| |||||||||
|
|||||||||
 |
 |
 |
Attention: tickets for Augusten Burroughs' event on Thursday, May 10, 6pm at the Coolidge are now up for sale to the general public for five dollars each. |
 |
 |
In Defense of Women: Memoirs of an Unrepentant Advocate Nancy Gertner
Paperback, $18
Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948
Madeleine Albright
Hardcover, $29.99
Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake
Anna Quindlen
Hardcover, $26
On the Eve: The Jews of Europe Before the Second World War
Bernard Wasserstein
Hardcover,
$32.50
Then Again
Diane Keaton
Paperback,
$16
| What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Market Michael J. Sandel Farrar, Straus and Giroux Hardcover, $27 |
||
| George F. Will calls him "a liberal, but not the annoying sort." Thanks George. One could also describe Michael Sandel, Professor of Government at Harvard University and author of the acclaimed Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? as someone who possesses the moral courage to search for the most uncomfortable of truths. In What Money Can't Buy he critiques a world where absolutely everything is for sale, and asks his readers to question the validity, fairness, and sustainability of such a world. Find out more about our esteemed neighbor in a recent piece in Vanity Fair. |
||
The Newlyweds Nell Freudenberger Knopf Hardcover, $25.95 |
||
| Nell Freudenberger explores a marriage born online, between a woman from Bangladesh and a man from Rochester, New York. Both partners take a leap of faith with the highest of hopes. Both have complicated - and secret - reasons for this unconventional approach, but the promise of a fresh start and a covering up of a past you won't share with your partner is probably not the firmest foundation for a marriage...Freudenberger's The Newlyweds is garnering critical acclaim, like this. | ||
The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson Robert A. Caro Knopf Hardcover, $35 |
||
| The fourth volume of Robert Caro's biography of Lyndon Johnson is now here. Previous volumes have caused reviewers to say things like: "...radiant excellence..." "...the summit of American historical writing..." "...riveting...Shakespearian..." "...[Caro] exemplifies the union of the historian and the artist..." It's supposed to be pretty good. |
||
Summer of the Gypsy Moths |
||
| Sara Pennypacker, the marvelous creative talent behind the beloved Clementine books, brings two complex characters to life in her new book for intermediate readers. While Stella's mom is "finding herself", Stella looks forward to spending a magical summer at her aunt's Cape Cod house. There's one problem; her aunt's foster kid, Angel. Her name is not indicative of her nature. Turns out that Angel will be the least of Stella's problems, though, and when tragedy strikes, these two will find out a lot about each other, and about how a family can form from nothing more than circumstance and understanding. | ||
|
||
| The design genius of Saul Bass is applied to a children's picture book. His illustrations are sometimes hilarious (like when he introduces Henri's buddies Andre, Jacques and MIchel by simply showing their fancy socks) and sometimes peaceful and pastoral (Henri's little house in the woods...I want to live there.) This reissue, 50 years in the waiting, is truly delightful! Here's a comprehensive flip-through of the book. See what I mean? |
||
|
||
| Not normally one for book trailers and videos, I will nevertheless direct you here, and then I will prop open the door of the store so that you may line up to buy this book. Magritte is the gift that keeps on giving. The best Surrealist of them all (if I may), his paintings of bowler hats, green apples, gentlemen floating under umbrellas, and dawn skies over nighttime houses amused and bewildered me as a little kid, and they continue to do so even today. The witty and talented D.B. Johnson (Henry Hikes to Fitchburg) has used Magritte's imagery and trickery to craft a spectacular interactive picture book. |
||
| Uncle Wiggily books! Howard R. Garis The Platt & Munk Co., Inc., 1939 Used Paperbacks, $6.50 |
||
Uncle Wiggily. I never knew of him until my wife introduced me to the Uncle Wiggily Game, aka The Worst Game in the World, as voted by yours truly, who has to read out loud every stupid card which say things like "Miss Strollypocket the Kangaroo Nurse wishes him the best of health, and so she lends Uncle Wiggily her special Walking Cane, carved from the branches of The Wizzy-Squirrel's Nuts-for-Nothing Tree. Take one hop along the road, and see if there's a reason you shouldn't have brushed off your best Holiday Scarf yesterday evening." Only 163 spaces to go. |
||
The Hampton Album Photographs by Frances B. Johnston MOMA, 1966 Used Paperback, $10 |
||
| Frances B. Johnston's Hampton Album is a remarkable collection of photographs that document the life of turn-of-the-century African-Americans at the Hampton Institute. The Institute stated its mission as "to train selected Negro youth who should go out and teach and lead their people..to replace stupid drudgery with skilled hands..." Johnston, one of America's first female photographers and master of her craft, created a faithful record of a crucial post-War enterprise. | ||
Hex and Spellwork: The Magical Practices of the Pennsylvania Dutch Karl Herr, Hexenmeister Weiser Books, 2002 Used Paperback, $9 |
||
| I like witchcraft and spells and all that, even though I doubt their efficacy in the modern age. For me, they are ties to a deep past where we felt closer kinship to our environment and to each other, but for many people in the world they remain a part of daily life, as essential any other tool in the toolbox of modern life. And even if you don't really buy that, any system of magic that creates such gorgeous emblems as those made by the Pennsylvania Dutch hexenmeisters is a magic that you can believe in. |
||
| 1066: The Hidden History in the Bayeux Tapestry Andrew Bridgeford Walker & Co., Paperback Orig. $15.95, Sale $4.99 |
||
| Forget the historical record embedded in the cloth itself, I want to know about the hands that labored on this most marvelous of all documents. Did William the Conqueror's wife and her handmaids ever wrap it around their shoulders like a 70m-long cape and strut up and down the workroom in mockery of the King? Did anyone ever, while working in the drafty old stone castle, absent-mindedly wipe their drippy nose with it? An inquiring mind over here! Surely someone hid a secret stitch mocking or perhaps declaring their love for a fellow embroiderer. It's in there, I know it is.
