San Diego Community Arts & Culture Forum

With the recent restructuring of the San Diego Union Tribune under new editor Jeff Light’s leadership - especially the recent dismissal of veteran art critic and Books editor Robert Pincus - we are responding to mounting community concern about the future of arts and culture coverage in our newspaper by scheduling a community forum. Please join us at Warwick’s on Friday, July 9th at 7:30pm for a San Diego Community Arts and Culture Forum.

The discussion panel will be moderated by author Richard Farson and will include Jeff Light, editor of the Union Tribune, Bob Pincus, former art critic and editor of the UT Books section, Sandy Dijkstra of the Dijkstra Literary Agency, Hugh Davies, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, and Angela Carone, KPBS Arts and Culture Producer.

This forum is free and open to the public – we would encourage all who are concerned with the local media coverage of the arts to attend and add your voice to the discussion.

Support Bob Pincus at www.facebook.com/WeWantBob, at bringbobback.blogspot.com, and follow him on Twitter!

Are You Seth? vol.10

The Day has finally arrived - Tuesday, June 29th is the release day for David Mitchell's new novel, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet.  Why is this important, you ask?  Besides the fact that Mitchell is my favorite author - a fact that you should be fully aware of - this is the best novel I have read yet so far this year. 

Mitchell is the author of four previous books, two of which (Number9dream and Cloud Atlas) were short-listed for the Booker Prize (his fourth, Black Swan Green, made the Longlist).  Born in England, he spent about a decade living in Japan (where he married his wife and started his family) before moving to Ireland in 2002.  He has been named one of the Granta's best young novelists and Time magazine picked him as the lone literary novelist on their 2007 list of the 100 most influential people in the world.  Whadda-ya think of that?  Where've you been?  Cloud Atlas has long been one of my favorite books - it has resided comfortably on the bestseller display at Warwick's since its release in August 2004.  Granted, that's mostly because I won't allow it to be removed, but still, we've sold almost 500 copies in that timespan.  And where Cloud Atlas is a complex, multi-layered force of nature - featuring 6 different storylines that intertwine and merge into one conhesive portrait of humanity - Thousand Autumns is rather straightforward in its narration and scope.

It is set in 1799 on the manmade, Dutch trading post island of Dejima off the coast of Nagasaki, Japan. Incredibly, Dejima was a very real place - in the 16th & 17th centuries, foreign traders were not allowed to set foot onto the actual mainland of Japan and were relegated to life on this fabricated island.  Jacob de Zoet is a clerk for the Dutch East India Company assigned to Dejima who just wants to do an honest job, make a little money, and work his way back home to his future bride. If only life in a David Mitchell novel were that simple.

The Dutch survive as Japan's sole trading partner through an uneasy alliance based on the certainty of supplies from the outside world - what happens when something goes wrong on the supply chain?  Jacob is faced with internal corruption and vicious political manuevering, the delicate balancing act of the Japanese partnership, a daunting language barrier, the mysterious banishment of the woman he loves, the hushed-up financial collapse of his employer, and an imminent attack by foreign invaders, all of which test the limits of his faith - a faith strictly forbidden in Japan on the cusp of the 19th century. There are multiple narrators throughout, as is Mitchell's wont, but it is structurally done in such a subtle way that you hardly notice - you are just swept along in the flow, wondering, as a foreigner like Jacob, how much of the lush, inner world of Japan you will be allowed to glimpse.

This is really fantastic, fully-rendered historical fiction - if that's your bag, check this out for sure.  If you're a David Mitchell fan, there should be no question of which book you purchase from your local, friendly independent bookstore on Tuesday.  For more on Mitchell, check out his interview in the current edition of The Paris Review (there's an excerpt available on their website.)  Or for even more, come to Warwick's and Steven and I'll tell you all about him.

The Short Life of Bree Tanner

by Heather

Another book by Stephenie Meyer. You would think that crowds of Twihards would be rushing to the store to pick up the latest from the reigning queen of vampires, but sadly this is not the case. Now, while I don’t want to classify myself as a Twihard (way too obsessive for me) I am a fan of the Twilight saga, I've sat through the two disappointing films, and am one of the few who has actually purchased this new Eclipse-based novella. Why aren’t these books selling? Well, it could be that it is a mere 192 pages, and anyone who has read the series knows the ending. Actually, even if you haven’t read the series you know the ending, gasp…Bree dies. Don’t get mad at me if you haven’t figured that out yet, I mean hello, it’s in the title. Really, it’s most likely because the author has posted the book for free at breetanner.com.  Now don’t get too excited, the book is only available online until July 5th, you can’t download it, and you cannot print it. That’s nice, but not exactly what I as a Twilight saga fan want to hear and certainly not what I want to hear as a representative of an independent bookstore. No, I want a copy for my library. You know, to complete my shelf of Stephenie Meyer. You can’t do that with a digital version that you can’t even save to disk. So why aren’t fans picking up on this?

For starters The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is such a small piece of the Twilight puzzle that setting it up on its own doesn’t really work. It would have been much better to include it in some compendium or a large and extravagant Twilight encyclopedia. This would give it more meat and put the story within the context of the series. Instead, this story seems to have arrived from nowhere and is quickly floating off into the distant world of “who cares” and “why bother”.

This is unfortunate because the story is interesting, providing a whole new way to see the characters of Twilight. While it’s a quick and easy read, it provided a little bit of new insight to what was actually my least favorite books of the series and it got me a bit more excited for the movie (yes, even though the first two films were abysmal, I will go see Eclipse, let’s hope the third time is the charm). I thought I was done with the series, but Bree Tanner reminded me why I enjoyed it in the first place. Now, whenever it is that I decide to reread the series (and I will) I am happy to have this little nugget on the shelf adding to my reading enjoyment. And if you just read it for free online you miss that.

Just a note, one dollar from each book purchased goes to The Red Cross, so not only are you expanded your Twilight palette and supporting your local bookstore, but you're also contributing to a worthy organization.

Here's the Truth:

We've actually been so busy shelving new books at the store in recent weeks that I haven't been able to post anything to the blog about those new books.  With an impending Coffee with a Bookseller coming this Tuesday (be there or be square), I figured now's a good time to offer a recap of recent weeks and to take a look at the new stuff coming this week:

Recent new hardcovers:
Blockade Billy by Stephen King
Truth by Peter Temple (a book I loved - follow the link for my recommends)
Hitch 22: A Memoir by Christopher Hitchens
61 Hours by Lee Child
Steve Martini's The Rule of Nine
The Madonnas of Echo Park by debut novelist Brando Skyhorse (who will be at Warwick's on June 14th to discuss)
and The Anthropology of an American Girl by Hilary Thayer Hamann, which has been a buzz book for years, as the author originally self-published before getting picked up by Spiegel & Grau.

