Flyleaf Books

Be A Johnny Appleread

2012-01-27T17:14:00.001-06:00

Flyleaf Books is recruiting "givers" for World Book Night. You must sign up to be a giver before THE NEW DEADLINE IS MIDNIGHT 6 FEBRUARY. The actual day for giving away 20 paperback copies of a book isn't until 23 April.

The organizers are encouraging people to spread their love of reading and books to nonreaders and those who don't have easy access to books. Suggested places to give books are coffee shops, hospitals, churches, community centers, shelters, shopping mall parking lots, movie theaters, town halls, the DMV, grocery stores, barber shops, salons and anywhere else people gather who may need a good book to read.

If you are approved as a giver, you will pick up 20 copies of your selected book at Flyleaf Books on Monday, 16 April. We will host a meet and greet party for all givers of books.

Click to see the list of books you can choose from to give away.

It's quick and easy to register to be a giver. Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the link to the application.

Join in the fun. Ask you friends and family to participate. Share your joy of reading and books.

Book Club Night - Monday 1/23 6:00 - 8:00

2012-01-22T11:19:00.000-06:00

Bring your friends, book club members and anyone else interested in hearing about recommended reading. Flyleaf staff and representatives from Random House will be on hand to talk about some good reads for book clubs. It should be a lot of fun.

Shakespeare and Sisters

2012-01-22T11:15:00.001-06:00

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown is a story about how childhood connections haunt us into adulthood. Three sisters return to their Andreas family home to care for their ailing mother. Cordelia discovers their mother is ill through a veiled letter from her father, a Shakespeare scholar at the local college, who communicates through quotes from Shakespeare's plays. The note arrives with this message - Come, let us go; and pray to all the gods/For our beloved mother in her pains.

The sisters, Cordelia (Cordy), Rosemund (Rose) and Bianca (Bean), know each other as well as they know The Bard's plays and sonnets. At least they know the childhood siblings that they grew up with. The adult sisters don't see one another often and have tried to escape the college town they grew up in.

Brown allows the sisters to tell the story by varying the point of view. The misunderstandings are funny and poignant. The sisters develop adult relationships while revisiting their childhood and taking care of their mother. In the meantime, they gain a bit of insight into themselves.

My favorite passage in the book is an homage to the life of a true reader, one who will find time for books no matter what else is happening. Sound like anyone you know?

Eleanor Brown will be at Flyleaf Books for a reading Thursday evening 16 February at 7:00.

My Favorite Book Event of the Year

2012-01-13T18:51:00.000-06:00

The 2012 version of the The Morning News Tournament of Books begins 7 March. If you are unfamiliar with this event, check out the website at the link above. Flyleaf Books will have a special display of all of the books in the tournament. Get your copies of these great reads now. The judges will start discussing the books on 7 March. Reading the judges opinions of the books is fun and enlightening.

Nathacha Appanah, The Last Brother
Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending
Teju Cole, Open City
Helen DeWitt, Lightning Rods
Patrick deWitt, The Sisters Brothers
Jeffrey Eugenides, The Marriage Plot
Chad Harbach, The Art of Fielding
Alan Hollinghurst, The Stranger’s Child
Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones
Haruki Murakami, IQ84
Téa Obreht, The Tiger’s Wife
Michael Ondaatje, The Cat’s Table
Ann Patchett, State of Wonder
Donald Ray Pollock, The Devil All the Time
Karen Russell, Swamplandia
Kate Zambreno, Green Girl

The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright

2012-01-06T14:08:00.000-06:00

I enjoy Anne Enright’s sparse prose. She leaves space for the reader to fill in the blanks without leaving one wondering where she is taking her characters. That was as true in her book The Gathering as it is in her new book The Forgotten Waltz. The story of the dissolution of two marriages set against the demise of the Irish economy is wrenching. Enright’s characters are not naturally endearing, however she imbues them with all of the foibles and flaws of real human beings. You may not like Gina and Sean or their decisions, but you might recognize them in people you might know.

A Few Books to Watch for in 2012

The Great 2012 Book Preview from The Millions –

http://www.themillions.com/2012/01/most-anticipated-the-great-2012-book-preview.html

Flavorwire's Most Anticipated Books of 2012

http://flavorwire.com/245506/flavorpills-most-anticipated-books-of-2012

The Daily Beast's 2012 Book Preview

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/01/01/book-preview-2012.html

More Best Of 2011 Books Lists

2011-12-07T13:47:00.002-06:00

From The Daily Beast - 10 Books You Might Have Missed But Shouldn't
From NPR - Best Books of 2011 (lots of genres)
From Brainpicking - The 11 Best Art and Design Books of 2011
From New York Magazine - Author Recommends
From the Wall Street Journal - Gift Guides (scroll to bottom left side of this page) include books on science, humor, movies, wine, cocktails Christmas mysteries, photography, art, history and biography)
And Fiction for Non-Fiction Lovers
From the LA Times - Holiday Books & Gift Ideas
From Salon.com - Best Fiction of 2011
And - Writers Choose Their Favorite Books of 2011
From Time - Best of 2011 Fiction and Nonfiction
BONUS - Our Friend Lev Grossman's Seven Books to Look Forward to in 2012

Notable Children's Books

2011-12-04T09:50:00.001-06:00

From the New York Times - Notable Children's Books of 2011
From the Guardian - Books for giving: children's fiction and picture books
From the New York Times - Notable Crime Books of 2011
From the Guardian - Best Books for Giving

More Top 10 Books

2011-12-02T14:26:00.000-06:00

From Shelf Unbound - Top 10 Small Press Books of 2011
From the New York Times - Notable Cookbooks

New York Time Best Books

2011-11-30T11:53:00.000-06:00

As I said in my last post, these lists will be coming fast and furiously over the next month. I will update this blog post with all that I find. Good reading to you.

