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What's going on at WORD?
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Greetings from WORD! We're still getting April showers in early May, but that's okay, we've got great books to keep us company...
 This display features some of the best titles from Europa Editions, a publisher that focuses on publishing great literature from overseas in translation. The books were chosen with the help of our many bookselling friends on Twitter, who suggested the best titles from Europa's fantastic list. The books are very popular here--come by and check them out! The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante was well-liked when WORD's book club read it, so we have it and her other titles available, as well as favorites like The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Old Filth, and The Dark Holds No Terrors.
So what's going on? For starters, we're sympathizing with our fellow booksellers and book-lovers in the Phillippines--they're caught in an insane battle with a corrupt customs department that won't let them have their books!
If we can puff ourselves up for a moment, we had a few nice mentions in the press in April, including a nod on the NYT City Room blog and being chosen as one of Time Out New York's best independent bookstores. We also started a new feature on our blog--the WORD interview. These interviews will be done with authors who have upcoming events at WORD, so you can learn more about them and see why they are so cool that we just had to have them. The first two have already been done for authors who visited in April, Pasha Malla and Rick Reid. Keep an eye out for future interviews on our blog, which include valuable advice about books and Greenpoint institutions.
And we're just about to start our basketball league! Interest was much higher than we thought it would be, so we've got 8 teams playing. Pre-season starts May 10 and will run throughout the month of May--keep an eye on our blog for coverage, or just drop by American Playground on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings to watch the games.
We've got a great events line-up for the month, so read on!
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This month at WORD
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 We kick things off TODAY (May 4, 7:30 pm) with a visit from acclaimed illustrator Emmanuel Guibert, who will be interviewed by Carol Fitzgerald from The Book Reporter about his work on The Photographer: Into War-Town Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders,
a new graphic novel/photo-journal which records one reporter's arduous
and dangerous journey through Afghanistan, accompanying the Doctors
Without Borders.
Here's a quick overview of what else is on tap. See our events page for more details:
Wednesday, May 6, 7:30pm: Our second WORD Book club discussion about A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo
 Friday, May 8, 7:30 pm: John Wray will read from his third novel, Lowboy, the story of one boy's fantastic and terrifying odyssey through NYC's tunnels, back alleys and streets. (If you didn't hear about his reading on the Brooklyn-bound L at rush hour in time to go, you can still watch it here.) Charles Bock, author of the critically-acclaimed and best-selling Beautiful Children, who reviewed the book for the NYT, will interview Wray.
 Thursday, May 14, 7:30 pm: Launch party for Samantha Peale's The American Painter Emma Dial. Peale will read from her debut novel and discuss the book with Heidi Julavits, editor of The Believer magazine and author of The Uses of Engagement.
Sunday, May 17, 3 pm: Special Event for Kids!!
Celebrate Children's Book Week with NO BUTTS ABOUT READING! Picture book authors Ayun Halliday (Always Lots of Heinies at the Zoo) and Erica S. Perl (Chicken Butt) will read from and sign books. All ages welcome but recommended for ages 3-8.
 
 Tuesday, May 19, 7:30 pm:
Reading and signing with Joanna Smith Rackoff for A Fortunate Age. Rackoff will read from her debut novel and discuss the book with Greenpoint favorite Jami Attenberg (The Kept Man).
 Tuesday, May 26, 7:30pm:
Reading and signing with author Ben Greenman for Please Step Back. Not only has this book been receiving incredible reviews, but we'll be discussing it in book club next month--read below for more. He'll talk about the book with Shelley Salamensky of Guilt and Pleasure magazine.
All events are FREE and open to the public. You can learn more about these events and events for the rest of the summer on our events page. Hope to see you soon! |
Book Club
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Our book club pick for June is Please Step Back, by Ben Greenman. This newly released novel has been getting fantastic critical attention
both for its content and writing style. It follows the career of star
Rock Foxx (based on Sly Stone and his contemporaries) from the early
days, through incredible popularity, and down a slippery slope of drugs
and anger. No matter which characters' eyes you're looking through,
Greenman's writing is fluid and musical, catching almost perfectly the
music and the man who he's writing about. It's a fake biography of an
imagined man, but its reflection of time and place are incredibly
genuine.
As always, the book will be 10% off all
month. We'll discuss it on Wednesday, June 3 at 7:30pm and Saturday,
June 6 at noon, but you can meet Ben before that at his event on May 26 (read above for more details). See you there!
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WORD April bestsellers
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Here's what everyone was buying in April:
1) A CONCISE
CHINESE-ENGLISH DICTIONARY FOR LOVERS by Xiaolu Guo
2) PURE by Terra
Elan McVoy
3) TO BE HUNG FROM
THE CEILING BY STRINGS OF VARIOUS LENGTH by Rick Reid
4) UNACCUSTOMED EARTH
by JHUMPA LAHIRI
5) PRIDE AND
PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
6) THE BRIEF WONDROUS
LIFE OF OSCAR WAO by Junot Diaz
7) GOD IS NOT GREAT
by Christopher Hitchens
8) THE GONE-AWAY
WORLD by Nick Harkaway
9) CLOUD ATLAS by
David Mitchell
10) PIECES FOR THE
LEFT HAND by J. Robert Lennon
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WORD
126 Franklin St Brooklyn NY 11222
718.383.0096
www.wordbrooklyn.com
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