And of course, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson arrived May 25th. Where've you been? This is by far the hottest title of the year - the conclusion to the late-Larsson's internationally bestselling trilogy of mystery novels. There's a Swedish movie version (with subtitles) of the first book and a rumored upcoming American version, directed by David Fincher and starring Carey Mulligan (of Twilight fame) and Viggo Mortenson. Like I said, where've you been?

There has also been a riduculous abundance of new paperbacks arriving in the last few weeks - Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn (highly, highly recommended by John) and three that I heartilly recommend:  Iain Pears' Stone's Fall (A challenging, unfolding onion of a novel and a fascinating, meticulously researched, multi-layered masterpiece by the author of An Instance of the Fingerpost), Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga (click for my recommends), and Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Angel's Game - here's my take: "This much-anticipated follow up to The Shadow of the Wind is a sprawling, labyrinthine novel that evokes the rich, vivid atmosphere of pre-Civil War Barcelona’s culture of literacy (leaving the modern reader pining for such days) yet cleverly provokes the reader with a narrator of dubious reliability & sanity. The clack of the typewriter, the smell of the dusty old bookshop, the very idea of pulp short stories being printed in the newspaper - all are evocative of a lost era of literature and a culture surrounding the printed page. The vastness of the narrative layering is astounding, showcasing Ruiz Zafon’s remarkable storytelling abilities & inherent sense of time & place. A great escapist read, especially for those looking to re-enter the Cemetery of Forgotten Books…."

This week:

• The "Twilight" mention reminds me, there's a Stephenie Meyer novella set in the Twilight universe due out this Saturday. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is a result of Meyer fleshing out one of her minor characters from the other books.  If you're into the whole Twilight thing, there's nothing new I can tell you, as you know all this (and more) already.
• The Passage by Justin Cronin - this is going to be a HUGE book, I guarantee. (*Guarantee not valid in California.)  Ballantine won the publishing rights with a $3.75 million contract to the author, it's 766 pages long and weighs 2.4 pounds, Ridley Scott bought the film rights for $1.75 million, and it's about vampires!  Even more incredible (at least to me) is that Cronin is a product of the prestigious literary factory, the Iowa Writer's Workshop.  Take that, Stephenie Meyer.  Here's the New York Times piece on the hype.  And the Huffington Post's take.
• Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain - the long-anticipated follow-up to Kitchen Confidential, the book that put Tony on the map.  If you watch No Reservations, it's gotta be good - I can't wait to read it.
• The Lion by Nelson DeMille - always a bestseller, this is the sequel to The Lion's Game.

And, we are just two short weeks away from the release of David Mitchell's new novel, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet. (Due Tuesday, June 29th.)  My favorite book of the year so far - here is my early take, just after I read the manuscript 6 months ago. Ahh, the perks of bookselling!

Matterhorn

The "It" book this Spring, at least in these parts, seems to be Karl Marlantes' debut novel of the Vietnam War, Matterhorn. (Warwick's had him here in April, to great success.) Matterhorn highlights the utter futility, stupidity, and frustration that permeates war in our time. It is the story of a company of Marines, entrenched in the jungle of Vietnam, forced to protect, defend, abandon, attack, and hold a supposedly strategically significant mountain that rises above the treeline just south of the DMZ. These men fight, kill, and often die, at the whim of an alcoholic, glory-seeking Battalion Commander who watches and criticizes from afar. It is raw, yet elegant - powerful, yet humble; a remarkable book that forces a fresh perspective on a sad chapter in American history.

Marlantes himself was an enormously decorated Marine during the war, earning two Purple Hearts, the Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation Medals for Valor, ten air medals, and the distinguished Navy Cross. In 1975, when he had finally come home after his time served, he began writing his novel - 35 years later, we have the honor of being able to read his story. The publishing history of Matterhorn is almost as interesting as the story itself - it is one of an amazing collaborative effort by a tiny independent publisher, a major New York publisher, a giant bookstore chain, and dozens of independent bookshops.

After toiling over his book - which ballooned to over 1,700 manuscript pages at one point - for the better part of three decades, Marlantes finally found a publisher in tiny El León Literary Arts out of Berkeley, CA.  He had no literary agent and was paid in copies of his book, rather than cash - 120 to be exact.  El León printed a modest 1200 copies and Marlantes sent some around to independent stores that he thought might want to carry it. Several booksellers read it and expressed interest in book signings - the Oregonian even ran an article on Marlantes and his story, even before the original publication date. El León also submitted the work to various literary contests with the hope that someone else would notice its merits. They did.

When the Barnes & Noble's Discover Great New Writers program expressed interest - Sessalee Hensley, renowned book buyer for B&N was a big proponent - the concern was whether El León could handle a print run larger than the initial 1200 if picked up by the program. Hensley brought the book to the attention of Morgan Entrekin, president of the widely respected Grove/Atlantic and Entrekin struck a deal with El León to publish and distribute jointly. Grove paid El León for the initial print run, covered all their printing costs, plus a cut of the ensuing profits, and printed Matterhorn under both names - an unprecedented circumstance in the world of publishing. Now, two months after the Grove publication date, Matterhorn has received all kinds of remarkable praise, from virtually ever major review publication out there. It has spent 7 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, it received coveted starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, it was featured on NPR, in Newsweek, The Onion, the Washington Post - the list goes on. Plenty of people in the Warwick's orbit have read it as well - so many, in fact, that I thought I'd ask some colleagues and friends to give me their impressions on Matterhorn for inclusion in this post, as sort of a collaborative affair - they're included below.

As for me, I was born in 1975 - a month and a half after Saigon fell - so there's always been a bit of a mystique surrounding Vietnam for me, as one brought into life just as so many were exiting theirs. It has been a war that has left its indelible stamp on my generation - even though we were just barely getting started. I haven't read a novel of Vietnam that has brought the stark reality of the war to the forefront quite like this one. What struck me most about Matterhorn - other than the frustration in watching men die as a result of astounding idiocy and political posturing - was that I never found myself thinking of characters as being "killed off" by the author, rather I mourned their deaths as if they were real people. I can't remember ever thinking this while reading fiction before.

Wes Anson:  "For me it was as accurate and as evocative as Band of Brothers must have been for WWII people. Having been in Vietnam during that time (and in that location), I can tell you that every word Marlantes has written and the scenes he describes are absolutely accurate. If you’ve ever wondered what it was like to actually be there, you need to read this book. It deserves every word of praise that it has received."

