Knopf 100--Day 24

We are so close to the end! Gianna's going to bring me brownies when we're finished. 

89. The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer, originally published in 2010. Gianna hinted that this book would make the list back when she chose How to Breathe Underwater, Orringer's great short story collection. The Invisible Bridge was my favorite novel of 2010 and a book that I'd like to reread at some point (a down side of our jobs is that rereading is rarely a possibility because we always have a pile of manuscripts to plow through for work). This is the type of big, sweeping, war epic that I love to get lost within, swirling around a Hungarian family during World War II. Great characters and unimaginable situations lead to a terrific sense of tension over the survival of this family. It's a compulsive read that is both satisfying and ideal for discussions. 

90. The Yokota Officers Club by Sarah Bird, originally published in 2001. I was a younger bookseller when Yokota was published, and lunch with the author was my first experience of the sort. I'd also never read Sarah Bird's books before then, but one day the fan belt on my piece of shit car broke and I spent an entire day at a Firestone while it was being fixed. During that day I successfully blocked out the daytime TV by losing myself in The Yokota Officers Club. Based upon her own childhood as a military brat, this is the story of Bernadette, a college aged girl spending the summer back on the base in Okinawa, and the family secrets that begin to push toward the surface. Sarah Bird's humor is present (it's irrepressible), but this is also a novel of great heart and family drama. And since reading it at that car repair shop, I've never been able to here "Brown Eyed Girl" and not think that the first line is "Hey Roderigo." It's a book that wormed into my head and stuck. 

I'm glad this cover
didn't last. Yikes. Pink.

91. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, originally published in 1981. Salman Rushdie has authored some terrific books, but I think this one is his masterpiece. It not only won the Booker Prize the year it was published, it won the "Booker's Booker" for being the best of among all of the Booker winners over the years. That's some decent awards cred. This is the story--told by a great narrative voice--of Saleem Sinai, the child born at the stroke of midnight that also signaled Indian independence. He and the country grow up on parallel paths, mirroring each other over the course of several decades, and the writing is simply breathtaking. Writers read Midnight's Children and wish they could create such a magnificent book. 

92. The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman, originally published in 2012. Knopf has a long history of publishing iconic cookbooks (hello, Julia Child), but from that list I chose to single out Smitten Kitchen (or "Smitchen," as I called it for the year I was selling it). I am not ever going to feel like spending time in my kitchen is time well spent, but I admire those who do enjoy working with and preparing food. This cookbook was the one a close friend started bugging me about a full two years before it was published. She was a fan of Deb Perelman's website and couldn't wait for the book. It's also the book that I've never heard complaints about. The recipes are delicious (I can vouch for that, as I'm an able sampler of others' creations), straightforward, and don't require anything crazy like artisanal barnacles or some crap like that. 

Generally Horrible Questions: A Bookseller Profile of Nan Graves Goodman

Just like the new store profile feature we've started on our half-assed little blog, Gianna and I have decided to start a regular feature about some of the outstanding booksellers out there.  These people are the taste-makers; chances are if you're reading a great book that's not written by James Patterson, a bookseller was instrumental at some point along the way in getting that book into your hands. These people deserve our love because their passion for reading makes our BookLand possible.

First up, Nan Graves Goodman.  Nan works at the legendary Lemuria Books in Jackson, Mississippi, and is in charge of the reading group there.  Nan is one of my go-to booksellers for literary fiction.  If it's nominated for a major award, chances are that Nan's read it.  Nan writes for the Lemuria blog and helps bring a touch of class to Lemuria every day that she's there.  For that reason (or maybe because we just forgot), we didn't ask Nan about her tattoos.

Here you go, some generally horrible questions for Nan Graves Goodman.

1. How did you get into the bookselling business?

Nan and Misty, her pooch.

When I was just out of graduate school in English, my first job was with University Press of Mississippi. Jump forward about 25 years,and on a spontaneous whim, I barged into John Evan's office (no appointment!) about

5 1/2 years ago, and said, "Hey, John, let me work here this summer, okay?" Since he had been my son's soccer and baseball coach years before, we had been friends for quite a while. John was clearly flustered, but said,"Okay, but you'll have to go through the interview process."

