|
|
|
|
|
|
Greetings!
We've got three very provocative events coming up, with John Brandon reading from his exciting debut novel, ARKANSAS, on ThackerMountain on Thursday; local poet Beth Ann Fennelly reading from her stunning new collection, UNMENTIONABLES, on Friday; and Ellen Feldman reading from her powerful novel, SCOTTSBORO, next Monday.
If you're a collector, or maybe looking for that perfect gift, we have signed copies available of WINTER STUDY by Nevada Barr, WICKED CITY by Ace Atkins, OUR STORY BEGINS by Tobias Wolff, BOONE by Robert Morgan, and THE RESERVE by Russell Banks.
There's big news in the world of books:
2008 Pulitzer Prize Winners announced.
The list is available at http://www.pulitzer.org/.
A quote in honor of National Poetry Month:
"Always be a poet, even in prose." -- Charles Baudelaire
Our Dear Reader newsletter and the current calendar are available at www.squarebook.com. |
|
|
EVENTS
ThackerMountain Radio,
Thursday, April 17.
Event begins at 5:30 p.m.
John Brandon
ARKANSAS
(McSweeney's, hd. 22.00)
ARKANSAS is a biting first novel full of wet T-shirt contests, illicit drugs, and cross-country road trips. There are the days: the dappled grounds, the aimless yardwork, the hours in the booth giving directions to families in SUVs. And then there are the nights: crisscrossing the South with illicit goods, the shifty deals in dingy trailers, the vague orders from a boss they've never met. Before Kyle and Swin can recognize how close to paradise they are in this neglected state park in southern Arkansas, the lazy peace is shattered with a shot. Night blends into day. Dead bodies. Crooked superiors. Suspicious associates. It's on-the-job training, with no time for slow learning, bad judgment, or foul luck. BUY NOW! Musical Guests: Brennan Leigh, Owen Beverly, John Alex-Mason, and The Yalobushwhackers.
Friday, April 18,
signing/reception at 5 p.m., reading at 5:30 p.m.
Beth Ann Fennelly
UNMENTIONABLES
(Norton, hd. 23.95)
As the title suggests, Beth Ann Fennelly's new book of poems explores the "unmentionable" - what should not be said and why. Many of her poems revolve around the tension created by the paradox of putting into words that which usually remains unsaid-attempting to voice what is considered taboo as well as that which seems beyond language. Fennelly lays herself bare in these short, narrative pieces, many of which portray a certain prowess of female sexuality. Of the three longer sequences that appear in UNMENTIONABLES, a wonderful depth is brought to light in the linked poems of "The Kudzu Chronicles." Fennelly's humor serves her well as kudzu becomes a metaphor for what it means to be a transplant, what it means to be considered invasive, and what it means to long for a home. MM BUY NOW!
Monday, April 21,
signing/reception at 5 p.m., reading at 5:30 p.m.
Ellen Feldman
SCOTTSBORO
(Norton, hd. 24.95)
Alabama, 1931. A posse stops a freight train and arrests nine black youths. Their crime: fighting with white boys. Then two white girls emerge from another freight car and the cry of rape goes up. Four days later, the Alabama courts have tried and sentenced eight to die. With a keen sense of drama, Feldman follows the story as worldwide indignation grows, and the case bogs down in appeals and retrials before an eventual hearing by the U.S. Supreme Court. Intertwining historical actors, fictional characters, stirring racism, sexism, and anti-Semitism into an explosive brew, SCOTTSBORO is a novel that portrays the story of a shocking injustice that convulsed the nation. BUY NOW! |
|
SCANNING THE FRONT TABLES
ARMAGEDDON IN RETROSPECT
by Kurt Vonnegut
(Putnam, hd. 24.95)
Released on the first anniversary of Kurt Vonnegut's death, ARMAGEDDON IN RETROSPECT is a collection of twelve unpublished writings on war and peace. The pieces range from a visceral nonfiction recollection of the destruction of Dresden during World War II to a painfully funny short story about three privates and their fantasies of the perfect first meal upon returning home from war to a darker, more poignant story about the impossibility of shielding our children from the temptations of violence. Also included are Vonnegut's last speech and an assortment of his artwork, with an introduction by the author's son, Mark Vonnegut. BUY NOW!
WHAT MOVES AT THE MARGIN
by Toni Morrison
(University Press of Mississippi, hd. 30.00)
WHAT MOVES AT THE MARGIN collects three decades of Toni Morrison's writings about her work, her life, literature, and American society. The works included in this volume date from 1971, when Morrison was a new editor at Random House and a beginning novelist, to 2002 when she was a professor at PrincetonUniversity and Nobel Laureate. Even in the early days of her career, in between editing other writers, writing her own novels, and raising two children, she found time to speak out on subjects that mattered to her. From the reviews and essays written for major publications to her moving tributes to other writers to the commanding acceptance speeches for major literary awards, Morrison has consistently engaged as a writer outside the margins of her fiction. These works provide a unique glimpse into Morrison's viewpoint as an observer of the world, the arts, and the changing landscape of American culture. BUY NOW!
BONK
by Mary Roach
(Norton, hd. 24.95)
The study of sexual physiology-what happens, and why, and how to make it happen better-has been a paying career or a diverting sideline for scientists as far-ranging as Leonardo da Vinci and James Watson. The research has taken place behind the closed doors of laboratories, brothels, MRI centers, pig farms, sex-toy R&D labs, and Alfred Kinsey's attic. Mary Roach, "the funniest science writer in the country" (Burkhard Bilger of The New Yorker), devoted the past two years to stepping behind those doors. Can a person think herself to orgasm? Can a dead man get an erection? Is vaginal orgasm a myth? Why doesn't Viagra help women-or, for that matter, pandas? In BONK, Roach shows us how and why sexual arousal and orgasm, two of the most complex, delightful, and amazing scientific phenomena on earth, can be so hard to achieve and what science is doing to slowly make the bedroom a more satisfying place. BUY NOW!
|
|
BOOK SENSE PICK
KNOCKEMSTIFF
by Donald Ray Pollock
(Doubleday, hd. 22.95)
Spanning a period from the mid-sixties to the late nineties, the linked stories that comprise KNOCKEMSTIFFfeature a cast of recurring characters who are woebegone, baffled and depraved-but irresistibly, undeniably real. Rendered in the American vernacular with vivid imagery and a wry, dark sense of humor, these thwarted and sometimes violent lives jump off the page at the reader with inexorable force. A father pumps his son full of steroids so he can vicariously relive his days as a perpetual runner-up body builder. A psychotic rural recluse comes upon two siblings committing incest and feels compelled to take action. Donald Ray Pollock presents his characters and the sordid goings-on with a stern intelligence, a bracing absence of value judgments, and a refreshingly dark sense of bottom-dog humor. With an artistic instinct honed on the works of Flannery O'Connor and Harry Crews, Pollock offers a powerful work of fiction in the classic American vein. BUY NOW! |
|
Opening Lines
"Thank you. I now stand before you as a role model, courtesy of Mayor Bart Peterson, and God bless him for this occasion."
- From ARMAGEDDON IN RETROSPECT by Kurt Vonnegut
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Back to newsletter list
