Liz's Incredibly Stupid Idea

Disclaimer: There is nothing book-related in this post, unless you stretch the boundaries of bookishness, in which case the following events occurred in the book room in my house.  (Yes, I have a room that's nothing but books.  It should be a guest room, but while I like books, I don't like guests.)

The costume.

Yesterday, while strolling through Target in search of Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark--which was the only reason I went to Target--I passed the pet food aisles and saw cat costumes on the endcap.  I bought the Santa cap and beard.  Zorro would be damn cute as Santa, after all, even though I'm well aware of the fact that he doesn't tolerate shenanigans and hates playing dress up.  I forgot to buy gloves too (Zorro is liberal in his violence and should have his own after school special about cutting), but I own an oven mitt, so at least one hand could be protected.

The plan: wait until this morning, when he's typically friendliest and groggiest.

Zorro was still in bed.

Take him to the book room, where he likes to sunbathe on the love seat, and where there are fewer places to hide.

He hates closed doors.  He knows something is up.  Little bastard.

First attempt: Total failure.  He wouldn't stand still, and immediately ducked away from the cap and yanked off the beard.

Second attempt: I'm being humiliated by a cat.

Third attempt: This time I'm holding him, and though you can't really see it, he's got eight claws latched into my knee.

I manage to get the costume around his neck before he bolts for his blanket.  He's not particularly happy.

So close.  He swipes at my hand every time I move toward him, though.  Oh, and he's purring.

Success!  Sorry for the blurry picture.  That hat stayed over his ears for about 20 seconds.  I was in a hurry.

"Get me the hell out of here."

Generally Horrible Questions: Sarah "Buddha" Brown

Sarah's haunt--Changing Hands Bookstore

It's been awhile since we harassed a bookseller, so we decided to mortify quiz Sarah Brown, one of the key players at Changing Hands bookstore in Tempe, Arizona.  Changing Hands is a bookish oasis in the desert and worth the trip if you're hanging out in that part of the world.  Without further ado...

Generally Horrible Questions: Sarah "Buddha" Brown

1. How’d you get into the book business? What’s your job at Changing Hands?

I got into the book business by way of the cafe - I started working in the Chapbook Cafe in

Schuler Books in Okemos, Michigan, and soon moved to the bookstore. When I moved to

Arizona to be a nanny for some family friends, I got a part-time job at Changing Hands, and I’ve

been here ever since. [What happened with the nanny gig? There better be a prison story tied to this tangent (either you or the kid).]

Now that's a title.

Today I am an adult buyer at Changing Hands, and also the Used Book Manager (I run our trade counter). It’s great to be in the unique position of seeing what sells on both the used and new

sides of our business!

2. What’s the coolest part of working at Changing Hands? 

The coolest part of working at Changing Hands is working at the trade counter. Every day some new, hilarious, random title shows up, and we get to marvel at how ridiculous things get published - like a book on eating disorders called Have Your Cake and Eat it Too. Or Antonia Quirke’s unfortunately titled memoir Choking on Marlon Brando. (I know!!!!) We also find funny pictures and keepsakes that people have left in books - it’s what renews my faith in humanity after a long day of retail. [Oh my god, we need to review Choking on Marlon Brando.]

3. Describe your oddest customer interaction. 

Oh boy, how to choose the weirdest customer interaction... I had a man ask me for books on sexual tourism in Asia once; that was pretty uncomfortable. Also, I rang up an elderly lady who was buying an exercise book called Kick Your Way to Better Health that had a bunch of people doing karate kicks on the front cover.  I was hoping it was a gift, but she said, “Now to take it home and see if it works!” I still feel that transaction may have resulted in a broken hip.

4. What book(s) changed your life? 

I think this may be a tie going to Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian

Chronicles. Reading Fahrenheit 451 at age 12 was such a powerful experience, really exemplifying the power of literature to be transformative and political. The Martian Chronicles is just so original in both format and subject, it just blew the boundaries off of story and plot structure for me as a gal.

5. I’ve never read _________ and I’m so ashamed. 

I’ve never read Proust and I’m so ashamed. Hopefully, having that statement in print will amplify the level of shame to such a degree that I will have read him by the end of next year.... [Note to blog: follow up next year. Further shame Sarah.]

6. I’ve read ___________ and I’m so ashamed. 

I’ve read the Twilight series, and I’m so ashamed. It was a bad time for me - I spent a week

sitting in front of my apartment drinking wine and reading those ridiculous books. The bonus was

getting to read Meyers’s inscription to her husband in the front of Eclipse where she thanks him

for his “willingness to eat out.” Editing anyone? [How to please us: mock Twilight. Good move there.]

7. Do you have any author crushes, and if so, are they restraining order worthy? 

Hmm... I would love to meet Denis Johnson and George Saunders, but I’d probably be able to

control myself around them, although I tend to say extremely idiotic things around celebrities I

Author Nick McDonnell, who
was about barely legal when
he published his first book.

admire... I did meet Nick McDonnell at a BEA party once and managed to sound fairly intelligent talking about his book, even though he was so handsome he glowed (Shimmered? There’s that Twilight influence)! So Nick’s the one who should be scared....

