Buyer's Corner: Upcoming Fall Favorites!
September is here! And while that doesn't quite promise cooler temperatures for our very soggy city just yet, it does mean we have a literary plethora to look forward to over the next few months. So, for this edition of the Buyer's Corner, I've enlisted the help of my fellow Brazos booksellers to lay out some of the amazing releases we're excited to share with you this Fall. This is only the smallest of samples of what Houston readers have in store for them, but each of these carefully chosen titles are among our favorite reads remaining to come this year. And we can't wait to talk to y'all about all of them!
The best cultural history of the year. Poet, critic and historian, Young, has compiled a monumental work centering on the great American pastime of the hoax. Starting with the legendary humbug artist, PT Barnum, Young traces a red thread through the history of fakery in entertainment, science and culture directly to the heart of the greatest American hoax of all time--the concept of race. Impeccably researched and astounding in its depth, here is the historical precedent--from sideshows, to eugenics, to Rachel Dolezal--for the "post-facts" and "fake news" of today.
These essays will break your heart and give you strength. Heavily rooted in music journalism, Abdurraqib's writing scratches beneath the surface of American pop culture and finds the hidden connections between subjects as seemingly disparate as a Bruce Springsteen concert and the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Through the music of our lives, we are made to confront racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and more. This is a special book that can do some real good in the world. I can't wait to put it into as many hands as I can.
This is an ambitious, sprawling, excessive, even obsessive attempt to capture the true nature and spirit of our times. It is a highly experimental postmodern take on life in post-9/11 America and the internet age. There are images--personal photographs, screen captures and film stills--as well as myriad esoteric symbols, computer code, mock chat sessions, and recorded conversations, all strewn throughout no less than four different yet intertwining and/or layered storylines. It's the literary equivalent of a Terrence Malick film. A puzzle in novel form. A book that is not for everyone but that will be talked about for years to come.
The first collection of stories from two-time National Book Award winner and American treasure, James McBride. Here, he stretches his literary legs with a diverse set of tales that covers everything from the hunt for a Civil War artifact, to the exploits of a teenage soul band, to a group of strangers facing judgment in the afterlife. Every word McBride commits to paper is a joy to read, and his stunning run of quality work continues with this newest offering.
A tremendous debut novel and an epic American story. A young immigrant from Sweden gets separated from his brother and winds up in San Francisco when his destination was New York. Over countless years, this foreigner travels across the continent having adventures with criminals, scientists, settlers, prospectors, and more. Without knowing English and sticking out due to his immense physical size, Hakan or "The Hawk" as he becomes known, is unable to fit in anywhere and lives a hermetic existence among the great varied expanses of the American wild. However, this does not keep him from becoming a frontier legend when news of his exploits reaches others. Just a flat out great book.
Told in brief, episodic chapters, this subtle yet stunning work of autobiographical fiction perfectly distills the universal wonder of childhood while also capturing the particular experience of growing up under Communist rule during the 80s. Wiola is a precocious young girl trying to find her place in rural Poland and often finds herself in trouble--with her family, her teachers, even the Communist Party. Through it all she remains indomitable, learning about love, loss, sexuality, death, and the myriad forms of ugliness that run rampant in the world. A vital contribution to the literature of childhood.
MARK
This ferocious novel by Croatian author Drndić is an unforgettable blend of fact and fiction, history and the present. The writing is superb and deals with themes of history, illness, academia and all without flinching. A modern masterpiece.
An existential classic, this edition finally brings together all the work of Pessoa's semi-heteronym Bernardo Soares together. A stunning and profound book to be flipped through or read cover to cover. Pessoa was Portugal's answer to Franz Kafka. Additionally, the book is simply a gorgeous object.
JOY
Talk about timing the zeitgeist! Houston author Jennifer Mathieu's newest YA novel, MOXIE is the story of Vivian Carter, who--tired of the rampant sexism in her high school, takes a page from her mother's Riot Grrrl, 90s, zine-making past, and starts a feminist revolution in her small Texas town! This one has already been optioned for film by none other than Amy Poehler and has been generating tons of well-deserved buzz!
ÜLRIKA
First published in in 1966, this memoir is now being republished by Spurl Editions. Strange World follows two writers in their turbulent relationship and marriage. Seabrook, a renowned writer of the occult, and Worthington, a novelist and short story writer, find themselves caught in Seabrook’s sadist world and his alcoholic, destructive downward spiral. This intense memoir is also a self-reflecting piece on Worthington's life while married to Seabrook.
BEN
The great Irish novelist Roddy Doyle's new work, SMILE, contains his trademark wit and dialogue. But here, Doyle, as ever, also cuts deep, telling the story of a man reexamining his life after a breakup and a mysterious encounter in a pub that sends him spiraling into past traumas best left forgotten. The ending contains a whopper of a twist too – no mere "gotchya" moment, but something that adds new resonance to the novel, one of the year's best. Don't miss Doyle in Houston on October 26.
KEVIN
New Directions is putting out what's sure to be a beautiful addition to any library. I'm very excited to own a hardbound collection of these wonderful verses from one of the 20th century's greatest poets.
This is spectacular nature writing. Written almost like a novel, Blakeslee's story of wolves in Yellowstone National Park presents a fascinating look into the history of these magnificent creatures.
Fantastic new cookbook by the great Chris Kimball (former Cook's Illustrated editor). This book is jam-packed with sensible and high-quality recipes, as well as expert tips on how to cook like a pro. The kind of book that may just forever change the way you think about home cooking.
SARA
Translated into English for the first time, Other Press brings to us this 1930's Turkish author's beautiful little masterpiece of interwar relations. An office worker finds the handwritten memoir of his dying coworker; in it, his coworker's memoir of a love affair in Berlin. Compared to THE GREAT GATSBY, its incredible portrayal of smart, disaffected youth and they ways in which they grow up adds so much to our selection of translated literature from Turkey.
Look forward to this spectacular collection of short stories from Carmen Maria Machado, out in October through Graywolf. Machado dual-wields the speculative and the erotic with ease. Many of these stories are (post-)apocalyptic; when they are, they have a strong focus on moments of bodily disintegration, disease, and epidemic. Machado is a force to be reckoned with.
