Farley's Bookshop Blog

Supporting Small Presses: How to Do It, Why We Do It

2011-09-22T15:40:00.004-04:00

The other day the American Bookseller's Association's Karen Schechner contacted the store to do an interview with us about our small press promotions. As many of you know, for the past six months we have been bringing in small presses en masse here at the store and trying to turn people on to the breadth of great literature found on them. We have no plans to stop this program whatsoever. At a time when too many people talk about e-books, we thought we'd go the other route: standing by the presses we love, putting books into people's hands. Karen's write up can be found here: http://news.bookweb.org/news/farley%E2%80%99s-bookshop-goes-big-small-presses

Below is the unexpurgated interview. Any bookseller should feel free to contact us with questions about the program. We hope that other bookshops follow this model and find great indie presses to support. Contact your other favorite bookstore or your favorite small press, show them the interview and help to get a movement started. It's time we created a new model of bookselling together.

Farley's Bookshop c/o William Hastings

Interview with the ABA's Karen Schechner about small press displays

9-20-2011

1: How did Farley’s get into selling indie press titles?

Our interest in indie presses began by reading their books. It has long been known that the best literature in the country is often found on the indie presses. Because indie presses do not pay taxes on unsold stock, since many of them are non-profits, we found that some of our favorite writers were being kept in print because of this. Then, as the world economy tanked in 2008, we noticed that the major publishing houses were forced to cut great, but smaller selling writers from their lists. Those writers ended up in the indie presses and have stayed there. It's not that we had a problem with the major publishing houses' title selection, it's just that the more we looked the more we liked the cutting-edge, eclectic, profound, beautiful, well-constructed literature that kept surprising us in the indie presses. We started hand selling a lot of it because our customers kept asking for recommendations and many of us were reading indie press titles alongside other work. Around this time we became the official bookseller for NoirCon, a multi-day noir/crime fiction convention here in Philadelphia. In order to stock a great selection of books for the event we did some deep research into the noir/crime fiction community and found an incredible selection of indie presses there. Once we were at NoirCon writers and fans told us about even more. We also began subscribing to The American Book Review and The Bloomsbury Review, in our opinion the two finest reviewing papers in the country. While they review books from the major publishing houses, they devote much space to the indies, something we noticed the metropolitan newspaper review sections were not doing. This turned us on to some great books. Some of our employees also subscribe to hosts of the literary quarterlies, which are other great avenues to discover indie press books. All of this got us thinking that we should be me forthright in highlighting these presses in the store. But, as with anything, money is an issue. How to stock these presses in depth without sacrificing stocking the other presses that we love? We had heard about some publishers offering better purchasing/returns terms in exchange for special displays. This lead us to create our idea: a consignment-style set-up in exchange for face out displays and prominent in-store location. We wrote a proposal and reached out to presses we loved that weren't using major distributors that we had reps for. After all, we didn't want to hurt our relationships there either. And we are more than open to having bookstores contact us for help in getting this started, or if they have any questions about what we've done.

2: How are they displayed? In a separate section?

Each press has its own section of the front of the store. Above each section we have a sign naming the press. Each book is face-out, with a shelf talker written by a staff member. When you walk into the store the firs thing you see are hundreds of book covers looking right at you. The project has expanded so much that we've had to place some of the presses in our main display area in the center of the store because we have run out of room up front. Soon we will be removing a compact disc display section, moving it to another part of the store, and using that space to display literary quarterlies or another press that will be coming in soon.

3: How are sales?

Sales are excellent. Every single press has told us that we have sold more titles of theirs than any other bookstore they work with. We're hesitant to give out exact dollar amounts, but we can safely say that in six months we moved close to three hundred indie press titles.

4: You sell them on consignment?

The set-up works like this: in exchange for net-90 terms and the standard 40% discount we offer the presses their own section of the store, face-out displays with shelf talkers for each book and extensive advertising. The presses cover shipping to us, if we return books to the presses we cover shipping back. It is a fairly straight forward consignment set-up. If the books don't sell, they don't sell at no risk to us and little risk to the publisher. So far no publisher has wanted a return from us, they've just asked that we keep the titles and then shipped new/different ones to us. We're more than happy to do that. Given enough time, they'll sell. And they have.

5: How do you market them?

We market them in a variety of ways. First, we have a small press book club that meets once a month. Unlike our other book club, the small press book club does not limit itself to fiction. This allows us to rotate through the publishers, since many of them are poetry houses, and to guarantee sales of at a minimum ten copies for that month of a single title. Often in the month that we are reading a book we'll sell more because our customers ask what's being read even though they can't make the book club. Beyond that we highlight the books constantly on our Twitter and Facebook pages. We stay in close contact with the publishers and they get word out regularly about our store and its offerings. We do write-ups in our newsletter of the titles, or sometimes, an entire press' offerings. But like any good independent bookstore, hand-selling them is our bread and butter. Lastly, we have spent much time and effort educating our customers that book buying can be like record buying in many ways. You can still find great music just because you trust whatever certain labels are putting out. Likewise books. By showing our customers that each press is very different and has different outlooks, specialties, goals, we have shown our customers they can find a press that matches their style and tastes. We've shown them that while they may not have heard the author's name before, they can trust the quality of the book just because of the press it's on.

6: Do you have any events involving indie press titles?

We have done quite a few events with the indie presses. Most importantly, some of the writers whose books we have contacted us very early in the experiment to thank us and to offer themselves in some form or another to the store. What we ended up creating with them was a series of ongoing free creative writing workshops. Writers come to the store (we've had them come from as far away as Mississippi) and at the beginning of their workshop they read from their book. That gives the class a common denominator for discussion as well as spotlights the writer's book. We offer classes in all genres. The writers then stay for signing afterword. Beyond the workshops we have offered poetry readings, sidewalk signings, in-store signings, events at local bars. There's always something going on here at the store and much of it has grown out of our work with the indie presses.

7: Is this something you’d recommend to other booksellers?

We cannot recommend this more highly to other bookstores. Regardless of what the news media tells us about bookselling in this country, independent bookstores are the front lines of keeping literature alive in this country. The collapse of Borders has proven that brick and mortar bookstores offer something unique and important to this literary world. The more independent bookstores diversify their stock, the larger a patchwork quilt of literature is built into the fabric of our communities across this country. Reach out to local and regional presses so your store can stock books only found where you live and can help to keep alive great, though overlooked, writing. Reach out to every indie press you can think of. You'll be able to greatly increase stock and offer wonderful books your customers may not have heard of. Stay in close contact with the presses and build tight relationships with them: it helps them and it helps you. Subscribe to the literary quarterlies and The American Book Review and The Bloomsbury Review (which has a special program that allows you to give away free copies of The Bloomsbury Review to your customers) to help you learn about all the great literature that is happening in this country. Many of these indie presses do not put their titles into e-book formats because they are incredibly conscientious of their graphic design and the special magic of holding a book in your hands. Supporting these presses distributes both knowledge and power across a larger base, instead of consolidating it in the hands of the few.

8: Anything else you’d like to add?

We have not sold a single e-book at our store. In fact, we haven't had a single customer ask us about it. Instead, what we have seen is an increasing amount of people coming into the store looking for books they can't find anywhere else and asking for recommendations from the staff. In some cases, we have had to re-stock our small presses three times over because we can't keep the books on the shelves. We have had customers drive upwards of three hours to get to our store just because they heard we now stock a deep selection of their favorite press. What has happened in the past few months, since we started this project, is we've realized just how important a bookstore can be to a community. Bookstores can help out restaurants and bars by hosting readings in them or by having the restaurant set up tables in the cookbook section and give away free food to customers. Offer free writing workshops and help out local writers. A bookstore has the ability to link into the schools and help educators offer books to their students that may help to turn students onto reading and a love of literature. Unlike the rewards programs established by some educator book distributors for teachers, bookstores are not recommending books to schools or students because they will receive a financial reward from the distributor. Yes, we make money off of book sales, but we make money off of helping our community to build lifelong readers. In doing so we can support the artists that we love, the presses that remind us of the possibilities of literature and the local bars, museums, theaters, restaurants and galleries that provide spaces for public celebration of literature in all its forms. At a time when a horrible economy threatens so much, brick and mortar stores have the ability to revitalize the economy. After all, over half of the workforce in this country is employed by family run businesses. And, as a study in Michigan showed, if a half-million people switched ten percent of their spending to buying locally, over one hundred and thirty million dollars of new job revenue would be created. Saving our communities and our country begins at the local level. It begins by buying locally and supporting local stores. It begins with bookstores extending themselves outward into the community to help educate and inform people about literature and its joys, to connect with other local businesses to offer things to people they hadn't realized they wanted. It begins with bookstores all across this country offering a diverse and regionally unique selection of books to their customers to create a vats array of places where readers and travelers can find incredible work. We're called brick and mortar for a reason we feel too many have forgotten: we're the foundation of it all. What will stand after the trends die out.

Poetry Is Nothing To Be Scared Of

2011-08-10T15:59:00.003-04:00

At lunch, high in the northern Lebanese mountains, our cab driver and I waited for my friend to come out of the bathroom before continuing on to Khalil Gibran's grave. Next to our table the windows were open. Clear mountain air touched with spring and water came at us. It was cold, crisp and a relief from the dust choked air I had been living with in Kuwait City. Our cab driver turned his head toward the breeze, closed his eyes and began reciting a poem. When he finished he opened his eyes and smiled.

“You like poetry?” I asked.

“Of course,” he said. “I can't imagine life without it.”

Testing a hunch, I asked him when he graduated college.

He laughed.

“I stopped going to school when I was fourteen.”

The Lebanese, especially Beirutis, are a well read people. Surprised as I was, I figured it to be a part of the culture there and this miraculous discovery could not be replicated back in the slums of Kuwait City where I lived.

I was wrong.

Two weeks after wandering around Khalil Gibran's hometown, I was back in Kuwait City, smoking sheesha at my local cafe well past midnight. I got into a game of dominoes with a group of Egyptian construction workers that I sometimes played with.

“What are you reading,” Samah asked me. I was negotiating my next move.

“Salah Al-Hamdani,” I said. The Iraqi poet.

“Oh he's good,” Samah said, “maybe great. But have you read Abdul Rahman Yusuf?”

“Wallah. Yusuf? He should be reading Aziz Abaza,” another man cut in.

For the next three hours a heated debate, one that threatened to derail the domino game entirely, raged about modern Arab poetry. Recommendations were passed my way, arguments turned to silences between friends. It is still one of the finest literary conversations I have ever had and I was the only man in the group with an education above the eleventh grade. And I was nearly shamed with my ignorance of some of the poets mentioned.

I wonder why Americans do not read more poetry. Why is it that the best conversations I have had about poetry---wild conversations that raged with love and honor and passion about poems---have usually been in foreign countries? And usually with people whom we would deem uneducated? Certainly I have had similar conversations here in the United States, but they are usually with poets, and they happen much less frequently than when I have lived abroad.

Prior to Islam, prior to oil, before American daisy cutter bombs, the Bedouin that roamed the Rub al-Khali judged the quality of a warrior on his ability to do three things: ride a horse, shoot a bow and arrow and speak in poetry.

Jimmy Carter wrote a book of poetry.

After World War I the French veterans that took to the road carried Paul Eluard's Capital of Pain around in their backpacks.

Remember that there was a time in this country when Jack Kerouac could appear on the Steve Allen show and perform with Allen riffing the blues on a piano along with him.

Why in America are poetry books so feared by the general reading public?

Part of it has to do with education. I was an English teacher for almost six years, both in public and private schools in the United States and abroad. In all that time, amongst all the different faculties that I worked with, there were only two other teachers that I worked with who actively read poetry. And yet, all of those teachers were required to teach it. I repeatedly witnessed students bemoaning the study of poetry in my own classes when I began my poetry units. I took this lack of enthusiasm to stem from bad experiences with poetry in the past. Seeing what my other coworkers were doing with poetry in their classes it is no wonder so many students learn to hate it. Between providing them with antiquated poems that they do not have the linguistic capability to understand, to having them check off accent marks above the words in a line, to reading them poems with a dull, slapdash enthusiasm born from their own lack of reading, English teachers across the country are murdering poetry.

Don't misunderstand what I am saying here. Classics should be taught and taught rigorously. Verse should be taught side by side with the techniques of prosody so that a reader can see more deeply what is happening within the poetic line. But, considering the decline in reading amongst students in general, these things should come after a student has been given the opportunity to simply enjoy poetry, to see it for all that it can be. If poetry were more a part of our daily lives it would make sense to touch the classics and prosody early in a student's education. After all, they would be getting the rest elsewhere. But they are not. And because poetry has been killed for their parents, or it is deemed too inaccessible, poetry is seen as something difficult or not worth their time, a sentiment passed down often unknowingly from one generation to the next.

There are other reasons for poetry's lack of love in America: badly written criticism, or good criticism in places of which the general public is unaware. A lack of public discourse on poetry in our media.

How sad life is without poetry.

For a short story writer or a novelist, reading poetry greatly helps expand the awareness of the possibility of words. The compression and intensification of experience that a poem requires is essential to understand when writing fiction: how else will you deliver an emotional punch to your reader without a compression and intensification of experience?

For the musician reading poetry will only deepen what can happen in a song, what can happen with rhythm. Check out the complete Chess recordings of Chuck Berry between 1964 and 1969. During this time he recorded multiple sides of his own poems. Berry has said in interviews that poetry is essential to him. Had Chuck Berry never fallen in love with poetry we wouldn't have had rock and roll. Imagine a world without “Maybelline” or “Johnny B. Good” or “Thirty Days.” I wouldn't want to live in it.

But for everyone else poetry has a special magic, something that is equally valuable for their lives. It will make you a better thinker, a better believer, a better lover. Not necessarily in the physical act, but in the overall sense of the word.

We shouldn't have to read because it will do something for us. Too often we expect some type of gain on our investment. Sometimes reading just for the pleasure of it is enough. And yet, with good poetry as with good music, art or fiction, there is always a return. There is always something gained. It is difficult to describe but it is always there. You can feel it.

And remember (to paraphrase Jarrell): poetry is written by a human being alone in front of a blank page.

That means it comes from a human being and is filled with love and anger and emptiness and the hard won memories of lives well lived. It is filled with joy and sadness, completion and stumbling. It is a very human art and because of that, critics and teachers are not necessary to understand it. If you have ever lived, if you have ever felt, poetry is accessible to you. Just take your time with it and remember that those very human things within it are carried to you rhythmically and with sound. Much like music.

I like the idea that the warrior was judged on his ability to speak in poems. There is a romanticism to it that expands the possibility of living. But then I recall the bar room toasters that were once so much a part of the night life here. I recall the cowboy poets riding their way across the plains. The sea shanties that were improvised as whalers took themselves across the world. The outlaw ballads that became bluegrass and country music. The blues born of field hollers and mule skinner work songs. Poetry has always been a part of us and it's time we stop letting people scare us away from it.

By: William Hastings

Kindles Still Aren't Books: Humanity in a Time of Robots

2011-03-17T14:21:00.005-04:00

Tara's reply to our “Kindles Aren't Books” post: I LOVE my kindle. I am and always have been a voracious reader, reading anything I can get my hands on. The kindle has made it so much easier for me to indulge in my love of the written word. I can now carry thousands of books with me all at once. As a writer having any reference material I want at my fingertips where ever I am is invaluable. As a reader the ability to read a book review then buy that book an instant later is a joy. Will I still buy paperbacks? Of course. I still browse book stores and make impulse buys, and it is still exciting to stumble across that gem you didn't even know existed, but my kindle never leaves my side. The facts are that Kindle editions of books are now out selling hardcover editions, and it probably won't be long until they are out selling paperbacks. The kindle will do for publishing what the ipod has done for the music industry. It is the future, there is no point standing in the past.

We apologize for having been gone so long. But, as you know, the book industry is changing and we've been devoting much of our time to staying ahead of the curve. However, Tara's comments got us thinking and we thought we should make our voices heard once more.

You should know that it never once occurred to us to not publish what Tara wrote. Doing so would have been censorship, and as booksellers we are completely, for what should be obvious reasons, opposed to that. However, since Tara posted her comments as a reply, we will exercise our rights to comment back, especially since it would appear that we have been charged with "standing in the past."

Amazon was more than clever to name their e-reader the Kindle. Not because the name in and of itself is clever, or has a certain meaning, but because nowhere in mentioning the name in the manner that Tara did, would you equate the Kindle with Amazon. By itself, the name becomes a cache. A trend, but we'll deal with that later on. The Kindle is most certainly an Amazon product, so we should first understand how that product effects the local community. That is, how the local community that people like to "browse book stores and make impulse buys" in survives in a Kindle world.

