HARDCOVER FICTION
MysteryPeople’s New Release Pick of the Day: Rose Gold by Walter Mosley
In this new mystery set in the Patty Hearst era of radical black nationalism and political abductions, a black ex-boxer self-named Uhuru Nolica, the leader of a revolutionary cell called Scorched Earth, has kidnapped Rosemary Goldsmith, the daughter of a weapons manufacturer, from her dorm at UC Santa Barbara. If they don’t receive the money, weapons, and apology they demand, “Rose Gold” will die—horribly and publicly. So the FBI, the State Department, and the LAPD turn to Easy Rawlins, the one man who can cross the necessary borders to resolve this dangerous standoff…
Walter Mosley will be signing and reading in-store Wednesday, October 22 at 7PM!
Joe’s New Release Picks of the Day: Fearie Tales edited by Stephen Jones
“Grimm’s Fairy Tales, especially in the original version, were always grimm and dark: a book for adults that accidentally became a children’s book. Now a collection of fantasy and horror writers have gotten together to return these stories to their grimm roots. Neil Gaiman, horror maestro Ramsey Cambell, John Ajvide Lindqvist (author of Let the Right One In) & more have given us their own twisted take on these classic tales. All with artwork by the great Alan Lee, the premier interpreter of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. I cannot wait to read this.”
Rooms by Lauren Oliver
Fueled by the same inspired feel for plot and character that drew readers to Oliver’s earlier works, Rooms is a mesmerizing and suspenseful story of guilt, love, and family secrets. Estranged patriarch Richard Walker has died, leaving behind a country house full of rooms packed with the detritus of a lifetime. His alienated family–bitter ex-wife Caroline, troubled teenage son Trenton, and unforgiving daughter Minna–have arrived for their inheritance. But the Walkers are not alone. Alice and Sandra, two long-dead and restless ghosts, linger within the house’s claustrophobic walls, bound eternally to its physical structure. Jostling for space and memory, they observe the family, trading barbs and reminiscences about their past lives. Though their voices cannot be heard, Alice and Sandra speak through the house itself–in the hiss of the radiator, a creak in the stairs, the dimming of a lightbulb. The living and dead are haunted by painful truths that surface with explosive force. When a new ghost appears, and Trenton begins to communicate with her, the spirit and human worlds collide–with cataclysmic results. Elegantly constructed and brilliantly paced, Rooms is an enticing and imaginative ghost story and a searing family drama that is as haunting as it is resonant.
How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran
What do you do in your teenage years when you realize what your parents taught you wasn’t enough? You must go out and find books and poetry and pop songs and bad heroes–and build yourself. It’s 1990. Johanna Morrigan, fourteen, has shamed herself so badly on local TV that she decides that there’s no point in being Johanna anymore and reinvents herself as Dolly Wilde–fast-talking, hard-drinking gothic hero and full-time Lady Sex Adventurer. She will save her poverty-stricken Bohemian family by becoming a writer–like Jo in Little Women, or the Brontes–but without the dying-young bit. By sixteen, she’s smoking cigarettes, getting drunk, and working for a music paper. She’s writing pornographic letters to rock stars, having all the kinds of sex with all the kinds of men, and eviscerating bands in reviews of 600 words or less. But what happens when Johanna realizes she’s built Dolly with a fatal flaw? Is a box full of records, a wall full of posters, and a head full of paperbacks enough to build a girl after all?
Gutenberg’s Apprentice by Alix Christie
An enthralling literary debut that evokes one of the most momentous events in history, the birth of printing in medieval Germany–a story of invention, intrigue, and betrayal, rich in atmosphere and historical detail, told through the lives of the three men who made it possible. Youthful, ambitious Peter Schoeffer is on the verge of professional success as a scribe in Paris when his foster father, wealthy merchant and bookseller Johann Fust, summons him home to corrupt, feud-plagued Mainz to meet “a most amazing man.” Johann Gutenberg, a driven and caustic inventor, has devised a revolutionary–and to some, blasphemous–method of bookmaking: a machine he calls a printing press. Fust is financing Gutenberg’s workshop and he orders Peter, his adopted son, to become Gutenberg’s apprentice. Resentful at having to abandon a prestigious career as a scribe, Peter begins his education in the “darkest art…”
PAPERBACK FICTION
Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix
Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio. Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring bookshelves, shattered Glans water goblets, and smashed Liripip wardrobes. Sales are down, security cameras reveal nothing, and store managers are panicking. To unravel the mystery, three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour dusk-till-dawn shift. In the dead of the night, they’ll patrol the empty showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination. A traditional haunted house story in a thoroughly contemporary setting, Horrorstör comes packaged in the form of a glossy mail order catalog, complete with product illustrations, a home delivery order form, and a map of Orsk’s labyrinthine showroom.
Under the Wide and Starry Sky
by Nancy Horan
“Fanny and Louis are wild-hearted seekers, and Nancy Horan traces their incredible journey fearlessly, plunging us through decades, far-flung continents, and chilling brushes with death. Ambitious and often breathtaking, this sweeping story spills over with spirited, uncompromising life.”—Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife
The Hunting Gun by Yasushi Inoue
The Hunting Gun follows the consequences of a tragic love affair. Told from the viewpoints of three different women, this is a story of the psychological impact of illicit love. First viewed through the eyes of Shoko, who learns of the affair through reading her mother’s diary, then through the eyes of Midori, who had long known about the affair of her husband with Saiko, and finally through the eyes of Saiko herself. This novella is incredibly powerful, with universal resonance and a true modern classic of the 20th century.
