You Absolutely MUST Read STATION ELEVEN

Reading shouldn't be a chore. Reading should enlighten. Reading should delight. Reading should expand our worlds. Reading should be entertaining. If you bother to read this blog, either you're a lifelong reader or Gianna has naked pictures of you (not judging). Readers are made when they find books that capture them, usually in childhood, and the greatest pleasure for adult readers comes in hints of that magic again even as grown-ups. For my colleagues at Penguin Random House and me, Station Eleven is that book. We believe in this book. We love this book. We think that you will love it too. Here's why:

1. Station Eleven is dystopian fiction, and yes there are a ton of end-of-the-world books out there, but this one is different. Set 20 years after a global flu pandemic has wiped out much of the population, this book is more about what survives than what's destroyed. 
2. Station Eleven plays with Shakespeare. The whole premise of the narrative is that a girl who was performing in a version of King Lear when the flu hit belongs to a theater troupe whose mission is to bring Shakespeare and music to the communities that have survived. 
3. Station Eleven is therefore a love song to literature and music and the power that can be found in storytelling. I recently watched Monuments Men (not a great movie) about the small group of art historians who scoured Europe to recover the stolen works of art that the Nazis looted in World War II. Why risk your life for a painting? Civilization exists through our arts. To destroy a group of people, destroy their art and music and writing. Station Eleven gets that. 
4. Station Eleven is a great story. The Traveling Symphony moves into a town hoping to rendezvous with two of their members who'd stayed behind a couple of years earlier in order to have a child. When they arrive back in the town, though, they find no sign of their friends and are threatened by the new leader of the community, a man known as The Prophet.

   

   Author Emily St. John Mandel

5. Station Eleven has compelling characters. From Arthur, a Hollywood star whose career has slipped to the point that he's the headliner in a regional production of King Lear, to Jeevan, the paramedic who tries to save Arthur when he collapses on stage, to Kirsten, the girl in the play who ends up joining The Traveling Symphony, to the woman who created "Station Eleven," the graphic novel that pops up throughout the book, to The Prophet. You want to spend time with these people. 
6. Station Eleven is a celebration of what we take for granted everyday, from clean water to electricity to fresh produce in grocery stores to the clothes we wear. What would you miss most if the world came to a screeching halt tomorrow? (I'm guessing your answer is not "this blog.") I think I'd miss reading light in the evening. Flickering light gives me migraines, so I probably wouldn't be able to read by firelight. 
7. Station Eleven captures an idea I think about a lot, that we create our own families and are sustained by these relationships. While I am often comfortable alone, I need other people to pull me out of my head and remind me that the world is bigger than just my own interior craziness and the antics of a spoiled cat. I don't need an apocalypse for me to realize this fact, but I appreciate books that remind me that I can't be the recluse I sometimes fantasize about becoming.
8. Station Eleven is written by a super-talented writer who deserves to have a megahit bestseller. Emily

   

   Emily St. John Mandel dropped by the Penguin Random House
   warehouse to sign copies for our bookstores. She signed a
   few thousand books that day.

   St. John Mandel has been a bookseller favorite for years, but it's time that the rest of the world figures out how incredible she is at spinning a great story.
9. Station Eleven is a book you won't want to end. I rarely say that about any book, but in this case it's the truth.
10. Station Eleven is the book that ALL of my fellow sales reps loved. This never happens. We are a bunch of jaded readers who sometimes slog through books like they are homework rather than recall that we get to read books and work with books all the time. The last time we shared such enthusiasm for a book, it was The Night Circus. The hive mind has been waiting for the release date of Station Eleven for months. It's here. It goes on sale on Tuesday, September 9. 

I implore you to read Station Eleven. I hope you love it as much as I do.

New Year, New 30 Day Book Challenge, Day 20

Day 20: Favorite Romance Book

Gianna:

I know what you’re thinking. "Gianna is going to choose a Nicholas Sparks novel. She’s an old softy, plus she loves the beautiful prose of a master." True. However, just for kicks, I am going to go with a writer I am sure Mr. Sparks has read for inspiration again and again: Edith Wharton.  Yes, and now you’re thinking what we’ve all been thinking for years, “Where is Nicholas Sparks’s Pulitzer?”

