Best Book of the Year So Far: Cody Morrison

Cody is the buyer at Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi. Square Books is a gem of a store, the cornerstone for Oxford and a destination for all book lovers. Oxford is a literary Mecca, Faulkner's home, and Square Books? It was the PW Bookstore of the Year this year. As for Cody, he's one of our favorite people (other than that he didn't name his daughter "Little Liz." I keep score).

Here's Cody's pick:

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra

Every few years there comes along a debut novel that just steals my heart because the work is so transcendent and such an unexpected joy to read. I'm thinking of Tea Obreht with The Tiger's Wife or Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated for example. Well, now it's Anthony Marra with his remarkable A Constellation of Vital Phenomena. Set in contemporary Chechnya against a back drop of war and insurgency, it is a testament to Marra's skill that the novel is heartbreaking but ultimately uplifting. It even made me want to read up on Chechen history and that's something that I never thought I would say. Do yourself a favor and check out this splendid new writer of whom Ann Patchett says, "If this is where Anthony Marra begins his career, I can't imagine how far he will 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.

New Year, New 30 Day Book Challenge, Day 4

All Three Novels 

Day 4: Favorite Book of Your Favorite Series

Gianna:

All the Pretty Horses

I realized today that I totally blew yesterday's question. When someone says series, my mind always goes to either teen books or fantasy books, neither of which I read. However, I really do have a couple of  favorite series. First, The Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy.

The  McCarthy trilogy consists of All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, and Cities of the Plain. My favorite is the first, maybe because it's the first McCarthy book I had ever read, and I was just blown away. I remember reading this book pretty clearly. I was living in Florida (maybe 1996 or 1997), and I was looking for a book to bring to the beach, saw this sitting on a paperback table and picked it up because....the cover was gorgeous. I know, but let's not start judging now. [Too late.] I went back to the bookstore (Books & Books in Miami) and bought The Crossing (I also picked up Blood Meridian which may actually be my favorite McCarthy book - I can't decide). I think I was making about $10 an hour back in '96, so where I got the money to buy so many books in a week is beyond me. [Petty theft? Prostitution? Blackmail?]

Cities of the Plain 

The Crossing

Of course as I am finishing writing this, it's occurred to me that I also love William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County novels (though he set many short stories here as well). Perhaps this is a blog post for another time. Actually, I think both Liz and I love Faulkner so that might be a road trip in the making. Absalom, Absalom! is my favorite by the way. It has a map.

map inside!

Liz:

Ooh, handcuffs!

If we were playing by the rules and going with the favorite book from the series we picked yesterday, I'd be stuck picking Fifty Shades Freed.  Why? Two reasons: the handcuffs on the cover, and that it's the last book (until EL James writes another one).  Ooh!  Reason number three: naughtier sex toys!  (I know this because, while I haven't read the books, I did download the manuscripts at one point so that I could torture people with dramatic passages found through keyword searches, and "anal plug" appears in book three.  You're welcome.)

Since Gianna is breaking the rules, though, I am too.  I'm going with Mary Karr's memoir trilogy, The Liars' Club, Cherry, and Lit.  We've written about Mary Karr quite a bit, and particularly The Liars' Club, which holds a special place for me because it's set in the rural patch of hell where I also grew up.  That said, though, at the moment I think I appreciate the introspection and adult struggles confronted in Lit more. Having read her first two books, I needed to know how the scrapping little East Texas kid became a literature professor and renowned poet.  I needed to know how she survived, and I needed to know that her journey hasn't ended. Lit is equal parts book lover's dream and redemptive addiction story, and Mary Karr's use of language is brilliant.

10 Cool Things: Square Books

Square Books

Square Books is a centerpiece in the charming town of Oxford, Mississippi.  Perhaps no store identifies with its community so completely and to travel to Oxford (which is well worth the trip) means a trip to this iconic bookstore.  There's a lot to love there.  Square Books is owned by Richard Howorth.


Why we love Square Books:


1. Square Books is literally on the town square so you can't miss it - a big plus for Gianna and Liz as they are quite bad with directions. [If you're going straight, you're going North!]

Off Square Books

2. How to take over a town?  Don't have one building...have three.  Square Books, Off Square Books (more adult books and a great event space), and Square Books Jr., for the younger book fans.

