October’s coming to close real soon, but we’ve still got plenty of exciting titles for you to browse before we head into a week of exciting events and cap it all off with a spectacular weekend of books, books, books at The Texas Book Festival in and around the State Capitol here in Austin, TX!
Dreams of El Dorado by H. W. Brands
Giddy up and gallop away with this new release from eminent historian and UT Professor, H. W. Brands! In Dreams of El Dorado, Brands tells the thrilling, panoramic story of the settling of the American West.
He takes us from John Jacob Astor’s fur trading outpost in Oregon to the Texas Revolution, from the California gold rush to the Oklahoma land rush. He shows how the migrants’ dreams drove them to feats of courage and perseverance that put their stay-at-home cousins to shame-and how those same dreams also drove them to outrageous acts of violence against indigenous peoples and one another.
Balanced, authoritative, and masterfully told, Dreams of El Dorado sets a new standard for histories of the American West. Join us today (October 22nd) at 7PM when Brands reads from and signs his latest feat in historical storytelling!
The Devil in Paradise by James L. Haley
Award-winning historian, James L. Haley, continues his Captain Putnam series in The Devil in Paradise. This caper takes place just after the War of 1812 as the US Navy expands its reach to take a place of prominence in world affairs. Bliven Putnam, now Captain of the sloop of war Rappahannock, has come into his own as a leader and is ordered to the Pacific where he’ll encounter a new breed of pirate and meet an unexpected force of nature: Kahumanu, the formidable queen of the Hawaiian Islands. Inspired by the real-life Olowalu Massacre and the famed Congregationalist mission of 1819, this outing will be unlike any adventure Putnam has faced before.
Stop by BookPeople on October 30th at 7PM when Haley joins us for a reading and signing of The Devil in Paradise.
The Beadworkers by Beth Piatote
The Beadworkers is harrowing and luminous debut, a collection of stories that breathes life into the experiences and landscape of the Native Northwest.
Told with humor, subtlety, and spareness, the mixed-genre works of Beth Piatote’s first collection find unifying themes in the strength of kinship, the pulse of longing, and the language of return. In it, a woman teaches her niece to make a pair of beaded earrings while ruminating on a fractured relationship. An eleven-year-old girl narrates the unfolding of the Fish Wars in the 1960s as her family is propelled to its front lines. And, in the final, haunting piece, a Nez Perce–Cayuse family is torn apart as they debate the fate of ancestral remains in a moving revision of the Greek tragedy Antigone.
Formally inventive and filled with vibrant characters, The Beadworkers draws on Indigenous aesthetics and forms to offer a powerful, sustaining vision of Native life. Lovers of Louise Erdrich and Tommy Orange should flock to this collection immediately (!!).
Edison by Edmund Morris
Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Edumund Morris returns with a gargantuan, revelatory new biography of American inventor Thomas Edison.
Edison, who is credited with the invention of the phonograph, the Kinetoscope moving-picture camera, and the rechargeable alkaline battery, is still one of the most cited names in the history of science and technology and yet remains a largely misunderstood figure.
This volume, we can assure, will present the first comprehensive look at the life of an American great whose legend remains mythic.
Going through the same exhaustive research he went through to forge his three volume biography of Theodore Roosevelt, Morris has given all of seven years in penning this new achievement of storytelling; he has resurrected Edison, literarily speaking, as a human being, but as a polymath of staggering variety – Edison the botanist, the naval strategist, the iron miner, the chemist and telegrapher and audio producer and publisher.
This makes the perfect addition to the history lover’s bookshelf and is a one-a-kind reading experience from one of our most respected and celebrated living biographers.
All This Could Be Yours by Jami Attenberg
The author of All Grown Up, Jami Attenberg returns with a piercing new novel in All This Could Be Yours. In her latest, Attenberg presents a dysfunctional family brought together by the impending death of their patriarch, Victor Tuchman, a power-hungry real estate developer who is, by all accounts, a bad man.
At the heart of this novel is Alex Tuchman — mother, sister, lawyer — traveling back home to interrogate her tightlipped mother, Barbra, about the man who forged the complicated family life Alex knows all too well.
Coupled with it, is the drama of Alex’s incomunicado brother, Gary, and his wife, Twyla, going through a nervous breakdown. Together, these four must figure out a way forward, grappling with Victor’s history and break free of a web of toxicity.
Attenberg comes to play with the same with and “sparkling prose” that made her previous efforts such splendid reading experiences. Grab your copy today and catch Attenberg at this year’s Texas Book Festival!
Supernova Era by Cixin Liu
Cixin Liu is back with an all new standalone novel that sees a deadly wave of radiation annihilate every human over the age of thirteen within a year of exposure.
And so the countdown begins. Parents apprentice their children and try to pass on the knowledge needed to keep the world running. But when the world is theirs, the last generation may not want to continue the legacy left to them. And in shaping the future however they want, will the children usher in an era of bright beginnings or final mistakes?
Accompanied by the translation work of Joel Martinsen, another epic story by one of China’s most beloved writers is unleashed on the English-speaking world. Liu’s Three Body Problem trilogy captured the imaginations of readers across the nation (President Barack Obama included), so we’re thrilled to be adding another addicting, highly readable title to our shelves! Get yours now!
Hundred: What You Learn in a Lifetime by Heike Faller (words) and Valerio Vidali (illustrations)
We’re thrilled to have this gorgeous new title on our shelves today! Hundred is a full-color, illustrated journey of 100 years! Each page imparts a new lesson that we learn in our long lives — the breakthroughs that come with age and experience, the realizations we have about ourselves and the world as the number of candles on your cake creeps up.
You’ll follow along the course of a lifetime as each of us learns the little things that together make up a whole life. A perfect gift for holidays, birthdays, graduations, and that special friend, Hundred, like Oh, The Places You’ll Go, is a book destined to become a perennial favorite.
Agent Running in the Field by John Le Carré
The new John Le Carré novel is finally here, and oh boy, it’s a timely one.
In this one, Le Carré gives us Nat, the forty-seven year veteran of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service taking in one more job for the department, and Florence, a younger operative who has her eye on Russia Department and a Ukrainian oligarch with a finger in the Russia pie.
Heading The Haven, a defunct substation of London General with a rag-tag band of spies, the two must confront Ed, an anti-Brexit, anti-Trump media agent that’s about to take them down a path of political anger that will ensnare them all.
Agent Running in the Field is a chilling portrait of our time, now heartbreaking, now darkly humorous, told to us with unflagging tension by the greatest chronicler of our age!
That’s it for this week’s can’t-miss picks! Be sure to join us back here next week as we dive into another lineup of new releases that we think you should check out.
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