Adrian Newell, Warwick's:  "I loved the book, but found it hard to read because of the subject matter, not the writing - so I read it only in the morning and in small bites. I both loved and hated the way I became so emotionally attached to characters...only to have them die! It was very realistic but tough to handle as the reader becomes very connected to the people. I thought he did an amazing job of describing the tedium of waiting for battle, the psychological impact of war, the camaraderie and brotherhood that develops under the harsh conditions of combat, and the political machinations that are often at cross purposes with what we're fighting for & about. War is ultimately the game of politics taken to the nth degree!"

Will Wainess: "I think Matterhorn did an exceptional job of describing the racial tensions that existed within these companies during the war. My father - in World War II - was in charge of a segregated unit. His officers were white but all of his enlisted men were black. And then you throw all of these (different) people together in this horrendous conflict called Vietnam…I mean, I’d never known that “the brothers” wore hangman’s nooses around their necks, in defiance…throwing it up into the face of the officers on a daily basis. There were no black officers, really. What really jumped out at me was how career-oriented & gung ho for promotion and glory a lot of these white officers were. Some of (their) decisions were clearly stupid, and some of them were very necessary, but (it proves) that there’s no faster way to get promoted than during wartime. These guys were jumping at their chance during this conflict – always thinking of who to lay it off on, how it may come back at them or how it might stand in their favor & get them promoted. It really addressed the pure madness of it all - take the mountain top, abandon the mountaintop, march here by 9:30 in the morning, without food and resupply - not just because the weather (is bad), but 'cause (we're) not gonna reward them for (screwing) up and not taking better care of their soldiers feet and eating their food too fast...it was nuts! I really got the sense of the futility of war as I have in few other books."

Molly McDonald:  "Vietnam is kind of a nightmare to think about, and therefore I’ve not wanted to do so for many years. I began reading Matterhorn thinking I wouldn't last a chapter and found myself not able to put it down. Marlantes takes you there without mercy, not unlike how our troops arrived: young, inexperienced, and aching to understand what the hell was going on in this, not a war, but a military conflict. I was asking myself throughout the book: "Why do we do war?" The answers are in this novel. The characters are stunning, vivid, and wonderful. I learned what goes on between soldiers in combat, but also of larger issues of self, purpose, and the limits of human understanding. The healing quality of this is not to be underestimated - I have not enjoyed a novel so much in quite awhile."

John Hughes, Warwick's:  "What makes a great war novel? For me, the answer has to be a compelling story that not only gives me a realistic portrayal of a war but also gives the reader an experience of the war from inside the minds and hearts of actual soldiers. A great war novel should strike you to the core. Matterhorn is a great war novel about a horrible war. It has earned a place on my bookshelf next to Red Badge of Courage, All Quiet on the Western Front, and The Naked and the Dead."

Ted Chandler:  "Intense, raw, and compelling, Matterhorn accurately portrays, more than any other novel that I've read, 'the horror, the horror' of this brutish, foolish, and disastrous American misadventure. I can say this with conviction because of my own experiences in various 'garden spots,' such as Dong Ha, Quang Tri, and Khe Sanh two years before Mellas' combat tour in I Corps. But that said, Semper Fi Marines!"

Do You Have That Book...

...with the big wave of money on the cover?  C'mon, you know the one one I mean.

Anchee Min, Pearl of China. A Streaming Audio Odyssey

Anchee Min stopped by the store April 8th, 2010 to chat with her legion of local fans and to sign copies of her new novel, Pearl of China. If you've never seen Anchee Min, you're missing out. Her appearances at Warwick's are legendary, whether she is reading from her work, singing opera, teaching the crowd to dance, or relating her moving personal narrative.

At Warwick's we've always wanted to find a way to bring our events to everyone, even if they can't make it to the store. Our latest experiment is to provide you with a streaming audio archive of our past events. If you click the link below Windows Media Player will open the audio from Anchee Min's book signing.
Listen Now To Anchee Min Discussing Her New Novel Pearl of China From April 8th, 2010

Since we've never done this before we're not sure how valuable it is to you, so please let us know what you think. We can also post the files as Real Media streams in the future and soon we will have a site ready for podcasting. Don't forget, you can also watch video of many of our events over at our channel at YouTube and in higher quality as single files at our new video archive on Fora.tv.  Again, let us know what you want to see and how you want it delivered!

Are You Seth? vol.9 or What's New This Week?

It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted a round-up of the new releases for the week - and even longer since I posted anything resembling a book recommendation, so I thought, since most of this week's releases (especially the paperback ones) are so decidedly "Seth-friendly", I'd offer a combo deal.  By the way, if you like reading about the new books here on the blog, let me know: either in the comments field, at info@warwicks.com or just by coming by on the second Tuesday of every month for Coffee with a Bookseller and telling me in person. (Or any day, for that matter.)

• The 9th Judgment by James Patterson - being the cynical, snobbish jerk that I am, I've been considering a James Patterson-related personal challenge to myself for several months now & I think the time is ripe. Depending on the number of chapters - I assume this will have at least 100 - I will be undertaking somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 Days of James Patterson, during which I will read one chapter a day & post my thoughts on the daily reading to my blog, The Book Catapult. I might chicken out, but for now, I'm doin' it! It's gonna be hilarious. By the way, in between writing or co-writing 5-9 novels each year (last Fall he signed a 17 book, 3 year deal with Hachette), Patterson also watches a lot of movies: check it out.
• Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende - always a major publication, a huge bestseller, and destined to be a favorite of Jim S. from Warwick's. Here's a summary from isabellallende.com: Isabel Allende’s triumphant return to historical fiction tells the story of Zarité, a nine-year-old mulatto girl who is sold as a slave in eighteenth-century Santo Domingo. This sweeping novel follows her and other slaves over forty years, telling the story of their exploitation and the miserable conditions of their lives. Adding depth and color to the story are the women who help Zarité survive: Violette, the prostitute; Loula, the businesswoman; the witch Tante Rose; and the plantation cook, Tante Matilde. In Zarité, Isabel Allende has created another of her unforgettable characters: a fighter, a heroine, a woman who will prevail regardless of what the future might hold.
• Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco - before this debut was even published, it was awarded the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize (the judging panel called it "brilliantly conceived, and stylishly executed" written with "seemingly effortless skill.") and the Grand Prize at the Palanca Awards, the highest literature prize in the Phillipines. C'mon, that's pretty impressive. "It begins with a body. On a clear day in winter, the battered corpse of Crispin Salvador is pulled from the Hudson River - taken from the world is the controversial lion of Philippine literature. Gone, too, is the only manuscript of his final book, a work meant to rescue him from obscurity by exposing the crimes of the Filipino ruling families. Miguel, his student and only remaining friend, sets out for Manila to investigate. To understand the death, Miguel scours the life, piecing together Salvador’s story through his poetry, interviews, novels, polemics, and memoirs. The result is a rich and dramatic family saga of four generations, tracing 150 years of Philippine history forged under the Spanish, the Americans, and the Filipinos themselves. Finally, we are surprised to learn that this story belongs to young Miguel as much as to his lost mentor, and we are treated to an unhindered view of a society caught between reckless decay and hopeful progress." I, for one, can't wait to read this.
  