The Age of Innocence will rip you’re damn heart out (Liz, obviously this does not apply to you).  Ellen Olenska is a righteous babe, a fearless broad, and a sistah’s sistah (well, you know, for the most part).  She was a woman ahead of her time, a bit of a free spirit, and not completely down with the class system. Oh, and she had the balls to leave her cruel ("cruel" is old timey speak for douche) husband.  It is a story of a forbidden (not the lesbian kind unfortunately, now that’s a book I can get behind!) and doomed love affair that wasn’t meant to be. Sigh.

Runners up, by the way,  The French Lieutenants Woman, The English Patient, Rebecca, Remains of the Day and the really sweet novel from last year, Vaclav and Lena. Huh, I have inadvertently listed these in order of depressiveness, so if you’re like me, you will want to read them in this order. 

Liz:

Since it's me, when I think romance, I think regrets. And sadness. And possibly psycho-pharmaceuticals. One of the biggest regrets I've had in my professional career came when I saw a book sitting on a local author/self-published shelf in a bookstore and I didn't buy it. The cover copy even told me that if I bought one book before I was raptured, it should be that one. I didn't listen. Thus, I may never read I Fell in Love With My Rapist.

My back-up pick, though, is The Night Circus. When I think of romance, I think of Gianna love, but also escaping from reality for a period, and the last time I felt so transported into another world by a book was when I read Gianna's diary Erin Morgenstern's novel. Two fated lovers pitted in a duel created by their parents who use their magic to create a wonderland circus--who doesn't want to live in that world for awhile? Marco and Celia woo each other through an ice garden and a cloud maze and a circus so grand that people charmed by their magic follow them around the world. It's grand.

Summer Reading: Waiting for Columbus

It's not a sales conference dinner without
dozens of glasses on the table at the end of the night.

(Liz) As I mentioned in my last post, I spent last week attending sales conference at the Random House offices in New York.  One of the cooler things about conference is a dinner with reps and editors.  For nerdy book types, editors can become celebrities themselves.  You know what a Steven Spielberg movie is, and a Martin Scorsese, and a Christopher Nolan, and a Penny Marshall, right?  I know what a Robin Desser book is, and I tend to read, for example, Robin Desser new books because I've previously loved the books she's edited.  (There's a good chance you know what a Robin Desser book is, too, and you just don't know it.  She's edited Cutting for Stone, The Emperor's Children, Please Look After Mom, Wild.  She's edited Jhumpa Lahiri, David Guterson, A.S. Byatt, Jane Smiley, and Sandra Cisneros.)  Editors are the directors of the book world and their tastes emerge in the books they choose to champion.

So last week I sat at a table with Gerry Howard who edits Fight Club author Chuck Pahlaniuk, and Jenny Jackson who bought us Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan and the forthcoming (and amazing) Dog Stars by Peter Heller, and Allison Callahan who edited Ann Patchett before coming to Doubleday and The Night Circus, one of our favorite books of 2011.  While talking to Alison Callahan, I mentioned one of my favorite books she edited, Thomas Trofimuk's Waiting for Columbus.  This book came out a couple of years ago during a fall season with some huge books by authors like Margaret Atwood and Jonathan Lethem.  Alison was and remains passionate about this book, and I know that many of my colleagues loved it too.

Night Circus author Erin Morgenstern
and editor Alison Callahan

One of the frustrating parts of our jobs is that we necessarily have to focus on new books.  We strategize for months on the best ways to position new books when selling them to our bookstore buyers.  We don't, however, have as much time to focus on the thousands of older books that deserve reader love.  If there were any justice in book sales, Waiting for Columbus would sit atop the paperback bestseller lists next to Cutting for Stone and The Kite Runner and every book group in the country would add it to their reading lists, and Alison Callahan, who is a lovely person and great lover of books, would have a belated but worthy bestseller to celebrate.  This pick for summer reading, therefore, is my feeble attempt to begin to spread the word about this great book that almost no one read.

Waiting for Columbus is the story of Christopher Columbus, a man who washes up on shore near Barcelona on the Spanish coast.  He's naked...and he's claiming to be Columbus the explorer even though it's the 21st Century.  Unsurprisingly, Columbus finds himself in a Barcelona mental institution, where he refuses to engage with his psychiatrist and also, well, refuses to wear clothes.  (There's some humor here, see?)  One of the nurses, Consuela, takes a special interest in Columbus because he tells her his stories of wooing the queen in order to fund his expedition to the new world.  Obviously this man isn't the real Christopher Columbus, but who he is and how he ended up inside this asylum is a great mystery that engages Consuela and the reader alike.  Madness, identity, history, the treatment of mental health patients, the bond between nurse and patient, family, nudity (heh), and memory--this is a great book that begs for great conversations.