8. Liz or Gianna? 

Apologies to Gianna, but I will go with whom I know - Liz! (She keeps my bookseller crack supply coming - aka advance reader copies.)  [Also, the correct answer is always Liz.]

9. What book(s) has you buzzing this holiday season? 

My two favorite handsells right now are We Sinners by Hanna Pylvainen and Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins. We Sinners is an amazing first novel that is great because you can sell it to lit snobs as well as your typical ladies’ book group; we will be hearing a lot from Pylvainen in the future, I think. Battleborn is at the top of my list of great short story collections I’ve read recently, and it is what is truly great about western literature - nothing hokey about manifest destiny and wide-open skies, Watkins truly captures the unique spirit of the west for better or for worse... I am also excited to see how many copies of Chris Ware’s Building Stories we can sell -- it’s getting so much hype, but man that sucker is HUGE! ["We Sinners" is the name of Gianna's other blog, and frequently she posts sentences there like "man that sucker is HUGE!"  Just kidding.  Don't Google that.]

10. Your nickname is “Buddha.” Care to assign deity nicknames to us? (Also, you might want to explain the Buddha thing.) 

That's Sarah on the left, her grandpa on the right.
We think she might be a felon.  What's up with the fencing
around the fireplace? Maybe she's a fan of arson?
(See: Fahrenheit 451)

Ah, the Buddha thing. It is always hilarious to see the customers’ faces in line when I get paged to the registers! It’s a long story, having to do with me sitting in the middle of a highway cross-legged when I was 12. Been called Buddha ever since. How about if I call you guys Thor and Loki? [Liz insists on being Loki.]

11. The strangest place you’ve read a book? 

The strangest place I’ve read a book was hiding behind a tree stump when I ran away from home a long time ago. [Hopefully the running away was tied to hiding from the po-po after that nanny job went horribly wrong.]

12. How much would we (by which Liz means “Gianna”) have to pay you to record a dramatic reading of Fifty Shades of Grey that we can post to the internet? I would gladly do this for free! [That is definitely the right answer.  Gianna needs to be spending her money on Christmas gifts for Liz.]

Books We Want for the Holidays: Mystery Addiction

Today I am going to talk addiction. I’m certainly not cool enough to have any sort of interesting addiction like oxy or shoplifting, or eating rocks (it’s a thing, I saw it on television), but I do know what it’s like to be addicted to a book series.  What do addicts like more than anything? Company. Here are a few series that you can get your loved ones addicted to this holiday season.

 

Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series will keep your loved one busy for quite a while.  And here is the great thing: close your eyes and pick any Jack Reacher novel, doesn’t matter, the man does not disappoint. It may be fun though, to go back to the beginning and get someone started properly. I have yet to hear one person say “Meh, I don’t really get the Lee Child fascination” (and don’t be a jerk and write in and say it now just to make us look bad!). The latest novel is Wanted Man, if you want to jump in that way, but I would recommend grabbing three paperbacks: Killing Floor, Die Trying, and Tripwire. These are the first three in the series. If you don’t care about starting at the beginning, I will offer my three favorite Lee Child books: Persuader, Nothing to Lose, and 61 Hours; those aren’t in order but I didn’t read him in order either.   You know what, just start anywhere, you’ll thank me.

Oh, and Tom Cruise IS Jack Reacher, watch! 

Janet Evanovich recently moved to Random House and it has seemed to reinvigorate her Stephanie Plumb books (and this is according to her most critical reader and her biggest fan, a woman who has read every single book …Gianna’s mom).  I suggest you start in the high teens: Smokin’ Seventeen (paper), Explosive Eighteen (paper), and her latest, Notorious Nineteen.

One of my favorite mystery writers I wish more people would read is Lisa Unger. She has a couple of different series and a few stand alone novels. I think I have probably read six or seven of her books, and I would define Unger as a literary mystery writer. Unger’s Lydia Strong series begins with Angel Fire, Darkness Gathers, Smoke, and finally Twice.  Unger has a new stand alone novel called Heartbroken which is garnering fantastic reviews, and is on my holiday list (hint hint).  

The Books We Want for the Holidays: The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

Remember that book we talked about a couple of weeks ago, the untitled one by an unnamed author?  Today the mystery was revealed.  The great O, lover of books, selected Ayana Mathis's first novel, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie.  Here's why I like this pick.  Because Oprah decided to name Hattie as the second book in her revitalized Oprah's Book Club 2.0, we're able to sell it now, before the holidays, instead of waiting until January.  Also, I really like this book, and I hope with Oprah's help that Ayana Mathis will be recognized as a significant new voice in literary fiction.