New York Times 10 Best Books of 2011

End Of The Year Book Lists

2011-11-27T09:25:00.000-06:00

I always look forward to the "best of" lists that come out at this time of year. They are great for Christmas gift ideas and creating reading lists of things I missed throughout the year. There will be more of these at year's end and I will pass those along as well. You can get all of the books listed at Flyleaf Books or they will special order them for you. Enjoy!

The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2011

Writers Recommend from the Guardian

And for something just a bit different, Salon.com offers gift ideas to fictional characters. It's not strictly a book list, but there are some very good books included.

Best Novel of 2011?

2011-11-19T11:11:00.000-06:00

The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje gets my vote.

"Sleep is a prison for a boy who has friends to meet."

Over the last two to three weeks I’ve been reading a book of 269 pages. Normally a novel of this length would take me a few days. But shortly into this book I began savoring every word. Ondaatje’s writing is lyrical and engaging. The story is of a boy, Michael, sailing from Ceylon to London to meet the mother who left him when he was five or six years old. Michael meets two other boys on the journey. Characters abound on the ship and the boys learn a little something from each of them. The story of the boys’ adventures during the crossing and a look back on it by the grown Michael are the heart of the novel. The Cat's Table is beautifully written and the story lovingly told.

Memorabilia

2011-11-01T08:56:00.000-05:00

Caroline Preston hits on several touchstones with her new book The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures. It's a nostalgic look at the flapper era of American history and a lovely collection of archival materials from the period. The muted colors and prim photos of the scrapbook remind the reader of a hidden diary of a favorite grandmother. It's a find and a secret all at once. Frankie's story of love and loss, travel and love is secondary to the way it is interwoven with the lovingly conceived depictions that make the reader want to look at every scrap in the book. A great gift book. A beauty to behold.

Preston makes an appearance at Flyleaf Books on Friday, 11 November at 7:00 pm.

The Beauty of Baseball

2011-10-22T19:15:00.000-05:00

My favorite baseball book ever is The Brothers K by David James Duncan. The thing is Duncan is writing about family in that book, not baseball. And yet baseball is the lens through which the family story is told. It's a lovely story by a great writer.
The Art of Fielding may be my second favorite baseball book ever. One reason I love it is the setting. At Westish College, a small school on the shore of Lake Michigan, baseball introduces us to unforgettable characters striving for perfection and falling short. The impossibility of achieving perfection in life or in sport are the lessons learned at Westish.

"That baseball rewards languid virtuosos and frothing monomaniacs about equally is one of the game's weird fascinations. That Academe does the same would not be useful information in the hands of a hack. But The Art of Fielding marries the national pastime to the life of the mind, takes off running, and never flags. Chad Harbach's pen shatters stereotypes like fastballs shatter bats. His sentence-making keeps things fluid and tense as a September pennant race. When the best shortstop alive sounds believably like a Tibetan lama, and when a thrown ball striking a shovel head at dawn leaves your own head ringing with certainty that truth and friendship have triumphed, you know you're in the hands of a writer you can trust."
-David James Duncan, author of The Brothers K

And the Winner of the Booker Prize is...

2011-10-19T18:52:00.000-05:00

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. I'll be reviewing this selection shortly.

National Book Award Shortlists

2011-10-18T09:52:00.000-05:00

The National Book Award shortlist has been released. Here is the fiction list.

Andrew Krivak, The Sojourn
(Bellevue Literary Press)

Téa Obreht, The Tiger's Wife
(Random House)

Julie Otsuka, The Buddha in the Attic
(Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House)

Edith Pearlman, Binocular Vision
(Lookout Books, an imprint of the Department of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington)

Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones
(Bloomsbury USA)

To see the other lists for nonfiction, poetry and young people's fiction go to the webpage.

Congratulations, Lev

2011-10-07T17:35:00.000-05:00

Fox Entertainment has picked up The Magicians as a TV series beginning as early as next fall. If you haven't read it or Lev's newest book The Magician King, start now. They are both a lot of fun.

A Few Items of Interest

2011-10-03T17:03:00.000-05:00

The Man Booker Shortlist - I've been negligent for not mentioning the titles on the fiction shortlist. The six books, selected from the longlist of 13, are:

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan

*Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman

*Snowdrops by A. D. Miller

*first novels

I have not read any of these titles yet. If you have, please let me know what you think. A few won't be available in the US until January 2012. Something to look forward to in the new year.

Here's a link to “A Guide to Navigating NPR’s Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books.” My sources tell me this chart could be greatly enhanced with a little work. Any takers?

And finally, on one of my favorite websites The Millions, Very Bad Things: A Pessimistic Reading List by Emily St. John Mandel. We could make a lot of additions to this list, too.

The Anguish of Growing Up

2011-09-23T10:14:00.000-05:00

We The Animals by Justin Torres is a novel that reads like a family photo album. Three brothers and their parents struggle with each other and outside influences that cause strife and lead to surprising discoveries. This is Mr. Torres first novel. It's a scant 144 pages but those pages are packed with intense emotions, disturbing situations and small acts of love. The length is perfect for capturing the chaos that is this family.

What happens when you cross The Princess Bride with Where The Wild Things Are?

2011-09-13T15:43:00.001-05:00

In a word, Wildwood by Colin Meloy with illustrations by Carson Ellis. If you are a book person (by that I mean wanting the physical object) not a Kindle user, you will love this book. It's beautiful. Everything about it from the heft of the book itself to the way the pages feel under your fingers are delightful tactile experiences. And then there are the illustrations and color plates. I mean, when have we had a book published recently that feels so good? It's a joy to sit down to read this book.