So......I liked the part time book store summer job A LOT!" Long story short.....here I am still, 5 1/2 years later and loving it as much as I did that first summer in 2006! My love of great literature is fulfilled in the fiction room, an English major's dream! 
[John Evans is the owner of Lemuria Books and a bit of a character himself.  That Nan allowed her children near John lends itself to jokes and possibly some sort of insinuation about lower standards for child welfare in the South, but we won't go there....oh, wait.....]

2. What's the best experience you've had working at the bookstore?

By far my best experiences come in talking to the authors one on one and picking their brains as to "why they did what they did" with the characters, plots, settings, and symbols!

3. What book(s) changed your life?

Now that's a hard one....I'm a Faulkner and Percy lover who has added new authors such as Tim Gautreaux, Ron Rash, and Geraldine Brooks to my list. I used to say that Mists of Avalon was my all time favorite book which changed my life, but I'm not sure I would say that now 100%.Although it has been way long since I read it, I was also impressed by Frank Conroy's Body and Soul, and recently I was quite moved by Julie Orringer's Invisible Bridge.

4. What are you currently reading?
I am presently reading: Charles Frazier's Nightwoods, Chuck Palahniuk's Damned, Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad, Michael Ondaatje's Cat's Table,and Erin Morgenstern's Night Circus, and I just finished Diana Abu-Jaber's Birds of Paradise and Amor Towles Rules of Civility. Did I say that I have to be reading more than one book at a time?

5. What's your #1 pick for reading groups?

We really enjoyed discussing Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann,and America, America by Ethan Canin.

Hello, beautiful....

6. Would you rather....Jonathan Franzen, Jonathan Lethem, Jonathan Safran Foer?

Jonathan Franzen

[Interesting.  I admit that I like the nerdy glasses too...and Safran Foer is too short for me.  I'm inclined to agree, but I don't think JFranz and I would share more than a fling.]

7. What's the biggest lie ever told by a sales rep?

"You're just going to love this book................." 

8. What's your second favorite bookstore?

Square Books, Oxford, Mississippi 

9. Gianna or Liz?

Well, that's unfair, isn't it? Both of these go-getter, brilliant, fun people have made and are making great marks upon Lemurians. We miss seeing Gianna and just love it when Liz brings us those wonderful ARCs [Advance Reader's Copies] and chats it up with us and gets stranded by ice storms and tornadoes A LOT in Jackson, Mississippi! Does Liz have that kind of effect upon the weather in Texas, Gianna?

[For the record, one of my accounts caught fire as I pulled up.  Be glad I've only brought inclement weather to Mississippi.  And the correct answer to this question is always, ALWAYS "Liz."]

10. The most depressing book you've ever read?

Hands down: Robert Olen Butler's new release A Small Hotel. I really, really loved his satire on Hell, titled Hell, however.

11. I've never read ____________.  And I'm so ashamed.

War and Peace!

12. Celebrity Memoir (Death is not an option): Snooki, Justin Bieber, Paris Hilton, Kardashian Konfidential. 

Don't EVEN make me think about such nonsense!

13. Dumbest question ever asked by a customer?

"Do you know if Amazon has that book?????"...............Uh! Go take a hike, customer! Lemuria rules!

14. I wanted to be a ___________ when I grew up.

Veterinarian.

[I'm going to assume this answer opens the door for you to inherit Zorro.  Congratulations!]

15. ________________ is my favorite book ever.

I love Faulkner's A Light in August, but I'm not sure that I have an absolute favorite. That would be like asking someone to choose a favorite pet or flower, wouldn't it? (only pet lovers and gardeners will understand this answer.....)

[...Fluffinella, world's greatest cat, may she rest in peace.  And daffodils.]

 

Liz's Ten Best of the Year (and so much better than Gianna's....)

Okay, to know me is to know how competitive I am, and it matters to me that almost 100 people clicked on Gianna’s Top 10 list. I know that people like Gianna…it’s just that I’m counting on you all to like me more. Don’t let me down, Liz Fans.