Holy crap, I love this book.  Have you read it?  Do so, and then let me know what you think.  Spread the word, too.  We have the power to make a bestseller; crazier things have happened.  And then keep an eye out for the next Alison Callahan book.  She edits some terrific ones.

Generally Horrible Questions: Beth Meister

Beth Meister

Since all of our bookseller pals are busy making Christmas wishes come true by selling as many books as possible, we decided to feature one of the peeps on the other end of the book supply chain this week.  Beth Meister works for Random House (with Liz, and we're sure that this fact is taken into account when she has her performance evaluations) and is generally a bad ass.  After all, what was she doing on a Saturday night in December?  She was reading this half-assed blog.  That's dedication.  Other things to know: Liz thinks "Beth" is a lovely name, Beth's obviously brilliant since she loves baseball, and she's generally a kind, funny, good natured person...and into self-punishment as exhibited by her willingness to fill out our little questionnaire.

Welcome to Book Land, Beth Meister!

1.     What is your position at Random House?
My title is Director, Sales Management & Planning for Doubleday, Knopf, Pantheon, and Schocken


2.  What exactly does that mean you do?

The best way to describe my job is to say that I am the liaison between the sales department and the publisher’s office.  I work with the publishing group to make sure our sales reps have all of the information they need when they sell-in our titles and I communicate all information from the sales department back to the publishing group. [So you're Red from The Shawshank Redemption, the guy who can get things....or maybe The Wolf from Pulp Fiction, and Gianna is Jimmy, and Liz is obviously Julius.....]

3.  How’d you get that job?

While in college I went to a job fair in Manhattan over the holiday break. There were two non-banking jobs and I interviewed for both of them.  Random House was interviewing for their Associates Program.  This program was for up to a year and would rotate to different departments within a publishing group.  I was then hired for the Associates Program within the Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group and I started the summer after I graduated from college.  I stayed in that program for about 10 months and worked in the editorial and publicity departments.  From there, I was hired as an assistant in the department I work in now.  I eventually became the Associate Director, Sales Management & Planning at Doubleday Broadway and then stayed with Doubleday when we became part of Knopf.  And now I’m Director, Sales Management & Planning for Doubleday, Knopf, Pantheon, and Schocken. [Sheesh...so the exact opposite of sleeping with someone?]


4.   What’s the most menial job you’ve had?

I started at Random House right out of college so I guess babysitting?  I also worked as a waitress at my summer camp but that was a lot of fun.  [See what we mean about Beth?  She describes waitressing for children as "fun."]

5.   What did you want to be as a kid?

When I was really little I wanted to work as a checkout person at the grocery store.  I thought punching the keys seemed fun.  Then in elementary school I wanted to be a teacher and a writer. [Here in Book Land we're about making dreams come true.  Here's a link to Trader Joe's job application.  Let us know if you need a reference!]

6.   What’s your most jaw-dropping, jealousy inducing, incredible experience working at RH? (Feel free to say “Meeting Liz.”)

Meeting Liz is the obvious answer here.  But what I think is the most jealousy-inducing is that I truly love my job.

7.  What book do you love people probably don’t know about?

I love Jonathan Tropper.  The first book of his I read was The Book of Joe.  It had been selected for a book club I was in and neither the flap copy nor the cover interested me at all. Then I started reading and I fell in love.  

8.  As a lifelong Mets fan, how can you stand being surrounded by so many Yankees fans in the office?  I mean, I guess since it’s New York City you can’t easily slash their tires in the parking lot….

It can be difficult at times but it helps when the Yankees lose in the first round of the playoffs.  I also enjoy it when the Phillies lose in the first round of the playoffs.

9.  Gianna or Liz?

I have learned that the correct answer is always Liz. [Damn straight.]

10. What book(s) changed your life?

I took a class in college called Girls Books.  It was the first English class I had ever taken that I actually enjoyed.  We read Ballet Shoes and I absolutely loved it.  Reading hadn’t been a huge part of my adult life at that point but that book got me back into reading. 

