The Fall of Summer Reading

We got so many exciting books in this week but my top three are:

1. The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare
This book is awesome. It's Harry Potter meets Loki's Wolves with a dash of extra sinister forces. I was completely blindsided by the twist. The series is in great hands.

2. Egg and Spoon by Gregory Maguire
Gregory Maguire writes a book based in Russian Folklore. Yes.

3. Animalium by Jenny Broom
The animal version of last year's Maps. This book is filled with stunning illustrations in a book that's equally as beautiful in its large format.

 

Do you see that? Do you realize what those are? Those are picture books on display. That is a beautiful sight. That many picture books on display means one thing. 

Summer reading is gone. 

Summer reading being gone is indicative of a number of things. One of these is that it's almost Fall and that delights me. Another is that we get to choose some of our favorite picture books and put them up on display for ease of browsing.

Perhaps most importantly, is that this means that some things in the kids section have moved. Why? Because if we're dismantling Summer Reading we might as well shift some things around. 

First, we had the privilege and pleasure of giving Fairy Tales, Mythology, and  Poetry actual space.

See that? It gets a whole case. We have so many beautiful books in these sections this is legitimately exciting. It was tough choosing which books deserved the honor of being displayed.

 

Our addition to this section is the selection of miniature books that has suddenly exploded. They're beautiful but so tiny that they got lost in the picture book shelves. Now they have their own, snuggled nicely between mythology and poetry.

Then we had the exciting, albeit a bit daunting, task of putting out a selection of our Halloween books.

Halloween is my favorite holiday so, I'm pretty psyched to see things for it and feel a little bit more legitimate in the fact that I'm already plotting our details for my costume. We have so many books we still haven't managed to fit everything out.

And, of course, the initial excitement of putting some of my favorite picture books on display. We have a Natasha favorite, Ungerer's Three Robbers. A few Amy favorites (Virginia Wolf, Little Elliot Big City, Numberlys). Some Clarissa favorites (Julia's Home for Lost Creatures, Any Questions). Some great new ones like Otoshi's beautiful new companion to One and Zero: Two. The surprisingly new Dr. Seuss Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories. The beautiful biography Hello, I'm Johnny Cash by G Neri. Even a picture book that Peter likes, Dubuc's The Lion and the Bird.

Basically, all of the picture books you could ever want and that we love.

Another change that I couldn't manage to dive around people to get a picture of (you see what lengths I go to for this blog?) is an awesome shelf beside the Halloween display of some of the boxed sets we carry, it's a great place to check out some gifts.

Things are beginning to change in the Kids section. I mean, it is almost Fall. But this is when things start getting really crazy. When the new exciting new releases come out faster than we can display them or show the proper amount of enthusiasm. When the holidays start coming so quickly that the displays start changing almost weekly.

This is my favorite time of year. Sure, school has started. But that means Summer Reading has come down and that is a sign of all good things.

Well, almost all good things.

That used to be alphabetized.

-Amy

VACATION FOREVER.

I came back from vacation last week and I'm wistful.  My tan is still in peak condition and I have the residual calm that only a vacation can invoke. I'm attempting to hold on to it not by consistently reviewing vacation photos but by talking about the books I read:

Matt Bell's In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods
I firmly believe your surroundings influence your reading experience, and my reading of this book is a perfect example.  I started out reading it in urban Boston, brought it with me and read a chunk in the mountains of New Hampshire, and finished it after I returned to Boston.  I'm grateful for the split--this book is a meditation on love, domesticity and the roles we inhabit in relationships, decorated with beautiful writing, visceral descriptions and concentrated intensity. My journey into the wilderness mirrored the novel's, and I couldn't help but think of the book's vivid setting while I stared at the stars, clear and quiet, feeling like my friend and I were the only people that existed in the world. 

Rémi Courgeon's Brindille
My French is limited to "Bonjour," intense hand signals, and asking my friend to translate for me. Yet--once I laid eyes on this French picture book I had to purchase it, language be damned.  It's about the size of my torso and has gorgeous endpapers (the depiction of being punched--how to describe it? It's cool, trust me). I love it. 

