News and reviews from Clement Street
March 2012
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| Greetings! | No introduction necessary, right? You like books, we like books. Onward!
Today, we present:
- our Book of the Month;
 - three author events to get you out of the house and into a good book; and
- eight new books we like.
Also, we have a big announcement coming at month's end. To that end, if anyone knows graphic designers and/or copy editors who want freelance work, please have them send their info along to me (Pete). We need to build a small stable of available freelancers.
And remember--if you (or someone you love) are into e-reading, you can buy eBooks from Green Apple for almost any device (except e-ink Kindles), usually at prices that match our online competitors. More HERE.
Now, on to the books!
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March's Book of the Month
| Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman (FSG)
 Girlchild is an unconventional novel, but guaranteed to appeal to all. Tupelo Hassman has created a dark and heartbreaking story in Rory Dawn Hendrix, the unforgettable narrator. Still close to her mother and grandmother, Rory is set on getting out of the Calle ("Just North of Reno and just South of nowhere is a town full of trailers and the front doors of the dirtiest ones open onto the Calle").
There are great turns of phrases and breaks from traditional narrative that are all seamlessly woven together to create this heartbreaking novel. So urgent is the writing and captivating is the style that you are forced to read straight through to the end, and even after it was over I could only sit there and think about the story I had just read. This is a powerful debut that makes me wish that Hassman had many other novels that I could move onto. Hassman is definitely a novelist whose career I will follow from this moment on. --npb
Buy the book (or the $10.99 eBook) from Green Apple today!
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March literary events
| March 14: Geoff Dyer and David Thompson (at Tosca)
 We're again partnering with Litquake to for their Epicenter series at North Beach's famed Tosca Cafe. On March 14th: novelist, essayist, and New York Times Book Review columnist Geoff Dyer in conversation with film critic David Thomson. The evening, co-presented by The Believer magazine, will be Dyer's only Bay Area appearance for his newest book Zona, which is about Andrei Tarkovsky's film Stalker (book here, eBook here). It's sure to be a fascinating night of great conversation (and the usual delicious cocktails). See the Litquake website for more info.Details: Wednesday, March 14 at 7 pm at Tosca (242 Columbus). Free. 21+ only. ----------
March 21: Bart Schneider's Nameless Dame Local author Bart Schneider will be appearing at Green Apple to read from his new, locally-based novel, Nameless Dame: Murder on the Russian River. Booklist says: "Schneider's vision of a world where everyone, high and low, criminal and otherwise, is susceptible to the clarion call of poetry is somewhere between parody and utopia, but either way, it's utterly delightful." The live version is sure to be even more so.Details: Wednesday, March 21 at 7pm at Green Apple Books. Free.
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March 27: Adam Johnson (at Tosca)
On March 27th, we'll be heading back to the legendary Tosca Cafe as part of Litquake's Epicenter series, this time with fiction writer and Stanford professor Adam Johnson in conversation with Litquake co-founder Jack Boulware. Johnson is winding up a very successful tour for his newest novel (and recent Green Apple Book-of-the-Month) The Orphan Master's Son. Read more about the book and the event here -- we'll see you there. We'll see you at Tosca on March 27th. Details: Tuesday, March 27, 7:00pm at Tosca (242 Columbus). Free. 21+ only. |
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Eight New Books We Like
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Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo (Random)
In the tradition of the best contemporary narrative nonfiction (Random Family, Nothing to Envy, Under the Banner of Heaven) Behind the Beautiful Forevers reads like a rich, character-driven novel. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Katherine Boo details life in the Annawadi slum of Mumbai--and the lives of some of India's poorest people--without being pitying or sentimental. Poverty does not make the people in her book noble, but her account of their day-to-day lives gives them a voice. This book will change the way you look at globalization and the world. [eBook HERE for $12.99] --Samantha
A Monster's Notes by Laurie Sheck (Knopf)  Newly (and beautifully) packaged in paperback, Laurie Sheck's version of Frankenstein's monster is a cast-off narrator adrift in a sort of timeless history, making notes in search of some definition of himself and of his original creator, Mary Shelley. The result is a lyrical pastiche of musings on selfhood, monstrosity, and the quest for knowledge with digressions on subjects as wide ranging as the Franklin Expedition and the music of John Cage. Both a worthy supplement to Shelley's masterpiece and a haunting story from a source all its own. [eBook HERE for $14.99] --Molly  Much revised and expanded from the original version, this is a meticulously researched look into the teen years of Bath, Ohio's most notorious export. This book is leagues ahead of the author's earlier works, and is the best book in print on the subject. Totally creepy and engrossing. Highly recommended. --Jeff M.  John D'Agata writes essays, but not the kind you remember composing for Freshman English. His particular brand of essaying--which he calls "lyric"--blends fact and, well, something between fact and fiction, to convey the essence of what he's exploring, if not the strictest literal truth. Some, including D'Agata's fact checker Jim Fingal (who at the time interned for The Believer magazine), take issue with this playing fast and loose with the "truth," which makes the exchange between the two all the more fascinating and entertaining. --SS Londoners is one of the more interesting books I've read recently. Taylor, following in the footsteps of historians like Henry Mayhew and Studs Terkel, lets the current citizens of London tell their stories, giving the city its own voice... My favorite of these is of the actress whose voice announces the Underground stops. Her ex hears her voice every day as long as he's in London. --Martin No One by Gwenaelle Aubry (Tin House) Gwenealle Aubrey's No One is a genre-straddling work of tremendous power. In attempting to come to grips with her father's descent into madness, Aubrey breaks the boundaries of the traditional fiction/non-fiction divide, creating in the process a blend of memoir and novel. Constructed as a fragmented dictionary--from Artaud to Woody Allen's Zelig--this lyrical and heartbreaking work will challenge each reader to examine the ties that bind us to our families, to what it means to love someone who we may never truly understand.  This collection of stories Ivan Vladislavic hasn't written (plus the titular story that deals in books his predecessors haven't written) is an account of circling ideas and characters through research until, in the end, the fictionalized versions needn't exist at all. What exists instead is something far more interesting: a map of sorts through the formation of an idea itself. --Molly  Long live William Gass! One of the greatest essayists of the latter half of the 20th century, Gass, now an octogenarian, shows no signs of letting up or letting his readers down. This collection spans typically Gassian themes, from grammar to genocide, and is ripe with his distinctive verbal wit and flashy, exuberant style. A marvelous collection to be savored. [ebook HERE for $14.99)
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Thanks for reading.
Sincerely,
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Pete et al
Green Apple Books and Music
415-387-2272
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