Here's the hard facts:

Small business accounts for 75% of all new jobs.
When you spend $100 at an independent business, $68 returns to the local community. Spend that same amount at a national chain and it drops to $43.
For every square foot a local firm occupies, the local economy gains $179 vs. $105 for a chain store.
Locally-owned businesses reinvest in the local economy at a 60% higher rate than chains and Internet retailers.
Small businesses employ just over half all U.S. workers.
Small businesses create more than half the non-farm private gross domestic product (GDP).
Locally-owned and operated businesses create higher-paying jobs for you and your neighbors.

(these facts are from: U.S. Chamber of Commerce – Small Business Nation; Civic Economics – Andersonville Study of Retail Economics. Civic Economics – San Francisco Report on Retail Diversity. U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Buy Local Berkeley via Independent We Stand)

So, with every e-book you buy from Kindle you are taking away from the the local economy, your neighbors, your friends. The vacation places you like to go visit. You have created or sustained no new business enterprises, nor helped to sustain over half of the American working class.

Beyond facts however, we found a fault with Tara's logic.

We too are voracious readers. It's a bad joke, but we make it constantly: we feel that working in a bookstore is like the old company store model, where on pay day we lose more than half of what we earn right back to the bosses. Working at a bookstore certainly helps us to "indulge in [our] love of the written word." But we indulged before we worked here, too. Erasmus, in what is now a coffee mug quote, said that, "When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes." Voracious reading and the continual indulging of the habit is nothing new, and having a bookstore close by, or even within an hour's commute, makes it easy to buy as much as we please. It's even more convenient on rainy days when fewer people are out and about: the place is all yours. The Kindle hasn't changed that, though it has made the speed with which you have instant access to a purchase quicker, certainly. However, if I want a book and the store doesn't have it in stock, then I order it and buy another book in the meantime. After all, there are more books than I have time in my life to read them, so it's not like I am being deprived by not having what I came to the store for in that moment. And, if I know that what I am looking for may not be in stock (since I go to the bookstore regularly enough to have a general idea of what is or is not there--just building a good relationship with a local store) then I can order it ahead of time so that it is there when I absolutely need it. Or, I can ask about its availability and then order ahead of time.

Some people though appear to want to "carry thousands of books with [them] all at once." But, when do you need thousands of books at the same time? Even this writer, who reads four to five books simultaneously, would never think to carry "thousands with [him] all at once." There's just no need. Even when, as this writer experienced, you live in a place like Kuwait, where there are far and few English language bookstores and shipping to that country is massively expensive. Living like that just means I choose the books that I need to carry with me more wisely.

In a culture where we are too used to jumping from one channel to the next or putting our iPods on shuffle and losing the value of listening to a whole album, there is something to be said for only having a few books, or just one damn good one, with you at a given moment. It means that you sustain yourself through close, slow, deep reading. It is an art that is both continually rewarding and necessary in our short attention span culture. Certain books written in antiquity are read today because their truths still hold. They will be read generations from now because they will still reveal new truths. That would imply that certain books have infinite depth and can benefit from multiple readings. It would seem much more practical then to carry one, or a half dozen, of such a book, rather than "thousands" of mediocre one-reads.

As a writer, having "any reference material [that] I want at my fingertips where ever [spelling mistake is not ours] I am is invaluable." What's important here is that without the Kindle I, as a writer [and I am, and by that I mean publishers pay me for what I write], have all that I need whenever I want it. I always have. That's what a good library or library system is for, as well as an independent bookstore. Good libraries and independents will even have what I didn't know I needed, and that's really what this is all about.

Going into a bookstore, a good one, not a chain whose employees don't know their stock, is an invitation to have an employee tell you about a great book that you have never heard of. Likewise, in a good library. It is a personal review, one made face to face--in the best cases, through building a close relationship with your bookseller (like we used to do with our butchers, tailors and farmers). The problem with internet reviewing, especially on a place like Amazon, is that many of those reviews are not made honestly and they are impersonal. There are companies out there where authors can buy reviews--this happens frequently with the self-published books offered on Amazon. It wouldn't surprise us if others used this as well. Also, what is to prevent an author's friends from going on to Amazon--or that author's publicist, agent, publisher, lawyer--and flooding it with positive reviews from multiple email accounts, for the sake of sales? Certainly, the case could be made that jacket blurbs operate the same way, or in the use of advertising dollars in newspaper book review sections, but this is all eliminated by asking for a recommendation from your bookseller. Yes, we want to sell books. We don't work on commission and books are priced fairly evenly, so I do not have to sell you the most expensive one to give you a good read. I can sell you any number of great books priced comparatively to all the crap that is out there without having to lose face. It is in the longevity of the store's interest for me to give you a great, honest, recommendation. It makes repeat customers. You can still walk into a bookstore and "stumble across that gem you didn't even know existed," but you can also eliminate much stumbling by asking for help.

Likewise, with a book recommendation you can still get a review of the book--from the bookseller--and buy that book instantly. It's in my hands, I'm recommending it to you. And if it's not...well, that has already been gone over.

The sheer volume of good literature out there makes it impossible to not always be reading. It makes it impossible to not be able to find something.

This face to face interaction is what sustains communities and builds discourse. Debating and recommending books in person allows other people to overhear those debates and recommendations and discover the conversation's core for themselves. Yes, you can recommend a book you read on the Kindle to someone, but you can't pull it out of your back pocket, push it into their hands and say, "Now. You must." You can't, after your lover leaves the bookstore, sneak back in and buy the book for them that they wanted but maybe couldn't afford in that moment, and then slip it into their coat pocket as a surprise. With Kindles you can't "stumble" into a bookstore on vacation and get into a conversation with a total stranger about a "gem" you never knew of and buy it and enjoy it in ways you never thought possible.

Kindles make book buying a solitary pursuit, when in its best scenario it is an interaction, a discussion between people and communities.

Take the recent events in Egypt for example. As soon as the revolution broke, we moved Naguib Mahfouz and Alaa Al-Aswany's books up to the register. We made a little display with blurbs we wrote about the books and the writers. We've sold out of their books twice over now and they're still selling. People that had been following the events came in and saw books they weren't looking for but were perfect for the moment, and what's more, were the Egyptian people speaking for themselves. I doubt Amazon or the Kindle did that. For that reason alone you could argue that independent bookstores stand on the intellectual front lines of culture.

It should be said that recommending books is not just a one-way conversation from bookseller to customer. We get just as many great recommendations from customers as we give to them. As a bookseller, this is one of the great joys of work.

Tara, as a "writer," would know the lonely, late-night solitary discipline of writing. How, when a year into the writing of a novel, or a month into the third draft of a short story, you've been locked in your head for so long that talking, human contact, is both nice and necessary on a regular basis. But it's not just that. Perhaps because writing is so solitary we seek to have it published, to have other people hear what we've lived and thought and sweated and struggled over for so long. By its nature writing is an act of personal communication. It is Homer talking to us about wanderlust and loss (“Tramping about the world—there's nothing worse for a man”); it is Dante talking to us about a mid-life crisis ("Midway upon the journey of our life/ I found myself within a forest dark,/ For the straightforward pathway had been lost"). By increasing the amount of personal communication that we have over books (an independent bookstore is a wonderful place to do this) we increase our interaction with the great books of the world. Beyond that, we extend the lives of those books into the next generation. Literary history has shown us that "Moby-Dick," arguably the American Novel, was virtually ignored in its time. It wasn't until the Melville revival of the 1920s that its virtues and gifts were truly brought to the forefront. That could not have happened without the "hand selling" of that book from writer to writer, friend to friend, professor to student, customer to employee. Likewise Franz Kafka, Emily Dickinson, John Kennedy Toole. Even today, we see this: recall Stuart O'Nan's plea for a greater readership of Richard Yates in the Boston Review.

This same idea--that neglected writers can be resurrected later through word of mouth tactics--applies to sales figures as well. Sales figures are not any indication of a book's aesthetic value. The 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass--the first book to be voiced in American English, not British English--sold horribly. So, an argument that because e-book editions sell more than hardback or paperback books is not any indication of the quality of the e-book. That's just volume, and volume for those who can afford a Kindle. Inner city libraries and public schools, already horribly underfunded, can't afford them in quantity. They, like the poor in this country, need books all the more, amongst other things. To argue that because e-books sell in such a volume that makes it an indicator of what should be done, is just arguing that whatever sells the most---whatever is the most popular---is what is right. It argues that whatever is a trend is what should be done, irregardless of what has worked for so long. And as history has shown us, not all trends are right. Especially when they threaten the longevity of literature and damage our local communities.

The iPod, as Jon Bon Jovi has so rightly pointed out, has ruined human interaction with music. It has cut out your ability to read liner notes, thus seeing who played what on an album to get another good recommendation for music (what else have they played on? I liked this...). The iPod has cut out buyer's interaction with local music stores, separating the customer from recommendations and good local music scenes. If this is what the Kindle is destined to do, then we want no part of it Imagine a world without book signings, readings where you can have the writer sign the copy of the book they just read to you, where trade shows become simply hand-outs of posters. A world without bookmarks.

Rather, we want to support small presses who have taken in the writers major publishers cut in this recession because they didn't sell as many books as Stephen King (whose work we love, too). We want those presses to stick around and continue to put high quality materials into books. We want books with great dust jackets (since they are so much a part of a good book and help to support artists and photographers); we want to still be able to give face to face recommendations that have not been bought out by "pay to review" schemes and nepotism.

We don't have to stay in the past, either. In fact, any good independent book store has seen that the industry is changing and in order to survive we have to change, too. But that doesn't mean we have to get on the e-reader train. Instead, it just means that independent booksellers and the publishers have to come up with different models of buying, paying, shipping and stocking. Why not extend the 30 day billing period to 90 and give us more time to read and then hand sell the books? Why not encourage consignment-style arrangements in order to increase volume, and thus increase the ability for "gems" to pop up? Changing the model in a new market, not to a new market, ensures independent bookstore success. Tara was right in her implication that there is "no point standing in the past." We change the model and we'll still be around. But if the future only holds Kindles and e-books, then we'll proudly stand in the past defending not only what's right, but the people's jobs and lives that were spent building the book industry: everyone from the typesetter, to the janitor in the printing plant, to the lonely writer staving off madness and poverty trying to top "Moby-Dick."

We'll change the model and we won't stand in the past. But we won't move into the future if it only has Kindles. If the Kindle "is the future" then the future is robotic and we'd rather remain human.

By: William Hastings

Most People Don't Want to Read

2010-08-18T21:06:00.000-04:00

The job isn't much., but it pays and every once in a while someone gives me pizza. The problem with lifeguarding though, is that you are forced to listen to conversations you would normally run from. Look, you're stuck in the stand and people tread water in groups beneath you, talking about medicines and strokes, celebrity gossip, or what local newscasters they believe to be womanizers. Sound echoes off of water...
Yesterday, I was stuck in the chair while a trio of women were plodding along and talking about music. The conversation turned toward rap/hip-hop music. None of the three listened to it. America or the Eagles, yes, but hip-hop and rap, absolutely not. And one of the women, turning slowly on her water noodle, said: “I can't understand what they are saying. I just don't understand it. But when I think about it, I don't want to understand what they are saying.”
It occurred to me then, that this is the problem with literature and ourselves today. That is, perhaps we see a large quantity of fiction that is neither demanding nor moving because a large reading public is asking for just that. They don't want to be challenged or moved. They don't want to understand what the words mean.
Let me approach this from a different angle. Frederick Douglass wrote in his autobiography that his owner, upon finding his own wife teaching the young Douglass to read, said, “ 'If you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master.'” Douglass reflects on this statement then by saying that, “it was a new and special revelation, explaining dark and mysterious things, with which my youthful understanding had struggled, but struggled in vain. I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty---to wit, the white man's power to enslave the black man. It was a grand achievement, and I prized it highly. From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom.” Douglass realized that he had been shut “up in mental darkness,” as he writes. What the slave owner was able to do was to keep his slaves from knowing the words that would set them free: freedom, abolition, rights. If a slave were to not know the word for freedom then how could they voice what they wanted? How were they to know it even existed? By controlling the language, by controlling language's use, slave owners were able to bind other humans into a controlled existence. Douglass' struggle to read is both a struggle to be able to perform the act of reading, but also to understand the words. To understand the words that were being withheld from him. His freedom was predicated on his ability to understand the meanings of the words he encountered and how to use those words on his own terms.
The reader who does not wish to understand what the words mean, who does not seek in either music, the visual arts or literature the meaning of the words that they read is prescribing themselves to a life of control by others, a life of mental servitude. If a reader does not seek to understand then any amount of information could be, and is, withheld from them. This argument is not new, George Orwell made it most famously and repeatedly. But it warrants looking at again, in light of the comments I heard offhand—the most telling time---and in light of our current sociological, political and environmental climate.
The fact that rampant human rights abuses, rising poverty and economic pressures upon the lower and middle classes, environmental disasters of cataclysmic scales and political scheming and money grabbing are not being screamed about en masse, is emblematic of a general desire to not understand the words that are being used around us. Call it a lulling, a refusal, malaise---what have you---it still stands that a lack of vocalized resistance coupled with actions to achieve the positive aims of that resistance would imply that certain words are neither being understood nor used in our common dialogue. We have refused to speak because we don't know the words to yell. We don't know the words because we don't want to understand what they actually mean. It cuts too close to home.
The phenomena of “summer reading” reinforces this argument. At the dawn of each summer we are inundated with lists showing the best summer reads. Often, these lists are accompanied by pictures of prone, tanning adults or teens, soaking in the sun on a beach. Behind the register at the bookstore we are often asked for “a good summer read. You know, nothing depressing. Something with like, a happy ending?” It is interesting to see this happen, this buying of books that are supposed to avoid any and all social realism and instead are meant to serve as “breezy” interludes before school starts again. Here, when people actually have the time or are making the time to read in quantity they do not want anything that reflects their daily lives, or the lives of others, accurately. But why not spend the time and effort to read David Simon and Ed Burn's “The Corner” or George Pelecanos' “Drama City” while sitting in the lawn chair with a beer?
Why not?
It is easy to blame social media, the internet, bad parenting and poor schools for all of this. But those are institutions run by humans and so humans are still at the root of the problem. And since not choosing is still a choice, to paraphrase the band Rush, humans still seem to choose to not look deeply into others or themselves. This in turn feeds the market, since so much of capitalism is built upon demand.
The problem has been shown, but the question still remains as to why. Why the refusal to want to understand the words? Perhaps because looking this closely at our selves is the hardest thing to do. Perhaps because truths that are uncomfortable and difficult may be exposed. Perhaps because upon knowing we will want to act, as Douglass did, and then we will be forced into another confrontation with our own hearts. It won't be easy, for as Douglass wrote, “as I writhed under it, I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy.” But then he realized that he “wished to learn how to write, as I might have an occasion to write my own pass.”
No, it won't be easy. And in doing so we will see our wretched condition. But then we can move from seeing to action, from reading to writing, from reality television to living our own lives.
We need to learn to read first. Then we can write our own passes instead of having them written for us. We can become unmanageable in a middle-management world.
It begins with wanting.

Essay by William Hastings

Quotes taken from Frederick Douglass. “The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass.” Dover Publications, New York. 1995.

Literature in the United States is Not Dead

2010-07-22T20:36:00.002-04:00

Fiction is dead. The New Yorker inbreeds, repeats and exercises futility. Poetry in America is puerile. Best-seller prose has overtaken prose stylists. Everyone is reading vampire or zombie novels. The classics are being castrated and recast in bastardized sci-fi.

We've heard all of these arguments. We hear them every day. Especially in the media itself. And while there is truth to some of this, we simply cannot believe that fiction and poetry in America is dying or on the way out. Even with amazon.com's strongarm, loss-leader buying practices and the wave of elitist e-readers for sale.

What we are seeing now is a repeat of the argument that has plagued the music industry for years. It was an argument that started in the music industry when the compact disc was introduced to replace vinyl. Consumers felt ambushed, artists felt a loss of control. Music seemed poised to die. Yet, it survived. So much so that between 2007 and 2008 vinyl record sales jumped from 988,000 to 1.88 million units. With the influx of digital piracy and file sharing the music industry again lamented its downfall and rightly so. However, a precursory glance at new music releases over the past month will show any casual listener that good music, damn good music, in America is alive and well. As much pressure as the industry faces artists still want to create and young, hungry musicians are still fighting to be heard. They are genre-bending music, while creating new markets for people to discover their music in. It could be argued that there is no better time to be a fan of music than now.