11. I've never read _____________ and I'm so ashamed.

Atonement by Ian McEwan.  I made a friend of mine tell me the ending because I had heard it had a shocking twist. [Fear not!  Liz and Gianna will act out the movie for you.]

12. I've read ______________ and I'm so ashamed.

I know that the correct answer here is Twilight.  However, I’m not ashamed of anything I’ve ever read.  I believe that it doesn’t matter what you read as long as you are reading. [We believe the same...unless it's Twilight. It's terribly shameful.]

13. What book(s) are you most excited about that haven’t yet been published?

Two books not yet on-sale that I just couldn’t put down are Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead and Top of the Rock by Warren Littlefield.  The characters in Seating Arrangements are so flawed that they broke my heart.  Top of the Rock is pure fun – it is a behind the scenes look at NBC in the 80s and 90s when shows like Cheers, Friends, and ER (with my all-time favorite, George Clooney) were on the air.  [Liz: I really love both of these books.  Great choices to jot down now so you don't forget.]

14. Who would play you in the made-for-TV movie of your life?

Sandra Bullock.  Mostly just because I think she’s great.

15.  What’s your all-time favorite book?

This is such a tough question!  I’m going to go with my two most recent favorites which are The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard.  The Night Circus is such a magical story.  I never have time to re-read books but I read this one twice and I loved it even more the second time.  Destiny of the Republic is the fascinating story of President Garfield and his assassination.  Candice Millard is an amazing author.

Beth and the team in NYC at the launch of The Night Circus

               

Best of 2011 Countdown: #8

Gianna:

The Sense of an Ending
Julian Barnes
Knopf

I hope I don’t sound like too much of an idiot (I want to sound just enough like an idiot), but I absolutely love a well-done, compact novel. It's rare and it's incredibly hard to do. To write a well-developed original story with fully realized characters in fewer than two hundred pages is remarkable, yet Barnes has done just that.   This is a one sitting read, much like On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. I know what you're thinking, why shouldn’t you read such a short novel in one sitting Gianna? Well some don’t lend themselves to it, some you don’t want to, some you can’t, and some blow.

Julian Barnes,
Man Booker Prize winner

Barnes has been nominated several times for the Booker,  and there is something so right about him finally winning it for this book. Liz called this book a masterpiece and while I hate agreeing with her about anything at all…she got this absolutely right. It’s a perfect book.

I won’t go into plot here, we’ve written about this on the blog two or three times, but I will say that Barnes hits major themes here: love, loyalty, life and death. Have I mentioned this is a perfect book? 

Liz:

The Night Circus

Erin Morgenstern

Doubleday

Words like "delightful" and "enthralling" best describe one of the biggest books of 2011.  Erin Morgenstern's first novel involving dueling magicians and the most incredible circus ever placed on paper has proved a sensation, and deservedly so.  I quite simply love this book.  I loved it when I first read it about 11 months ago, and I haven't shut up about it since then.  My booksellers love it.  My friends love it.  I want to visit The Night Circus.

Let's set the mood:

Erin Morgenstern

The Night Circus is so descriptively stunning that if I possessed any artistic talent at all I would have created my own illustrated edition.  The film rights were optioned to Summit Pictures and there's lots of Hollywood chatter and speculation.  And Erin Morgenstern wrote this book during National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), an annual writing challenge to create a novel during the 30 days of November.  This book is charmed.  It's magical.

10 Cool Things: Lemuria Books

Lemuria Books is the outstanding bookstore in Jackson, Mississippi, owned by lifelong bookseller John Evans.  It's located on Interstate 55, so if you're driving through Mississippi you pretty much HAVE to pass it, and therefore you should stop.  We've featured Lemuria on our blog before, both in our profile of bookseller Nan Graves Goodman and our feature for Chuck Palahniuk's event in October.  We've never just talked about the store itself, though.  I'd never heard a bookseller talk about "working" on a book until I (Liz) started selling to Lemuria. I don't know if that's a common expression at other stores, but it's true for Lemuria--they WORK on making books big sellers.  Recent National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward even gave the store a shout-out in her acceptance speech.  That's pretty cool.

Now THAT's a
Halloween costume!

10 Cool Things about Lemuria Books


1. Truly outstanding booksellers who aren't opposed to bribery.  Keep them happy and they'll sell your books all damn day. (You feed the beast with a constant supply of good books.)


2. Lemuria has one of the most active, best bookstore blogs out there.  Updated daily, there's always something interesting to read there.

