Welcome to our Book Club Corner, where each month we highlight books new to paperback we think would make perfect picks for your next book club discussion. If you’re looking to join a book club, we host a wide variety of free, bookseller-run book clubs right here at BookPeople. Join us! We love to talk books.
Featured Books of the Month:
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
The latest novel by the best-selling and award winning author of Cloud Atlas, arrived in paperback on June 16th. The Bone Clocks tells the story of Holly Sykes, who in 1984, at fifteen years old, runs away from home after a fight with her mother. But that very same weekend, tragedy strikes her family and this unsolved mystery will haunt her the rest of her life. The novel weaves six interconnected stories taking place in different times and places throughout the world. It contains elements of the supernatural, sci-fi, horror, social satire and intense realism, going to prove that Mitchell is a master of genre-bending story telling.
“Mitchell has a marvelous way of describing characters who are willing to risk everything for friendship and love. His writing will grab your attention for its emotional complexity and imaginative play on what is and what could be.” – Raul, Book People Book Seller
Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher
A hilarious satire aimed straight at the heart of the MFA industrial complex. The novel is a series of recommendation letters written by Jason Fitger, a professor of creative writing and literature at Payne University, a small and not very distinguished midwest liberal arts college. His department is facing draconian cuts and squalid quarters, while one floor above them the Economics Department is getting lavishly remodeled offices. His life, a tale of woe, is revealed in this series of hilarious letters of recommendation that Fitger is endlessly called upon by his students and colleagues to produce, each one of which is a small masterpiece of high dudgeon, low spirits, and passive-aggressive strategies.
“A hilarious academic novel that’ll send you laughing (albeit ruefully) back into the trenches of the classroom…. Like the best works of farce, academic or otherwise, Dear Committee Members deftly mixes comedy with social criticism and righteous outrage. By the end, you may well find yourself laughing so hard it hurts.”—Maureen Corrigan, NPR
Released on June 23rd, and on our shelves now!
Speak by Louisa HallSpeak was released on July 7th and is on our shelves now!
California by Edan Lepucki
The world Cal and Frida have always known is gone, and they’ve left the crumbling city of Los Angeles far behind them. They now live in a shack in the wilderness, working side-by-side to make their days tolerable in the face of hardship and isolation. Mourning a past they can’t reclaim, they seek solace in each other. But the tentative existence they’ve built for themselves is thrown into doubt when Frida finds out she’s pregnant.
Terrified of the unknown and unsure of their ability to raise a child alone, Cal and Frida set out for the nearest settlement, a guarded and paranoid community with dark secrets. These people can offer them security, but Cal and Frida soon realize this community poses dangers of its own. In this unfamiliar world, where everything and everyone can be perceived as a threat, the couple must quickly decide whom to trust.
“In her arresting debut novel, Edan Lepucki conjures a lush, intricate, deeply disturbing vision of the future, then masterfully exploits its dramatic possibilities.” – Jennifer Egan
The paperback of California was released on on July 7th and is on our shelves now!
Book Club Event Pick for July!
Wednesday, July 29 at 7PM
Austin Author
ANDI TERAN
speaking & signing her new novel,
Ana of California
Debut novelist Andi Teran indulges our literary landscape with this belletristic mural of a young girl clawing her way through foster care until trouble lands her on a farm.(where only more trouble awaits). A contemporary reimagining of Anne of Green Gables, this tender, fully realized novel follows Ana Cortez from East Los Angeles to a farm in northern California where she learns to tell a tomato plant from a blackberry bush, and much more.
More about the book and event.
Featured Drink of the Month:
We are officially in the dog days of summer, so what would be more appropriate to drink while relaxing with a book on these long, hot, muggy afternoons?
Perhaps a summer shandy?
Specifically my new favorite summer brew, the Stiegl Radler, which can be found at Spec’s!
Or make your own! It’s easy. Basically, fill your pint glass 3/4 of the way with a lager of your choice (or be adventurous and use a hefeweizen). Top off with a grapefruit soda like Ting! Or make your own grapefruit soda with fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, club soda and a touch of simple syrup. They are also great over ice, for those extra hot days.
For those that haven’t yet discovered this delightful beverage, a shandy is a beer mixed with a non-alcoholic beverage, like lemonade, and has a slightly lower ABV than a regular beer. Radler is the German term for the same. Learn more about the shandy revolution and come up with your own recipes!
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