Likewise for literature. Amazon.com might be single-handedly trying to strongarm and sink the publishing industry, but small presses keep popping up and surviving. And while Anis Shivani will caustically argue that the “Best American Poetry” series has “been on a downward slope,” Alan Kaufman's brilliant anthology, “The Outlaw Bible of America Poetry” shows that poetry in this country is still full of as much spit, bone and napalm as it ever was. Poetry, like some of the best literature in this country, is currently thriving with the small presses. Steven Huff's work on FootHills Publishing, Laure-Anne Bosselaar's work with Copper Canyon, the poetry out with Coffee House Press or Archipelago Books, or any of the handfuls of chapbooks and folios being hand-sewn and printed in the United States indicate that poetry is alive and well and being well-crafted on the margins. Certainly, we'd love to see poetry being sold high above the potboilers on the New York Times Book Review's lists, but we know that it wont. But it's more than comforting to know that it is out there, alive and burning.

The hits that the publishing industry has taken over the past few years have only forced good literature to find new homes. While the major publishers still print and support great writing, their ability to hold and keep great writers en masse has diminished. So great writing, like poetry, has found smaller homes, different networks. It doesn't take much to find great writing in America. A quick recommendation from your independent bookseller will usually put you in the right place. Otherwise, a glance at any of the literary magazines in print would serve as a good guide. If that doesn't work, go into a bookstore and look at the spines of the books, find a publisher you have never heard of and buy the book on a whim. And while the merits of MFA programs can be and will be hotly debated there is without a doubt some excellent, emotionally powerful and intellectually stimulating dramatic fiction being produced in them. Whether it sees print or not. For what matters there is that people care enough about the craft at all to want to study it from the inside out.

Speaking of literary magazines: if we all were to subscribe to just two of them there would be a literary renaissance in this country. Think about that.

Literature is not dead in this country. It is alive, well and being produced at a fantastic rate. What it needs is a buying public that is willing to look for it in places it is not accustomed to and to buy it from places they haven't in years. What it needs is more debate like the controversy the New Yorker caused with its selection of great writers under forty. That article for all its flaws got people talking and making alternate lists, exposing the true literary scene, New Yorker magazine and otherwise, in America in all of its guises for the public.

Mostly though, what literature in the United States needs are more middle school and high school English teachers to teach students that there are great stories out there. To teach them that literature is meant to move you first and be analyzed second—or third, or fourth but never first. Those teachers need to emphasize the simple beauty of a well told story, not character charts or multiple choice exams. More importantly, literature in the United States needs parents to support those teachers and the writers in this country by turning the television off and then buying their child a book instead of a cell phone.

Essay by: William Hastings

How to Buy Better Books

2010-05-15T13:28:00.001-04:00

I read liner notes. It's why I don't download music: you don't get the booklet that comes with the CD or the moment that comes with unfolding the vinyl. Plus, you don't learn too much about the music without those notes. More importantly, you never get to see who played on the album, who wrote the songs or who produced it. And knowing those things are the keys to finding great music.

You know how it works. You carefully memorize the producers, record label, players, songwriters. Then you head into the music store and look for another album containing those names, some of them, any of them. Heck, if it worked once, it's bound to work again. This is how I got into jazz. I memorized the players on one album, especially on the Blue Note label which listed them on the back, and went searching for other albums with those players, or groupings of them. If Grant Green and Ben Dixon worked well on "Iron City" then they will work well on Big John Patton's "Let's Roll." If Gram Parsons' backing band on "Grievous Angel" can rip like that, they must certainly elevate The King on "Live at the International." And they did. Soul music works the same way. Anything on the Stax label will have their famous house band, how could it go wrong? Likewise, Motown, Hi Records or Fania.

Ever think of buying books like that?

We get a lot of requests for "books like..." or "another book by....or one like he/she wrote." We have no problem helping you out on those questions or pointing you in the right direction, after all, that's one of our more favorite parts of the job. But we are also here to help make you better book buyers.

On that note, there are some excellent small presses that are out there, who operate like the best record labels. They have good, tight collections, to the point where any book they are putting out is going to be worth your time. Trying to fill aspects of the publishing world that aren't being filled by the majors, or bringing back to life long-lost classics, these presses offer fantastic books by authors you may or may not have heard of. Some specialize in depth in a certain type of genre, others cover more ground. In the interest of keeping you searching and digging through the stacks, instead of the flash/bang trip, here's a list of some of these presses:

Akashic Books, Bitter Lemon Press, New Pulp Press, Archipelago Books, NYRB, Europa Editions, Busted Flush, Underland Press, Melville House, Dalkey Archive, Soho, new Directions, City Lights, Bleak House Books.

Next time you're in, carry that list with you. Look down the spines of the books and pay attention to the publisher instead of the author or title. You'll find some absolute gems this way. And isn't that what buying books is all about?

--William Hastings

Amazon.com Is As Useless As A Wart

2010-05-12T21:26:00.004-04:00

Beirut has as many bookstores as it does bullet holes in its concrete walls. There's an old saying around the Middle East that goes, “The Egyptians write, the Lebanese publish and the Iraqis read.” Knowing this and seeing all of those bookstores scattered around the city, I knew that my time in Beirut was also a time to stock up.

I went to Beirut under a variety of guises: journalist wanting to see how people live, photographer wanting to capture a city molded from French and Arab influences and as a pilgrim wanting to venture into the Northern Lebanese mountains to visit Khalil Gibran's grave. The bars on Hamra Street helped me to answer the first part of my trip, the side streets the second. B'sharri, where Gibran's grave is, came towards the end of the trip, the Israeli fighter jets breaking international law overhead that day being the only thing that marred an ice blue sky. The whole time though, as I wandered and looked I saw bookstores everywhere. Small ones, without signs, tucked into alleys lit only from the inside. Large independents and large Arab chains thrusting themselves out into the foot commerce while shoe-shine boys dragging their boxes along behind them walked in front of the street displays. Outside of one, near Jalmeeze, a rose seller sat on top of a crate, her front tooth missing, asking if I wanted a rose to take home to my Syrian wife. “I'm not Syrian,” I told her. “American.”

“Does it matter?” she said.

The bookstores of Beirut are like the city's street signs: trilingual. Arabic, French and English. The bookstores and street signs as physical symbols of the city's history, the scars of its colonial past, its signpost towards an unknown future.

In between barroom discoveries, military checkpoints and near dawn dancing to Umm Kalthoum covers, I dug through the stacks in the bookstores. I bought all the out-of-print Arab writers translated into English that I could find and discovered some new ones for myself. I spent a rainy afternoon drinking Almaza lager beneath a green awning on Hamra reading Tayeb Saleh wondering where his Nobel was. I knew that Beirut took risks and published books banned in other Arab countries. I scoured used bookstores for Abdelrahman Munif, banned across the entire Arabian Gulf, and tracked down copies of Alhem Mosteghanemi. Each store I entered deepened the sense that I had that good bookstores held a window into understanding a city. The trilingual nature of Beirut's bookstores told me much about Beirut's citizens, the large poetry sections in each told me much about the Lebanese. And these bookstores were deep. Books everywhere, piling on top of each other on floors, windowsills and chairs with all of the available shelf space used up. Deep stocks for the demand. A demand that at night, on rooftop cafes with my sheesha in hand I would watch as kids, adults and couples read over dinner or with a beer. Bars had quotes from books written on the walls, a cab driver recited Taha Hussein to me.

Two days before I left I was wandering the back streets shooting pictures in the dying light of the afternoon. I followed an old lady up the sloping hill of a nameless street, shooting the flowerpots. I crested the hill and looked towards the bottom of the street. It ended at an intersection. Why not?

Just before I hit the intersection I noticed a small bookstore across the street. Small isn't right. Tiny. It was a box stuffed to the gills with books. Home.

I descended a half dozen steps and pushed the door open, knocking over a stack of books in the process. “Te Kalaf,” a voice said. “Wa ya te kalafeeyah,” I answered and restacked the books. The aisles, all three of them were as wide as I was, my shoulders brushed the walls of books on either side of me. French was against the far wall, English to the left and Arabic to the right. I went towards the Arabic section.

It was all there.

All that I wanted.

Seeing that the books were stacked three deep on the shelves, I began pulling books out to see how they were arranged. As I did so I saw how thoroughly the store was stocked. I knew then that they would have to have a copy of Al-Ma'ari in Arabic, the blind Syrian poet from the 1100s. I wanted in Arabic his: “But truth still hides her face in hood and veil./Is there no ship or shore my outstretched hands/May grasp, to save me from this malicious sea?”

Blue cloth. Gold lettering on the spine: Al-Ma'ari. I nearly leaped.

“The Arab Socrates, no?”

I turned to see a small man, his face narrow and intelligent, standing behind me.

“Yes,” I replied in Arabic.

“Ayad,” he said, extending his hand.

“Is mi William,” I said.

He tilted his head to one side. My accent.

“Anna Amerikiya,” I told him.

“Ah. I wondered. Your accent is almost Palestinian,” he said in English.

“My tutor.”

“And you can read Al-Ma'ari?”

“A little. It's tough, its old Arabic as you know, but I want to have it.”

“And you should. Have you read Rabih Alameddine?”

“No.”

“But you must,” Ayad said, turned and disappeared. I went back to the stacks, trying not to turn around too often in fear of knocking something off the shelves, and looked for a copy of Ibn Tarafa's “Mu'Allaqat” where he says, “Come off it! you who tell me not to fight &/ not to fuck, if ever I did quit,/could you offer me immortality?” Beautiful words for before 570 a.d.

Ayad returned, offered me a cigarette and handed me a copy of Alameddine's “Koolaids,” a book he described as being “incredibly important.” I opened it and began reading aloud.

We spent the next hour going back and forth between the Arabic and English sections, smoking cigarettes and drinking tea, reciting our favorites, swapping recommendations. As we read the stacks felt like they were closing in, each book demanding my attention. But the enclosure felt comforting, as if each new discovery could take me to the place I was looking for.

He asked what I was doing in Beirut. I told him I was a journalist. He smiled and said he was a poet. He went to a corner shelf, near the Arabic section and pulled down a book of his poems. He read to me. His lines were clipped and rang like ejected shotgun shells hitting glass floors. He spoke of the loss and the woman, that sharp corner of the night. Of cheating and knowing. Of the thing just beyond the fingertips.

He finished, smiled, lit another cigarette and inscribed the book to me. He shook his head when I asked him to add it to the stack of books I had going on the register.

Later, he slid a business card into his book and packed my purchase up. We shook hands and I walked up his stairs, past a stack of books and out into the falling rain, leaving the magic behind me just this one time.

None of that happens with Amazon.com

Photographs and Essay By: William Hastings

Kindles Aren't Books

2010-04-23T18:53:00.001-04:00

I was twenty, newly tattooed and sobering up. I was running late. The Greyhound bus I boarded in Pittsburgh smelled like old sweat and food. A red-eye, I was going to move through the night, across the open fields of middle-Pennsylvania for a crack of dawn arrival in Philadelphia. There didn't seem to be an available seat on the bus and the driver was watching me through the rear-view to sit down before he backed out into the steel city night. I scanned the bus, tired, in and out of it, and saw a seat on the aisle three rows from the back. A large black man was in the window seat, more piled there than sitting, a muscular pylon rising out of the fabric. Our eyes met. I didn't have to look down into his to do it.

“Mind if I sit here?” I asked.

“Only if you'll talk about Nietzsche,” he said.

I looked at my hands. I was carrying the Viking Portable Nietzsche in my left hand, the cover facing out to the world. Red-eye reading.

We spent the next seven hours talking about the nature of god, will, the meaning of religion. He was a studying with the Jesuits in New York, on his way home from visiting friends.

That never would have happened if I was a Kindle user.

If I used that electronic reader, he never would have seen the cover, never would have commented and those seven hours would have been spent alone instead of in the company of someone from whom I learned much. A decade later I can still recall the smell of the bus, the gravel in his voice and his precise view on “Zarathustra.”

The Kindle gets rid of the cover and so it eliminates all the sweet, surprising moments that come with reading. Those chance meetings in a bar, a restaurant or cafe, the beach, wherever people sit and read and can see the covers of others' books. Wherever it is that they can comment on those covers and talk.

The Kindle kills the romance of reading.

With Kindles, Lawrence Durrell never would have found a used copy of Henry Miller's “Tropic of Cancer” in an outhouse on Corfu, sparking a friendship and exploration with Miller that lasted 45 years. America would never have known of Miller's work had that paperback not been found. With Kindles Mario Lima wouldn't read in the shower in Roberto Bolano's “Savage Detectives” and Bolano himself never would have stolen all those Philip K. Dick books that made him want to write. Jake Barnes waiting on a train reading “A Hunter's Notebook” loses something with a Kindle. That was always one of the best scenes in “The Sun Also Rises”: you can see Jake sitting there, in a suit, his legs crossed at the ankles and holding an open hardback copy of Turgenev in his hands. The train whistle sounds, he looks up at the station clock, smiles, closes the book and slides it carefully into his suitcase. The bull fighting awaits.

Picturing that scene with Jake and a Kindle takes away the possibility that another woman could happen by, comment on his copy of Turgenev and take up enough time to spare him from thoughts of Brett. It removes the edge off of the scene, it kills its musk and anticipation.

Kindles can't be rolled up and stuffed into the back of a pair of Levis. They can't be found in used bookstores full of another person's notes, those forlorn hieroglyphics from another's summer days. They can't weather the spilled glass of wine, the beer stains from those snow sodden January days at the bar. They can't be opened to the middle, stuffed with a postcard and a letter and mailed to your lover. They can't be hollowed out to carry a file to bust a friend from jail. They don't excite.

They are simply another way for someone to show that they possess something someone else doesn't have or cannot afford. In that sense, they are the perfect projection of status showmanship that has landed us into so much trouble already. But books were always the great equalizer. A paperback can pass hands in the street and illuminate the corners of life politics doesn't talk about. Chapbooks can build poets, underground newspapers get bound and create legends. Books get donated to homeless shelters and perhaps give hope. Charles S. Dutton took an anthology of black playwrights into solitary confinement while doing time on a manslaughter beef. He emerged wanting to act and start a troupe in the prison. He was allowed to do so on the condition that he get his GED. He's won more than a few Emmys since then.

Kindles aren't an equalizing force. While their cost may drop in the coming years they still will not gain the ability to be discovered, the ability to be smuggled, to be passed and recommended, mailed, inscribed, kissed, left behind on purpose, forgotten, tucked onto a shelf, stuffed into a backpack for the long hike, stuffed into a glove compartment with a flask for the long drive. Kindles won't join fire lookouts on mountaintops to inspire “The Dharma Bums.” Kindles won't force the revolution. Kindles aren't a threat people want to burn.

It's that ability, the ability to inspire, to strike fear, to engender love that all books carry and that all machines ultimately lose. They lose the romance of reading.

Someone stops into the store and asks how business is. Then they ask if “all those Kindles” have hurt business.

They haven't and they won't.

The machines will always lose.

Chance and possibility will win.

And on Greyhound buses running across state lines in the night, college students will still strike up conversations with saints over the paperbacks in their hands.

By: William Hastings

Genre Not Genre

2010-04-22T21:00:00.003-04:00

I'll admit to it, I have no shame. I used to shop in the store before I starting working for it. Rainy days especially. I'd come in with my brother, buy a stack of books and then head over to the Logan to read and drink by the fire and talk with Philip while he worked the bar. Each trip was the same, especially in Farley's: in the door, turn a hard right and check out the deep-stock of the poetry section. Then down to the middle aisle for the literature. Then the classics. Maybe bio or travel, history or current events, but I'd never make a trip without hitting poetry, literature and classics. But sci-fi or mystery or heaven forbid, true crime? Please, I wouldn't be caught dead in those sections, let alone reading a mass market paperback with the high-gloss cover. Literature, I read literature.

Farley's has humbled me since then. Taking the time to dig through the stacks and most importantly listen to the left-field recommendations of the staff helped turn my head inside out. Literature does not simply exist in the middle aisle or in the poetry section. Some of the best works of literature, especially in the twentieth century, were written and then sold in the sci-fi or mystery/crime fiction genres. Some of the best journalism we've seen is currently sitting in the true crime section. These are books that are so good, so perfect in execution, character and thought that they are elevated above the morass of the potboilers sitting in those genres. These are books that because of their perfections should be filed in that middle aisle. But, because the novels contain an alternate look at our world or future they are marketed by publicists as "sci-fi;" or because they contain a crime they are filed in mystery. Didn't Kurt Vonnegut write about machines, possible futures and science? Didn't Nelson Algren center his National Book Award winning "The Man With A Golden Arm" around a crime? Marketing, it's all done by marketing.

Our job is to turn our customers on to the best books there are. Many of those books are sitting in corners of the store that we unfortunately don't head into. Next time you're in, take the time to dig through the sections you neglect or get a recommendation. We're leaving the books where they're marketed for now, if only to lure you out of your book-searching-comfort-zones. If you want a superb prediction of where we're headed, go through sci-fi. If you want social realism, look for Philip K. Dick or Andrew Vachss. If you need a good biography head into the travel writing section. There's plenty more, plenty more. It's okay, trust us. I did. I'll admit to it, I have no shame.