  New Paperbacks:

• Zulu by Caryl Ferey - the latest crime novel release from the wonderful Europa Editions. A violent, shocking account of crime in modern South Africa - which is not the happy place we may think it has become in the last decade. From my Book Catapult take: "I think what disturbed me so much was that the violence never felt gratuitous in any way - it just felt real, which is a lot scarier. You learn about halfway through that this is one of those books where no character is safe - just like it would be if this were a true story. Once the gang that (detectives) Ali & Co. are chasing realizes that cops are, in fact, touchable, the whole game is turned on it's head and you really never know what will be lurking in the next set of shadows."

• The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen - one of my favorite books from last year, now out in paperback. I'm going to plug my other blog again, where I've written about Spivet on several occasions, so forgive me: #2 on the 2009 Catapult Notable List. If you're ever wondering what sort of book is infinitely better in a bound-book format (rather than an e-book one), T.S. Spivet is the perfect example. A masterfully illustrated novel of a wandering genius boy that is unlike anything you have ever read, I guarantee it.
• Sanctuary by Ken Bruen - I'm a huge Bruen fan, as most Warwick's regulars know, and while I did really like the story to this, the seventh Jack Taylor novel, I was extremely miffed at the large-type, double-spaced, 202-page, $25 hardcover edition that came out last spring. I feel a little better about it as a $13.99 paperback. If you like crime novels and have not read this series, come talk to me.
• The City and the City by China Mieville - #6 on the 2009 Catapult Notable List. (Like I said, a very "Seth-friendly" week of releases.) The LA Times called this "a Philip K. Dick and Raymond Chandler love child...raised by Franz Kafka." Here's my "Warwick's Recommends":  "In a style similar to Philip K. Dick or Jonathan Lethem’s Gun, with Occasional Music, Mieville expertly blurs genre lines in this science fiction crime novel of a bizarrely divided city. The city is one physical space, but partitioned by an otherworldly division – they merge & blend, but the residents always stay separate, avoiding eye contact, out of a collective fear of the spooky Breach, the overseers of this crazy sociological experiment. But what happens when a woman is murdered in one city, but her body is discovered in the other? There is not much negotiating with Breach, so the politics for Inspector Tyador Borlu are complicated, to say the least. A crazy cool novel."

Don't forget, Coffee with a Bookseller (aka: Coffee with Seth) is on the 2nd Tuesday of every month at 10:00am. (Next one is May 11th)  Free coffee, free scones from Brick & Bell, and free book advice! ***Starting with the May edition, anyone in attendance will receive a 20% discount on any of the books I talk about - only good on that day. Pretty sweet!***

Tana French's Dublin

by Heather -
Hordes of people, Guinness, millions of cabs, a university where the tour guides are plucky intellectuals with a keen, if somewhat hokey sense of humor, Guinness, and music, oh, so much music (though predominantly Johnny Cash), so much that you can feel the vibrations from the Temple Bar as you stumble by; this is how I remember Dublin. Did I mention Guinness?

Dark corners, edgy women peering out slyly from behind their shutters, closed doors hiding the thinly veiled secrets of the inhabitants. Man against man, families against themselves, cop against everyone. Streets empty with the vastness of failure, and dysfunction that seeps and crawls its way between homes and through the lips of anyone who speaks. This is the image of Dublin that Tana French creates.

French, the author of In the Woods (winner of the 2008 Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author), will be releasing her third book revolving around the members of the Dublin Murder Squad in July. French is an amazingly talented writer with the unique aptitude of producing intense character studies within well-plotted, emotionally moving novels of psychological suspense. As readers wait for the July 13th release of Faithful Place, I feel it necessary to bring her talent for writing to the attention of those who have not yet had the fortune of delving into her murky world.

In the Woods is the first of the novels detailing the emotionally wrecking and highly personal cases of Dublin’s finest. It brings to mind the blurred lines and gray areas of right and wrong that pepper the works of notable authors like Dennis Lehane. Following Detectives Rob Ryan and Cassie Maddox as they delve into the murder of a 12-year-old girl, a case eerily similar to events from Ryan’s shadowed past, In the Woods is a thrilling mystery that absolutely sucks you into its depths. The Likeness takes place six months later and details the psychological fallout and resulting career challenges of Detective Cassie Maddox. My favorite of the two, The Likeness is gripping in its intensity as the readers follow Cassie into an undercover assignment that’s cult-like atmosphere begins to deconstruct Cassie’s thinly veiled mental composure. Both are written with beautiful, often-poetic prose interposed with a jagged, seeping edge of violence that slices through the texts brilliantly.

So, Faithful Place, does it live up to these two bestselling thrillers? Yes! By far the most complex, as it deals with the murky and constantly unstable world or families, Faithful Place follows Detective Frank Mackey, leader of Dublin’s undercover unit, as he investigates a decades old murder that had long-lasting repercussions for both Frank and his family. True to form (as presented by French), Mackey lives on the edge of right and wrong, leaping through various shades of gray as he stealthily moves through the Dublin slums picking apart all of the inhabitants in his search, even if the answers lead him closer to the damaged home and family he escaped twenty years before. According to many of my co-workers, this is it, French’s best work to date and I have to agree, she just keeps getting better.

Now, if you haven’t done so yet, read In the Woods and The Likeness. You have time - until July to be exact. Then, once you’ve reveled in the complex world of Tana French for a while you will be fully prepared for the brilliance that is Faithful Place.

2010 Pulitzer Prizes

At noon today, the Pulitzer Prize Committee announced their 2010 winners and finalists:

Fiction: Tinkers by Paul Harding
History: Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed
Biography/Autobiography: The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles (also the winner of the National Book Award for Nonfiction)
General Nonfiction: The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy by David E. Hoffman
Drama: Next to Normal, music by Tom Kitt, book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey
Poetry: Versed by Rae Armantrout

I, for one, have never heard of Paul Harding, nor his (debut!) novel, Tinkers, although it is pretty cool that a small, independent, non-profit press like Bellevue Literary has produced such a prestigious award-winner. It beat out National Book Award finalist, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin (read & recommended by John. I've read 1/2 of it.) and another book I've never heard of, Love in Infant Monkeys by Lydia Millet. (I would've picked the latter, simply on title alone.)  The Tinkers synopsis from the Pulitzer site: "An old man lies dying. As time collapses into memory, he travels deep into his past where he is reunited with his father and relives the wonder and pain of his impoverished New England youth. At once heartbreaking and life affirming, Tinkers is an elegiac meditation on love, loss, and the fierce beauty of nature."  Order your copy now on warwicks.com - it may take awhile, but we will have some.

