Best Book of the Year So Far: Michael McCarthy

How can a film with running
in it ever be boring?

Well this is posting is very awkward. Michael, a bookseller at BookPeople decided to become my mortal enemy by not loving the film, Frances Ha. After his scathing Facebook review referred to it as,“boring,” I couldn’t bring myself to even look in his direction. We haven’t spoken in six months! Well, I mean we haven’t spoken with the exception of me asking him what his favorite book of the year has been so far (or anytime I see him at the store, or if he answers the phone when I call).  Anyway, his choice sounds boring!! Not really, I am a pretty big Willett fan. 

Here is Michael McCarthy’s pick for best book of the year so far:

2013 has brought many gifts to the reading fanatic. My favorite so far is "Amy Falls Down" by Jincy Willett. Like most of Willett's work it is hilarious and wise. There's an undercurrent of sadness, too. The plot is simple - Novelist Amy Gallup lives with her dog, teaches a writing class, and keeps her engagement with the outside world to a minimum. Then she falls down and hits her head while working in her garden. A local writer interviews her while she's still suffering from the effects of hitting her head so hard, and her loopy responses to the idiotic questions she's being asked are quoted verbatim in the article. The article attracts a lot of attention and completely changes her life. All sorts of stuff happens and I've forgotten some of it so it looks like I'll have to read this delightful book again.

Best Book of the Year So Far: Seamus McGraw

Seamus McGraw 

I became only a little obsessed with Seamus McGraw after reading his fantastic book, End of Country: Dispatches from the Frack Zone. My obsession became full blown when I realized that Seamus and I both shared a passion for the wind in our hair and the open road. He rides a Triumph Thruxton (it's a real thing) and you can find me roaring up and down the highways of Austin on my Yamaha (more precisely my Yamaha Vino which even more precisely is less of a motorcycle and more of a scooter with a maximum speed of about 60mph ....65mph downhill bitches!). Anyway,  I guess we're kind of soul-mates. 

Here is Seamus' pick for best book of the year so far:

If, like Michael Pollan, you have the luxury of being able to spend time in a Connecticut convent learning how nuns make cheese, or hand rubbing cabbage and burying it in your backyard to make your own kimchi, chances are you have both too much time and too much money and would be unlikely to do either.

In that case, you might want to be buy a copy of Pollan’s Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation and give it to your personal chef.

If you’re more like me, however, with too little time, too little money and much more modest ambitions, you might want to pick up a copy for yourself. There’s still something in the book for you. With his typical self-effacing wit, Pollan reminds you that even the simplest act of cooking – a basic sauce or stew for example - is an almost mystical act of transformation. And it is also an act of rebellion against a top down culture of corporatism that constantly seeks to strip us of the power to do even the most basic things for ourselves. All in all, its a good read, peopled with interesting characters, among them a monk like bread baker, and its even got a few decent recipes thrown in.

I recommend it. I do not, however, recommend making kimchi at home. 

We have people for that. 

Best Book of the Year So Far: Joe English

Joe English trained me for my first position at Random House, which was working with national accounts. He gave me a piece of sage advice which I still find myself using on occasion. He said, "Hey, if you're ever looking for a Borders or a Barnes & Noble and feel like you might be lost, just look for a Bed Bath and Beyond or a Best Buy, it's a sign you're close." 

Here is Joe's pick for best book of the year so far:

Among my favorite children's books this year is Twerp by Mark Goldblatt. It's a story about bullying, but from the perspective of a perpetrator. Without condoning any of the actions described, Twerp deftly examines the kind of peer pressure that can lead to one kid turning on another. Author Mark Goldblatt gets inside these boys' heads - he knows how they think, how they talk, and what motivates them. And the journaling format - the main character unveils the story through a writing assignment at school - allows for (and subtly encourages in readers) the kind of soul searching necessary for true redemption.

Best Book of the Year So Far: Paul Kozlowski

Paul Kozlowski is truly one of the smartest and most passionate people in publishing. You haven’t been sold a book until you’ve heard Paul preach about a favorite book; it's an experience. Paul is an Associate Publisher at Other Press helping publish their truly impressive books.

 Here is Paul's pick for best book of the year (so far):

The best book I've read this year was first published — posthumously — in 1981. It is G. B. Edwards' The Book of Ebenezer Le Page. The edition I read was published by New York Review Books in 2007. It's hard to believe that it was out-of-print and unavailable for any length of time. It's a longish and frighteningly ordinary novel and it made me cry, the last three chapters did, which I rarely do. Ebenezer Le Page is an old Guernseyman writing his reminiscences, covering the period from the end of the 19th century through the mid-1970s on his beloved island in the English Channel. He loves but never marries, lives through two World Wars, endures multiple friendships and enmities, and bemoans the slow desecration of Guernsey by the inexorable forces of modern life — the car, the phone, the television, and the abandonment of religious faith for something far more irrational: monetary faith. The part that made me cry was toward the very end, when Ebenezer goes around the island to visit people he has long known to see if any of them are worthy of inheriting his legacy. He has no heirs of his own and a considerable sum of money that he has accumulated down through the years. No one is deemed worthy until he meets a young man with whom he'd once had a legal run-in. The Book of Ebenezer Le Page is a book that made me feel glad to be alive. Alive and yet mournful — almost inconsolably so — at the passing of so many loved ones and at the passing of a way of life. G. B. Edwards found the universal in the particular and I dare anyone to read his novel without recognizing oneself in his protagonist. 

Best Book of the Year So Far: John Kwiatkowski

John is adorable, isn't he?

The problem with this latest blog idea, which seemed innocent enough at the beginning, is that it's costing us money. John, an insanely good bookseller from Murder by the Book has just sold me on one of his choices. Jerk, you owe me $25, Kwiatkowski! 

Here is John's favorite books so far...

My absolute favorite book this year is Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan (out 8/27/13). Throughout the book, the voices of the generation of gay men wiped about by AIDS offer up observations as two boys attempt to break the Guinness Record for longest kiss. Levithan straddles the line between anger and awe as the reader experiences the reactions of those who came before us. It's beautifully written, incredibly moving, and completely different than any YA I've read in a long time.

 

 If you want something that's already out, it's Garden of Stones by Sophie Littlefield. The book blends a contemporary and past story together as Patty Takeda tries to clear her mother's name. Her mother has been accused of murder, and the murder has ties to her time spent in Manzanar. There's a mystery element to the story, but it's really about a mother and daughter learning about each other.