Farley's Bookshop

Writers' Birthdays = Discounted Books!

2010-01-29T11:05:00.003-05:00

Here at Farley's, we've decided to celebrate the birthdays of some of our favorite authors by sharing their books with you--at discounted prices! On the day of a given writer's birthday, we'll be offering his/her books for 15% off all day long!

Upcoming birthdays to keep in mind:

1/29 Thomas Paine
1/30 Richard Brautigan
1/31 Norman Mailer
2/1 Langston Hughes
2/2 James Joyce
2/3 Paul Auster
2/5 William S. Burroughs
2/7 Charles Dickens
2/8 Kate Chopin
2/9 J.M. Coetzee

Farley's Book Club: February 2010

2010-01-21T12:15:00.000-05:00

Think you know the story of Pinocchio? Think again! If all you know of the little wooden boy is his Disney incarnation, you're missing out... join us on February 16th as our book club gets together to discuss Carlo Collodi's original Pinocchio.

Though one of the best-known books in the world, Pinocchio at the same time remains unknown--certainly in America, where it is linked in many minds to the Walt Disney movie that bears little relation to Carlo Collodi's splendid original. That story--is about, of course, a puppet who succeeds after many trials and tribulations in becoming a "real" boy, and is hardly the sentimental and morally improving tale it has been taken for.

To the contrary, Pinocchio is one of the great subversives of the written page (you might compare him to his close contemporary Huck Finn), a madcap genius, hurtled along at the pleasure and mercy of his desires. It is his unabashedness, his unwillingness to give up on anything he wants, that drives him on and delights us. And Pinocchio the book, like Pinocchio the character, is one of the great inventions of world literature, a sublime anomaly, merging the traditions of the picaresque, of the commedia dell'arte, and of the fairy tale into a singular book that is at once adventure, comedy, and irreducible conundrum, one that anticipates surrealism and magical realism. Thronged with memorable characters and composed with the fluid but inevitable logic of a dream, Pinocchio is a masterpiece of satire, fantasy, and sheer wonder that is endlessly absorbing, amusing, and surprising: essential equipment for life.

In this new translation by Geoffrey Brock, the prizewinning translator of Cesare Pavese and Umberto Eco, Pinocchio finally has an English rendering worthy of the inspired original.

We'll be meeting on Tuesday, February 16th at 7 pm, and we can't wait to see you there!

Calling All Mystery Fans: 2010 Edgar Nominees Announced!

2010-01-20T11:00:00.009-05:00

We have quite a loyal customer base of mystery fans, and this year's nominees for the Edgar Allan Poe Awards have just been announced! Awarded annually by the Mystery Writers of America, the Edgars honor the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction, and television.

Up for best novel are:

The Missing, by Tim Gautreaux

Sam Simoneaux's troopship docked in France just as World War I came to an end. Still, what he saw of the devastation there sent him back to New Orleans eager for a normal life and a job as a floorwalker in the city's biggest department store, and to start anew with his wife years after losing a son to illness. But when a little girl disappears from the store on his shift, he loses his job and soon joins her parents working on a steamboat plying the Mississippi and providing musical entertainment en route. Sam comes to suspect that on the downriver journey someone had seen this magical child and arranged to steal her away, and this quest leads him not only into this raucous new life on the river and in the towns along its banks but also on a journey deep into the Arkansas wilderness. Here he begins to piece together what had happened to the girl--a discovery that endangers everyone involved and sheds new light on the massacre of his own family decades before.

The Odds, by Kathleen George

The Homicide Department is upside down--Richard Christie is in the hospital, Artie Dolan is headed away on vacation, John Potocki's life is falling apart, and Colleen Greer is so worried about her boss's health, she can hardly think. A young boy in Pittsburgh's North Side neighborhood dies of a suspicious overdose. The Narcotics police are working on tips and they draft Colleen and Potocki to help them. In this same neighborhood, four young kids have been abandoned and are living on their own. The Philips kids, brainy in school, are reluctant to compromise themselves. But they need cash. Connecting these people and their stories is Nick Banks, just out of prison and working off a debt to an old acquaintance involved in the drug trade. Nick is a charmer, a gentle fellow who's had a lot of trouble in his life. One day he gives free food to the Philips kids, little guessing how connected their lives are about to become. Kathleen George's latest work pushes the edge--a spectacularly original crime novel.

The Last Child, by John Hart

Thirteen year-old Johnny Merrimon had the perfect life: a warm home and loving parents; a twin sister, Alyssa, with whom he shared an irreplaceable bond. He knew nothing of loss, until the day Alyssa vanished from the side of a lonely street. Now, a year later, Johnny finds himself isolated and alone, failed by the people he'd been taught since birth to trust. No one else believes that Alyssa is still alive, but Johnny is certain that she is---confident in a way that he can never fully explain.

Determined to find his sister, Johnny risks everything to explore the dark side of his hometown. It is a desperate, terrifying search, but Johnny is not as alone as he might think. Detective Clyde Hunt has never stopped looking for Alyssa either, and he has a soft spot for Johnny. He watches over the boy and tries to keep him safe, but when Johnny uncovers a dangerous lead and vows to follow it, Hunt has no choice but to intervene. Then a second child goes missing . . .

Undeterred by Hunt's threats or his mother's pleas, Johnny enlists the help of his last friend, and together they plunge into the wild, to a forgotten place with a history of violence that goes back more than a hundred years. There, they meet a giant of a man, an escaped convict on his own tragic quest. What they learn from him will shatter every notion Johnny had about the fate of his sister; it will lead them to another far place, to a truth that will test both boys to the limit.

Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, by Charlie Huston

With his teaching career derailed by tragedy and his slacker days numbered, Webster Fillmore Goodhue makes an unlikely move and joins Clean Team, charged with tidying up L.A.'s grisly crime scenes. For Web, it's a steady gig, and he soon finds himself sponging a Malibu suicide's brains from a bathroom mirror and flirting with the man's bereaved and beautiful daughter.

Then things get weird: The dead man's daughter asks a favor. Every cell in Web's brain tells him to turn her down, but something makes him hit the Harbor Freeway at midnight to help her however he can. Soon enough it's Web who needs the help when gun-toting California cowboys start showing up on his doorstep. What's the deal? Is it something to do with what he cleaned up in that motel room in Carson? Or is it all about the brewing war between rival trauma cleaners? Web doesn't have a clue, but he'll need to get one if he's going to keep from getting his face kicked in. Again. And again. And again...

Nemesis, by Jo Nesbo

Captured on closed-circuit television: A man walks into an Oslo bank, puts a gun to a cashier's head, and tells her to count to twenty-five. When he doesn't get his money fast enough, he pulls the trigger. The young woman dies--and two million Norwegian kroner disappear without a trace.

After a drunken evening with his former girlfriend, Anna Bethsen, Police Detective Harry Hole wakes up at home with a headache, no cell phone, and no memory of the past twelve hours. That same day, Anna is found shot dead in her bedroom, making Hole a prime suspect in an investigation led by his hated adversary Tom Waaler. Meanwhile, the bank robberies continue with unparalleled savagery, sending rogue detective Hole from the streets of Oslo to steaming Brazil in a race to close two cases and clear his name. But Waaler isn't finished with his longtime nemesis quite yet.

A Beautiful Place to Die, by Malla Nunn

In a morally complex tale rich with authenticity, Nunn takes readers to Jacob's Rest, a tiny town on the border between South Africa and Mozambique. It is 1952, and new apartheid laws have recently gone into effect, dividing a nation into black and white while supposedly healing the political rifts between the Afrikaners and the English. Tensions simmer as the fault line between the oppressed and the oppressors cuts deeper, but it's not until an Afrikaner police officer is found dead that emotions more dangerous than anyone thought possible boil to the surface.

When Detective Emmanuel Cooper, an Englishman, begins investigating the murder, his mission is preempted by the powerful police Security Branch, who are dedicated to their campaign to flush out black communist radicals. But Detective Cooper isn't interested in political expediency and has never been one for making friends. He may be modest, but he radiates intelligence and certainly won't be getting on his knees before those in power. Instead, he strikes out on his own, following a trail of clues that lead him to uncover a shocking forbidden love and the imperfect life of Captain Pretorius, a man whose relationships with the black and colored residents of the town he ruled were more complicated and more human than anyone could have imagined.

To check out a complete list of all the nominees--including those for best short story, YA, critical/biographical, TV episode, and more--visit http://www.theedgars.com/nominees.html.

ALA 2010 Youth Media Awards!

2010-01-17T22:03:00.011-05:00

This morning was a big morning for fans of children's & young adult literature, as the American Library Association announced this year's winners of its Youth Media Awards, including the Newbery, Caldecott, and Printz. Read on for all the details!

John Newbery Medals for the most distinguished contribution to children's literature

When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead

Newbery Honor Books:

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick

Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished picture book for children

The Lion and the Mouse, by Jerry Pinkney

Caldecott Honor Books:

All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon, Illustrated by Marla Frazee
Red Sings from Treetops : A Year in Colors by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski

Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature

Going Bovine, by Libba Bray

Printz Honor Books:

Tales of the Madman Underground by John Barnes
Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman
Punkzilla by Adam Rapp
The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

In other award news, Deb Heiligman's Charles and Emma also won the first YALSA Nonfiction Award--congrats, Deb! Mo Willems won the Theodore Seuss Geisel Award for Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (given for the most distinguished book for beginning readers). Walter Dean Myers received the first ever Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement; children's nonfiction author Jim Murphy won the Margaret A. Edwards award for Lifetime Achievement.

There's a great list of books that won the Alex Award as well, which recognizes adult books with appeal to young adults and includes Farley's staff favorite Stitches, by David Small. For a complete list of winners and awards, visit ALA Youth Media Awards.

So, what do you think of this year's winners? When You Reach Me has been a staff favorite at Farley's all year, so we're thrilled--but not surprised!--that it won the Newbery, and we're so excited for the formerly local Deborah Heiligman's successes. Congrats to all the winners!

Local Author Spotlight: Diana Wells

2010-01-16T15:44:00.012-05:00

This weekend, we were pleased to welcome Diana Wells, author of Lives of the Trees to the bookshop! A friend to all trees and an advocate of green living, Diana doesn't travel much--to keep her carbon footprint low--but joined us for an exclusive signing.

Her books are favorites of ours in our Nature and Gardening sections, and her newest book, Lives of the Trees, is no exception. In it, Wells explores humanity's intricate and deep-rooted history with trees. As she investigates the names and meanings of trees, telling their legends and lore, she reminds us of just how innately bound we are to these protectors of our planet. Since the human race began, we have depended on them for food, shade, shelter and fuel, not to mention furniture, musical instruments, medicine utensils and more.

Wells was recently featured on NPR's "All Things Considered"; click here to learn more, and to listen to her interview in its entirety. Then, visit us at Farley's--the only place you can find a signed copy of Lives of the Trees!

Expand Your Reading Horizons with the 10-10-10 Challenge!

2010-01-15T12:21:00.010-05:00

Be it one author by whom you feel compelled to read everything ever written, or that genre you're completely addicted to, it's all too easy to get stuck in a reading rut... to wrap yourself in that cozy little bubble of books you know you'll love and never crawl out. And really, who doesn't appreciate knowing that the next book you pick up is going to be one you can't put down?

But what about all of those amazing reads outside of the bubble? The ones you risk missing out on? That incredible biography overlooked by the fiction enthusiast, that perfect novel brushed aside by the history buff, that amazing short story collection ignored by the mystery-lover... well this year, we've discovered the perfect way to challenge yourself to pop the bubble and seek out books from a new section of Farley's: the 10-10-10 Reading Challenge.

The challenge was inspired by one at Library Thing, and is being spearheaded by two Twitter book professionals, Kalen Landow (@kalenski) and Melissa Klug (@permanentpaper). Here's how it works: choose ten genres/categories of books that are outside of your reading comfort zone. They can be anything you like! If you've never read a YA book, choose YA! If you'd like to make an effort to read more books by local authors, create a local author category! Then, try to read 10 books in each of your 10 categories by 10/10/10.

We know what you're thinking--100 books by October? Crazy! But the good news is that it's only a goal. If you don't make it to 100 by October 10th, no worries; the idea is just to challenge yourself to expand your reading. And keep in mind that some of what you read could count toward more than one category! For example, if two of your categories are YA and local authors, Marie Lamba's What I Meant... counts for both.

Farley's staffer Lauren has jumped in, with these categories:

Non-fiction
Poetry/Novels in Verse
Science Fiction/Fantasy
Mystery/Crime/Thriller
Too Long TBR
Graphic Novels
Philadelphia Fiction
As-Yet-Unread Classics
Twitter Authors
Twitter Recommendations

To join the challenge, or just to learn more, visit http://101010reading.blogspot.com. Then let us recommend some great titles to you--from any section of the bookshop!

Congratulations to Matt Phelan!

2010-01-08T11:23:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year all! We hope that 2010 is off to a wonderful start for everyone, as it certainly is for us... one of our resolutions this year is to do a better job of keeping up with our blog, and we thought we'd start by congratulating Matt Phelan, the 2010 winner of the Scott O'Dell Award!

Children's writer Scott O'Dell created the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction in 1982, hoping to "encourage other writers--particularly new authors--to focus on historical fiction." He hoped that this would "increase the interest of young readers in the historical background that has helped to shape their country and their world." Awarded annually, the $5,000 prize goes to a book published in the previous year for children or young adults. To learn more about Scott O'Dell and the Scott O'Dell award, you can visit O'Dell's site here. For more on this year's winner, keep reading!

The Storm in the Barn is an artful, haunting graphic novel following 11-year-old Jack Clark. In Kansas in the year 1937, Jack faces his share of ordinary challenges: local bullies, his father’s failed expectations, a little sister with an eye for trouble. But he also has to deal with the effects of the Dust Bowl, including rising tensions in his small town and the spread of a shadowy illness. Certainly a case of "dust dementia" would explain who (or what) Jack has glimpsed in the Talbot’s abandoned barn—a sinister figure with a face like rain. In a land where it never rains, it’s hard to trust what you see with your own eyes—and harder still to take heart and be a hero when the time comes. With phenomenal pacing, sensitivity, and a sure command of suspense, Matt Phelan ushers us into a world where desperation is transformed by unexpected courage.

Bestsellers of 2009

2009-12-31T11:58:00.006-05:00

A new year is almost upon us, and to celebrate, we thought we'd take a look back at some of our bestsellers this year... check 'em out, and let us know what you think!

At the Counter: Star Wars Fandex by Christopher Cerasi, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith

Art: A rt & Physics by Leonard Shlain

Biography: The Soloist by Steve Lopez

True Crime: Havana Nocturne by T.J. English

Current Events: 3 Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

Cookbooks: Canal House Cooking Vol. 1 (with Vol. 2 coming in second!) by Melissa Hamilton & Christopher Hirsheimer

Food lit: The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

Essays: Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut

Gift: Bucks County For All Seasons by Bucks Co. Town & Country Living

History: The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman and Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Humor: The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks

Graphic Novels: Watchmen by Alan Moore

General Fiction: The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

Kids' Books:
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw by Jeff Kinney (Middle Grade)
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (YA)
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (Picture Books)
Haiku Baby by Betsy Snyder (Board Books)
Barbarians by Steven Kroll (Nonfiction)

Music: This Is Your Brain On Music by Daniel J. Levitin

Mystery: Dope Thief by Dennis Tafoya

Nature: A Place of My Own by Michael Pollan

New Age: Witches Almanac 2009-2010

Eastern Philosophy: In the Face of Fear: Buddhist Wisdom for Challenging Times, Barry Boyce, ed.

Parenting: What to Expect When You're Expecting by Heidi Murkoff

Philosophy & Religion: Plato & a Platypus W alk Into A Bar by Tom Cathcart & Daniel Klein

Poetry: Book of Longing by Leonard Cohen

Politics: Empire of Illusion by Chris Hedges

Psychology: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Reference: The Old Farmers Almanac 2010

Science: Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku

Science Fiction: Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

Sociology: Hippie by Barry Miles

Sports: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall

Travel: Weird N.J. by Mark Moran & Mark Sceurman

Local Interest: Haunted New Hope by Lynda Lee Macken

Wine: Accidental Connoisseur by Lawrence Osborne

Did your favorite books of 2009 make the list? Any surprises? Let us know in the comments, and Happy New Year!!

Farley's Book Club: January 2010

2009-12-26T15:08:00.004-05:00

It's been a busy December for us here at Farley's... thanks so much for shopping local this holiday season, and we hope that it's been a joyous one! As we get closer and closer to 2010, we're excited to announce our first book club pick for the new year: David Benioff's City of Thieves.