The best part of this year's awards, however, is in the poetry department - given to Rae Armantrout, writing professor at UCSD, for her collection, Versed. Much congratulations!  From the Pulitzer site: Rae Armantrout has always organized her collections of poetry as though they were works in themselves. Versed brings two of these sequences together, offering readers an expanded view of the arc of her writing. The poems in the first section, Versed, play with vice and versa, the perversity of human consciousness. They flirt with error and delusion, skating on a thin ice that inevitably cracks: “Metaphor forms / a crust / beneath which / the crevasse of each experience.”  Dark Matter, the second section, alludes to more than the unseen substance thought to make up the majority of mass in the universe. The invisible and unknowable are confronted directly as Armantrout's experience with cancer marks these poems with a new austerity, shot through with her signature wit and stark unsentimental thinking. Together, the poems of Versed part us from our assumptions about reality, revealing the gaps and fissures in our emotional and linguistic constructs, showing us ourselves where we are most exposed.

For more on all the winners, check out Pulitzer.org.

A New Steinbeck Novel!

Here's the skinny on this week at the 'wick - lots of new fiction, a few notable biographical works, and another full slate of author events.

• Imperfect Birds by Anne Lamott - Lamott's first novel since Blue Shoe brings back some characters from earlier novels and has been getting some great early reviews. PW: "Straddling a line between heartwarming and heartbreaking, this novel is Lamott at her most witty, observant, and psychologically astute."  Even better, Anne will be here on Thursday, April 15th at 7:30!
• Lake Shore Limited by Sue Miller - the new novel from the bestselling author of The Senator's Wife and The World Below.  From the pub: "A powerful love story; a mesmerizing tale of entanglements, connections, and inconsolable losses; a marvelous reflection on the meaning of grace and the uses of sorrow, in life and in art."
• This Time Together by Carol Burnett - her memoir. I have a feeling this book (and Carol) is going to be everywhere in the coming weeks.
• The Last Time I Saw You by Elizabeth Berg - a great book club read: somewhat more cynical than her usual, this novel of reconnecting at a 40th high school reunion deals with the prospect of aging. Berg's other books include Home Safe, The Pull of the Moon, The Year of Pleasures.
• What Becomes by A.L. Kennedy - a new collection of short stories by the Scottish author, twice named to Granta's list of Best Young British Writers. Starred reviews from Kirkus ("Sensitively observed, elegantly written snapshots of the human condition") and Publisher's Weekly.

• In the Shadow of the Cypress by Thomas Steinbeck - the second novel by John's son.  Set in...Monterey, California, this novel is about the communities of Chinese immigrants living there. Centering on 3 men from various time periods of Chinese life on the California coast, Booklist called it "upbeat, captivating, provocative, and classy." It also has an awesome cover.
• The Bridge: The Life & Rise of Barack Obama by David Remnick - Remnick is a Pulitzer Prize winner & editor of the New Yorker - this is his entry into the Barack Obama biography sweepstakes.  I think Remnick's sheer writing ability will make this more interesting than most. Jon Meacham from Newsweek wrote that "Remnick's biography depends not on nuggets (of information) but on his characteristically dispassionate, richly observed assessment of his subject. Without sermonizing or sentimentalizing, Remnick sheds light on the complicated role of race in Obama's rise and victory and, perhaps most relevantly, in the conduct of his presidency."
• In the Green Kitchen: Techniques to Learn By Heart by Alice Waters - every new book from sustainable food guru Alice Waters is a major big deal. This is a step-by-step guide to how she cooks - with 50 recipes that highlight fresh, local flavors.
• Seized: A Sea Captain's Adventures Battling Scoundrels and Pirates While Recovering Stolen Ships in the World's Most Troubled Waters by Max Hardberger - c'mon, admit you're a little bit hooked by that subtitle! Pirates!

New in paperback:  How it Ended: New & Collected Stories by Jay "Bright Lights, Big City" McInerney.

Happenings:
Steve Poizner, Monday - Mount Pleasant
Jason Shiga, Tuesday afternoon - Meanwhile
David Deardorff & Kathryn Wadsworth, Tuesday night - What's Wrong with My Plant? (And How Do I Fix It?)
Anchee Min, Thursday night - Pearl of China

Just a reminder:  Coffee with a Bookseller, April Edition is coming up - Tuesday, April 13 at 10am. See you there!

Solarized

Not a whole lot of new books coming this week - although there are a couple pretty big releases - but there are four events at Warwick's for you to attend!

• Solar by Ian McEwan - a new book by the 2-time Booker Prize winner is always somewhat of a literary event. (Warwick's has signed copies available!)  A Nobel Prize-winning physicist halfheartedly works on a governmental global warming project as his marriage crumbles - can he salvage both? Alas, the early reviews are not great - it doesn't seem like Solar is Sir Ian's finest work, nor destined to earn him that 3rd Booker. Booklist: "readers are taxed to even care" about the characters & crises in this "draggy novel". PW: "The scientific material is absorbing, but the interpersonal portions are much less so. Troublesome, since McEwan seems to prefer the latter, making for an inconsistent novel that one finishes feeling unpleasantly glacial."  Sorry, I didn't mean to talk you out of reading it.
• Pearl of China by Anchee Min - set amidst the turmoil of the dawn of the 20th century in China (Mao, the Boxer Rebellion, civil war), Min reimagines the early life of Pearl S. Buck and her friendship with young Willow Yee. Of course, Anchee will be at Warwick's for this book - Thursday, April 8th at 7:30 - plenty of time for you to read the book first.
• Deception by Jonathan Kellerman - more "Alex Delaware" from the award-winning patriarch of the Kellerman empire.
• Giada at Home: Family Recipes From Italy and California by Giada de Laurentiis - the new cookbook by the Food Network star. Like "cheese-stuffed dates wrapped in salty prosciutto, creamy risotto with the earthy and deep flavors of mushrooms and gorgonzola, and lamb chops basted with honey and balsamic vinegar."  I'm in.
• About Face by Donna Leon comes out in paperback this week.

Happenings:

• Jack Bowen, author of If You Can Read This: The Philosophy of Bumper Stickers on Monday night at 7:30. There's a short piece on Jack's book over on KPBS's Culture Lust blog - check it out.
• Midge Raymond, author of Forgetting English, is hosting a Writing Workshop on Tuesday night at 7:00.
• Karl Rove (sigh, yes, that Karl Rove) will be signing his new book, Courage and Consequence on Wednesday evening at 6:00. (Note: this is a ticketed event & only books purchased from Warwick's will be signed.)
• Indu Sundaresan, author of Shadow Princess, the concluding novel in her Taj Trilogy, will be here on Thursday night at 7:30.

