Joy: I’m here with Ülrika, our gift buyer. We are discussing Neverworld Wake, by Marisha Pessl!
Marisha is coming to the store on June 12, so we’re all really really really excited about that. It was Ülrika who put Night Film in my hands, which is her previous, wonderful (enormous) novel. So Ülrika was really excited to talk about Neverworld Wake with me. There’s so much we can’t give away, or we would let you know exactly what happens!
Ülrika, If you were selling this to me, what would you give me as the four-sentence pitch?
I was so very excited when Austin’s Cate Berry reached out to me about doing a story time at Brazos for her debut picture book! Penguin and Tiny Shrimp Don't Do Bedtime is out now from Balzer and Bray/Harper Collins, an imprint that publishes impeccably wonderful, creative picture books! Penguin and Tiny Shrimp is funny and charming and as per the title will absolutely not put you to sleep. And Cate, who also teaches aspiring authors the art of writing humorous picture books, is equally a delight!
We were honored to host Paula McLain at the store last week for her new book, LOVE AND RUIN. Her last book, THE PARIS WIFE, was an international bestseller, and LOVE AND RUIN returns to the theme of Hemingway –– but through the lens of his second wife and famed war correspondent, Martha Gellhorn.
Couldn't attend? Listen to our audio recording of the event below!
Today, I'm honored to spotlight a book from beyond the northern border: Julie Demers' Little Beast, out from Canada's Coach House Books last month! Little Beast is, in fact, a little beast. At about 150 pages, it clocks in as a fairly quick read. However, Several of our staff members were bowled over by this small volume immediately. It merges fairy tale with adventure story, all seen through the eyes of a small girl with a full beard who must protect herself from suspicious townsfolk.
Keaton: Instead of leading with the obligatory "why did you write a prison novel" question, I’d like to know how the subject of prison might have altered your writing. Your first two novels are expansive, even global narratives, where the setting of The Mars Room is by its very nature confined and cut off from the larger world. Did this necessitate a different approach for you? How so?
Bianca Stone is a Brooklyn-based poet and visual artist. As soon as we got in her new book, we knew we needed to chat! We sat down with Stone recently to talk about her new poetry collection, The Mobius Strip Club of Grief (Tin House, Feb 2018), purgatory, death, family trauma, and stripping.
For the month of May at Brazos Bookstore, we’re championing Basic Black with Pearls as our Brazos Best. It’s a fever dream of a book, featuring a surreptitious affair, world travel, an undocumented main character (Shirley), mathematical codes in magazines, a mysterious organization known as The Agency, and a momentous visit to Toronto (Shirley’s childhood town). It’s poignant and disorienting, and yet incredibly readable.
Take a look at a few of our mother's day picks. Though these books may not be obvious choices, they explore motherhood in deeply thoughtful, evocative, and multifaceted ways.
Published: Little, Brown and Company - April 10th, 2018
Filled with explicit candor and hilarious, biting wit, these essays provide a record of modern motherhood for the new generation. And while this will absolutely resonate with the women who read it, young fathers (and would-be parents) will also benefit from O’Connell’s insights into their partners’ experiences. This is the book about parenting I wish I’d had.
A favorite of mine from the recent explosion in literary nonfiction. Boggs writes with beauty and precision about motherhood—not only personally (though yes, personally), but also culturally, historically, artistically. I didn’t think this book would be for me; boy, was I wrong.
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Published: Scribner - September 5th, 2017
In rich, lyrical prose, Ward reckons with the relationship 13-year-old Jojo has with his biracial family, but most of all his mom Leonie and her relatives. She’s an inconsistent presence, but she’s the mother figure he has. Jojo learns from the past, present, and future, living and dead, humans, plants, and animals; for this text, all are necessary to tell Jojo (and the reader) the story of America from slavery to chain gangs to Jim Crow to Trayvon Martin.
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Published: Tin House Books - April 10th, 2018
Joy Williams pursues motherhood in its darkest form, and I’m so glad to see this book republished. When we meet Williams’ main character, Pearl, she’s drunkenly attempting to escape her abusive ex-husband with her new baby. As the novel unwinds, it expands into a paranoid postpartum fairy tale, full of children who aren’t Pearl’s but whom she loves, and her own kid, Sam, who takes on a haunting role entirely estranged from normal childhood.
The Desert and Its Seed is an autobiographical novel that focuses on Mario, moments after his father has thrown acid on his mother’s face (a true story). The novel follows Mario and his stoic mother, Eligia, as she moves from a clinic in Argentina to a clinic in Milan. The descriptions of her face and the changes it undergoes are both harrowing and strangely beautiful. Mario attempts to deal with the violence upon his mother (by his own father, no less) as he navigates the provincial streets of a small Italian town, drinking with strangers and getting lost (both literally and figuratively).
This book tells of Julián’s unconventional life as he sits at the bedside of his mother who is fighting leukemia. In fiery and often hallucinogenic prose Herbert describes his struggles as a child, his desire to be a writer and the traveling circus of his youth moving from city to city. At the root of this novel is a young man troubled by the mixed feelings he has for his mother, the courage Guadalupe had to fight for herself and her son. The writing is stunning and always brutal.
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Published: Europa Editions - September 1st, 2005
Elena Ferrante is known for her Neapolitan Quartet, but this visceral book is truly unforgettable. After a woman is abandoned by her husband, she must care for two children on her own. Days of Abandonment is personal, fiercely intelligent, and self-aware.
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Published: Vintage - January 10th, 1999
It’s not a traditional mother-daughter relationship, but Sayuri’s relationship with the Mother of her ryokan is as formative as it is tense. Later on, Mameha is another mother-figure who helps Sayuri to grow into a mature woman. So, it’s a non-traditional look at the mother-figures in our lives and how they create a sense of family.
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Published: Graywolf Press - September 15th, 2015
This book-length essay explores the realm of public health through an attempt to understand the anti-vaccine movement, Dracula, Biss’ own experience as a new mother, and herd immunity, etc. An incredible insight into a contemporary moment.