During the Nazis' brutal siege of Leningrad, Lev Beniov is arrested for looting and thrown into the same cell as a handsome deserter named Kolya. Instead of being executed, Lev and Kolya are given a shot at saving their own lives by complying with an outrageous directive: secure a dozen eggs for a powerful Soviet colonel to use in his daughter's wedding cake. In a city cut off from all supplies and suffering unbelievable deprivation, Lev and Kolya embark on a hunt through the dire lawlessness of Leningrad and behind enemy lines to find the impossible.

By turns insightful and funny, thrilling and terrifying, City of Thieves is a gripping, cinematic World War II adventure and an intimate coming-of-age story with an utterly contemporary feel for how boys become men.

Please join us for some great discussion and light refreshments on Tuesday, January 19th at 7 pm. Hope to see you there!

Order online.

December Book Club Pick!

2009-11-23T10:07:00.000-05:00

Thanks so much to everyone who came out to our November Book Club discussion, and made it one of our best yet! Now, we're excited to announce our selection for December: Niccolo Ammaniti's As God Commands.

The economically depressed village of Varrano, where Cristiano Zena lives with his hard-drinking, out-of-work father, Rino, is a world away from the picturesque towns of travel-brochure Italy. When Rino and his rough-edged cronies Danilo and Quattro Formaggi come up with a plan to reverse all their fortunes, Cristiano wonders if maybe their lives are poised for deliverance after all. But the plan goes horribly awry. On a night of apocalyptic weather, each character will act in a way that will have irreversible consequences for themselves and others, and Cristiano will find his life changed forever, and not in the way he had hoped.

Please join us on Tuesday, December 15th at 7 pm for what's sure to be a fascinating discussion--and, as always, for some light refreshments. See you there!

National Book Awards 2009

2009-11-20T14:32:00.009-05:00

The National Book Foundation announced the winners of this year's National Book Awards this week, and they chose some great ones! Check 'em out:

FICTION

Colum McCann took home the win in the fiction category with Let the Great World Spin. In the dawning light of a late-summer morning, the people of lower Manhattan stand hushed, staring up in disbelief at the Twin Towers. It is August 1974, and a mysterious tightrope walker is running, dancing, leaping between the towers, suspended a quarter mile above the ground. In the streets below, a slew of ordinary lives become extraordinary in bestselling novelist Colum McCann's stunningly intricate portrait of a city and its people.

Let the Great World Spin is the critically acclaimed author's most ambitious novel yet: a dazzlingly rich vision of the pain, loveliness, mystery, and promise of New York City in the 1970s. Corrigan, a radical young Irish monk, struggles with his own demons as he lives among the prostitutes in the middle of the burning Bronx. A group of mothers gather in a Park Avenue apartment to mourn their sons who died in Vietnam, only to discover just how much divides them even in grief. A young artist finds herself at the scene of a hit-and-run that sends her own life careening sideways. Tillie, a thirty-eight-year-old grandmother, turns tricks alongside her teenage daughter, determined not only to take care of her family but to prove her own worth.

Elegantly weaving together these and other seemingly disparate lives, McCann's powerful allegory comes alive in the unforgettable voices of the city's people, unexpectedly drawn together by hope, beauty, and the "artistic crime of the century." A sweeping and radical social novel, Let the Great World Spin captures the spirit of America in a time of transition, extraordinary promise, and, in hindsight, heartbreaking innocence.

NONFICTION

This year's winner for nonfiction was The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, by T.J. Stiles.

Founder of a dynasty, builder of the original Grand Central, creator of an impossibly vast fortune, Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt is an American icon. Humbly born on Staten Island during George Washington's presidency, he rose from boatman to builder of the nation's largest fleet of steamships to lord of a railroad empire. Lincoln consulted him on steamship strategy during the Civil War; Jay Gould was first his uneasy ally and then sworn enemy; and Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president of the United States, was his spiritual counselor. We see Vanderbilt help to launch the transportation revolution, propel the Gold Rush, reshape Manhattan, and invent the modern corporation--in fact, as T. J. Stiles elegantly argues, Vanderbilt did more than perhaps any other individual to create the economic world we live in today.

In The First Tycoon, Stiles offers the first complete, authoritative biography of this titan, and the first comprehensive account of the Commodore's personal life. It is a sweeping, fast-moving epic, and a complex portrait of the great man. Vanderbilt, Stiles shows, embraced the philosophy of the Jacksonian Democrats and withstood attacks by his conservative enemies for being too competitive. He was a visionary who pioneered business models. He was an unschooled fist-fighter who came to command the respect of New York's social elite. And he was a father who struggled with a gambling-addicted son, a husband who was loving yet abusive, and, finally, an old man who was obsessed with contacting the dead.

The First Tycoon is the exhilarating story of a man and a nation maturing together: the powerful account of a man whose life was as epic and complex as American history itself.

POETRY

Keith Waldrop won for poetry with his Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy.

This compelling selection of recent work by internationally celebrated poet Keith Waldrop presents three related poem sequences--"Shipwreck in Haven," "Falling in Love through a Description," and "The Plummet of Vitruvius"--in a virtuosic poetic triptych. In these quasi-abstract, experimental lines, collaged words torn from their contexts take on new meanings. Waldrop, a longtime admirer of such artists as the French poet Raymond Queneau and the American painter Robert Motherwell, imposes a tonal override on purloined materials, yet the originals continue to show through. These powerful poems, at once metaphysical and personal, reconcile Waldrop's romantic tendencies with formal experimentation, uniting poetry and philosophy and revealing him as a transcendentalist for the new millennium.

YOUNG PEOPLE'S LITERATURE

And finally, in the young people's category, Phillip Hoose won for his biography of civil rights activist Claudette Colvin, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice. (Claudette Colvin herself even attended the evening's events!)

On March 2, 1955, an impassioned teenager, fed up with the daily injustices of Jim Crow segregation, refused to give her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Instead of being celebrated as Rosa Parks would be just nine months later, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin found herself shunned by her classmates and dismissed by community leaders. Undaunted, a year later she dared to challenge segregation again as a key plaintiff in "Browder v. Gayle," the landmark case that struck down the segregation laws of Montgomery and swept away the legal underpinnings of the Jim Crow South.

Based on extensive interviews with Claudette Colvin and many others, Phillip Hoose presents the first in-depth account of an important yet largely unknown civil rights figure, skillfully weaving her dramatic story into the fabric of the historic Montgomery bus boycott and court case that would change the course of American history.

Congratulations to all of the winners!! For more on this year's winners & finalists (including interviews with the authors!), or to learn more about the Awards and the National Book Foundation, visit http://www.nationalbook.org.

Walter the Farting... Pumpkin??

2009-11-05T11:26:00.000-05:00

Well, our first ever pumpkin decorating contest has come to a close, and we're pleased to announce our winner! The winning pumpkin was decorated by Grant, and is none other than Walter the Farting Dog, complete with fart! Check him out:

Farley's staffers Lauren & Mike were equally proud of their pumpkins (Greg Heffley and the Very Hungry Caterpillar, respectively), so of course they earned a spot in our winning pumpkin display too:

Thanks for your creativity, and for making us all laugh, Grant! And thanks as well to everyone who participated!!

Congratulations to Canal House Cooking!

2009-10-30T14:14:00.005-04:00

Farley's favorite and local production Canal House Cooking Volume 1 has been nominated for the 2009 Piglet Award! Awarded by food52, which celebrates home cooks, cookbooks, and recipes, the Piglet is given to the winner of the Tournament of Cookbooks, which sees the 16 most notable cookbooks of the year pitted against one another.

Canal House Cooking Volume 1 has already made it through the first two rounds of competition, which were judged by James Beard Award-nominated cookbook author Heidi Swanson and actress/foodie Gwyneth Paltrow. Check out what they had to say about Volume 1 and follow the progress of the Tournament of Cookbooks by visiting http://www.food52.com/the_piglet.

Volume 2 of Canal House Cooking is now available at Farley's, and it is packed with an assortment of delicious recipes for the holiday season! Stop by today to pick up your copy of the newest collection of seasonal recipes by local food artists Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer.

Congratulations, Canal House!!

November Book Club Pick!

2009-10-23T10:12:00.003-04:00

Thanks to everyone who joined us this past Tuesday as our book club met to discuss The Hakawati! For November, we've chosen to read People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks.

"When an Australian rare-book conservator named Hanna Heath finds a butterfly wing, a salt crystal, a white hair, and bloodstains in the recently rediscovered Sarajevo Haggadah, a late-medieval illuminated codex of uncertain provenance, she sets out to solve the mystery of the book’s origins. To her disappointment, analysis of the specimens reveals little. 'It’s too bad,' an organic chemist tells her. 'Blood is potentially so dramatic.'

Brooks, beginning where science leaves off, uses Hanna’s finds as entry points to richly imagined historical landscapes peopled by the Haggadah’s creators, protectors, and would-be destroyers—a female Muslim slave in Convivencia Spain, a Jewish doctor in fin-de-siècle Vienna, an alcoholic priest in seventeenth-century Venice. Their narratives alternate with Hanna’s own, and the final, multilayered effect is complex and moving." ~ from The New Yorker

We'll be meeting on Tuesday, November 17th at 7 p.m. in the back room at Farley's. We hope to see you there for some great conversation and light refreshments!

Books vs. Movies

2009-10-16T10:38:00.001-04:00

Where the Wild Things Are opens today! A little while back, we tweeted about these gorgeous photo stills from the movie, and more than a few of us here at Farley's are pretty excited to check it out. We've been ooohh-ing and aaahh-ing over the stills from Tim Burton's 2010 Alice in Wonderland since they started floating around the internet too, and the trailer for the upcoming adaptation of Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones is pretty stunning as well.

All of the buzz around these movies has gotten us thinking, and more often than not, it seems that the film adaptations of our favorite books fall woefully short of their predecessors in print. How many times have you left the movie theater thinking, "Wow, the book was so much better!" Take the recent movie version of Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife, for example. While not a bad movie, per se, it definitely did not live up to the book... much of what we loved about the main characters Henry and Clare didn't make it to the screen, and their love story just didn't get the time it needed to develop.

So often, that's just it: something we love from the book is inevitably left out of the movie. But when everything's got to fit inside of a two-hour window, however, some details have to be compromised... don't they? Still, there seem to be successful ways to go about that. Take the Harry Potter empire. Sure, there are plenty of HP fans out there who can't stand the movies because they leave so much out, but there are just as many who are understanding of the time constraints and enjoy them whole-heartedly regardless. (We're among the latter.)

Then there's the matter of casting. There's a certain joy to envisioning a good novel as we read, which sometimes gets lost once the film is released. Can I ever recall my original imagining of Henry DeTamble now that I've seen Eric Bana in his shoes? How many times have you seen a movie trailer and thought, "That's not how I pictured him/her at all!" Of course, the opposite can happen too... Daniel Radcliffe, we're talking to you!

That's not to say there's no such thing as a good film adaptation, of course, or that the reverse can't happen. Watching a movie can just as often spark interest in the book, and of course there are some wonderful books-turned-films out there. After all, Slumdog Millionaire took home an Oscar, and there are a number of movies out there that rival or far outshine the books that inspired them. There's The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind, and perhaps the greatest book/movie combination of all time: To Kill A Mockingbird.

And what about The Princess Bride?? We can't tell you how many visitors we get who spot that book on our racks and say, "Oh, they made a book out of this? I love that movie!" While the movie is a total cult classic, we've got a sneaking suspicion that more people than not don't even know about the book--which is, while markedly different in some places, equally enjoyable and even more amusing. So what makes the difference here? Is it that most people have seen the movie first? Do we tend to love the form we're first exposed to more?

Whatever the case, it's always entertaining--or at least interesting--to see how someone else envisions the books we love, and if Where the Wild Things Are lives up to even half of its promise, we'll likely be happy campers. To anyone who makes it to the theaters today, please let us know what you think!

And to everyone else out there, we'd love to hear your thoughts as well! What is it that makes a good film adaptaion? A bad one? What are your favorite (and least favorite!) movies inspired by books?

2009 National Book Award Finalists

2009-10-14T14:56:00.003-04:00

The National Book Foundation has announced the finalists for this year's National Book Awards!! There are some fantastic titles among the finalists, and some brilliant writers among the judges. Check them out for yourself...

http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2009.html

...and let us know what you think!

Pumpkin Decorating Contest!

2009-10-09T11:10:00.001-04:00

Farley's is hosting our first ever pumpkin decorating contest!! Decorate a pumpkin inspired by your favorite children's book character and win a $30 Farley's Gift Certificate!

Contest Guidelines:

Choose a character from your favorite children's book and decorate a pumpkin inspired by that character. All characters are welcome!
Complete the entry form at the bottom of this email and bring it, along with your pumpkin, to the bookshop between 10 a.m. on Friday, October 30th and noon on Saturday, October 31st. Submitted pumpkins will remain on display in our children's window throughout the weekend of October 31st-November 1st. During that time, visitors to the bookshop will have the opportunity to vote on their favorite pumpkin. The winner will be announced in the first week of November.

Entry Rules:

No pumpkins larger than 1' x 1' x 1' please!
Carved pumpkins are welcome, but please remember that entries will be displayed in our shop window, and that painted/decorated pumpkins will stay fresh considerably longer.

Tips:

Choose a firm pumpkin with no blemishes, and make sure the stem is firmly attached. Store your pumpkin in a cool, dry place, protected from frost.
Wash your pumpkin under running water before decorating.
If painting your pumpkin, acrylic paints work best.

We can't wait to see what you come up with! Happy Fall!!

Farley's Welcomes Jonathan Maberry & David F. Kramer!

2009-09-28T14:49:00.008-04:00

This past Saturday, Farley's welcomed Bram Stoker Award-winning Jonathan Maberry to the bookshop. In case you've been missing out on this fantastic local author, he's the celebrated writer of a variety of supernatural thrillers and mysteries--and he's a master of the genre! His newest book, They Bite, was co-written with David F. Kramer, who came out for the event as well!

Do you love Twilight? Are you dddicted to Sookie Stackhouse? In They Bite, Maberry and Kramer go beyond the folklore to explore how and why supernatural predators have become pop culture stars.

Jonthan Maberry & David Kramer worked previously together on The Cryptopedia: A Dictionary of the Weird, Strange, and Downright Bizarre. Other books by Jonathan Maberry include Farley's favorite Patient Zero and the Pine Deep Trilogy--the setting of which was inspired by our very own New Hope!!

Check out a few photos from the event:

Jonathan Maberry & David F. Kramer

They brought gummy body parts! We liked the gummy brains the best.

Local author & fellow Philly Liars Club member Dennis Tafoya stopped by too!

You can view more photos from the event on our Facebook page. To learn more about Jonathan Maberry, visit his Big Scary Blog; find more about David F. Kramer on his Web site, http://www.davidfkramer.net.

Thanks for such a great event, guys!

October Book Club Pick!

2009-09-25T10:44:00.005-04:00

Last year sometime, former Farley's staffer Kate read a book that she loved. And we mean LOVED. According to her, it was one of those books that she wished would just keep going so she'd never have to finish it. Since then, a few of us here at the shop have been meaning to pick it up ourselves, but as sometimes happens, life (and other books!) kept getting in the way.

Well, now we're out of excuses, because we've chosen it for our next book club pick! For October, we're excited to be reading The Hakawati, by Rabih Alameddine.

In 2003, Osama al-Kharrat returns to Beirut after many years in America to stand vigil at his father's deathbed. As the family gathers, stories begin to unfold: Osama's grandfather was a hakawati, or storyteller, and his bewitching tales are interwoven with classic stories of the Middle East. Here are Abraham and Isaac; Ishmael, father of the Arab tribes; the beautiful Fatima; Baybars, the slave prince who vanquished the Crusaders; and a host of mischievous imps. Through Osama, we also enter the world of the contemporary Lebanese men and women whose stories tell a larger, heartbreaking tale of seemingly endless war, conflicted identity, and survival. With The Hakawati, Rabih Alameddine has given us an Arabian Nights for this century.

Please join us on Tuesday, October 20th at 7 p.m. for some good company, insightful discussion, and light refreshments. Hope to see you there, and thanks for the inspiration, Kate!

Take 5: Buffy's Top 5 Favorite Authors of the Moment

2009-09-15T10:35:00.000-04:00

With Farley's staffer Ellie off in Africa for the year, and fantastic summer staffers Kristina and Dylan returned to their academic homes for the school year, we've welcomed a new employee aboard here at the bookshop: Buffy. Yep, that's right, Buff. Pretty fantastic, right?

He's the first (and likely to be the only, if we're honest) Buffy in Farley's history, and to get to know him a bit, we've asked him to share his top five favorite authors. An all-time top five seemed too difficult a challenge, so instead, he offered us his top five authors right now. Thanks, Buffy, and welcome aboard!