Happy Birthday Octavio Paz (1918-1998; March 31) and Hans Christen Anderson (1805-1875; April 2)!

Girl, Don't Play With That Fire!

A couple of these (Kerr and Judt) released on March 18th (Thursday is an odd day for new releases), while the rest are out on Tuesday this week. The biggest book in this post: the much-anticipated paperback release of Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Played with Fire happens on Tuesday. Part three of the late Larsson's massively successful trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, releases on May 25th.

• If the Dead Rise Not by Philip Kerr - Kerr's sixth novel featuring WWII-era Berlin private detective, Bernie Gunther. The early books – now packaged as a trilogy know as "Berlin Noir" - were great, but more in a classic, "Hey, dollface", Chandler-esque gumshoe style. Once Kerr revisited the series in 2003, after a decade away from Bernie, the characters and plots have had a much grittier taste to them and really pulsate with great historical nuances and blazing dialogue. Dead alternates between a seasoned, bitter, & exiled Bernie living in the political volatility of Cuba 1954 and the relative innocence of 1934's Berlin Bernie, just beginning to suspect the path his homeland is on. For fans, it’s great to see pre-war Bernie again – and newcomers can jump right in, as Kerr is writing the best stuff of his career.
• Ill Fares the Land by Tony Judt - critically acclaimed historian Judt, author of Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten 20th Century and Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, returns with his treatise on where we as a society have gone wrong in the last 60 years. The title is from Oliver Goldsmith's poem of nostagia, The Deserted Village:  "Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay."
• Caught by Harlan Coben - a new thriller by the bestselling author.

• Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes - Marlantes spent the last 30 years perfecting his intensely personal novel of the Vietnam War and has been getting some stellar early reviews. PW called it "a grand, distinctive accomplishment" and Warwick's own John Hughes has been raving about it. Come down & meet the author on Monday, April 19th.
• Known to Evil by Walter Mosley - continuing the "Leonid McGill" series of mysteries.
• Bite Me by Christopher Moore - I'll give you the first sentence of the publisher's blurb & let you decide: "The city of San Francisco is being stalked by a huge shaved vampyre cat named Chet, and only I, Abby Normal, emergency backup mistress of the Greater Bay Area night, and my manga-haired love monkey, Foo Dog, stand between the ravenous monster and a bloody massacre of the general public."
• 1001 Beers You Must Taste Before You Die by Adrian Tierney-Jones - just too funny to not make a note of. I plan on trying them all, even if it kills me.

Paperbacks:

• Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child
• The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

Happenings: a busy week.

• Stephen J. Cannell, The Pallbearers - Tuesday at 7:30.
• Annabelle Gurwitch & Jeff Kahn, You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up - Wednesday night at 6:30 at Isabel's Cantina. (This is a ticketed dinner event - you can check warwicks.com or call for details.)
• Springtime Children's Party - Thursday afternoon at 4:30.
• Frances Mayes, Every Day in Tuscany - Thursday night at 7:30. A follow up to her bestsellers, Under the Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany.
• Cherie Currie, Neon Angel - a "signing only" event on Saturday afternoon at 4:00. Currie was the lead singer for Joan Jett's band The Runaways in the 80's - you know, "Ch-ch-ch-ch-cherrybomb!"

Upcoming Paranormalities

by Heather
Zombies, ghosts, vampires, werewolves, fairies and dystopic societies - they have all been markedly present in my reading material as of late. Perhaps it’s because these topics seem to be so prevalent in current popular culture or maybe it’s just that I have been making an effort to catch up on my paranormal reading because my desk was starting to overflow with reading copies. I’ve read countless paranormal novels over the last several months, some that are currently out and others which will be released between now and this summer. As I’ve waded my way through the lackluster, uninspired ridiculousness, I greatly feared that I would never come across a new novel worth recommending. Who knew there could be that many horrid writers being published? Fortunately, after much toil, boredom, and hair pulling, I finally came across a few notable new novels in the genre.

Soulless by Gail Carriger, has been out since October, but since it’s sequel, Changeless is due out in May it would be remiss of me not to mention it. This is that book that you pick-up, start to read, and then just can’t put down. It’s that novel that causes a smirk to cross your lips and your chest to tighten with a mixture of anticipation and downright enjoyment. Soulless, the first in a new series by Gail Carriger is that book. The perfect blend of paranormal, romance, comedy, alternative history, and steam punk, Soulless manages to reach beyond the genres with it’s wonderful prose, witty dialogue, and unforgettable characters.

Birthmarked by Caragh O’Brien, which will be released at the end this month, is a tremendously dystopic novel that faintly echoes themes from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. This is a teen novel, but one that’s premise will be appreciated by adults. The writer, a high school English teacher, does an incredible job of creating characters full of complexities and an environment that is both fantastic and harshly real in its depiction.

The Passage by Justin Cronin is a highly anticipated and much touted new novel out of Random House. It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen so much hype for a science fiction novel. Usually, I’m turned off by excessive amounts of plugging because the novels rarely live up to the praise, but this is one book that paid off. The Passage is one of those books that is completely intimidating at first sight because of it's immense size, but once you've read the first few pages you discover an immersing story that sucks you in and refuses to let go. A perfect mixture of classic Michael Crichton meets Resident Evil, this is a novel capable of appealing to science fiction and more mainstream fiction readers, while still maintaining a uniqueness of it’s own. A perfect summer blockbuster that frustrated me to no ends because after nearly 1,000 pages I was loathe to see the end, and am now yearning for a sequel, even though this first book has yet to be released (June 8, 2010).

I would like to end this by taking the time to acknowledge a few of the sequels that are currently or about to be released. Darklight by Lesley Livingston (Wondrous Strange) and Hourglass by Claudia Gray (Evernight) are available now. Linger by Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver); The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan (The Forest of Hands and Teeth), and Guardian of the Gate by Michelle Zink (Prophecy of the Sisters) are all out this summer. I have read each of these titles and they are all fantastic, but pay close attention to Guardian of the Gate, which is by far the best of the group.