Pushkin Collection editions feature a spare, elegant series style and superior, durable components. The Collection is typeset in Monotype Baskerville, litho-printed on Munken Premium White Paper and notch-bound by the independently owned printer TJ International in Padstow. The covers, with French flaps, are printed on Colorplan Pristine White Paper. Both paper and cover board are acid-free and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified.
(Ben’s translation of the above passage: This book is really really pretty and nice to hold)
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
A Deadly Wandering by Matt Richtel
A landmark exploration of the vast and expanding impact of technology, rivetingly told through the lens of a deadly collision. One of the year’s most original and masterfully reported books, A Deadly Wandering by Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist Matt Richtel interweaves the cutting-edge science of attention with the tensely plotted story of a mysterious car accident and its aftermath to answer some of the defining questions of our time: What is technology doing to us? Can our minds keep up with the pace of change? How can we find balance? Through Richtel’s beautifully constructed narrative, a complex and far-reaching topic becomes intimate and urgent–an important call to reexamine our own lives.
Landslide: LBJ and Ronald Reagan at the Dawn of a New America by Jonathan DarmanIn this riveting work of narrative nonfiction, Jonathan Darman tells the story of two giants of American politics, Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan, and shows how, from 1963 to 1966, these two men—the same age, and driven by the same heroic ambitions—changed American politics forever. The liberal and the conservative. The deal-making arm twister and the cool communicator. The Texas rancher and the Hollywood star. Opposites in politics and style, Johnson and Reagan shared a defining impulse: to set forth a grand story of America, a story in which he could be the hero… Bringing to life their vivid personalities and the anxious mood of America in a radically transformative time, Darman shows how, in promising the impossible, Johnson and Reagan jointly dismantled the long American tradition of consensus politics and ushered in a new era of fracture…
A Slip of the Keyboard by Terry PratchettTerry Pratchett has earned a place in the hearts of readers the world over with his bestselling Discworld series — but in recent years he has become equally well-known and respected as an outspoken campaigner for causes including Alzheimer’s research and animal rights. A Slip of the Keyboard brings together for the first time the finest examples of Pratchett’s nonfiction writing, both serious and surreal: from musings on mushrooms to what it means to be a writer (and why banana daiquiris are so important); from memories of Granny Pratchett to speculation about Gandalf’s love life, and passionate defences of the causes dear to him. With all the humour and humanity that have made his novels so enduringly popular, this collection brings Pratchett out from behind the scenes of the Discworld to speak for himself — man and boy, bibliophile and computer geek, champion of hats, orangutans and Dignity in Dying.
PAPERBACK NONFICTION
Thank You For Your Service by David Finkel
Katie P. says: “This is Finkel’s second book about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; his first, The Good Soldiers, was written whilst he was embedded with soldiers in Baghdad. Thank You For Your Service brings the war home. This book picks up on American soil, where veterans have returned with scars both visible and invisible to their friends and families. It’s a heartbreaking, enraging book, which is exactly what it’s supposed to be. Holding a sign claiming you “support your troops,” or demanding that others do the same, will never hit your ears the same way after reading this book. Finkel writes in straightforward, no-nonsense prose about life with PTSD, anxiety, mood swings, violent outbreaks, sleep disorders. and any number of other struggles facing our servicemen and women post-combat. Reading this book, and not turning away from these harsh realities, is supporting our troops. Read. Be devastated. Tell somebody. Do something. Pass it on.”
BONUS ROUND!!!
by Christopher MillerWhy do anvils fall from the sky? And backseat drivers make us cry? What do these old jokes mean? The answers are in American Cornball, a hysterical illustrated survey of things that used to make us laugh. From hiccups and henpecked husbands to outhouses and old maids, Christopher Miller revisits nearly 200 comic staples, their (often unseemly) origins, why they were funny then, and why they’re not so funny now. The result is a grand tour of the era between vaudeville and TV–a world of black and white, highborn and lowbrow, witty and wacky, the awkward and the sublime. Complete with more than 200 period illustrations, American Cornball is a masterwork of cultural excavation . . . and a genuine laff riot.
by Pendleton WardThe first of two beautifully lavish books created to celebrate the distinctive designs behind the Adventure Time title cards. Combining sketches, works in progress, revisions and final title card art, the book will take readers on a visual guide of the title card development, with quotes from each episode and commentary from the artists – Pendleton Ward, Pat McHale, Nick Jennings, Phil Rynda, and Paul Linsley.
What exactly is a book? This wildly inventive and thought-provoking volume asks that question of more than 30 of today’s top creative visionaries, from Ed Ruscha to Miranda July, John Baldessari to Jonathan Lethem. Each traditional element of a book—from endpapers to footnotes—is assigned to a different artist or writer invited to use the space as a creative playground. The result is a collaborative group art project like no other. A ribbon bookmark by David Shrigley, page numbers by Tauba Auerbach, endnotes by Rick Moody—each contribution surprising and brilliant. This one-of-a-kind book will entrance anyone who appreciates art, literature, and the surprising possibilities that emerge when the two collide.
BookPeople 
Reblogged this on Madeleine Howell and commented:
So many new books waiting to be read ❤