And then there's the story. A murder of crows kidnaps Prue McKeel's baby brother from the park while he is under Prue's care. Wild adventures ensue as Prue and her friend Curtis go into the Impassible Wilderness outside of their Porland, OR neighborhood to rescue the child. Meloy creates a wonderful alternate world where animals and humans talk to and negotiate with one another. While reading this treasure I couldn't help but think what a great read aloud bedtime story this would be for the brave at heart.

The subtitle of the book is The Wildwood Chronicles, Book I. I will be anxiously awaiting Book II.

Lev Grossman reading

2011-08-31T13:13:00.001-05:00

Just off winning the Campbell Award for Science Fiction's best new writer during the Hugo Awards ceremony recently, Lev Grossman took time to sign books and chat with fans last night at Flyleaf Books. Thanks to those who came to hear Lev read from The Magician King and answer readers' questions. It was a wonderful event and a great turn out.

Q & A with Lev Grossman

2011-08-23T14:57:00.000-05:00

Lev Grossman is the author of the bestselling novels The Magicians and Codex. A well-known cultural commentator, he is the book critic for TIME magazine and has written for numerous other publications, including the New York Times, The Believer, The Wall Street Journal, The Village Voice, Salon and Wired. In 2011 Grossman won the John W. Campbell award for Best New Writer from the World Science Fiction Society. His latest novel, The Magician King, is out from Viking now.

FB: Does your love of video games inform your writing?

LG: Oh sure. Games do magic very well, for example. The look and feel of magic in the Magicians books is definitely influenced by the way it looks in games -- those bright colored lights flaring around people's hands.

FB: How do you navigate the line between paying tribute to other authors and seeming derivative?

LG: My rule is, when you’re playing with something an earlier author did, you have to know why you’re doing it, and so does the reader, and it had better be a good reason. You have to be transforming it in some way, putting a new spin on it. You can’t just steal it, you have to earn it.

FB: Do you think genre fiction is reaching any new heights of cultural/critical acceptance? Do you think it’s even important that it does?

LG: I’m not going to pretend I don’t care if I got critical respect or not. Or I could, but it wouldn’t be very convincing. I think its happening incrementally, but Id like to see it happen faster. I think a great cultural rebalancing is in the offing, that really fully acknowledges the value and importance of genre fiction.

FB: Building a unique world is important for fantasy writers. George R.R. Martin and J.R.R. Tolkien created elaborate maps and lore behind their worlds. What’s your world-building process?

LG: It’s a bit chaotic. I don’t start the way Tolkien did, by writing Elvish dictionaries and such. I think about the story I want to tell, and I build the world that the story needs. Then sometimes the world turns around and changes the story and so on. You push and pull from both sides till everything fits. Consistency is important. C.S. Lewis got away with being inconsistent, but we can't all be C.S. Lewis.

FB: Do you have any advice for young writers interested in writing genre fiction?

LG: Read everything. As much as with literary fiction, writing a fantasy novel (or whatever) places you within a tradition. You have to have read deep into the past of the tradition you're writing in if you want to extend it into the future.

FB: What did returning to the world of the Magicians feel like psychologically?

LG: I’m not totally sure I ever left it.

FB: Your books draw on many disparate elements from different worlds. Do you believe it is important to cross-pollinate in literature?

LG: I don't know. I think it's one of the strengths of my writing, at any rate. My parents were both English professors, before they retired, and I wound up spending time in literary academia, so I got the chance to read really extensively in the history of the novel. There's a lot of stuff that I can take from outside fantasy and bring into the genre and use there in ways that haven't necessarily been done before.

FB: What do you think of e-readers and the decline of brick and mortar bookstores?

LG: I think crotchety, skeptical thoughts. The novel was created as a medium that exists on paper. I think of it as software: books -- not phones or Kindles or whatever -- are the hardware that novels are optimized for, and that's where they're best experienced. I could go on. I tend to rant about this issue.

FB: Post-collegiate malaise is an important element of your books. How do you make such a static psychological condition interesting?

LG: Don’t knock post-collegiate malaise! It’s the stuff of great literature. Look at Ulysses. But it’s true, it’s not the most dynamic of states. There’s a reason why I only give the characters a chapter of slacking around New York City after they graduate before they get sent off to another world.

FB: How much do you outline your writing ahead of time?

LG: Oh, I outline the whole thing. But as the saying goes, no battle plan survives contact with the enemy. And in this case the plan has many enemies in the form of my characters, who don’t always want to do what they’re told.

FB: What do you think of the state of genre fiction today?

LG: I'll tell you the truth, which is that I think that genre fiction is going through a great cultural renaissance, and that’s where the most exciting stuff in contemporary literature is happening. When people write the literary history of the 21^st century, I think the explosion of creativity in genre literature is what they'll write about.

FB: Do you enjoy the huge successes of nerd culture or does a part of you think your once-obscure interests are being violated?

LG: Can I say both? Both.

I'd like to offer a special thank you to Hank Stephenson who helped me with the above questions. Please come to Flyleaf where Lev will be reading and signing books at 7:00 on Tuesday, 30 August.

Magic in the Air

2011-08-10T10:40:00.000-05:00

I’ve been waiting to write about Lev Grossman’s new book The Magician King. Now that it is available at Flyleaf Books I can tell you what I think of it. I was curious about how Grossman would follow up on the success of The Magicians. If you haven’t read the first book, Grossman creates a world where magic happens at a school secluded from the rest of the world that goes on without the knowledge that real magic exists. Sound familiar? The book was inevitably dubbed Harry Potter for grown ups when it came out in 2009. The world Grossman creates is for adults; his young adult magicians face adult problems and have to find ways to overcome them. Grossman provides a number of nods to previously published books in the genre. In fact, The Magicians is a kind of examination of and appreciation for fantasy readers. If you like finding the Easter eggs in movies and you’re a fan of fantasy, look at what Grossman wrote about the illusions to previous works of fantasy for tor.com.