The Big Short Week

Well, since last Tuesday was such a massive book release day, this week is of course, a little lighter. Not to mention that March Madness begins this week - reports say that the brackets could cost employers $1.8 billion in unproductive wages this year, based on the amount of time we all watch basketball on the clock. Personally, I think this statistic is ridiculous - I would never watch basketball at work. (If you need a bracket though, you can email me at seth@warwicks.com.) Still, there're a handful of books to note:

• The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis - hot on the heels of Sandra Bullock's Oscar win for her role in The Blind Side (written by Lewis), comes his book on the collapse of the American economy. From the publisher:  "Truth really is stranger than fiction. Who better than (Lewis) to explain how the event we were told was impossible - the free fall of the American economy - finally occurred; how the things that we wanted, like ridiculously easy money and greatly expanded home ownership, were vehicles for that crash; and how shareholder demand for profit forced investment executives to eat the forbidden fruit of toxic derivatives. (Lewis) proves yet again that he is the finest and funniest chronicler of our times."
• Think Twice by Lisa Scottoline - lawyer's evil twin sister gets mixed up in drug-running & tries to impersonate her. Sweet!
• The Pallbearers by Stephen J. Cannell - the bestselling author and creator of every super-cool TV show from the late-70's and early-80's (The A-Team, 21 Jump Street, The Greatest American Hero, The Rockford Files) returns with another in his series of Shane Scully novels. Meet the man himself, at Warwick's on Tuesday, March 23rd at 7:30.
• Dimiter by William Peter Blatty - it's been awhile, but I know you remember him - this is the new novel from the author of The Exorcist. PW gave it a surprising starred review, calling it "a beautifully written, haunting tale of vengeance, spiritual searching, loss, and love."

Happenings:

• Tuesday, March 16th - Anil Ananathswamy, author of The Edge of Physics: A Journey to Earth's Extremes to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe. From the pub: "In this timely and original book, science writer Anil Ananthaswamy sets out in search of the world's most audacious physics experiments: the telescopes and detectors that promise to shed new light on things like dark matter, dark energy, and the phenomenon of quantum gravity (which string theory tries to explain). He soon finds himself at the ends of the earth - in cold and remote and sometimes dangerous places. As it turns out, extreme physics requires extreme environments."  
• Thursday, March 18th - Chang-rae Lee, author of The Surrendered. Reviews have already been calling this "masterful", "haunting", "engrossing", "harrowing", "heartbreaking", & "breathtaking".

Birthdays are fun to know!  The late Douglas Adams (1952-2001), author of the Hitchhickers Guide to the Galaxy series was born on March 11. Penelope Lively, author of the Booker Prize-winning Moon Tiger (as well as over 40 other books for both kids and adults), was born in Cairo on St. Patrick's Day in 1933.  The late John Updike, winner of virtually every major literary prize out there, was born on March 18, 1932. And Philip Roth's 77th birthday is March 19 - so send him a card.

Are You Seth? vol.8

The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo - on sale Tuesday!
In all honesty, most of the fallible detective types in these crime novels I read all sort of blend together after awhile. "Wasn't that alcoholic, Scandinavian cop in that other book by that other guy?" This is by no means a knock on the authors or their books, just maybe a criticism directed at me, who can't seem to space these books out enough so that I can tell these characters apart. Anyway, the point is that none of this applies to Norwegian author Jo Nesbo and his unfortunately named, brilliant, alcoholic Oslo police detective, Harry Hole. The Devil's Star is the third of Nesbo's books to be translated into English and, I think, the finest in the series to date.

Normally, I wouldn't hesitate in steering a reader towards a book set later in a series if I really felt that the order to the books wasn't vital to understanding the plot - Henning Mankell's Wallander series, for example, doesn't really need to be read in order (especially as they were not published in the States in the correct order.) You do need to read Jo Nesbo's books in order, however, to better appreciate the political morass that is the Oslo police department and the tense undercurrent of hate flowing between Harry and his co-worker, Tom Waaler. In The Redbreast, Harry begins to suspect that Waaler isn't exactly Oslo's most honest cop, but the tension doesn't go farther than angry conversations and some bad blood. In Nemesis, Waaler is the title reference, as Harry begins to suspect that he has had a role in the death of a colleague and has elaborately set Harry up to take the fall. Everything comes to a head in The Devil's Star, as Harry is reluctantly paired with Waaler on his latest case, but can't let on that he has suspicions as to Waaler's corruption.

Without sacrificing plot for character, Nesbo manages to perfectly work this cranked-up tension between cops into this labyrinth of a crime novel. Harry is, like I said, a flawed man - by the events in TDS, he has managed to mangle his once-healthy relationship with his girlfriend, ostracize himself from most of his co-workers, and is steadlily drinking himself into oblivion. Ah, but he's still a great cop! When a girl's body turns up, missing an index finger and sporting a 5-pointed red diamond under her eyelid, Harry works through his hatred of Waaler to try and solve the case. He soon realizes that there is a pattern between this and several other Oslo murders - could a serial killer be at work? Coupled with the political tension, this novel crackles with intrigue, mystery, and psychological complexities - a great read for fans of Henning Mankell, Ken Bruen, Karen Fossum, Olen Steinhauer, Ian Rankin...the list goes on.

Ahoy!

Lots of new books this week -
Hardcovers:

• The Silent Sea by Clive Cussler (part of Clive's "Oregon Files" series of adventure novels. This one involves the discovery of a wrecked WWII-era blimp in the jungle of Argentina.)
• Bone Fire by Mark Spragg (the new novel by the acclaimed author of An Unfinished Life. There are some amazingly mixed reviews on this one so far: Library Journal called it "a gleaming tale" in which "not one word is out of place...each and every character is well drawn and intensely believable" while PW saw more of "a dry and unsatisfying contemporary western" that "lacks narrative momentum and a sense of purpose."  Ouch. You be the judge.)
• A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks (a novel of intesecting lives in modern London by the author of Birdsong and Charlotte Gray)
• The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley (the author's second novel featuring 11-year old sleuth, Flavia de Luce. Book 1, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, was a 2009 favorite of Janet & Vicki.)
• The Surrendered by Chang-rae Lee (this new novel by the acclaimed author of Aloft is getting some great early reviews. Lee worked on The Surrendered for the better part of a decade, never able to finish due to the intense personal nature of the storyline - “I wouldn't be here if there hadn't been a war (in Korea). In a way, that's why I didn't want to write this book” he told PW. You can meet him at Warwick's on Thursday, March 18th at 7:30pm.)
• Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang by Chelsea Handler (the new memoir by the comedienne & host of late night's "Chelsea Lately". Also an upcoming event at Warwick's - she'll be here on Saturday, May 8th at 3:00pm for a signing only. Stay tuned to warwicks.com for more info.)
• Every Day in Tuscany by Frances Mayes (yet another upcoming Warwick's event - Ms. Mayes returns to the W on March 25th for this follow-up to her bestsellers, Under the Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany. In 2005 we had around 200 people here for her event, so get in early, I say.)
• The Devil and Sherlock Holmes by David Grann (a collection of journalism pieces & essays by the author of last year's staff favorite, The Lost City of Z. I've read this already & while it's not nearly as compelling as a whole, as Lost City, it does have some fascinating pieces within. My favorite has to be "City of Water" which chronicles the lives of the men who've been toiling under the streets of New York for the last 30 years to complete the construction of City Tunnel #3 - the conduit for the 1.3 billion gallons of water used by the city's residents every day. Come by for Coffee with a Bookseller on Tuesday & I'll tell you more.)