Chuck Palahniuk signing books

3. Book collector?  Lemuria has a terrific First Editions Club, as well as a great collection. If you belonged to their club this year, you'd have signed first editions of NYT Best Book Swamplandia, NYT bestseller The Night Circus, and National Book Award finalist The Tiger's Wife, among many other great picks.

John Evans,
Lemuria's owner

4. John plays some..."interesting" music in the store.  I think some of it is Mississippi Delta Blues.  I think some of it is fever dream-induced and may cause seizures.  (Admittedly, I--Liz--am not a music person.)


5. There's an amazing rare book room in the store....that Liz isn't allowed to peruse without constant supervision.


6. Gianna is June to Liz's Johnny, and this is our song: 

 (Gianna wrote this one.  Liz doesn't understand.)

Eudora's picture 

7. Four words: Eudora Welty was here.  It's hallowed ground.


8. Creative author events.  These people know how to host a shindig and aren't afraid of the booze.

Night Circus event, complete with circus tent.

9. Liz's boss used to work at Lemuria.  And in today's job market, sucking up is never a bad idea.


10. Cool things all over the store--from signed author pictures to original Barry Moser engravings to cool Rockwell Kent art.  The place is a treasure hunt adventure and book lover's paradise.

30 Day Book Challenge: Day 22

Gianna:

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

If my two former co-workers can stop fighting over who will actually send me one of these, this is next on my reading list. Apparently it is some hardship for either of them to look up my address, which is still in the RH database by the way, not to mention my former boss lives 4 miles from my house. Oy. Also…I didn’t ask for this book, this was their idea to send me one. If this doesn’t come my way…I am going to read something by Glenn Beck. Then every evening I will leave Liz and Valerie a voice mail of my favorite passage from that day. Looking forward to reading Night Circus! [I have Gianna's address...I just don't really feel like going to the post office.  It's hot outside. Oh, and Gianna is supposed to make me brownies because her Cubs swept my Astros, so until I see those brownies I might avoid the post office indefinitely.  Bring on the Glenn Beck recitations!]

Liz

What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander

I'm currently reading for the Spring 2012 season and this collection of short stories is next on my list.  I'm a big fan of Nathan Englander's first two books (one story collection, one novel) and I've already read the title story for this new book.  It's outstanding.  Englander manages to balance hilarious and poignant moments in a few pages, and oh how I love his characters.  I am looking forward to finishing the rest of the book.  The rumor is that they're all excellent. 

30 Day Book Challenge: Day 5

Day 5: A Book You Wish You Could Live In

Well this is a challenge.  I read such happy books....

Gianna:

Live From NEW York An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live (Shales &Miller)

Does that really need explaining? I am not really picky about the time, but knowing what we know now, I would prefer not to work with that crazy bitch Victoria Jackson.

Liz:

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Just kidding.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

This book comes out in September, but once you get a chance to read it you'll understand why this is the world I choose.  A circus that doesn't have the creepy elements (clowns), is completely black and white and open open only at night, and has attractions that stretch imaginations?  Two words: cloud maze.  I love this world. 

Le Cirque des Reves

Last week the Random House sales force gathered in Florida for our annual in-person sales conference (pro: no six hour conference calls; con: must wear shoes...and pants).  Want a sneak peek at one of the biggest buzz books slated to come out in the fall?  Here you go.

The Night Circus is the first novel from Erin Morgenstern, a magical, cinematic story of two fated lovers and the most amazing fictional setting since Hogwarts.  In the book, two rival magicians debate magic theory through the duels they stage between students of their schools of study.  When one magician pits his daughter Celia against a rival orphan named Marco, the location for their showdown becomes a mystic circus only open at night.  The rivals create endless mazes, a garden made of ice, a maze of clouds, a tree of granted wishes, all in with a wonderful black-and-white backdrop of tents, circus performers, and charmed guests.  Le Cirque des Reves--The Circus of Dreams--is a fantasy world where attendees (and readers) go to escape and experience the endless possibilities and romance...the mysterious, fantastical, heroic, adventurous, liberating definition of that word, not the mass market rack at the grocery store variety.  The romance of silent movies, the allure of the object behind the curtain, the thrill of the unexpected--I love this book.

This cool book trailer captures the whimsy and charm of the book.  "Keep dreaming in black and white" indeed.