The Magician King is darker than the first book and focuses on Julia’s story in great depth. It also describes what happens when Quentin becomes bored with being a King in Fillory, the land of magical beings and the magicians who find themselves there. Quentin seeks an adventure, one that will make him a hero, but realizes the costs too late.
Lev Grossman is reading at Flyleaf on Tuesday, 20 August at 7:00pm. Stay tuned for an online interview coming soon.

And while I’m on the topic of magic, there is another book about magic that you will want to read called The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. It comes out in a month (13 September). This book is going to get a lot of attention. It has already been optioned for a movie.

The Night Circus is the story of two young magicians, Celia and Marco, pitted against each other by their malevolent mentors. But Celia and Marco are not the most interesting characters in the book. The night circus has a life of its own and is by far the most enchanting character. The circus is created using magic and is the field of the challenge for Celia and Marco. The two magicians enhance the circus and test one another’s magic skills through the circus. Performers and visitors are largely innocent bystanders. My vision of the circus while reading was a cross between steampunk and Victorian architecture with magic woven in. Morgenstern does a masterful job describing the intricate beauty and frightening aspects of the circus. There is an undercurrent of danger throughout the book due to the contest between Celia and Marco and the mystery of the circus itself.

And now for something completely different

2011-08-01T19:27:00.000-05:00

I’m on vacation this week and what that means for me is lots of time to read. Are you missing Lisbeth Salander? Me, too. Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole won’t fill that void in your reading, but he may make room in your heart for the love of another Scandinavian crime solver. Nesbo has a knack for vivid description and intricate plotting. Although Nesbo is Norwegian and Larsson was Swedish, they share a love of their respective countries. Both writers describe the settings of their novels in great detail; enough to make you want to take a trip to each using their books as tour guides.

Nesbo’s books have been published slowly in the US and slightly out-of-order. The translations are very well done. I expect Nesbo’s US publisher, Knopf, will work hard to secure rights to the titles below not yet published in the US and get them into waiting American hands. (The linked titles below are available at Flyleaf Books just click on the link to order your copy.)

Bibliography, Jo Nesbo (adult fiction)

The Bat Man (Flaggermusmannen - 1997)* NT
The Cockroaches - (Kakerlakkene - 1998)* NT
The Redbreast - 2006 (Rødstrupe - 2000)*
(Karusellmusikk - 2001, short stories) NT
Nemesis - 2008 (Sorgenfri - 2002)*
The Devil's Star - 2005 (Marekors - 2003)*
The Redeemer - 2009 (Frelseren - 2005)*
The Snowman- 2010 (Snømannen - 2007)*
Headhunters (Hodejegerne - 2008) NT
The Leopard- 2011 (Panserhjerte - 2009)*
Gjensyn - 2011 *

English title and year of publication, Norwegian title and year of publication in parentheses.

*means it is a Harry Hole novel

NT is not yet translated

- With thanks to www.scandinavianbooks.com.

A Parable

2011-07-24T13:57:00.001-05:00

Singer-songwriter, Josh Ritter, has written a novel entitled Bright’s Passage. It’s a mythical story of recovery from war and loss. The title character is a soldier returned home after World War I to reclaim his life only to lose his wife when his baby son is born. There is conflict, confrontation, and a guiding angel, but the soul of the book is the description of war. The harrowing imagery of survival and the aftermath is touching and haunting.

Ritter will perform at the Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro on Wednesday, 27 July. Flyleaf will have signed copies of the book available in the store on Thursday.

There Were Never Such Devoted Sisters

2011-07-20T09:31:00.000-05:00

I finished reading Sister by Rosemund Lupton last night. If you are a sister or have a sister you will want to read this book. It’s touching in many ways, but particularly in the main character Beatrice’s (known as Bee) insistence that she knows her sister Tess better than anyone else and therefore does not believe she has committed suicide. Instead, Bee insists that Tess was murdered and is driven to find out who killed her. The story is an exploration of how intimate knowledge gained from growing up in the same family changes over time and with distance. During the search for Tess’s killer Bee confirms she knew her sister well, maybe better than she knows herself.

This is Lupton’s first novel. The time shifts and some other devices might be confusing or seem superficial for a reader of thrillers, but this book is much more than that. I suggest book clubs consider adding it to their reading lists. It would make for a provocative group discussion.

Both tear-jerking and spine-tingling, “Sister” provides an adrenaline rush that could cause a chill on the sunniest afternoon — which, perhaps, the friendly company of a sister or two (or, in a pinch, a brother) might help to dispel.

Liesl Schillinger in the New York Times Book Review

Books of Interest

2011-07-09T17:03:00.000-05:00

Being an avid reader, bookstore lover, and book collector, family and friends have often suggested that I start a book blog. It’s an intriguing idea to write about what I’m reading. Talking about books with people who like to read is pure pleasure for me. I’m not shy about offering my opinion on what I’m reading or what I’ve read. I keep a list of my favorite books handy in case anyone asks me for a recommendation. But, putting those thoughts and opinions into words on the page (or screen) seems risky. Who will read it? What if they don’t like what I have to say? Writers work hard to get their work published. What right do I have to criticize their writing? Who cares what I think anyway?

Well, I guess I’ll see. The owners of Flyleaf have agreed to let me take a stab at this. I appreciate the opportunity and will try to keep readers of this blog interested in buying and talking about books.

It took some time to figure out what books to write about first. I scanned the shelf of my most recent reads. Here is the list of books I’ve read in the past three months.