1. Nelson Algren. "Algren breaks the barriers of poetry and prose. A sharp, clear, fearless eye."

2. John Fante. "Pure guts. He writes with pure guts."

3. Francois Villon. "A humane and heartbreaking poet. Hard lived ideas well said."

4. Abdelrahman Munif. "The Dostoevsky of Arab literature. Beyond important."

5. Jun'ichiro Tanizaki. "A Master storyteller unafraid to mine the interior of love. He's everything Nicholas Sparks fears."

What's in your top-five-of-the-moment??

September Signings at Farley's Bookshop!

2009-09-10T11:29:00.005-04:00

We've got a variety of exciting author events coming up at Farley's this fall, beginning this weekend and including children's picture book author Steven Kroll, memoirist Rachel Simon, and the award-winning Jonathan Maberry! Read on for more details...

Children's picture book author Steven Kroll will be joining us for a signing this Saturday, September 12th, from 1-4 p.m. Stop by, bring the kids, and meet this favorite local author!

Steven Kroll is the author of a number of children's picture books. His most recent book is Barbarians; other favorites include Stuff, Patches Lost and Found, and The Hanukkah Mice. View additional titles by Steven Kroll here!

Rachel Simon, author of Riding the Bus with My Sister, will be joining us at Solebury School on Friday, September 25th, from 7-9 p.m. to sign copies of her new books, Building a Home with My Husband.

As she prepares to renovate her historic Wilmington, DE home with her architect husband Hal, Rachel Simon prepares herself for the disagreements and disasters that can accompany a major home renovation. What she isn't prepared for is what she comes to discover about the construction, demolition, and renovation of personal connections in one's life.

We'll be welcoming local author Jonathan Maberry to the bookshop for a signing on Saturday, September 26th, from 1-4 p.m. He'll be here signing copies of his newest book, They Bite!

Love Twilight? Addicted to Sookie Stackhouse? In They Bite, Bram Stoker Award-winning author Maberry and David F. Kramer go beyond the folklore to explore how and why supernatural predators have become pop culture stars.

Previous titles by Maberry include Patient Zero, Ghost Road Blues, Dead Man's Song, and Bad Moon Rising. And did you know that the setting for the Ghost Road Blues trilogy was inspired by our very own New Hope??

Hope to see you for these great signings, and keep an eye out for more exciting events throughout the fall!

Congrats to James McBride!

2009-08-26T13:27:00.006-04:00

Finalists for the 2009 Dayton Literary Peace Prize were announced this month, and among them is local author James McBride! McBride's most recent book, Song Yet Sung, is a finalist for the prize, which is a U.S. literary award that recognizes "the power of the written word to promote peace."

Song Yet Sung tells the story of runaway slave Liz Spocott, who breaks free from her captors in the days before the Civil War. She escapes into the labyrinthine swamps of Maryland's eastern shore, setting loose a drama of violence and hope among slave catchers, plantation owners, watermen, runaway slaves, and free blacks. Liz is near death, wracked by disturbing visions of the future, and armed with the Code, a a fiercely guarded cryptic means of communication for slaves on the run. Liz's flight and her dreams of tomorrow will thrust all those near her toward a mysterious, redemptive fate.

Other fiction finalists for this year's prize include Say You're One of Them, by Uwem Akpan; Peace, by Richard Bausch; The Plague of Doves, by Louise Erdrich; Beijing Coma, by Ma Jian; and Telex from Cuba, by Rachel Kushner.

For a detailed list of all finalists, both fiction and nonfiction, click here; learn more about the Dayton Literary Peace Prize here.

Take 5: Kristina's Favorite Beach Reads

2009-08-25T11:39:00.001-04:00

This week we're (sadly) saying a temporary goodbye to some of our fantastic summer help here at the bookshop. Summer itself is winding down too, so we thought we'd bid farewell to summer staffer Kristina with her top 5 favorite beach reads! Check them out:

1. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman

"I read this for the first time almost six years ago, but each reread is as good as the last."

2. Jitterbug Perfume, by Tom Robbins

"Always crazy, always beautiful."

3. When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris

"David Sedaris never seems to lead an uninteresting life, no matter how hard he tries. Reading him on the beach makes waiting to hear his annual Christmas reading on NPR just a little easier."

4. Ham on Rye, by Charles Bukowski

"If you're into him, plan on never putting it down. If you're not, maybe pass. This one's as vulgar as the rest."

5. The Woman in the Dunes, by Kobo Abé

"What better place than the beach to read a book set in the dunes?"

September Book Club Pick!

2009-08-20T10:35:00.001-04:00

Our book club met on Tuesday to discuss Rivka Galchen's Atmostpheric Disturbances. We seemed to have some mixed feelings about it, but thanks so much to everyone who came out to share their opinion!

For September, we've chosen a book that our manager, Julian, has been excited about and meaning to read for some time now: When We Were Romans, by Matthew Kneale.

When We Were Romans is a haunting psychological novel and another masterful work from the author of the prize-winning English Passengers.

Nine-year-old Lawrence is the man of his family. He watches over his mother and his willful little sister Jemima. He is the one who keeps order, especially when his mother decides they must leave their life in England behind because of threats from Lawrence's father. But their new life in Rome does not go as planned. Short of money and living off of his mother's old friends--all who seem to doubt her story--Lawrence soon realizes that things are not what they seem.

Please join us on Tuesday, September 15th at 7 p.m. for some great conversation and light refreshments. Hope to see you there!

Take 5: 5 Books for a Stormy Night

2009-08-19T10:24:00.001-04:00

Last night there were some incredible thunderstorms here. So, on this shiny, sunny morning we've been discussing the perfect books to read on a stormy night. Here's what we came up with...

1. Shadow of the Wind, by Carols Ruiz Zafon (Katie)

Ok, ok we pick this book for everything. But in our defense, that's because it is so good; atmospheric, mysterious, and satisfying:

Barcelona, 1945. A great world city lies shrouded in secrets after the war, and a boy mourning the loss of his mother finds solace in his love for an extraordinary book called The Shadow of the Wind, by an author named Julian Carax. When the boy searches for Carax's other books, it begins to dawn on him, to his horror, that someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book the man has ever written. Soon the boy realizes that The Shadow of the Wind is as dangerous to own as it is impossible to forget, for the mystery of its author's identity holds the key to an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love that someone will go to any lengths to keep secret.

2. Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier (Rebekah)

Though her name is not spelled to my satisfaction, this has always been one of my favorites. Great book, great movie. Brooding man with a haunted past, evil housekeeper, bright eyed new wife who starts to discover secrets she wishes she didn't. Very dark and stormy.

From the first page, the reader is ushered into an isolated gray stone mansion on the windswept Cornish coast, as the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter recalls the chilling events that transpired as she began her new life as the young bride of a husband she barely knew. For in every corner of every room were phantoms of a time dead but not forgotten, a past devotedly preserved by the sinister housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers: a suite immaculate and untouched, clothing laid out and ready to be worn, but not by any of the great house's current occupants. With an eerie presentiment of evil tightening her heart, the second Mrs. de Winter walked in the shadow of her mysterious predecessor, determined to uncover the darkest secrets and shattering truths about Maxim's first wife, the late and hauntingly beautiful Rebecca.

3. The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova (Jamie)

Although it might take one stormy night to get through the first one hundred pages, believe me, the next 600 will be devoured so fast that all that will be left is the spine...

When a motherless American girl living in Europe finds a medieval book and a package of letters, all addressed ominously to "My dear and unfortunate successor..." she unwittingly assumes a quest she will discover is her birthright--a hunt that nearly brought her father to ruin and may have claimed the life of history professor Bartholomew Rossi. But what does the legend of Vlad the Impaler, the historical Dracula, have to do with the 20th Century?

4. The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman (Lauren)

The first line alone is enough to justify this pick: "There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife." It doesn't get much better than that on a dark & stormy evening...

Inspired by The Jungle Book, The Graveyard Book tells the story of Bod, a young boy whose family is ruthlessly murdered when he is just a baby. Bod escapes, and finds his way to a graveyard. Within the gates of the cemetery, Bod is protected from the murderer Jack, and the spirit of his dying mother begs its residents to keep him safe. One pair of ghosts, the Owenses, agree to take him in, and so begins Bod's life within the graveyard gates, raised by the dead...

5. The Sign of Four, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Kristina)

Sherlock Holmes just equals a dark and stormy night, and this particular story is sure to raise some goosebumps.

The Sign of Four is the mystery surrounding the disappearance Miss Mary Morstan's father. Every year on the anniversary of Miss Morstan's father's disappearance, Mary receives an anonymous gift of a priceless pearl. Miss Morstan solicits the help of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson to unravel the identity and motive of her anonymous benefactor.

So there you have it! What are your favorite books for a dark and stormy night? Send us your picks!

Farley's Welcomes Author A.S. King!

2009-08-18T11:40:00.009-04:00

This past Saturday, Farley's was thrilled to welcome A.S. King, author of the YA/crossover book The Dust of 100 Dogs! The book became a staff favorite earlier this year, when Lauren picked it up and couldn't put it down.

In it, King tells the story of two teens: Emer, a famed 17th century pirate, and Saffron, her 21st century counterpart. You see, Emer is one of the most feared pirates on the seas--until she is murdered and cursed with the dust of 100 dogs, dooming her to live 100 lifetimes as a dog before she can return to human form.

When Emer finally gets to live life as a human again, she is born as Saffron, an ordinary Pennsylvania teen with several lifetimes of canine & pirate memories. Now, she's determined to recover the treasure she buried three hundred years ago, and this time, she won't let anyone stand in her way...

Check out a few photos from the event:

Kristina's awesome handmade sign, inspired by the book's cover

A.S. King, signing away...

A.S. King with Farley's staffer Lauren.
Check out her fantastic Indiebound t-shirt!

You can view more photos on our Facebook page. To learn more about A.S. King, visit her website or blog, and then check out this amusing interview with Amy and her characters.

Thanks so much to everyone who came out and made this event such a success! We had such a great time!

August Book Club Pick!

2009-08-03T17:59:00.004-04:00

Thanks to everybody who came out to our July Book Club to discuss Wallace Stegner's Crossing to Safety. It was a great evening! Now, we're excited to announce our book club selection for August: Rivka Galchen's debut novel Atmospheric Disturbances.

When Dr. Leo Liebenstein's wife disappears, she leaves behind a single confounding clue: a woman who looks, talks, and behaves exactly like her. A simulacrum. But Leo is not fooled, and he knows better than to trust his senses in matters of the heart. Certain that the real Rema is alive and in hiding, he embarks on a quixotic journey to reclaim her. With the help of his psychiatric patient Harvey--who believes himself to be a secret agent able to control the weather--his investigation leads him from the streets of New York City to the southernmost reaches of Patagonia, in search of the woman he loves. Atmospheric Disturbances is a "witty, tender, and conceptually dazzling" (Booklist) novel about the mysterious nature of human relationships. Order online from Farley's here!

We'll be meeting on Tuesday, August 18th at 7 p.m. to discuss the book, and as always, there will be great conversation and light refreshments. Can't wait to see you there!

Farewell, Frank McCourt...

2009-07-19T20:07:00.002-04:00

Frank McCourt, acclaimed author of Angela's Ashes, passed away today at the age of 78. What a sad day and tragic loss for the literary community...

Read more about his death and his literary legacy at NPR; find his Washington Post obituary here.

Find titles by McCourt here.

Harry Potter!!

2009-07-16T16:17:00.002-04:00

Hey folks, Lauren here. I saw Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince last night, and I LOVED it! Changes are inevitable in film adaptations, particularly in a series with the scope of HP, but overall I thought it was beautifully shot and really well done. A few minor complaints, of course, but I won't share them here for the good of those of you who haven't seen it yet. (And to those people, I say: go now and go repeatedly!)

Anyway, I now have Harry Potter on the brain, and as such, I thought I'd share my favorite books in the series. My ranking has been met with some disagreement, and my movie ranking is completely different, but here you have it...

1. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Two words: Sirius Black.

I unabashedly adore Sirius Black, and I have to admit that I did not see that whole godfather thing coming. I loved that Harry finally found such a profound connection to his parents and their past, and the fact that it came in such an unexpected way made it even better. And who doesn't love a little time travel paradox?

2. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Okay, so we all know how this one ends, and for me, it wasn't easy to get through. Still, I loved it. I really enjoyed discovering the identity of the Half Blood Prince, and the development of the whole horcrux thing is so central to Voldemort. I also liked seeing a bit more depth to Draco Malfoy, and of course, Ron playing Quidditch.

But if you ask me, the best thing about this book is Snape. He's undoubtedly my favorite character in the series, in part because for so much of it, you never really know which side he's on. There's something so delicious about that, and either way it goes, he's such a fascinating guy. I confess that I wanted him to turn out to be a good guy in the end, and that perhaps made his actions in this installment all the more shocking and powerful.

3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

There were one or two things in the big finale that I wanted to see handled a bit differently. For instance, I do wish that Rowling had cut about 100 pages of Ron & Harry running around in the forest and fleshed out some of the action at the end--particularly where the Malfoys are concerned. On the whole, however, I really loved how she brought everything to a close in Deathly Hallows.

I had one personal addendum to the epilogue, though: in my mind, Luna Lovegood is totally married to Neville Longbottom and teaching Divination at Hogwart's.

4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

How can you not enjoy the Triwizard Tournament? And Mad Eye Moody's first appearance? And our first glimpse into the pensieve? And Cedric Diggory!!

And of course, that tragic and fantastic ending that brings Voldemort back to life. It's such a critical turning point for Harry, and one of our first experiences of the truly dark current that rides under the remaining novels.

5. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Our introduction to Harry and Hogwarts and the world of wizardry. I found this one completely delightful, and it only ranks fifth on my list because compared to the others it's a bit slower and less dramatic. I did, however, thoroughly enjoy the series of challenges facing the gang as they try and find the stone. And even here, Rowling has a talent for the surprising, twisty ending--and it's here as well that my love of Severus Snape begins.

6. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

All right, this one would be much further up the list if I hadn't found it so devastating to get through. Harry faces trials--of both the adolescent and magical sort--in every installment of the series, but in this one, I felt as if he (and we as well) got very little relief.

There is, of course, the awesome exception of the Weasley twins' fireworks show, and the deliciously satisfying way that Dolores Umbridge meets her end. Those are but two small flickers of light in the otherwise darkest novel in the series until then. That's not to say I don't love this one too; I just felt the weight of it profoundly--and was heartbroken by the loss of Sirius.

7. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

I have to admit that, generally speaking, I found Chamber of Secrets relatively uneventful. Yeah, Harry's a parseltongue and Ginny's rescue is pretty great, but for some reason this one didn't strike a chord with me the way the others did.

Tom Riddle's journal is pretty cool though, as is the insight into Voldemort's former life at Hogwart's, and I was very drawn into Harry's struggle with his house identity.

All right, that's it! Are you with me, or did I get it totally wrong?? Do share--and while you're commenting, I'll be embarking on a massive re-read...

(Oh, and one final HP delight that you MUST check out if you haven't seen it already: Harry Potter and the Mysterious Ticking Noise.)

New Release Tuesday 6/30

2009-06-30T10:02:00.002-04:00

There are some great new summer reads out today... take a look!

The Apostle, by Brad Thor

Every politician has a secret. And when the daughter of a politically-connected family is kidnapped abroad, America's new president will agree to anything--even a deadly and ill-advised rescue plan--in order to keep his secret hidden.

Master of suspense and #1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor returns with his most riveting international thriller yet.

Conquest of the Useless: Reflections on the Making of Fitzcarraldo, by Werner Herzog

One of the most revered filmmakers of our time, Werner Herzog wrote this diary during the making of Fitzcarraldo, the lavish 1982 film that tells the story of a would-be rubber baron who pulls a steamship over a hill in order to access a rich rubber territory. Later, Herzog spoke of his difficulties when making the film, including casting problems, reshoots, language barriers, epic clashes with the star, and the logistics of moving a 320-ton steamship over a hill without the use of special effects.

Hailed by critics around the globe, the film went on to win Herzog the 1982 Outstanding Director Prize at Cannes. Conquest of the Useless, Werner Herzog's diary on his fever dream in the Amazon jungle, is an extraordinary glimpse into the mind of a genius during the making of one of his greatest achievements.

Return to Sullivan's Island, by Dorothea Benton Frank

Newly graduated from college and an aspiring writer, Beth Hayes craves independence and has a world to conquer. But her notions of travel, graduate study, and writing the great American novel will have to be postponed when she is elected by her elders to house-sit the Island Gamble. Surrounded by the shimmering blue waters of the Atlantic, the white clapboards, silver tin roof, and confessional porch have seen and heard the stories of generations of Hamiltons. But will the ghosts of the Island Gamble be watching over Beth?