3. Oxford is an insanely cool college town that rivals our own beloved Austin, Texas. In other words, if you happen to show up a bit late for your selling appointment because you were out late listening to a band and had one too many beers....well it's not really frowned upon.  [Not that we ever show up late to appointments.  In fact, Gianna may be Amish.  Liz is definitely a Puritan.]


4. You may run into John Grisham...we did. Liz almost accidentally knocked him down the stairs. [...This is true.]


5. Owner Richard Howorth was a multi-term mayor and in that time we could park wherever we wanted! This isn't true but we did feel less nerdy than normal.

Everybody loves
Richard.

6. When you're with the Square Books crew--Cody, Lyn, Richard and Lisa, etc--and you're walking around Oxford, you are with local royalty.  Want to feel like a celebrity?  Hang out downtown with the Square folks.


7. Square Books has had more great book signings than one can imagine. Here is a taste of past and upcoming signings:  Jim Shepard, John Sayles, Ann Patchett, Andre Dubus III, Joe Hill, Michael Chabon, Jeffrey Eugenides, Paula Deen, Charles Frazier, Erin Morgenstern, Joshua Ferris, Mona Simpson, Rodney Crowell, Anchee Min, Karen Russell, Tea Obreht, Isabel Wilkerson, Joseph Ellis and Pat Conroy. 

8. The wood floor actually creaks when you walk on it...we love this. 


9. Square Books has a whole wing of their second floor dedicated to the Liz and Gianna Fan Club and they hold weekly meetings (this may be a future development...and we're willing to provide artwork.  Call us!)

Faulkner with his youngest fan.

10. One word: Faulkner.

30 Day Book Challenge: Day 9,476...er...Day 25

Day 25: The Favorite Book You Read in School

I'm going to just assume that this category means that we read the book for a class, and not that we just read the book in a class.  I mean, technically I read John Grisham's The Firm in a class, as I "borrowed" a copy left in my mother's classroom (she was the 11th grade English teacher at my high school) and read it during Chemistry while our teacher was off coaching the boys basketball team for two weeks as they made a run for state.  Ah, small town educational opportunities.  Anyway, here are our picks for day 25:

Gianna:

While I really stewed over the book question whose answer ended up being Carol Burnett, this question is very easy...William Faulkner.  When I was going to school in North Carolina I had a professor who may have been in love, SERIOUS LOVE, with William Faulkner, and I am forever grateful.  It was my introduction and immersion into the world of Yoknapatawpha County.  I read Faulkner and nearly only Faulkner for a year (which sort of makes it sound like I was either in love with my professor--who I assure you cared little for dental hygiene--or maybe I was in love with Faulkner...who had a lifelong fidelity and drinking problem...so if I were to lay odds knowing my romantic history I would say I was in love with Faulkner).  Anyway, I highly suggest that isolating yourself with Faulkner for a period of time (and then get in a car with Liz and drive to Oxford) [Sweet! Road trip companions! I can show you where Gianna's going to dump my body in the Atchafalaya Basin!].  Oh, and in case you care, Absalom, Absalom! is my favorite.

Liz:

As I mentioned earlier, my mother was my high school English teacher, and to make matters worse, my twin sister was also in the class.  Imagine a whole year of every family feud waltzing right into second period Honors English to be enacted in front of the petty little assholes with whom I went to school for 12 years (another joy of rural education--you are in classes with the same 25 kids forever, so the bickering in seventh grade science could pop up as a very cold revenge in sophomore history).  It was a real hoot.  Also, throw in that Attila, my mother, admitted that she graded my work harder than others' and sent my sister to the assistant principal's office for kicking one of the little assholes in the shin (Can an asshole have a shin? Technically probably not....).  Yeah, maybe I hold onto my past a bit too tightly.  I always loved English, but there are some titans of American Literature that I simply don't like.  Hawthorne, for example.  And Twain--ugh.  I'm not so hot on Thoreau and Emerson and the proto-hippie Transcendentalists.  By the second semester of that endless year, I was rather disenchanted with the branch of literature my mother most loved, but then we came to The Great Gatsby.  Here was a story of the little assholes of another time, trapped in that time, and of their vagaries.  Here was an author consumed by his own passions and excesses and still able to define an era with one book.  Fitzgerald's sentences sang to me and I loved the characters and story.  Back in the day the Modern Library announced their greatest novels of the 20th Century.  They picked Gatsby at #2.  I would be willing to argue, though, that it is the greatest novel of that century and this nation.