One Day by David Nicholls

The Snowman by Jo Nesbo

Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks

Emily, Alone by Stewart O’Nan

West of Here by Jonathan Evison

Old Filth by Jane Gardam

The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier

The Fates Will Find Their Way by Hannah Pittard

Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson

The Blindness of the Heart by Julia Tranck

The Long Song by Andea Levy

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

Embassytown by China Mieville

Vaclav and Lena by Halley Tanner

Where to begin? Several of those titles have had a lot written about them. Here are four diverse books that may grab your attention.

Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks

The Australian, Brooks, may seem an odd author for such an American tale but she has had great success writing historical fiction. She is a dedicated researcher and the depth of detail she provides is a strength of her writing. Caleb’s Crossing is no exception. Brooks explores the possibilities of two lives crossing paths in a time when both Native Americans (Caleb) and American women (Bethia) had prescribed roles in the country; namely savage and helpmate. These characters strive to overcome those narrow life roles in a newly emerging culture. Some stereotypical interactions make me less fond of this novel than of People of the Book. It seems hard to avoid that trap when writing a story based on one surviving letter written by the actual Caleb who became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard in 1665. In a Washington Post review Paul Chaat Smith writes, “There is too much at stake in pre-modern New England, and Brooks’s achievement is that we see just how much that is, for the red characters and the white ones. They struggle every waking moment with spiritual questions that are as real and unending as the punishing New England winters.”

Embassytown by China Mieville

If you haven’t heard of Mieville, you will. He is an intelligent, iconoclastic writer with interesting views on life in the 21st century. The premise of this book is language as truth. The setting is a future where humans live along side aliens who can only communicate through two voices. A single voice is unrecognizable to the aliens as coming from a living being. They can only speak to dual speakers, clones who speak as one. Also particular to the aliens is their inability to lie. Mieville is a talented writer who is unrelenting in his command of his imagination and ability to convey it. Those with an interest in how language works and others who love a good story will enjoy this book. The Guardian’s James Purdan writes of Mieville, “To read fiction is, in some measure, to take those true untruths for granted, which makes it a paradoxical pleasure to come across a novel that reminds us so ingeniously and enjoyably of the conditions of fiction, and of the power that fictional language retains to shape and reshape our transactions with the world.”

Emily, Alone by Stewart O’Nan

As a native Pittsburgher O’Nan’s writing appeals to me because of the setting, but his simple portrayal of the rich internal world of an elderly woman alone and struggling to manage is moving. Emily is forced into independence after her companion and sister-in-law becomes hospitalized. Emily looks back on her life with her husband and children in a straightforward way and moves on by setting small goals for herself. The Boston Globes’ Mameve Medwed states, “In a portrait filled with both joy and rue, O’Nan does not wield a wide brush across a vast canvas but, rather, offers up an exquisite miniature. Just as Emily prefers Van Gogh’s depiction of a branch of an almond tree over the more spectacular “Sunflowers,’’ so, too, do we readers appreciate an ordinary life made, by its quiet rendering, extraordinary.”

Vaclav and Lena by Haley Tanner

This is Tanner’s first novel and it is a winner. She creates a world inhabited by immigrants from Russia who struggle with their assimilation. The title characters are two children who become friends because of proximity and ethnicity. Vaclav is fascinated by magic and enlists Lena in his plans to perform in his magic show on the Boardwalk on Coney Island. Vaclav’s mother, Rasia, sees what is developing between the two children but is unable to prevent the strength of their friendship even though she knows it might come to a tragic and necessary end. Susannah Meadows in the New York Times writes, “Ms. Tanner is such a strong storyteller, and her distinctive voice — winsome without being dopey — engulfs you immediately.”

Flyleaf Books celebrates National Poetry Month

2011-04-11T15:33:00.003-05:00

It’s hard to believe we’re almost halfway through April, which just so happens to be National Poetry Month.

Perhaps you’re wondering what it’s like to work in a bookstore during National Poetry Month. Does everyone speak in iambic pentameter? Do the folks behind the registers grimace, swig glasses of scotch, and mumble existential verses? Do the booksellers shake their fists and curse to the heavens when someone can’t tell the difference between a Petrarchan and Spencerian sonnet? Well, no, no, and no.

We encourage vandalism.

Next time you’re in our store, check out our National Poetry Month table. Flyleaf bookseller and Staff Poet Laureate Michael C. Peterson has a ton of great recommendations on display. And while you’re meditating over a villanelle or alexandrine, go ahead and write your favorite poetic lines on our table. Yep, you read correctly. Inspire others by writing lines from the poets who have inspired you: Maya Angelou, Li Po, Dorothy Parker, John Keats, Omar Khayyam, Shakespeare, Shel Silverstein, or Michael C. Peterson.

We’re eager to see what you’ll write!

--Ana

Sally’s Kitchen Jewelry Trunk Show -- Saturday, March 19th from Noon-4:00pm

2011-03-18T11:27:00.003-05:00

There are a number of things that make Flyleaf such a unique, comforting bookstore: a wide variety of books, awesome staff recommendations, fantastic authors and reading events, a supportive and knowledgeable community, large windows, cozy sitting space, and, of course, squishables (those plush, marshmallow-shaped stuffed animals – more on those for another day). But hands down, one of the coolest parts of Flyleaf is Sally Stollmack.