Buoyed by sentimental memories of growing up on this tiny sandbar that seems to be untouched by time, Beth vows to give herself over to the Lowcountry force and discover the wisdom it holds. She will rest, rejuvenate, and then reenter the outside world. Just as she vows she will never give into the delusional world of white picket fences, minivans, and eternal love, she meets Max Mitchell. And all her convictions and plans begin to unravel with lightning speed...

A Plague of Secrets, by John Lescroart

The first victim is Dylan Vogler, a charming ex-convict who manages the Bay Beans West coffee shop in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district. When his body is found, inspectors discover that his knapsack is filled with high-grade marijuana. It soon becomes clear that San Francisco’s A-list flocked to Bay Beans West not only for their caffeine fix.

But how much did Maya Townshend—the beautiful socialite niece of the city’s mayor, and the absentee owner of the shop—know about what was going on inside her business? And how intimate had she really been with Dylan, her old college friend?

As another of Maya’s acquaintances falls victim to murder, and as the names of the dead men’s celebrity, political, and even law- enforcement customers come to light, tabloid-fueled controversy takes the investigation into the realms of conspiracy and cover-up. Prosecutors close in on Maya, who has a deep secret of her own—a secret she needs to protect at all costs during her very public trial, where not only her future but the entire political landscape of San Francisco hangs in the balance, hostage to an explosive secret that Dismas Hardy is privilege-bound to protect.

Take 5: Charlie's Favorite Graphic Novels

2009-06-25T10:32:00.000-04:00

Charlie is our resident graphic novel enthusiast, and since he's an incredibly talented artist himself, he knows what he's talking about. Check out his top 5:

1. Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, by Chris Ware

"Jimmy Corrigan really pushed the form and the medium to new levels. The graphic storytelling is incredible and the psychological depth is as great as any novel."

2. Palestine, by Joe Sacco

"This one is comic journalism about the first intifada. In it, Sacco shares his own experience at the time, living with Palestinians in the area and chronicling their stories. The artwork is incredibly fantastic--and it's all true."

3. Carnet de Voyage, by Craig Thompson

"Carnet de Voyage is a travelogue covering Thompson's book tour in France and Morocco for his graphic novel Blankets. I love it for his brush ink drawings and the story for how smitten he is with every girl he meets."

4. God's Man, by Lynd Ward

"One of the earliest examples of a graphic novel, God's Man is done entirely with wood cuts and without any words. The entire story is told with graphics alone, sort of in the style of German Expressionist woodcuts."

5. Maus I & II, by Art Spiegelman

"Also one of the pinnacles of the entire form, this is the biography of Spiegelman's father, who was a Holocaust survivor."

New Release Tuesday 6/23

2009-06-23T10:02:00.002-04:00

Happy New Release Tuesday! It's a big one this week, with the hardcover release of the next Stephanie Plum and the paperback edition of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo!

NEW IN HARDCOVER:

Finger-Lickin' Fifteen, by Janet Evanovich

Stephanie Plum is working overtime tracking felons for the bonds office at night and snooping for security expert Carlos Manoso, a.k.a. Ranger, during the day. Can Stephanie hunt down two killers, a traitor, and five skips, keep her grandmother out of the sauce, and solve Ranger's problems and not jump his bones?

Find out in the latest installment of Evanovich's well loved Stephanie Plum series!

Sworn to Silence, by Linda Castillo

In the sleepy rural town of Painters Mill, Ohio, the Amish and English residents have lived side by side for two centuries. But sixteen years ago, a series of brutal murders shattered the peaceful farming community. In the aftermath of the violence, the town was left with a sense of fragility, a loss of innocence. Kate Burkholder, a young Amish girl, survived the terror of the Slaughterhouse Killer but came away from its brutality with the realization that she no longer belonged with the Amish. Now, a wealth of experience later, Kate has been asked to return to Painters Mill as Chief of Police. Her Amish roots and big city law enforcement background make her the perfect candidate. She's certain she's come to terms with her past--until the first body is discovered in a snowy field. Kate vows to stop the killer before he strikes again. But to do so, she must betray both her family and her Amish past--and expose a dark secret that could destroy her.

The Doomsday Key, by James Rollins

At Princeton University, a famed geneticist dies inside a biohazard lab. In Rome, a Vatican archaeologist is found dead in St. Peter's Basilica. In Africa, a U.S. senator's son is slain outside a Red Cross camp. The three murders on three continents bear a horrifying connection: all the victims are marked by a Druidic pagan cross burned into their flesh.

The bizarre murders thrust Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma Force into a race against time to solve a riddle going back centuries, to a ghastly crime against humanity hidden within a cryptic medieval codex. The first clue is discovered inside a mummified corpse buried in an English peat bog--a gruesome secret that threatens America and the world.

Extra Credit, by Andrew Clements

It isn't that Abby Carson can't do her schoolwork, it's just that she doesn't like doing it. And that means she's failing sixth grade. Unless she wants to repeat the sixth grade, she'll have to meet some specific conditions, including taking on an extra-credit project: find a pen pal in a foreign country.

Abby's first letter arrives at a small school in Afghanistan, and Sadeed Bayat is chosen to be her pen pal.... well, kind of. He is the best writer, but he is also a boy, and in his village it is not appropriate for a boy to correspond with a girl. So his younger sister dictates and signs the letter. Until Sadeed decides what his sister is telling Abby isn't what he'd like Abby to know.

As letters flow back and forth between Illinois and Afghanistan, Abby and Sadeed discover that their letters are crossing more than an ocean. They are crossing a huge cultural divide and a minefield of different lifestyles and traditions. Their growing friendship is also becoming a growing problem for both communities, and some people are not happy. Suddenly things are not so simple...

NEW IN PAPERBACK:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Steig Larsson

Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pieced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, by Gabrielle Zevin

"After high-school junior Naomi conks her head, she can't remember anything that happened since sixth grade. She is by turns mystified and startled by evidence of her present life, from the birth-control pills in her bedside table to her parents' astonishing, rancorous split. Eventually, the memories return, leaving Naomi questioning the basis of a new, intense romance, and wondering which of her two lives, present or former, represents her most authentic self. The amnesia device could have been more convincingly played, but Zevin writes revealingly about emotions and relationships. Especially vivid is the Hepburn-Tracy bond Naomi shares with yearbook co-chief Will, whom she wounds with her lurching self-reinvention even as she discovers deeper feelings: 'I had thought the way I felt about Will was just a room, but it had turned out to be a mansion.' Pulled by the heart-bruising love story, readers will pause to contemplate irresistible questions: If the past were a blank slate, what would you become? Does the search for one's truest identity necessarily mean rejecting all that has gone before?" ~ Jennifer Mattson, Booklist

Happy Father's Day!

2009-06-21T08:57:00.000-04:00

Several days ago on Twitter, publisher Scholastic asked fellow tweeters to share their favorite literary dads. Then, a few Scholastic bloggers posted the top 10 and invited readers to vote for their favorites!

They've come up with a pretty great list; a nice mix of classic and contemporary, they've highlighted the best dads in each of several categories. In the spirit of celebrating fathers everywhere, check it out and vote for your favorite! Happy Father's Day!!

Scholastic's Top 10 Dads in Literature

(Any guesses on who we voted for??)

July Book Club Pick!

2009-06-17T10:56:00.005-04:00

We had some really great discussion at last night's book club; thanks to everyone who came out! We also chose our book for the month of July: Wallace Stegner's Crossing to Safety.

Called a “magnificently crafted story... brimming with wisdom” by Howard Frank Mosher in The Washington Post Book World, Crossing to Safety has, since its publication in 1987, established itself as one of the greatest and most cherished American novels of the twentieth century. Tracing the lives, loves, and aspirations of two couples who move between Vermont and Wisconsin, it is a work of quiet majesty, deep compassion, and powerful insight into the alchemy of friendship and marriage.

"Two couples meet during the Depression years in Madison, Wis., and become devoted friends despite vast differences in upbringing and social status. Hard work, hope and the will to succeed as a writer motivate the penurious narrator Larry Morgan and his wife Sally as he begins a term teaching at the university. Equally excited by their opportunities are Sid Lang, another junior man in the English department, and his wife Charity. They are fortune's children, favored with intelligence, breeding and money. Taken into the Langs' nourishing and generous embrace, the Morgans have many reasons for gratitude over the years, especially when Sally is afflicted with polio and the Langs provide financial as well as moral support. Yet the Morgans observe the stresses in their friends' marriage as headstrong, insufferably well-organized Charity tries to bully the passive Sid into a more aggressive mold. Charity is one of the most vivid characters in fiction; if she is arrogant, she is also kindhearted, enthusiastic, stalwart and brave, an ardent liver of life. Her incandescent personality is both the dominant force and the source of strain in the enduring friendship Stegner conveys with brilliant artistry." ~Publishers Weekly

We'll be meeting on Tuesday, July 21st at 7 p.m. to discuss the book, and as always, there will be great conversation and light refreshments. Can't wait to see you there!

New Release Tuesday 6/16

2009-06-16T15:12:00.002-04:00

It's Tuesday again, and you know what that means... new releases! This week's a big one, with new titles from Sarah Dessen and Carlos Ruiz Zafon, two favorites at Farley's. Check them out below, along with a few others!

NEW IN HARDCOVER:

Along for the Ride, Sarah Dessen

It's been so long since Auden slept at night. Ever since her parents' divorce--or since the fighting started. Now she has the chance to spend a carefree summer with her dad and his new family in the charming beach town where they live.

A job in a clothes boutique introduces Auden to the world of girls: their talk, their friendship, their crushes. She missed out on all that, too busy being the perfect daughter to her demanding mother. Then she meets Eli, an intriguing loner and a fellow insomniac who becomes her guide to the nocturnal world of the town. Together they embark on parallel quests: for Auden, to experience the carefree teenage life she's been denied; for Eli, to come to terms with the guilt he feels for the death of a friend.

Angel's Game, Carlos Ruiz Zafon

In an abandoned mansion at the heart of Barcelona, a young man, David Martin, makes his living by writing sensationalist novels under a pseudonym. The survivor of a troubled childhood, he has taken refuge in the world of books and spends his nights spinning baroque tales about the city's underworld. But perhaps his dark imaginings are not as strange as they seem, for in a locked room deep within the house lie photographs and letters hinting at the mysterious death of the previous owner.

Like a slow poison, the history of the place seeps into his bones as he struggles with an impossible love. Close to despair, David receives a letter from a reclusive French editor, Andreas Corelli, who makes him the offer of a lifetime. He is to write a book unlike anything that has ever existed--a book with the power to change hearts and minds. In return, he will receive a fortune, and perhaps more. But as David begins the work, he realizes that there is a connection between his haunting book and the shadows that surround his home.

Knockout, Catherine Coulter

Seven-year-old Autumn Backman has a gift: She can communicate telepathically with others. Not everyone, mind you, but with a select few with whom she shares a special kinship. When Autumn and her mother, Joanna, take her fatheras ashes to be buried in the family plot in Brickers Bowl, Georgia, the child witnesses a horrifying sight: her grandmother and two uncles, burying a pile of dead bodies in the middle of the night. They head to Titusville, Virginia, to seek the help of an old family friend, but A

utumn senses they need assistance on a grand scale. Using her telepathic powers, Autumn calls a man shead seen only on television: FBI agent Dillon Savich. But before Savich and his wife and partner, Agent Lacey Sherlock, can get on the scene, Autumn and Joanna flee, fearing the retribution of her uncle Blessed. A huge manhunt ensues, with Titusville Sheriff Ethan Merriweather racing to reach the girl before Blessed can get his hands on her. Blessedas got big things planned for Autumn and her gift, and heall stop at nothing to force her into his growing army of exploited children. Savich, Sherlock, and Merriweather face their most elusive foes to keep Autumn out of harmas wayabefore itas too late.

Dune Road, Jane Green

The novel is set in the beach community of a

tony Connecticut town. Our heroine is a single mom who works for a famous--and famously reclusive--novelist. When she stumbles on a secret that the great man has kept hidden for years, she knows that there are plenty of women in town who would love to get their hands on it--including some who fancy the writer for themselves. Dune Road is the story of life in an exclusive beach town after the tourists have left for the summer and the eccentric (and moneyed) community sticks around.

NEW IN PAPERBACK:

Whiskey Rebels, David Liss

America, 1787. Ethan Saunders, once among General Washington's most valued spies, is living in disgrace after an accusation of treason cost him his reputation. But an opportunity for redemption comes calling when Saunders's old enemy, Alexander Hamilton, draws him into a struggle with bitter rival Thomas Jefferson over the creation of the Bank of the United States.

Meanwhile, on the western Pennsylvania frontier, Joan Maycott and her husband, a Revolutionary War veteran, hope for a better life and a chance for prosperity. But the Maycotts' success on an isolated frontier attracts the brutal attention of men who threaten to destroy them. As their causes intertwine, Joan and Saunders-both patriots in their own way-find themselves on opposing sides of a plot that could tear apart a fragile new nation.

Book Fair Favorites

2009-06-13T10:49:00.002-04:00

Over the past two weeks, Farley's has been hosting our first in-store book fair with a handful of local schools in our area. What a blast! It's been awesome to see so many kids come through and get excited about books!!

In the spirit of their excitement, we thought we'd share some book fair favorites this week... the books that have been the most popular with the students visiting us. If you're looking for a great summer read, check out the following titles--all of which have been given the seal of approval from our local middle school crowd!

Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga has been hugely popular, but our biggest Twilight book fair bestseller has definitely been the Illustrated Movie Guide.

It features an inside look at the making of the movie, with tons of photos, interviews, behind-the-scenes features, and more! It's a must-have for anyone who's a fan of the books/movie, and might just be what you need to hold you over until New Moon comes out in theaters in November!

Another series that flew off the shelves during our book fair is Jeanne DuPrau's Books of Ember. The series, which begins with The City of Ember, takes readers to Ember, which was built as a last refuge for the human race. Two hundred years after its creation, the great lamps that light the city are beginning to flicker. When Lina finds part of an ancient message, she's sure it holds a secret that will save the city. She and her friend Doon must decipher the message before the lights go out on Ember forever...

Other books in the series include The People of Sparks, The Prophet of Yonwood, and The Diamond of Darkhold.

The sixth-graders who visited us had just finished reading Lois Lowry's Newbery-winner The Giver, so everyone wanted Gathering Blue and The Messenger. If you haven't read The Giver, you're missing out, and if you have, you should definitely check out Lowry's two companion novels. You won't be disappointed!

Eighth grade had just read Ben Mikaelsen's Touching Spirit Bear, so we got lots of requests for the sequel, Ghost of Spirit Bear.

Cole Matthews used to be a violent kid, but a year in exile on a remote Alaskan island has a way of changing your perspective. After being mauled by a Spirit Bear, Cole started to heal. He even invited his victim, Peter Driscal, to join him on the island and they became friends.

But now their time in exile is over, and Cole and Peter are heading back to the one place they're not sure they can handle: high school. Gangs and violence haunt the hallways, and Peter's limp and speech impediment make him a natural target. In a school where hate and tension are getting close to the boiling point, the monster of rage hibernating inside Cole begins to stir.

We were so excited when the last installment of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series came out in May. Farley's staffer Lauren read it in just one sitting! Our book fair visitors were just as eager to pick up their own copies, of The Last Olympian and we're sure they won't be disappointed. In this last book in the series, Percy and the gang finally face the Titans in a battle for Western civilization. This one is definitely not to be missed!!

The first four books in the series are: The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, and The Battle of the Labyrinth.

Chanda's Secrets, by Allan Stratton is on this year's summer reading list, so that one was in high demand too!

In this sensitive, swiftly-paced story readers will find echoes of To Kill a Mockingbird as Chanda must confront undercurrents of shame and stigma. Not afraid to explore the horrific realities of AIDS, Chanda's Secrets also captures the enduring strength of loyalty, friendship and family ties. Above all, it is a story about the corrosive nature of secrets and the healing power of truth.

Take 5: Ellie's All-Time Favorite Authors

2009-06-11T10:21:00.002-04:00

Farley's is excited to welcome our newest staff member: Ellie! Ellie is a self-proclaimed lover of fiction, drama, and memoirs, and we've asked her to share her top 5 all time favorite writers--a HUGE challenge, we know!

So, without any further ado...

1. Toni Morrison

2. Ivan Turgenev

3. David Sedaris

4. William Shakespeare

5. August Wilson

Thanks Ellie!

Who would make your all time top 5?? Share your favorite authors with us in the comments, and, as always, let us know if there are any take 5 topics you'd like to see in the future!