There's a children's book in there, somewhere, maybe Curious George and the Norman Conquest. Of course, if you do want insight into the historical record embedded into the cloth, you could do no better than to read Andrew Bridgeford's defining book on the topic. |
||
Remembering Fenway Park, 1912-2010 Harvey Frommer Stewart Tabori & Chang, Hardcover Orig. $45, Sale $14.99 |
||
| This monster's for the #1 fan only. Which is why they printed like 8 million of these, am I right? And now the overflow of the print run of this awesome coffee table-sized trip down our collective memory lane has landed on our remainders tables like a Big Papi homer into the visitor's bullpen. Glorious full page spreads and intimate interviews from (nearly) 100 years of Red Sox and Fenway history fill over 200 pages. | ||
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet David Mitchell Random House, Hardcover Orig. $26, Sale $7.99 |
||
| David Mitchell can conjure spectacular experimental novels that toy with time and space (Cloud Atlas) just as skillfully as he can sketch the tangled landscape of a transformative year in the life of a young teenager in middle-of-nowhere 1980's England (Black Swan Green - winner of the "BEST NOVEL BY DAVID MITCHELL" award).
This reviewer sums up Mitchell's magic nicely: "...unfolds gently like one of those Japanese paper flowers that blossom when placed in water, to give us a sense of the unfurling vistas of time - in Jacob’s life and in Dutch and Japanese history." |
||
| The Liminal People Ayize Jama-Everett Small Beer Press Paperback, $16 |
||
| Peter: | "Compact but creative, and filled with good ideas and elements of classic sci-fi, noir, and superhero stories. Really well-paced and compelling." | |
|
||
| Emily: | "Sticking with the basics is the focus of this cookbook. Though low in sugar and 8 common allergens, each dish is amazing (and kid-help friendly). I recommend the chicken nuggets (p81) - the blend of spices was superb - along with the potato fries (p127). A thousand times better than fast food!" (please don't eat like a dinosaur. - ed.) |
|
Grendel John Gardner Vintage Paperback, $12.95 |
||
| Zoe Z. | "Grendel, the unmistakably teenage, unforgettably wise heartbreaker of a character will show you a world of wonderfully strange beauty - and become your favorite beast." | |
 |
 |
 |
Never make that mistake again. |
Tell me the truth, you cracked a smile just now. These kitchen clocks are super cheerful! If you like showing up just a teensy-weensy bit early to things, then try the clock on the left. |
I wish I could think of what.
| Give your Kid a Fenway Park Fantasy! On May 19, from 1-4pm, enjoy a glorious day and an experience of a lifetime: Batter up in the visitors’ bullpen, take a VIP tour into the clubhouse, snap photos with the World Series Trophies and eat free, unlimited (yes, unlimited!) Fenway concessions at this Family Day to benefit the Brookline Community Mental Health Center Kids’ Fund, which helps kids and families live happier, fuller lives in Boston, Brookline and nearby. ONLY 600 TICKETS AVAILABLE! Buy Tickets Online at www.BelieveinBrooklineKids.org or call Nicole Reiner at the Brookline Center at 617.277.8107. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Send good vibes out to my Celtics. |
| currently reading Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner. currently listening to this. email me, if you'd like to make this a conversation. |
Boston Phoenix's 2012 "Readers' Pick for Best Bookstore, New" Boston Magazine's Best Bookstore 2004-2006, 2008, & 2011 WBZ-TV A-List Editor's pick for Best Bookstore 2006, 2007, & 2011 Community Newspapers' 2009 Readers' Choice Award To subscribe to b-mail, enter your e-mail address below
|
| |||||