For those of you have not yet met Sally, she’s the petite, super cool bookseller who probably knows everyone in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area. (One day during the holiday season, Land and Mike kept a running total to see how many customers she knew – they lost count). Seriously, Sally is like sunshine; she’s always upbeat and has such a great personality. But before she was a bookseller, Sally sold her jewelry at Flyleaf not only in glass displays, but also during her Kitchen Jewelry Trunk Show. Her next show is this Saturday, March 19th from Noon-4:00pm and she’ll have exquisite jewelry in addition to some pretty nifty and chic handbags and clutches. All the jewelry is specialty made by artists from all over the world. Here are a few pictures of jewelry, handbags, and clutches she’ll be selling on Saturday. Hope to see you there!

--Ana

Meet Tom Angleberger, the author of The Strange Case of Origami Yoda -- Monday, March 14th at 7:00pm

2011-03-11T14:51:00.007-06:00

Let’s face it: school can be tough, especially when your classmates designate you as the grade-school pariah. That’s what Tommy thinks of Dwight, the goofy and awkward kid of McQuarrie Middle School. One day, Dwight creates an Origami Yoda and the Origami Yoda suddenly offers profound – and correct! – advice for Dwight and Tommy’s classmates. But Tommy is left wondering whether these words of wisdom are really coming from Yoda… or if Dwight is a misunderstood genius.

Stop by Flyleaf on Monday, March 14^th at 7:00pm and meet Tom Angleberger, the author of The Strange Case of Origami Yoda. As you can see, the Flyleaf staff is very excited about this event. Hope to see you there!

--Ana

2011-03-07T16:59:00.005-06:00

When I moved to North Carolina a little over five years ago, I had very little knowledge of the state’s plethora of accomplished writers. Working in a bookstore quickly changed my perception of this state’s literary prowess (not to mention watching authors – New York Times Bestsellers, NPR notables, award winners, and even a New Yorker “20 Under 40” – peruse our shelves).

In honor of our local writers from Thomas Wolfe to Wells Tower, from the mountains to the coast, we’ve constructed a table to celebrate our fabulous novelists, poets, essayists, and memoirists. Now this isn’t just any ordinary table; a plain table sprinkled with books isn’t really all that original or spectacular, right? So why not make a table unique to both our state and our writers? Bookseller/artist extraordinaire Molly was all for this project. After a few minutes of searching for recycled material, construction paper, and lots of tape we soon had our spiffy North Carolina table. Here are the results!

The Mountains

The Piedmont

The Coast

Stop on by Flyleaf Books if you’d like to see our table in 3D (it’s all the rage now, apparently) or leave a comment and let us know which North Carolinian authors you adore.

--Ana

Love Gone Wrong

2011-02-11T16:08:00.003-06:00

Ah, Valentine’s Day – bundles of roses, boxes of chocolate, and fancy restaurant reservations. Sure, it’s nice to have a holiday of love, to show those who mean most in your life how much you care and appreciate them. But for some of us, the path to true love has been a series of heartbreaks.

You are not alone, friend.

Your neighbors at Flyleaf have dedicated a display table just for you. It’s our official “Flyleaf Books Lonely Hearts Club: Love Gone Wrong for the Anti-Valentine’s Day Reveler.” Our staff compiled books to counter the lovey-dovey groove of Valentine’s Day with a more practical collection of wonderful novels, short stories, and biographies where love doesn’t necessarily mean a happy ending. Here are a few of our picks:

Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart

Anna Karenina by Tolstoy

Oedipus the King by Sophocles

A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

Books to Hold You Over Until the Super Bowl

2011-01-29T13:46:00.004-06:00

It’s official: the Green Bay Packers face off against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV. I’m not a diehard fan of either team, but I’ll take any excuse to host the indoor equivalent of a tailgate party; this is especially true when a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game is on TV or when C-SPAN broadcasts live from the Miami International Book Fair, or any book fair for that matter.

Now, if you’re like me, you tend to associate everything with books (example: shopping with my ever-patient sister and describing the whole plot of Stendhal’s novel when she asks me whether she looks better in the red dress or the black dress) and football is no different. I’ll cheer for the Baltimore Ravens simply because their mascot is an homage to the famous poetic subject of hometown writer Edgar Allen Poe (that, and solid defense always wins games). If the Tennessee Titans are playing against the Philadelphia Eagles, I’ll root for the Titans in recognition of one of the most literary Titans, Prometheus (check out Aeschylus and Percy Bysshe Shelley). Granted, this strategy hardly ever works, but it’s a fun way to combine books and football.

So if you’re a football fan and you’re looking for some great Packers-or-Steelers-friendly books to tide you over until February 6th, or even if you’re not a fan but would like to get in on the Packers vs. Steelers book reading spirit, I’ve got the perfect selections for you.

For Green Bay Packer fans:
-The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. (This solid book club selection is a Wisconsin retelling of Hamlet, recommended by none other than Oprah.)

-A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick. (A seductive turn of the 20th century thriller that perfectly captures the wickedly cold Wisconsin winters; great for Packer fans who remember the Ice Bowl.)

-The Dive From Clausen’s Pier by Ann Packer. (The protagonist in this novel moves from Wisconsin to New York. Sound like a familiar quarterback?)

For Pittsburgh Steelers Fans:
-The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon. (Michael Chabon is the novelist from Pittsburgh, not to mention a Pulitzer Prize winner. He probably has about as many awesome books to his credit as the Steelers have Super Bowl victories, which is a lot.)

-An American Childhood by Annie Dillard. (Dillard’s beautiful and perceptive writing style shines in her memoir of growing up in Pittsburgh; don’t pass this one up.)

-Snow Angels by Stewart O’Nan. (O’Nan’s first book is a family drama set… oh never mind – excuse me while I daydream about Troy Polamalu. Swoon!)

I hope these book picks are helpful, but feel free to leave a comment and tell us what you’ll be reading before the big game. Until then, happy reading, and enjoy the Super Bowl!