Gene Luen Yang's The Search, Pt. 2
For all you Avatar: The Last Airbender fans, you'll understand the elation I felt when I found this for sale in a Canadian bookstore a mere two weeks before the official American publication date.  My travel companion took a nap, I read the latest Avatar installment, we were both happy.

Kevin Wilson's The Family Fang
Montreal in July is one festival after the other, an exploration of art, business, and really anything you can think of. I'm pretty sure I inadvertently walked into festivals for the following: fireworks, jazz, comedy, circus performance, start-up businesses, graffiti, and those are the ones I was aware of.  The Family Fang was consumed in a variety of places, but mostly in a Montreal hotel room late at night and read aloud while slogging through Boston traffic.  The Fang's performance art kept tapping me on the shoulder as I walked around Montreal, as I simply experienced everything rather than questioning the actual definition of what I felt art was, even though this book kept prompting me to think about it. 




Terrance Dicks' Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster
Come on guys, I had to get a mass market in here somewhere. The Fourth Doctor puts on an unnecessarily long tartan scarf to blend in with Scots, there are Zygons controlling the Loch Ness monster, and one of the chapters ends with Sarah Jane Smith exclaiming, "That must be why Broton took the Duke's document case--he's going to attend the Conference!" 

Stay Sharp in Summer

Summer is coming up. Time to zone out in front of the television, eat a lot of sugary ice cream and forget everything you learned last year.

...OR IS IT?

What if I told you that there was a way to 1) learn new things about math while 2) LAUGHING OUT LOUD. How? You might ask.

Oh, I'll tell you how.

By picking up this rare jewel of a used book recently acquired in our Used Book Cellar, Math Jokes 4 Mathy Folks.

This slim lil volume comes complete with some of these old chestnuts:

Without geometry, life would be pointless.

Q: What do you get when you divide the circumference of a jack-o-lantern by its diameter?
A: Pumpkin Pie.

Q: What is a catenary?
A: A string held by a kitten at each end.

...and SO MAN MORE. Run, don't walk.

Also, if you like used books, reading in the summer and not walking down the stairs your friendly, helpful and eager used books staff have curated a brilliant collection of books perfect for summertime reading that are now in a handsome bookcase at the top of the stairs, next to the newspapers. Come check it out!

Your assignment this summer: Read something good

The vast majority of our summer reading section is up and ready! Each year Brookline Public Schools creates an extensive list of required books by school and recommended books by grade, and we turn that list into a highly categorized section of the store. (A few schools are still deciding on their required titles; feel free to give us a call to find out whether your school's titles are available yet. In the meantime, in addition to the Brookline list, we do have a small section for the Boston Latin list.)

Here's the thing: It's a pretty amazing list. What I love is its acknowledgement that, at any age, there are many ways into reading and all of them are worth encouraging. Each age group has about 8-10 categories, everything from "Out of This World: Fantasy and Science Fiction" to "Too Good to Miss: Classics" to
Get Real! Nonfiction" to "Play Ball! Sports Books" to "A Way with Words: Poetry" to "Just for Fun: Humor" to "Take a Look: Picture Books for Older Readers" (which often includes graphic novels). The pre-k and kindergarten list includes beginning reading books, but it also includes alphabet and counting books. The first and second grade list has chapter books, but also books that are easier to read. There's a "Listen Up! Books for Families to Read Aloud" category at many levels. The seventh and eighth grade and high school lists include popular YA as well as plenty of adult fiction and nonfiction.

Not all schools have required titles for all grades, but the books that are required carry the same spirit: reading is supposed to be fun. Andrew Clements, the master of the funny school story, keeps popping up. That's not to say the books aren't thoughtful or that horizons won't be expanded - you try reading Gary Schmidt's Okay for Now or Deborah Ellis' The Breadwinner without learning something - but by and large, these are also accessible books, the kind that make it easy to make friends with the characters. They're books that many kids won't mind reading on summer car trips or in their bunks at camp. They might even get passed around.

