Octavia Butler
• Kate Chopin
• Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• Chalice and the Blade by Riane Eisler
• Bluets by Maggie Nelson
• I Love Dick by Chris Kraus
• Iris Murdoch
• Virgina Woolf
• Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg
• Kyung-sook Shin
• Catherine Mansfeild
• Virginia Lee Burton
• Cunt by Inga Muscio
• A.M. Holmes
• Angela Davis
• Rebecca Solnit
• Joan Didion
• Lydia Davis
• Amor and Psycho by Carolyn Cooke
• Lorrie Moore
  
• Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison
• Margaret Atwood
• Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston 
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• Beverly Cleary
• Alison Bechdel
• Susan Sontag
• J.K. Rowling
• The Ethical Slut by Dossie Easton
• Sylvia Plath
• The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy
• Tove Jansson
• Annie Dillard
  
• bell hooks
• Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
• Ursula Leguin
• An Unquiet Mind by Kaye Redfield Jamison
• A.L. Kennedy
• The American Way of Death by Jessica Mitford
• Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
• Mama Day by Gloria Naylor
• How Should a Person Be by Shelia Heti
• Unmastered by Katherine Angel
  
• Shirley Jackson
• Daphne Dumaurie
• The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
• Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
• Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles
• Just Kids by Patti Smith
• Dorothy Parker
• The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
• Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer
• Audre Lorde
• I Rigoberto Menchu by Rigoberto Menchu
• Roxane Gay
  
• Xialu Guo
• Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein
• Willa Cather
• Patricia Highsmith
• Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson
• Speedboat by Renata Adler
• Donna Tartt
• Alice Walker
• Mary Renault

I really could go on and on and on.

Super Hot Authors!

I was looking at a copy of How to Cook a Wolf, and I couldn't get over how attractive M.F.K. Fisher was. I'm talking super hot. It's not as if I expect all authors to be bookish and odd looking, but hotness isn't something I really think of when I think of literary genius. Not that literary genius isn't hot all by itself... well, you know what I mean. Anyways, I think I burnt out my Google image search looking at author photos. So here's a partial list of what I found. These authors make reading look really good.

MFK Fisher: Do you see what I'm talking about? Gorgeous!

Ishmael Beah: I suggest sunglasses if you ever meet
Ishmael. That smile will knock you out.

Jhumpa Lahiri: Stunning.

F. Scott Fitzgerald: You must be a hottie if 

Tom Hiddleston plays you in a movie.

Gillian Flynn: Super hot book, made into a super hot 

movie, written by a super hot author.

Colson Whitehead: He must have given up a career as a 

model in order to write books. I'm glad he did... for the most part.

Jessica Mitford: Look at that! She's practically a pinup!

Tao Lin: It might just be the leather jacket talking but, WOW!

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: I just finished Americanah, 

and it's just as beautiful as its author.

Karl Ove Knausgard: Here's the bad boy of the bunch!

So, this objectifying of authors is totally subjective. Who did I miss? Who's your author crush? Let me know and I'll post them!

Reading What Other People Want You To Read

How many times have you been told to read a certain book? By your best friend, your boyfriend, your mom. They all have something they want you to read. Most likely it's their favorite book, maybe something awesome they just read. And most likely, you haven't read it because, if you're anything like me you have completely different tastes in reading than your best friend, boyfriend, and mom.

And I don't mean to imply that I somehow think I have better taste in books than the people I share my life with... it's just different. Anyhow, people are forever suggesting things for me to read and I am forever putting them off. What really makes it tough--more so than the divergent reading tastes, is the massive pile of to-read books already in line. So, most of the time I tend to smile politely and make vague promises of picking the book up after I finish the next three on my list.

But then there are other times, times when one day I finally find myself reading someone's recommendation and loving it. I mean, at the expense of all other things in my life- television, eating, showering- loving it. And suddenly, I completely ignore my patiently waiting to-read pile and read every last thing this person has ever recommended to me in a fit of sheepish acknowledgement of their obviuously superior taste in reading.

It's been one of those moments for me lately. I finally got around to reading The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison. A good friend read it last year, and bugged me, and bugged me, and bugged me about it. She loved it, and she was sure I would love it too. Well, she was right. It's phenomenal. Just so interesting and different (it's my March Staff Pick, 20% off all month, if you're interested, at the Ravenna store only). Each thoughtful essay in this collection is an examination on empathy-- how we feel for others; how our pain, and the pain of those around us fosters understanding and connectedness. Jamison explores such fascinating and expansive topics that the subject matter alone is enough to reel you in. But it's her experimental form and innovative command of language that are the real stars here. It's a new favorite. It's hard to read this and not be altered, moved, awed ...maybe even a better person. Super smart. Super good.

So after The Empathy Exams, I moved on to the next book my friend read and would not stop recommending. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I barreled through it, until about 45 pages from the end. At that point, I put it down for two days. I was so in love with the characters, I couldn't face leaving them. It's been a long time since I felt that way about a book. Loved it so much I couldn't bear to finish it. Seriously, Americannah restores my faith in the humanity of human beings.