--Ana

Life With a Dog

2010-09-20T15:42:00.003-05:00

by guest blogger Jay Varner, author of Nothing Left to Burn. He will be appearing at Flyleaf Books on October 2 at 2pm.

This past summer, my wife and I adopted a dog.

Both of us discussed adding another pet in our home for years, but had always come up with excuses—how would the cat react, we’re too busy to train a puppy, is our house even big enough? We’d always wanted one of those monstrous and strong dogs that could pull an ox cart—preferably while loaded with an actual ox. We’d investigated the Bernese Mountain Dog and the Great Pyrenees, sweet, loveable, huggable animals that would require a new annex to any home. A pure bred of either breed would have required an off shore bank account to pay for not only the puppy but the truck loads of food required. And, down the line, the therapy we’d need after the big dog’s relatively short life ended.

We’d grown up around pets and understood not just the love they give, but also the inevitable heartbreak. So we knew how important it was to find the right dog for us.

In 1979, not long after my parents married, my father drove to a breeder near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to buy a puppy, but what would really become their first child. There was never any doubt about what type of dog he wanted. When he turned sixteen, my father volunteered for the local fire company. By the time he graduated high school, classmates wrote in his yearbook, “Good luck and stay safe. (How many days has it been since a fire?)” Naturally, he wanted a Dalmatian.

During the days of horse-drawn carriages, Dalmatians came to be associated with fire service in America. The dogs interacted well with horses and often ran as the lead en route to a fire, clearing a path so fire fighters could arrive quickly. Though my father drove his pick-up truck to fire scenes, he wanted to honor the breed’s history.

As a young couple, my parents couldn’t afford the pick of the litter. Instead he saw a puppy considered defective by breed standards because of the large black patch on her head and ear. On the drive out of Harrisburg, they passed the Three Mile Island nuclear plant, where a near melt-down had occurred just days before. My father joked that the dog’s spots would glow in the dark. He named her Patches.

Dalmatians can be a tricky breed. They require a lot of exercise, are predisposed to deafness, and are sometimes difficult with children. When my mother became pregnant with me, people worried the dog would maul a baby. But the opposite happened—she started sitting next to my crib as though guarding me. She never seemed like a pet and, as I grew up, I called her my sister. Each day when I came home from school, she stood at the door, wagging her tail, waiting to see me. My father held her on his lap, allowed her to sleep in bed, and even bathed her in tomato juice when a skunk once sprayed her. One summer night, during a thunderstorm, Patches—who always quivered at the sound of thunder—ran down the cellar steps but caught a toenail in the carpet. After the crash, we saw her at the bottom of the stairs with blood pooling from her foot. We lived in rural Pennsylvania, long before the days of 24-hour emergency pet care, and my father called upon his emergency training. He wrapped her paw in a cold compress, pressed tight, and waited. Long after midnight, with a pile of bloody washcloths on the floor, we finally went to bed. I have no doubt he saved Patches life that night.

Unfortunately, nothing could save his. My father was diagnosed with cancer in 1988. He endured chemo treatments. He shed his hair, he puffed from steroids, and finally the disease reached remission. The bone marrow transplant was supposed to extend his life by twenty-years, but the cancer returned in the summer of 1990. A month later, he was dead.

My mother and I remained behind. And so did Patches. We’d always loved that dog, but knowing that my father had chosen her, we both understood that we had to take special care of her. As she aged, she started to wobble from hip dysplasia. Sometimes she didn’t make it to the door in time for bathroom trips. During winter, we wrapped her head with a bandana to shield her ears from the bitter wind and swathed her in one of my father’s old flannel shirts to keep her warm. She’d become an old lady, and my mother always said, she needed tender loving care. Part of that care was realizing when her discomfort outweighed the happiness we felt to have her in our lives. That was in 1996, and that had been the last dog I had.

That is, until this summer when my wife came home from a coffee shop one day and said, “How much do you want a dog?”

She’d met a young woman about to leave for med school. Unfortunately, she couldn’t take her beagle with her. Though she’d asked a few friends if they wanted to adopt him, nobody had given her a definite answer. If she couldn’t find a home for him in a week’s time, she would leave him at the ASPCA.

“He’s really cute,” my wife said. “And his name is Early.”

Early was at least a cute name. But a beagle? That wasn’t quite the beast of a dog I’d imagined. We’d try him out for a night or two and see what happened. Of course, once a dog comes into your home like that, it’s a foregone conclusion—he’s staying for good.

So now we have Early, the two-year old beagle. He nearly knocks me down with love each time I walk in the door. If my wife and I have had a bad day, he curls up between us on the couch and plops his head in our lap. He knows immediately when he’s misbehaved, such as eating the cat’s food or chewing on a pen. He’s nervous on car rides and stinks up the inside of my truck with pungent gas. Can you say any of that about people—except for maybe the gas?

And to think, we’d delayed this decision for so long, lost in the excuses of our daily routine. Let me tell you something—nothing you’re doing is as important as loving a fellow creature, and feeling his unconditional affection in return.

Each year for Christmas, I still give my mother a Dalmatian calendar. She opens it up and smiles at the beautiful dogs. Neither of us says a word, but we’re both thinking back to Patches. My mother looks at the pictures a bit longer and then always says, “None are as pretty as my girl. We lucked out with her.”

My parents and I did. I’m happy my wife and I now have as well.

From Barstool to Bookshelf

2009-10-26T07:55:00.002-05:00

Bellied-up to the bar at The Cave recently in a rare moment of rest, I had the pleasure of sharing a beer with Pete. If you like books, but don’t know Pete, you should head as soon as possible to McIntyre’s in Fearrington Village. He is the best bookseller I’ve ever met and if there were a quantitative measure to bookselling, I’d like to see his world ranking. Often when he tells me about a book he’s reading I become so covetous to read it myself it may be a sin.