Come browse the summer reading section. Even if you don't have a Brookline student in the family. It's got something for everyone.

Back to Work!

I had a nice, calm week in the West but I am ready to get to work. And I have it cut out for me, too. People are moving out, there's a long weekend ahead and a lot of people are in selling books. It certainly makes the day move faster but it also means that we are seeing a lot of books, and we can't give them all homes. So to make sure that you don't waste a trip by bringing in books we might pass on, this is just a friendly suggestion for those wanting to sell back to call in or e-mail a list of the titles you have and we can help you whittle your pile down to stuff that we can use.

But a ton of new arrivals mean there are a lot of cool new books in the store. CAN YOU HANDLE IT? Just in time for Memorial Day weekend and the upcoming summer:

The novelization of The Cabin in the Woods, a graphic novel of Sherlock Holmes' stories, a copy of The Confederacy of Dunces (read it before the movie comes out), The Tiger's Wife, Longing for the Harmonies, a book on consciousness and physics, a complete book of Keats' poems, basically just a major haul of awesome for any sort of reader: casual to die-hard. Stop in for the one you're looking for or to get a recommendation from any one of us lovable weirdos.

And remember, we're real passionate about books around here, but remember to never drink or drive: read about this teenager in Illinois who got so mad when her boyfriend didn't take her to see the new Twilight movie that she crashed her car.

The Season of wilting. Rescue-reading for summer-haytaz.

I have no business staying in New England when the heat comes a-creepin down from the backsa' my knees. No business. It's this time of year I'm without fail-RELIEVED to walk into work everyday. Even without AC it is cooler here. Most people get all sad and mopey in the winter, but for me (and I imagine some other Nordic-types), this is the season for sadness. The season for sunburn, high- happiness expectations, baroque displays from mother nature, (that 80's tart) and a complete reminder that we are in fact sitting in meat cages. Oppressive, oppressive meat cages.

Some reading to go with that thought:

The Cow, by Ariana Reines. We have this one in the store, it is the most profound collection of poems on the human diet, the human body, the self. This collection is a syntactical mind-f#$k. I keep thinking about this book. POETS.....READ THIS, POETRY APATHISTS: READ THIS.

next,

The Room, by Emma Donoghue If you didn't read it in hardcover, worry not. It is in paperback. You will want to kiss me on the mouth (hard) and do my dishes after you read this gripping, beautiful intense read. here it is in :ebook form: I cannot overemphasize enough, if you read one book this summer, make it thissun.

For parent with non-sleepin' kiddoz:

check this book out. Dear lord, check this book out.

For reasons you will soon understand, no pictures will be offered. Trust the link ...trust it.

And finally from our Card& Gift room: This adorable med-lugging tin box. (other designs as well, but today, yes today this one just feels so right. So so right.

Last thought of this depressing post comes form Jezebel.com. Wow. This is where we live.

For real last thought,

It's cool in here. We have water outside, and cookies inside for you dogs, and a crazy selection of everything for you. Come by and cheer me up.

Summer Reading

Summer reading for the Brookline schools is well under way! This year we have more titles than ever, for grades pre-kindergarten through high school. Even if you don't have a child in a Brookline school, these books are all wonderful reads. (We will be carrying selected summer reading titles for other schools as well.) If I had all the time in the world, I would read this entire list. Really! Both the required for grades 3 and up, plus the hundreds of recommended titles. The librarians, teachers, and staff really picked out some fabulous titles -- new and old -- this year!

Our summer reading section is separated out by grades, so browsing should be no problem. Need a picturebook? Come look through our K-2 picturebook shelf. Need a non-fiction book for a ten year old, come flip through our 5-6 nonfiction section. Want to read a great young adult novel or adult fiction, but don't know where to start? Come look at our wall of 7th, 8th, and high school recommends. This year's high school theme is "Finding My Voice", stories of immigration.

And if you're still overwhelmed on what to read first, close your eyes, reach for a book, pull it out, and start reading (with your eyes back open of course!).

Read the summer heat away. By the way, did we ever we mention our store has great air conditioning?