And I know, I know, it isn't as if either of these books is a sleeper hit. Americannah was Ravenna's second best seller of 2014. And The Empathy Exams is a New York Times Bestseller. I just never would have read them if I hadn't finally given in the recommendation. So, now, I'm moving on to her next recommendation, The Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill. Hey, if my friend says it's good. It's good.

Maybe I won't discard all of my to-read pile, but I'm certainly going to be a little less dismissive of all those recommendations I get. Never know when someone's going to suggest my new favorite book.

Books Into Movies

Now that the Oscars are behind us, what in the movie world do we have to look forward to? Well, fear not, there are a ton of  books that are being turned in to movies this year. Here's a sampling:

Serena by Ron Rash
The year is 1929, and newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton travel from Boston to the North Carolina mountains where they plan to create a timber empire. Although George has already lived in the camp long enough to father an illegitimate child, Serena is new to the mountains—but she soon shows herself to be the equal of any man, overseeing crews, hunting rattle-snakes, even saving her husband's life in the wilderness. Together this lord and lady of the woodlands ruthlessly kill or vanquish all who fall out of favor. Yet when Serena learns that she will never bear a child, she sets out to murder the son George fathered without her. Mother and child begin a struggle for their lives, and when Serena suspects George is protecting his illegitimate family, the Pembertons' intense, passionate marriage starts to unravel as the story moves toward its shocking reckoning.

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
Stalin's Soviet Union is an official paradise, where citizens live free from crime and fear only one thing: the all-powerful state. Defending this system is idealistic security officer Leo Demidov, a war hero who believes in the iron fist of the law. But when a murderer starts to kill at will and Leo dares to investigate, the State's obedient servant finds himself demoted and exiled. Now, with only his wife at his side, Leo must fight to uncover shocking truths about a killer-and a country where "crime" doesn't exist.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has barely been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex–Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is. Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.

Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert
Emma Bovary is the original desperate housewife. Beautiful but bored, she spends lavishly on clothes and on her home and embarks on two disappointing affairs in an effort to make her life everything she believes it should be. Soon heartbroken and crippled by debts, she takes drastic action, with tragic consequences for her husband and daughter. In this landmark new translation of Gustave Flaubert's masterwork, award-winning writer and translator Lydia Davis honors the nuances and particulars of Flaubert's legendary prose style, giving new life in English to the book that redefined the novel as an art form.

For more books into movies, here's a nice list.
And make sure you read before you watch! 

Simplify-Schmiplify

Emily M. at Ravenna has been ruminating pretty hard on de-cluttering lately. Here are her thoughts:

I grew up with a ridiculous amount of stuff. But somewhere in grad school, I began wonder why do I have all this stuff if I am not using it? -- especially when I was about to move across the country again. Long story short, it was a process but I have found minimalism unexpectedly freeing.

A hard item for me to let go of is books. If I had kept every book I was given, acquired, or bought, I would have well over 3,000 -- and these are all books that I like, mind you, not throw-aways! In the end, I kept the books I knew I would want to reread every few years and a few reference books. Despite the fact that books are my life, I have pared them down to under a hundred. (Yes, it is possible.)

So, how did I do it? The books below helped a lot, but for the most part, I came to realize that a book is only awesome if it's read. If it just sits there for twenty years unopened on a shelf it is almost, disrespectful to the book. A book is meant to be read. 

What are the best titles for the aspiring simplifier/minimalist? 

Our number one seller is The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo 
Many of us on staff have read it and have used Marie Kondo's advice -- on what books to keep or sell back. Some of her methods, I've never heard before (and I have read many, many blogs and articles on simplifying and decluttering). Her main philosophy is, if it does not give you joy then get rid of it. Though she may be crazy and a bit obsessed (it's one thing to have gratitude toward your possessions and another to verbalize it to them every day), she gives some great, thoughtful advice. http://www.thirdplacebooks.com/book/9781607747307 

The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide: How to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify Your Life by Francine Jay gives minimalism a more realistic approach. From the cluttered closet to the overbooked schedule, Jay lays out that neccesities are going to change from person to person and from season to season. Nevertheless, if you aren't using an item on a regular basis or might use someday, then you probably don't need it hanging around; the hard part is finding the courage to let it go. http://www.thirdplacebooks.com/book/9780984087310 

Tiny Homes Simple Shelter by Lloyd Kahn  and Tiny House Living: Ideas For Building and Living Well In Less than 400 Square Feet by Ryan Mitchell are more for people who want to live in tiny homes (as in, they have already simplified to the extreme). But the awesome thing here is that the pictures are very inspirational and you get to read a whole variety of people's stories on why they decided to minimalize -- everyone has such a different story! (If you are a fan of these architectural books, don't forget to try Dee Williams' The Big Tiny: A Built-It-Myself Memoir.) 

Simplifying, decluttering, and minimalizing may not be everyone's cup of tea. Perhaps you just want to do a bit of spring cleaning and need help getting started; or you're sick of staring at clutter that you don't know what to do with, or you want insight of why on earth anyone would want to get rid of all of their precious world possessions that took years to acquire. No matter, these books can help point you in the right direction.
-Emily M.