Here they are, my favorite books of the year from the side of the company I sell. Certainly there are books on Gianna’s side that I loved (Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, for example), but she stuck to her side, I’ll stick to mine. If we were on The Brady Bunch, we’d stick a stripe of masking tape down the middle of our bedroom. Without further ado:

1. The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer. My favorite book of 2010 happened to be a book I read almost a full year ago, yet it still lingers in my mind and few stories have measured up to this epic. The novel tells the story of a family of Hungarian brothers during the 30’s and 40’s; it’s a love story, a war story, a Holocaust story, a family saga, a thriller, and a page turner. If there’s any justice at all in the world, this is the book that every book club in the country will be reading when the paperback releases in January. In 1937, Andras Levi travels to Paris to study architecture, where he meets and eventually falls in love with a Hungarian expatriate dancer. As World War II approaches, though, the couple must return to Hungary to renew their visas, a process complicated by the Nazi invasion of their country. Jews trapped in a Nazi-occupied country, Andras is reunited with his older brother, a medical student studying in Italy, and his younger brother, an actor who had opted to remain in Budapest, is shipped out to the Russian front. The story becomes one of survival and the strength of family as they fight to stay together. There are a ton of World War II books out there, but this one stands apart. The writing is impeccable and at so many points in her sweeping story Orringer could have taken a misstep, but the novel stays on track at every turn. If you like architecture, European history, love stories, adventure tales, family dramas, it’s all here. I simply love this book.

2. To the End of the Land by David Grossman. This pilgrimage story of three friends struggling to deal with the horrors of war should appear on every best of the year list. Grossman’s haunting novel chronicles the history of Israel and the personal costs of the continuing conflicts in that young nation through the intimate and immediate story of Ora, a mother panicked that her younger son will die at his military checkpoint, and the trip she takes walking across the country with an old family friend traumatized by the war in 1967. The novel is made all the more incredible because David Grossman’s own son died in the Israeli army as Grossman was finishing a draft of this book.



This cat is not a tiger.

3. The Tiger by John Vaillant. Two topics about which I’m obsessed—cats and Russia. How could I not love a book that involves both? This masterful account of an actual man-eating tiger hunting down villagers in the outer reaches of the already remote Siberia, and how the largest land predators struggle for survival in the face of increasing threats is a must read. Vaillant skillfully describes the conditions that surrounded this one incident of big cat/human relations (nothing like envisioning the remains of your hunting buddy fitting into a duffle bag) as well as the greater tribulations involved in surviving in Russia, both humans and tigers.

Jennifer Egan signs books
 at Texas Book Festival.

4. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. I’ve already written on this little blog of ours that I believe that this book at least should have been nominated for the National Book Award, and the more that I think about it, the more it strikes me as truly brilliant. Linked stories loosely centering on a record executive, what distinguishes Goon Squad is the quality of Egan’s prose and her truly inventive experimentation with form without resorting to clever trickery or losing emotional resonance. There’s an argument to be made that Jennifer Egan is one of the ten best American writers working right now.

5. The Killer of Little Shepherds by Douglas Starr. Fans of Erik Larsson and Devil in the White City take note—Douglas Starr’s newest book is every bit as good. Around the same time that H. Holmes was terrorizing the Chicago Fair, a serial killing vagrant named Joseph Vacher was wandering across France and leaving a trail of blood behind. A forensics expert named Alexandre Lacassagne worked diligently to link together the series of far-ranging murders (this in the days when police departments in neighboring towns, let alone across 1,000 miles of territory, didn’t share information) and in the process revolutionized the science of police detection. The Killer of Little Shepherds is a blend of history, true crime, and CSI thriller, and a terrific page turner. As an aside, an Italian rival of Lacassagne promoted the practice of phrenology (skull-measuring) as a means of determining criminal predilection, and based on my not-so-extensive knowledge of the practice I’m going to covertly measure Gianna’s head at our office holiday party; that woman is hiding something sinister.

6. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender. The quirkiest novel I read this year is also one of the best. An adult fairy tale of sorts, this coming of age novel pushes the boundaries for family dysfunction and the angst and turmoil associated with being different. On her birthday, nine year-old Rose Edelstein discovers that she can taste the emotions of the people who prepare the food she eats, from her mother’s sadness to her outcast brother’s rage. Her brother, too, develops his own special gift. The empathy of children and the isolation of adolescence have never been told quite like this magical, haunting story.

