Knopf 100--Day 23

85. We’ve probably written about Toni Morrison more than any other writer. Liz and I adore her. In fact, Beloved is on both of our top ten books of all time list, and it's actually my favorite novel. 

Anyway, Song of Solomon was arguably Morrison’s first great book. The Bluest Eye and Sula are very good books and the perfect start if you plan to jump into Morrison’s literary canon, but it was Song of Solomon, the epic American novel that follows a single family nearly a century, that was a hint at what Morrison would soon produce in her masterpiece, Beloved. (And apologies to Franzen devotees, but Morrison is the living master of the American landscape, the American story, and the publication of Beloved on the heals of Song of Solomon sealed that deal long ago. Before Morrison it was Twain, I suppose.) Morrison isn’t easy, and she asks us big, deep, moving questions and a reader must pay attention. Read Toni Morrison because it will make your life richer.  Don’t read her because you have to, or think you should (or you had a bad high school situation in your AP class...). Read Beloved, Song of Solomon, Sula, Jazz, or The Bluest Eye, because everything you’ve heard about a book changing your life is true. End of sermon. 

86. I am going to move right on to another writer that both Liz and I love, Alice Munro. Now that I think about it, Liz and I are two peas in two very differently sized pods. Anyway, I thought I would choose a Munro book that we haven't written about at all, The Beggar Maid: Stories of Flo and Rose. It's set in a small 1930's Canadian town that is filled with everything you'd want--thieves, bootleggers, prostitutes, and less exciting people like factory folk--and shopkeepers like Rose and her step mother, Flo. Although, to be fair when I say boring, Rose does date quite a bit. In fact, a good number of the stories are about Rose's love life; in one she is seduced on a long train ride by a .... that's right, a very old minister. If you had any sense at all, this is everything you would need in order to be convinced to read this book, but I will also tell you the stories are lovely, sad, and are all about the one thing that make all good stories about small towns great...they are about escape. I like to think about this collection as the one that almost got away because I didn't read it until Munro (finally!) won her 2013 Pulitzer. 

87. Listen, I am going to try and do something that simply has not been accomplished on this blog. I am going to try and convince you that the 1981 film Endless Love, which was then given a second adaptation in 2014 called, well, Endless Love ... is actually a really good book by Scott Spencer. Okay. Here is my pitch: If you've seen the 1981 version of Endless Love, unsee it. It wasn't good. Close your eyes, concentrate, and just unsee it. I know you love Brooke Shields, I know it's when you first fell in love with James Spader and Tom Cruise,  and yes I know it's hard to unsee Tom Cruise, I know this oh so well, but unsee him. Okay. Now did you see the 2014 adaptation? You did? Seek help, nothing I can do for you if you're over the age of twenty five and paid money to see that movie. The novel, the really fantastic novel, Endless Love, is about wild, erotic, dangerous, violent, crazy fucking love. Poor Scott Spencer, two shitty adaptations and then you get this theme song? That's just crappy luck.

88. I recently read Anjelica Houston's first memoir, A Story Lately Told. It concentrated on her young life and you know it was okay...a little quiet but it was fine. Now, if you want an old fashion huge loud big memoir about the Houston family, go to papa. Read, An Open Book by John Huston. It is thoroughly engaging and fun from page one. A boxer, writer, actor, philanderer (he was married five times as well), and of course great film director (Maltese Falcon, African Queen, The Misfits, The Man Who Would be King, Prizzi's Honor and of course The Dead).  He doesn't bullshit in this book, he admits his many faults and mistakes (I mentioned the marriages and cheating, yeah?). He was a huge personality, a huge talent and the book reads exactly that way.

Knopf 100--Day 10

Nobel, anyone? Knopf is the home for a ton of Nobel Prize winning authors, and here are four books from this illustrious group.

33. The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing, originally published in 1988. Check this out. It's the film clip of when Doris Lessing found out she won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

"Oh Christ!" The Fifth Child probably isn't her most famous book, but it's one I loved. It's no secret that I like creepy, gothic reads that dismantle families, though. The premise is that a happy couple have brought four children into the world and created an ideal familial life in '60's Britain. Then they have Ben, baby #5, and their world unravels. Ben's not a cute baby or kid. He eats everything and he's abnormally strong. He's not the child they wanted or expected. The other kids are scared of him and his parents are appalled. What happens when you can't love your child, even when the child is an innocent? Good stuff.

34. Beloved by Toni Morrison, originally published in 1987. This is the second Toni Morrison novel we've included on our list, but so what? TM is terrific. You know what's fun? Walking up to strangers and croak-whispering "Beeeeloooooovveddd" like it was uttered in the movie. I love doing that. Anyway, Beloved, considered Morrison's best work, is the story of Sethe, a former slave living in Ohio who can't escape her memories of the atrocities of her past or the unnamed daughter she lost, whose tombstone simply reads "beloved." This novel twists up your insides, a sign of narrative genius.

35. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro, originally published in 2001. Alice Munro is the greatest living short story writer, and I could have picked any of her books to feature in this spot. I chose Hateship in part because it's received attention from Hollywood with several film adaptations. Remember that devastating and beautiful movie called Away From Her, about a man whose Alzheimer's impacted wife develops a romance in her assisted living facility because she no longer remembers she's married, and he must deal with the loss and her found happiness with another man? The movie starred Julie Christie and she was nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal. That movie was based on one of the stories in this collection. Munro writes about relationships and the human drama of daily living. She's one of my two pretend-Canadian-grandmas.

36. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, originally published in 1988. The godfather of magical realism, it's an honor to say that I work for the publisher of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I haven't read all of his books, but I am a fan of Love in the Time of Cholera, among others. The story here is that a couple declare their love when they're young, but she ultimately decides to marry a doctor. He, on the other hand, goes the other direction and has affairs. LOTS of affairs. Over six hundred affairs. Dude keeps busy. After fifty years, though, the doctor finally dies and our oversexed hero finally has his opportunity to spread a venereal disease declare his undying love once more.

100 Knopf, or The Big Anniversary in Book Land

Back when I was a bookseller contemplating making the leap to publisher sales rep, a huge factor in making that decision could be summed up simply as "Alfred A. Knopf." Knopf, simply, is one of the greatest publishing houses in the world and I love just about everything Knopf publishes. 2015 is the Year of Knopf, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the venerable press, so we're offering 100 titles that exemplify what makes Knopf great.

First, let's set the scene:

Feeling inspired to dive into great books yet? Good. Let's get started.

1. Sula by Toni Morrison, originally published in 1974. The story of two friends, this is my favorite of Morrison's books and the one I reread most often. Nel and Sula grow up together, the prim and proper good girl and the child with no inhibitions, sharing comic moments, dark secrets, loyalty, and then betrayal. Morrison's novel captures the intensity of best friends as well as the potential for pain that comes from loving another person. All of the elements that made Morrison a Nobel Prize Winner are on display in this masterpiece--beautiful writing, eccentric characters, passion, pain, and that feeling that you're reading something profound that requires thought and discussion.

2. An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison, originally published in 1995. I am not bipolar, but I am far too introspective and obsessed with my mind, so of course I've read Jamison's classic memoir of her struggle with bipolar disorder. This book is a landmark example of how to write a personal narrative that transcends one's own particular story, and in reading about her struggle and work with mental illness, I found greater compassion for myself and others. I highly recommend all of Dr. Jamison's works, but definitely start here.

3. Hiroshima by John Hersey, originally published in 1946. What did the first nuclear weapon do to the people and city where it was utilized? Note the date--Hersey was interviewing people who survived the atomic blast of Little Boy just after it was dropped and the war ended. I'm fascinated by the impact of nuclear weapons on the world in the last seventy years, and Hersey's book is critical reading for understanding a nuclear world.

4. The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan, originally published in 2014. Last year's Man Booker Prize winner is a novelistic wonder. Set mostly in a Japanese POW camp during World War II, Flanagan combines the struggle of POW Dorrigo Evans as he struggles to survive and keep his fellow POW's alive in increasingly horrifying conditions while building the Burmese railroad. The narrative jumps to contemporary Australia and to before the war when Dorrigo was in love with a girl before shipping out; it shows the humanity and inhumanity of the POW's as well as their Japanese captors. When I read this novel last year, I remember thinking "THIS is why I love working with books and with Knopf."

4 down, 96 to go. 

New Year, New 30 Day Book Challenge, Day 22

Day 22...

Gianna:

Today's question was sort of lame (name your favorite book that you own), so we thought we would spruce it up some and ask ourselves which book we would really love for you to buy a first edition of for our birthdays.  You are going to buy us birthday gifts right? We won’t be greedy. [I will be greedy.]

My first choice you can probably pick up for under $10,000 if you take the time and really shop around. Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor originally sold for about $5 so the price has gone up, I will admit, but the first printing was around 3,000. I know, Harcourt didn’t have too much faith in the old gal.

So that’s a bit too rich for your blood? I totally understand, and that is why I am willing to settle for a signed first edition of Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner. I sort of almost know for a fact that this book can be had for under $9,000.  [So can a car.]

Wow, it’s clear to me now that you’re one cheap son of a bitch.  I am going to make a really sweet offer; I will allow you to purchase Beloved by Toni Morrison for me. You can get a signed first edition for a couple grand. [I'm checking now to see if my first printing of Beloved is signed, and then I'm hiding it from my bloggish friend.]

I know, it seems like a pretty extravagant gift for someone you’ve never met, and someone you most likely aren’t going to care much for, but that’s not why we buy gifts for each other. We buy gifts to make people like us. I will give you my word; if any of the above gifts show up on my doorstep, I will really like you. 

Liz: 

I've got an idea. Gianna and I will trade houses for 24 hours, and at the end of the time we each can take a book from the other's shelves. Then we can watch Gianna cry (and not just because Zorro spent 24 hours mauling her). Yes? Okay then. Done.

In the meantime, I think that you need to give me Virginia Woolf.  Mrs. Dalloway, first printing from her Hogarth Press, signed in her purple ink. Yes? Good. Under $20,000. Remember that I've been a very good Liz this year.

In case you think we're just greedy and obnoxious, I would like a copy of Moby-Dick that isn't signed by Herman Melville. I want the Rockwell Kent illustrated version, signed by the artist.

Illustrate this book for me!

Finally, I would like a book that technically doesn't exist...yet. I love The Hakawati, but I would love an illustrated edition of The Hakawati even more. I have two words for you: illuminated manuscript. Someone needs to make this happen. Money is no problem; I think Gianna's loaded.

By the way, as I was poking around the web looking for a cover image, I discovered a site called The Book Cover Archive. I want to look at the art of books as much as what's written within the covers, and this site is my kind of Pinterest. Heavenly.