Category: staff reviews

Words of Williams (part two of a twelve part series)

Faithful blog readers: I'm sure you've been sitting on the literal edge of your ergonomic seats since the first awe-inspiring Words of Williams column. I certainly have! Luckily, to quench your eager anticipation (and ease your lower back pain) old E.D. has telegraphed to me another beloved installment. If through some insane cosmic error you missed the first one, read this and return promptly. And so, without further hullabalo, I give you...

Jonathan Woods brings Bad Juju to Hard Word Book Club

I've been around enough authors to realize they don't necessarily share the personality of their writing. However, the time I've spent with Jonathan Woods and reading his work has never made me ponder the gulf between the two more. This nice, erudite, soft spoken, family man taps into another personality when creating short work that has appeared in Plots With Guns, Pulp Pusher, and Thuglit.

If you like… then you’ll love…

Getting hired at BookPeople was an exciting thing. Being part of the bookstore, meeting new people, and being around lots of books was, and is, great. But what most excited me about my new employee status was the opportunity to write staff selections. If you’ve been to BookPeople, you know what I’m talking about. Little laminated cards that contain a small essay that pleads with customers to buy the books we love. The styles are as diverse as we are, proper grammar is not needed, and approaches range from plot trots to unabashed begging. They’re fun, and, other than limited space, no restrictions are placed on them. Next time you’re in, check out what we have to say, but also pay attention to the bottom of the card. In a light blue banner running along the lower half of the card you’ll see the declarative sentence, “If you liked this book, check out this one, too!” Booksellers then fill in the space with a book title.

Ace Atkins: Through the past, darkly

Ace Atkins is at the top of his game when it comes to putting the reader into his story. He does vast amounts of research, but barely uses it. The attention to detail is exact and used in the right amount. He's less interested in telling you about a time period than immersing you in it and drawing subtle parallels to the present. Crossroad Blues, his debut novel, was the first in his series character, ex-football star, blues historian Nick Travers. As Nick travels the Mississippi delta, looking for a lost colleague and recording of blues legend Robert Johnson, Atkins makes you sweat in the humidity, even if you're reading it in December. The music comes alive by the way it's given history and more important, feeling. He practically makes it a character. Because of this, we never question Nick risking his life for a record.

The Death of the Short Story

Every couple of months there is another article about the death of the short story. In Mother Jones, Ted Genoways does a fine job explaining some of the issues confronting the literary magazines that publish these stories. Although I wouldn’t disagree with much of what Mr. Genoways says, I’m more optimistic. I believe that good writing, really good writing, will always find a place, and right now the best young writers continue to put out phenomenal short fiction. Adam Haslett, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Oscar Casares have all put out short fiction in collections and through journals that will stand the test of time. We’ll be talking about these three authors for the next fifty years, and, if my little dream comes true, some of that discussion will focus on their shorter works.

Staff Review: The Lost Books of the Odyssey

The interpretation and translation of stories across boundaries and through time gives us some of our most dynamic books. Whether enjoying Ezra Pound’s and Kenneth Rexroth’s personalized translations of Chinese Poetry, or the interpretation of history in Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, or the dystopic stories of Jhumpa Lahiri which cross continents and cultures on a whim, we don’t require that our reading choices be singular or original, in fact, it seems, we’d rather they weren’t.