7. How to Live by Sarah Bakewell. Already named to several best lists in Bakewell’s native United Kingdom, this philosophical meandering into the life and works of Montaigne takes a novel and accessible approach to the man who invented the concept of the essay. By asking the simple question “How to live?” and then answering it in a variety of ways pulling from Montaigne’s life and writing, Bakewell portrays a human, personable, flawed, funny, honest man who was at peace with the contradictions in his life. Four hundred years after he lived, Montaigne is made fresh, vibrant, and relevant to modern life in this enlightening book.

8. The Wave by Susan Casey. Waves are arguably the most destructive force on the planet, swallowing huge tanker ships and washing over oil rigs when the monsters really get to rolling. Half of Susan Casey’s book is a scientific exploration of the destructive power of monster waves, and the other half is a love letter to the thrilling world of big wave surfing and the (crazy?) surfers attempting to cruise upon the tops of 100 foot water walls. The Wave is fine adventure writing.

Anne Hathaway
and Jim Sturgess

9. One Day by David Nicholls. Rarely do I find myself so caught up in a story that centers around, well, love. Oh, and I dislike books that have gimmicky hooks in their storytelling because the gimmick often replaces the character development or emotional impact of a work. I really probably should have hated One Day. It’s a novel about Dexter and Emma, who go on one date in college, become friends, fall in love with others, and then fall in love with each other. It’s a novel with a gimmick—each chapter tells the couple’s story on one day, July 15th, over 20 years. It works, though. It’s not silly or forced, and the characters are compelling. I was rooting for them even as they made mistakes, and the whole time I was reading One Day, I kept thinking, “they have to make a movie out of this book.” Well, they are, and it’s starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess (he's dreamy).

10. Hellhound on His Trail by Hampton Sides. I already knew the outcome, I already knew many of the details of the plot, so I was shocked at how suspenseful this history of the Muther Luther King Jr. assassination turned out to be. James Earl Ray, King’s killer, is a fascinating, horrifying figure, and the details of his crime and flight from the FBI read like the best thrillers. Oh, and there were a lot of things I DIDN’T already know. Did you know that James Earl Ray was an escaped convict at the time of the assassination? Or that he tried to break into the pornographic film business in Mexico and LA? This is riveting reading of great historical significance as well as a high action true crime story of the first order. Good stuff.

They Were Robbed! Part 2

Ask me what my favorite novel of the year was, and the answer is simple and fast to my lips: The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer.  I read it almost a full year ago (it went on sale in June) and yet it still sticks with me, one of those books that ruins reading anything else immediately afterward.  For that reason I was truly peeved that this wonderful book wasn't nominated for the National Book Award, so I'm hereby nominating it as a Slappy Award recipient.  As discussed in our last post, the Slappy is our fake award--you get a trophy! (there is no trophy)--for the best books of the year that weren't nominated for the prestigious National Book Award, and named after the Liz and Gianna dorky antics making fun of Gianna's short stature while at sales conference last March.  Gianna is definitely not a basketball player with that pathetic vertical leaping ability.  I mean, I'm not THAT tall.  She's should put a little effort into that flailing leap of hers and high five a woman.  Sheesh. 

Where was I?  Right.  Orringer.

I loved The Invisible Bridge.  It's an epic story of a young Hungarian who wins a scholarship to study architecture in Paris during the 1930's.  While there he falls in love with a fellow Hungarian expatriate, a dancer, and they wed.  With the advent of World War II, though, their lives are thrown in turmoil, and when they need to renew their visas, they find themselves trapped in Nazi-occupied Hungary for

the duration of the world.  I should mention that they are Jewish.  This is a war story, a Holocaust story, a love story, a family saga, but the book transcends these pigeon-holing categories.  There are so many places where the story or characters could veer off course and effectively ruin a fast-paced, engaging, literary reading experience, but Orringer deftly navigated the pitfalls and kept her story moving while building tension and making her characters both sympathetic and realistic. 

I struggle to find a fault with The Invisible Bridge.  The critics loved this book, I loved it, book groups should devour it for years to come, and I only wish the National Book Award judges had granted my clutched-to-my-heart wish that Julie Orringer walk on stage in November to accept her award.  Sigh.