Paperbacks:

• The Wild Things by Dave Eggers (the paperback is a faux-fur-free edition, unlike the awesome hardcover.)
• Don't Cry: Stories by Mary Gaitskill
• The Missing by Tim Gautreaux
• Woman with Birthmark by Hakan Nesser (the third in Nesser's "Van Veeteren" crime series that started with Borkmann's Point.)
• Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith (Part 10 of the "Number One Ladies Detective Agency" series.)

There's also a new set coming out this week of those beautiful Penguin hardback classics designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith: Emma, Treasure Island, Lady Chatterley's Lover, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and The Odyssey.

Happenings:

• Coffee with a Bookseller, March Edition on Tuesday morning at 10am - featuring, yours truly.
• Gabrielle Burton, author of Impatient with Desire - a novel of Tamsen Donner of the ill-fated Donner Party - on Thursday the 11th at 7:30.

Are You Seth? vol.7

Warwick's has been a chaotic, exhausting place this week - we've been having beautiful new carpeting put in storewide, which entails moving everything off of the floor so that the old carpet can be torn out and the new can be laid down. This makes for long days for booksellers. But I'm still managing to get some reading done - over on my other site, The Book Catapult, you can read about the ten books I've read so far in 2010. Or, we can talk about books in person, as there's another edition of "Coffee with a Bookseller" coming this Tuesday morning at 10AM, where you and I can rap about what's new & good for you in books.

To tide you over, let's talk about journalist Ted Conover's new book, The Routes of Man: How Roads Are Changing the World and the Way We Live Today.

As a reader of maybe 98% fiction, I tend to not be able to read through nonfiction books at one go and I need to break them up with novels for some reason. I've been chipping away at this one for the better part of a month, but I'm going to commit a bit of bookseller taboo and recommend it anyway. Conover is the author of three previous books that I've loved: the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Newjack (when he was denied entry into Sing Sing prison for a story, he got a job as a prison guard there instead), Rolling Nowhere (he spent a season literally riding the rails with the last of America's hobos), and Coyotes (this should be required reading for anyone living in Southern California, as Conover repeatedly crosses the Mexican border, dodging the INS with illegal migrant workers). Routes (his first book in over a decade) is a series of six loosely linked essays about the culture of the road across the globe - how those roads connect us, divide us, and alter our world, for good or for ill. In his typical fashion, Conover doesn't just report on a story, researching from afar - he fully immerses himself in the issue, no matter the circumstances or discomforts. The first essay here is my favorite - "Forest Primeval to Park Avenue" - in which Conover travels the hard route taken by Peruvian mahogany as it is cut (often illegally) and taken overland through the mountains and jungles to be processed and sold as furniture, crown moldings, and cabinet doors in the United States. (My father was a cabinet maker, so I've always been curious, but I never really thought about all of the logistics involved.) From there Conover travels to India's Zanskar Valley ("Slipping From Shangri-La") to trek a footpath across the Himalayas only accessible when the river freezes, which literally frees the local teenagers to be able to walk out into the world at large. Then to the overland trucking route across East Africa ("The Road is Very Unfair") that has been the superhighway for the AIDS virus to spread across the globe. And on to the series of highways dotted with Israeli checkpoints across the whole of the borderland between Israel & Palestine ("A War You Can Commute To"). (That's as far as I've gotten, but the other 2 parts are about the burgeoning car culture in China, reminiscent of the 1950's in the US, and traveling the harrowing highways of Lagos, Nigeria in an ambulance.)

Conover has an unparalleled skill at giving the reader the sense of total immersion - really, due to his own personal immersion in the subject matter. This is not pedestrian journalism here - more in the vein of Sebastian Junger or Jon Krakauer - and his life is often as in danger as you would imagine it to be in such rough corners of our world. The reviews I have read (a couple have run in the New York Times, which is always a good sign) have all been positive, but have mildly complained about the overall cohesiveness of this book - Conover struggles to link all the narratives into his greater theme - but even the slightly negative press has recognized Conover's skill at writing the adventure/travelogue, which is what attracted me in the first place. Maybe he shouldn't have tried to link everything together thematically & just stuck with his real strength - straight-up, hardcore journalism, of which he has few peers.  Most definitely worth checking out.

Carpet Bagging

What's going down this week at Warwick's? Well, first of all, we're having new carpeting installed storewide! (Admittedly, the staff is more excited by this than you really should be.) So, just so you're aware,the place is going to be kind of chaotic when you stop by, but don't be afraid - we're still here to help! Look at all the great new titles we have to offer:

Hardcovers:

• House Rules by Jodi Picoult (headed for the top of the bestseller lists, of course, this one is about a teenage boy with Asperger's Syndrome who has a penchant for crime scene analysis - until the focus is turned around to him.)
• Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith (he's the guy who brought us the high art of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, so use your imagination here.)
• The House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni (Publisher's Weekly gave it a starred review: "an honest, noisy, and raucous look at friendship and how loud music can make almost everything better.")
• Noir by Robert Coover (the pioneering postmoderist tackles the crime novel - good review buzz thus far.)
• The Heights by Peter Hedges (first new novel in over 10 years by the author of What's Eating Gilbert Grape)
• The Teaberry Strangler by Laura Childs (not a lot of buzz about this cozy mystery, but I like the title.)
• The Shaking Woman or A History of Nerves by Siri Hustvedt (a memoir of personal neurological conditions by the acclaimed novelist - who also happens to be married to Paul Auster. I've always thought that a dinner party at their house would be very intimidating.)
• Silk Parachute by John McPhee (McPhee's latest collection of essays covers "lacrosse, long-exposure view-camera photography, the weird foods he has sometimes been served in the course of his reportorial travels, a U.S. Open golf championship, and a season in Europe 'on the chalk' from the downs and sea cliffs of England to the Maas valley in the Netherlands and the champagne country of northern France".)

Paperbacks:

• The Risk of Darkness by Susan Hill (the 3rd part in the "Simon Serailler" series - a favorite of Janet and Adriana)
• Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin (The NYT called it "richly detailed, almost indecently thrilling")
• Brooklyn by Colm Toibin (longlisted for the 2009 Booker Prize)

Happenings:

• Tuesday the 2nd at 7:30 we have the rescheduled event with Stephanie Tourles, author of Raw Energy: 124 Raw Food Recipes For Energy Bars, Smoothies, and Other Snacks to Supercharge Your Body.
• And on Thursday March 4th, acclaimed novelist Chitra Divakaruni returns to the store for her new novel, One Amazing Thing.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez turns 82 on Saturday.  John Irving and the late (but still publishing) Ralph Ellison were also born in the first week of March.