Here's what you should know about The Twelve Tribes of Hattie.  If you like the early Toni Morrison novels--The Bluest Eye, Sula, Jazz--you will like Hattie.  This is a story about a young African-American woman who moves from the South to Philadelphia in search of greater opportunities.  Hattie is fifteen when she moves, and without a couple of years she is married to August and giving birth to twins, Philadelphia and Jubilee.  She is looking forward, escaping Jim Crow racism, in love.  Hattie's, though, is a tale of struggle and loss.  And this is an Oprah pick, so it shouldn't be much of a shock to hear that her twins catch pneumonia and die as infants.  Hattie and August press on, though, and the reader learns about Hattie's life through the stories of her children and grandchild--her twelve tribes.

Ayana Mathis

This isn't a mammy tale of a loving, happy, African-American woman.  This is struggle and heartbreak.  Hattie suffers a terrible loss early, and she is a mother aware that she is raising children who will encounter great difficulty.  She doesn't coddle her babies.  She will fight for them and work herself to exhaustion and care for them when they are sick, even as August drifts to other women.  Her children long for Hattie's love, but she guards her heart.

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie will not be the feel good book of the year, but it might be one of the most audacious fiction debuts.  Ayana Mathis can WRITE.  And in spite of the emotional hell Hattie suffers and then inflicts, she's a flawed character about whom I still care.  Her children, likewise, are remarkable characters.  Not every story needs a happy ending.

Oprah

Books We Want for the Holidays: Lonesome Dove

Author of Terms of Endearment!

I know that I have failed to meet Liz’s expectations over and over, but her greatest disappointment in me remains that I have never read Lonesome Dove.  Her disgust grows with the fact that I haven’t seen the mini-series either.

The thing is, I want to make amends, I want to do the right thing. But also, I don’t really want to read Lonesome Dove. Have you looked at that book? My God, it's like one thousand million pages long! And the font size, are you kidding me?

Does it not matter that I read Terms of Endearment and The Evening Star? I guess it just doesn’t matter to precious Liz that I not only read The Last Picture Show, but then went on to read Texasville!

Cary White's trail map

Does it not matter that I just finished reading cover-to-cover A Book on the Making of Loneseome Dove? Does that not count toward not only reading the novel, but also seeing the movie? It should; it is packed with interviews from about forty people involved with the movie: Peter Bogdanovich, Chris Cooper, Robert Duvall, Frederck Forrest, Stephen Harrigan, Bill Wittliff, Diane Lane and of course the man himself, Larry McMurtry.

Also included are several very cool candid Polaroid shots from the set, photographs of iconic props (such as trail maps), costumes, set designs, and shooting scripts. Of course the book is also packed with gorgeous on set photographs, both during shooting and candid.

It’s a gorgeous book, the perfect gift for a fan of the film, novel, or anyone who ever set foot in Texas. 

The gorgeous Robert Urich

I know, I know…I guess it doesn’t matter how much of McMurtry I read if it doesn’t include the one that won the Pulitzer.  2013 will be the year of Lonesome Dove. 

[That's it--we are watching the mini-series before January 1st.  We're not going to debate this.]

The Books We Want for the Holidays: Angelmaker

The paperback
is available now.

So sometimes you want to read a book that's just bad ass in the best ways.  You want some adventure, you want some sexy times, you want some gangsters, and you want, say, a doomsday machine that a hapless hero accidentally activates and must figure out how to destroy before it destroys the world.  If you can throw in some killer elephants, a serial killer, a geriatric granny spy, and an army of militant monks standing in the hero's path, all the better.

The hardcover jacket
has a hidden code to
decipher, because it's
cool like that.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway.  Nick is spy novel master John LeCarre's son (daddy wrote Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, among many other books), and his exposure to great thriller plotting is evident.  What I love about Harkaway's writing, though, is that he's hilarious, he's outrageous, and yet he's completely engrossing.  Sometimes I'm reminded of Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club and Choke, and sometimes I'm reminded of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, and sometimes I'm reminded of the new wave of snarky movie heroes like Robert Downey Jr's Iron Man.  But really, Nick Harkaway is a riot, and an original.  No one is writing books quite so entertaining right now.  

Come on--clockwork bees are going to destroy the world?  How can you resist?

The Books We Want for the Holidays: The Plain in Flames

 

The Plain in Flames by Juan Rulfo  

(Gianna) As I stated on an earlier blog about this book, I am very late to the Rulfo game. My feeling remains that The Plain in Flames is one of the finest collections I have read in years. There is nothing more satisfying than reading a book and having it live with you for months, even years. This collection restores two stories that were left of the previous translation and have not in fact been published in English prior to this edition ("The Legacy of Matilde Arcangel" and "The Day of the Collapse"). Populated with characters living on the fringes of society, these stories are haunting, beautiful, and darkly funny.

 

If you are taken with the stories above, I highly recommend Rulfo’s short novel originally published in 1955 called, Pedro Páramo.  The tragic story of a son in search of his father has sold over two million copies and has never been out of print. It is, in every sense of the word, a classic.  If you love Gabriel Garcia Marquez, please consider reading Rulfo, he won’t disappoint. Plus, the dude had his own stamp!