And of course, since like finds like, Pete and I were talking books or, more specifically, book business. Because there aren’t just books, there’s a book world, and it’s large and has some dark places. And recently a war has broken out. It’s one of those “price wars,” where, supposedly, the only wounds are deep discounts. The war’s over books, just ten particular books, which Wal-Mart last Thursday decided to sell for $10. Amazon followed suit hours later. And as those things go, the ten books now retail for $8.98. These are new, hardcover books from the likes of Stephen King, JD Robb, and John Grisham.

Now, I’m helping bring a bookstore into this book world. As I am sure an expectant father might look about and have momentary reservations about the world they’re bringing a child into, I too felt it. So, of course, I ordered another beer. Keg was tapped on my choice. I asked the bartender for a recommendation and she let me taste a couple until I found a suitable replacement. I almost just ordered a PBR—I know what it tastes like and it’s the cheapest. But I was in the mood for a good beer.

I wish I could say the analogy hit me right then, that having a good beer in a great bar with a helpful bartender and a good friend enlightened and reinvigorated me to the prospect of the bookstore. It took me a few days to see it and the analogy falters in a few places, but a good bookstore does share much with a good bar. A beer at a bar does cost more than a beer at Harris Teeter. But at the bar, you get the atmosphere and the knowledge of the staff. There is no Pete at Wal-Mart dot com.

Where the analogy falters, though, I think there may be lessons. Perhaps, as the price war may indicate, there should be PBRs of the book world. Those authors who churn out a couple of books a year to the widest audience possible should be cheaper. Sometimes I am in the mood for a PBR book. More often, though, I prefer a good book like a good beer. And sure, I realize that people go to bars to meet people and find dates, but could I offer that love may be truer found over a stack of books than beside a litter of empties?

--Land

How do you stand in relation to the potato?

2009-10-05T22:19:00.004-05:00

Down in Greenville, SC at a book trade show in a refurbished convention center I had the opportunity to eat breakfast next to one of my favorite authors and barely mustered a word. It was 7:30 in the morning in a cavernous room with lights that gave us the healthy pallor of a vampire –but the most intimidating factor was the author, Padgett Powell, a National Book Award finalist, was there in promotion of his latest book, The Interrogative Mood, a book made up entirely of questions.

First sentence to last, his book, all ending in a question mark (¡And the Spanish version will have twice as many question marks!). How could I have the gall to ask him a question? I mean, I read the book and really liked it, its rhythms and language stuck like a song in my head—but in this case having read the book caused me to clam up. Even if he didn’t, I’d care if my questions didn’t measure up. So I spent the morning devising statements instead of questions to aim his way mostly inspired by the plate of food in front of me, like “instead of the patty, looks like they opted for the sausage link.” But I never said any of them and left the hall afterward like I’d left the iron in the hotel on.

Lunch that day brought slight redemption, as I had the good fortune to be seated at the same table as key speaker Pete Dexter, who has one up on Padgett Powell on the meaningless leader-board of literary achievement for having actually won a National Book Award. I admit I hadn’t read any of Mr. Dexter (something I quickly remedied with his latest: Spooner, a semi-autobiographical novel which has that perfect ratio of laughter to tears as the best sandwich has the perfect ratio of peanut butter to jelly).

Not only was his speech –a seemingly sloppy, but gilded-tongued bouillabaisse of the day’s events and main players, a pinch of self-deprecation, and summation of his novel – an experience I would have invented the Handicam and YouTube for, he gave me the chance for redemption. He said, “Padgett Powell is one of the greatest writers living today.” Apropos of I don’t know, and probably not an exact quote, and maybe it was just a swatch of a red carpet but I felt invited enough to engage Pete Dexter in a conversation about Padgett Powell. And it was easy, the conversation, probably because I hadn’t yet read Pete Dexter. Turns out they are old friends, but Pete Dexter talked like he was just a big fan, a good reader. It reminded me of the best part of being a bookseller, the chance to talk to people, strangers and friends, about good books and share the passion. And that books are a great way to start a conversation, whether your first line ends in a question mark, period or exclamation point.

--Land

2009-09-30T17:13:00.004-05:00

Wow. Land, Sarah and I just returned from the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance show in Greenville, SC. We had a blast. The support from the bookselling and the publishing communities has been just so positive; what a wonderful world of people we're involved in. Everyone's been offering advice "create a budget, then burn it" and support "let me know when you're ready to put books on the shelf and I'll fly in and help". Now we just have to choose WHICH books to bring in for opening day... that's A LOT of homework.

The construction has been flying, I wish I had a stop-action camera in the store because walls seem to materialize and disappear within minutes... soon we'll be painting and putting carpet down!

First Night of Flyleaf Books

2009-09-15T16:14:00.010-05:00

I had meant to start this blog post an hour ago, the inaugural blog post of Flyleaf Books, but I had only 50 pages left in the book I was reading. I wasn’t putting off the blogging, I just couldn’t put off the reading. The last 50 pages of John Irving’s latest, Last Night in Twisted River, delayed the pronouncement of one the most exciting things I’ve ever written: Sometime in November, Flyleaf Books will open as Chapel Hill’s newest independent bookstore.

But I’m still thinking of Last Night in Twisted River, of how good it was, how unshakeable the characters. And I want to pick up another book, ‘cause there is so much new good stuff out there, but I’m not ready yet. Irving threw a gut punch and I may need another day to recuperate until I’m ready to pick another book off my pile.

And maybe that’s what this blog is about, to keep you up to date, of course, on this exciting adventure, the people making it happen, the timeline of our opening, but mostly it is about books, no matter they gut punch or just tickle your feet.

--Land