Local Author Spotlight: Keith Gilman

2009-06-10T12:54:00.001-04:00

Local author Keith Gilman is going to be a powerful new voice in crime fiction. In fact, his debut novel, Father's Day, has already been awarded Best First Novel by the Private Eye Writers of America! Gilman himself is has been a Philadelphia area police officer for more than a decade, and his experiences on the job show themselves in this gritty, provocative mystery.

Louis Kline, PI, is asked to track down the missing teenage daughter of an old friend. In doing so he uncovers disturbing truths about the alleged suicide of his friend, a fellow officer with the Philadelphia Police Department--with whom Louis shared accusations that ended both their careers, and a love for the same woman. As Louis further investigates, he comes to understand the tortured life of the girl he's trying to find, and a few hard truths about himself.

Keith Gilman knows how cops think and he pulls back the curtain on a disturbing vision of a decaying urban world, haunted by shadows of deceit and death. Father's Day, a novel of great psychological depth and stark visual imagery, is a terrifying exploration of what lies at the heart of our deepest fears.

Learn more about Keith Gilman at his Web site, http://www.keithgilman.com/, or by visiting him on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Keith-Gilman/1149081851.

Then, stop by and meet him later this month as he visits Farley's to sign copies of Father's Day!

Where:
Farley's Bookshop
44 S. Main Street
New Hope, PA

When:
Saturday, June 27th
from 1-4 p.m.

And, if you buy your copy of Father's Day during the signing, you'll save 10% off the cover price! Hope to see you there!!

New Release Tuesday 6/9

2009-06-09T09:26:00.022-04:00

Tuesday means new releases here at the book shop! Check out some of our favorites this week...

NEW IN HARDCOVER:

Fordlandia, by Greg Grandin

In 1927, Henry Ford, the richest man in the world, bought a tract of land twice the size of Delaware in the Brazilian Amazon. His intention was to grow rubber, but the project rapidly evolved into a more ambitious bid to export America itself, along with its golf courses, ice-cream shops, bandstands, indoor plumbing, and Model Ts rolling down broad streets.

Fordlandia, as the settlement was called, quickly became the site of an epic clash. On one side was the car magnate, lean, austere, the man who reduced industrial production to its simplest motions; on the other, the Amazon, lush, extravagant, the most complex ecological system on the planet. Ford's early success in imposing time clocks and square dances on the jungle soon collapsed, as indigenous workers, rejecting his midwestern Puritanism, turned the place into a ribald tropical boomtown. Fordlandia's eventual demise as a rubber plantation foreshadowed the practices that today are laying waste to the rain forest.

More than a parable of one man's arrogant attempt to force his will on the natural world, Fordlandia depicts a desperate quest to salvage the bygone America that the Ford factory system did much to dispatch. As Greg Grandin shows in this gripping and mordantly observed history, Ford's great delusion was not that the Amazon could be tamed but that the forces of capitalism, once released, might yet be contained.

The Actor and the Housewife, by Shannon Hale

Mormon housewife Becky Jack is seven months pregnant with her fourth child when she meets celebrity hearththrob Felix Callahan. Twelve hours, one elevator ride, and one alcohol-free dinner later, something has happened. It isn't sexual. It isn't even quite love. But a month later Felix shows up in Salt Lake City to visit and before they know what's hit them, Felix and Becky are best friends. Really. Becky's husband is pretty cool about it. Her children roll their eyes. Her neighbors gossip endlessly. But Felix and Becky have something special, something unusual, something completely impossible to sustain. Or is it? A magical story, The Actor and the Housewife explores what could happen when your not-so-secret celebrity crush walks right into real life and changes everything.

Relentless, by Dean Koontz

New York Times-bestselling master of suspense Koontz delivers a mesmerizing new thriller that explores the razor-thin line between the best and worst of human nature--and the anarchy simmering just beneath society's surface.

“[A] smoothly spun nail-biter.... Koontz still grabs readers as few other thriller scribes can.” ~ Booklist

NEW IN PAPERBACK:

The Opposite of Love, by Julie Buxbaum

When twenty-nine-year-old Manhattan attorney Emily Haxby ends her happy relationship just as her boyfriend is about to propose, she can't explain to even her closest friends why she did it. But somewhere beneath her independent exterior, Emily knows her breakup with Andrew has less to do with him and more to do with herself.

As the holidays loom and Emily contemplates whether she made a huge mistake, the rest of her world begins to unravel. She's assigned to a multimillion-dollar lawsuit where she must defend the very values she detests by a boss who can't keep his hands to himself; her Grandpa Jack, the person she cares most about in the world, is losing it, while her emotionally distant father has left her to cope alone; and underneath it all, memories of her deceased mother remind her that love doesn't last forever.

How this brave young woman finally faces the fears that have long haunted her is the great achievement of this marvelous first novel, written with authority, grace, and wisdom.

The Spies of Warsaw, by Alan Furst

War is coming to Europe. French and German intelligence operatives are locked in a life-and-death struggle on the espionage battlefield. At the French embassy, in Warsaw, the new military attache, Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier, a decorated hero of the 1914 war, is drawn into a world of abduction, betrayal, and intrigue in the diplomatic salons and back alleys of the city. At the same time, the handsome aristocrat finds himself in a passionate love affair with a Parisian woman of Polish heritage, a lawyer for the League of Nations. Risking his life, Colonel Mercier must work in the shadows, amid an extraordinary cast of venal characters, some known to Mercier as spies, some never to be revealed.

Beijing Coma, by Ma Jian

Dai Wei, a medical student and protestor in Tiananmen Square in June, 1989, was caught by a soldier's bullet and fell into a deep coma. But as the millennium draws near, he begins to emerge from unconsciousness, and to sense the massive changes in his country. At once a powerful allegory of a rising China, and a seminal story of the Tiananmen Square protests, Beijing Coma is Ma Jian's masterpiece.

"A complex, confrontational, demanding--and ultimately rewarding--work." ~Kirkus Reviews

Irreligion, by John Allen Paulos

Are there any logical reasons to believe in God? The mathematician and bestselling author John Allen Paulos thinks not. In Irreligion he presents the case for his own worldview, organizing his book into twelve chapters that refute the twelve arguments most often put forward for believing in God's existence. Interspersed among these counterarguments are remarks on a variety of irreligious themes, ranging from the nature of miracles and creationist probability to cognitive illusions and prudential wagers. Despite the strong influence of his day job, Paulos says, there isn't a single mathematical formula in the book.

Petite Anglaise, by Catherine Sanderson

Stuck in a relationship quickly losing its heat, overwhelmed by the burdens of motherhood, and restless in a dead-end job, Catherine reads an article about starting an online diary, and on a slow day at work--voila--Petite Anglaise is born. But what begins as a lighthearted diversion, a place to muse on the fish-out-of-water challenges of expat life, soon gives way to a raw forum where Catherine shares intimate details about her relationship, her discontents, and her most impulsive desires. When one of her readers--a charming Englishman--tries to get close to the girl behind the blog, Catherine's real and virtual personas collide, forcing her to choose between life as she knows it and the possibility of more.

What We're Reading: Lauren meets The Girls from Ames

2009-06-03T15:16:00.021-04:00

One day a few weeks ago, a customer came in and asked about The Girls from Ames. Written by Jeffrey Zaslow (who co-wrote The Last Lecture with Randy Pausch), The Girls from Ames chronicles the lifelong friendship of eleven women from Ames, Iowa. The customer was an older woman, from Ames herself, and she was curious to read about a generation of women from her hometown.

I have to admit, I hadn't heard anything about the book before she asked about it, but the cover caught my attention as I pulled it from the shelf for her; I think it was the photo of the Ames girls in the corner. My mother is one of four sisters, and something about that photo reminded me of so many others I'd seen of my mom and her sisters in their teens, lined up in a row and posing for the camera. The girls reminded me of them, youthful and bright with an exciting future ahead, and I found myself wondering where life had taken this row of smiling girls, and whether their friendships had endured. After selling the woman our last copy, I immediately ordered one for myself.

The Girls from Ames introduces us to Karen, Cathy, Marilyn, Kelly, Sheila, Sally, Jenny, Jane, Karla, Angela, and Diana, and tells us the story of their friendship, often in their own words. Two of the girls, born days apart, "met" in infancy; the last to join the group did so in ninth grade when her family relocated to Ames. In addition to the intricacies of how the girls came together, we learn the stories of their families and backgrounds (and the one behind their group moniker the "Shit Sisters"); we follow them through summer jobs and dates in high school, through husbands and children and careers that have left them scattered across the country, through laughter and tears and the death of one of their own.

In addition to the stories that comprise a lifetime of memories for these women, the book is also a rumination on the nature and importance of female friendships. The girls' friendship often speaks for itself, though at many times throughout their story they pause to reflect on the positive influences of their friendship in each of their lives. Zaslow then highlights these experiences with insights into the larger role of friendships between women, citing various studies that have explored connections between female friendships and life expectancy, divorce, and more. He also brings to their story the "outside" perspective of a male writing about women, a fact that does not go unacknowledged.

I couldn't help but fall in love with this book, and to see in the girls from Ames reflections of my own friendships with other women throughout my life. It sounds cheesy, but it made me feel like part of a larger network of women, a sisterhood of sorts--and then it made me want to call my friends from high school and college who I haven't spoken to in a while.

Recommended for: Any woman who's ever had a female friend; any man who's ever wanted to know what the heck is up with women and their friends; anybody who enjoys a good memoir or is looking for a heartfelt read.

New Release Tuesday 6/2

2009-06-02T10:22:00.015-04:00

Happy June, everyone! Check out this week's new releases...

NEW IN HARDCOVER:

39 Clues: Beyond the Grave, by Jude Watson

Betrayed by their cousins, abandoned by their uncle, and with only the slimmest hint to guide them, fourteen-year-old Amy Cahill and her younger brother, Dan, rush off to Egypt on the hunt for 39 Clues that lead to a source of an unimaginable power. But when they arrive, Amy and Dan get something completely unexpected a message from their dead grandmother, Grace. Did Grace set out to help the two orphans... or are Amy and Dan heading for the most devastating betrayal of them all?

The Strain, by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

The visionary creator of the Academy Award-winning Pan's Labyrinth and a Hammett Award-winning author bring their imaginations to this bold, epic novel about a horrifying battle between man and vampire that threatens all humanity. It is the first installment in a thrilling trilogy and an extraordinary international publishing event.

Medusa, by Clive Cussler

"Kurt Austin must stop a deadly virus from decimating the world in the latest NUMA Files novel. Research using a newly discovered jellyfish shows promising results, but before the tests even start, scientists studying these Blue Medusas start dying. As the pandemic threatens to spread through China, the NUMA team realizes that a Chinese triad is behind the outbreak. Now in their eighth adventure, Austin and partner Zavala are becoming almost as entertaining as Dirk Pitt and his gang." ~ Jeff Ayers, Booklist

My Father's Tears and Other Stories, by John Updike

John Updike’s first collection of new short fiction since the year 2000, My Father’s Tears finds the author in a valedictory mood as he mingles narratives of his native Pennsylvania with stories of New England suburbia and of foreign travel.

In My Father's Tears, American experience from the Depression to the aftermath of 9/11 finds reflection in these glittering pieces of observation, remembrance, and imagination.

NEW IN PAPERBACK:

Liberal Fascism, by Jonah Goldberg

Liberal Fascism offers a startling new perspective on the theories and practices that define fascist politics. Replacing conveniently manufactured myths with surprising and enlightening research, Jonah Goldberg reminds us that the original fascists were really on the left, and that liberals from Woodrow Wilson to FDR to Hillary Clinton have advocated policies and principles remarkably similar to those of Hitler's National Socialism and Mussolini's Fascism.

Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

Swirled and sprinkled, dipped and glazed, or otherwise fancifully decorated, cupcakes are the treats that make everyone smile. They are the star attraction for special days, such as birthdays, showers, and holidays, as well as perfect everyday goodies. In "Martha Stewart's Cupcakes," the editors of "Martha Stewart Living" share 175 ideas for simple to spectacular creations-with cakes, frostings, fillings, toppings, and embellishments that can be mixed and matched to produce just the right cupcake for any occasion.

June Book Club Pick!

2009-05-28T14:37:00.000-04:00

Farley's is excited to announce our June book club selection! This month, we'll be reading the Selden Edwards's The Little Book.

Thirty years in the writing, Selden Edwards's dazzling first novel is an irresistible triumph of the imagination. Wheeler Burden--banking heir, philosopher, student of history, legend's son, rock idol, writer, lover, recluse, half-Jew, and Harvard baseball hero--one day finds himself wandering not in his hometown of San Francisco in 1988 but in a city and time he knows mysteriously well: Vienna, 1897. Before long, Wheeler acquires a mentor in Sigmund Freud, a bitter rival, a powerful crush on a luminous young woman, and encounters everyone from an eight-year-old Adolf Hitler to Mark Twain, and even the young members of his own family. Solving the riddle of Wheeler's dislocation in time will ultimately reveal nothing short of one eccentric family's unrivaled impact upon the course of human history.

“A wide-ranging novel of grand ideas... a graceful waltz of a book, spinning at times at dizzying speed, but leaving behind a haunting, unforgettable melody.” ~ New Orleans Times-Picayune

"Edwards has great fun with time travel paradoxes and anachronisms, but the real romance in this book is with the period. ... This novel ends up a sweet, wistful elegy to the fantastic promise and failed hopes of the 20th century." ~ Publisher's Weekly

Please join us on Tuesday, June 16th at 7:00 p.m. for some good company, great conversation, and, as always, light refreshments as well. See you then!

2009 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award Nominees

2009-05-28T10:07:00.022-04:00

Yesterday, the Mythopoeic Society announced this year's nominees for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award! Given annually, this award recognizes the best of the fantasy genre. This year's nominees are....

Nominees for ADULT LITERATURE:

Flesh and Spirit and Breath and Bone, by Carol Berg

The rebellious Valen has spent his life trying to escape his family legacy. But his fate is sealed when he winds up half-dead, addicted to an enchantment-which leads him into a world he could never possibly imagine...

Addicted to an enchantment that turns pain into pleasure--and bound by oaths he refuses to abandon--Valen risks body and soul to rescue one child, seek justice for another, and bring the dying land of Navronne its rightful king.

Pandemonium, by Daryl Gregory

As a boy, Del Pierce is possessed by the Hellion, an entity whose mischief-making can be deadly. With the help of Del's family and a caring psychiatrist, the demon is exorcised... or is it? Years later, after a car accident, the Hellion is back, trapped inside Del's head and clamoring to get out. Del's quest for help leads him to a variety of characters, all with connections to possession. What's more, they all believe that Del holds the key to the plague of possession--and its solution. But for Del, the cure may be worse than the disease.

Lavinia, by Ursula K. LeGuin

In The Aeneid, Vergil's hero fights to claim the king's daughter, Lavinia, with whom he is destined to found an empire. Lavinia herself never speaks a word. Now, Ursula K. Le Guin gives Lavinia a voice in a novel that takes us to the half-wild world of ancient Italy, when Rome was a muddy village near seven hills. And so she tells us what Vergil did not: the story of her life, and of the love of her life. Lavinia is a book of passion and war, generous and austerely beautiful, from a writer working at the height of her powers.

The Bell at Sealey Head, by Patricia McKillip

Sealey Head is a small town on the edge of the ocean, a sleepy place where everyone hears the ringing of a bell no one can see. On the outskirts of town is an impressive estate, Aislinn House, where the aged Lady Eglantyne lies dying, and where the doors sometimes open not to its own dusty rooms, but to the wild majesty of a castle full of knights and princesses...

An Evil Guest, by Gene Wolf

Set a hundred years in the future, An Evil Guest is a story of an actress who becomes the lover of both a mysterious sorcerer and private detective, and an even more mysterious and powerful rich man, who has been to the human colony on an alien planet and learned strange things there. Her loyalties are divided--perhaps she loves them both. The detective helps her to release her inner beauty and become a star overnight. And the rich man is the benefactor of a play she stars in. But something is very wrong. Money can be an evil guest, but there are other evils...

Nominees for CHILDREN'S LITERATURE:

Graceling, by Kristin Cashore

Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight--she's a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king's thug. When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change. She never expects to become Po's friend. She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace--or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away... a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.

The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead.

There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy--but if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack--who has already killed Bod's family...

House of Many Ways, by Diana Wynne Jones

When Charmain Baker agreed to look after her great-uncle's house, she thought she was getting blissful, parent-free time to read. She didn't realize that the house bent space and time, and she did not expect to become responsible for an extremely magical stray dog and a muddled young apprentice wizard. Now, somehow, she's been targeted by a terrifying creature called a lubbock, too, and become central to the king's urgent search for the fabled Elfgift that will save the country. The king is so desperate to find the Elfgift, he's called in an intimidating sorceress named Sophie to help. And where Sophie is, the great Wizard Howl and fire demon Calcifer won't be far behind. How did respectable Charmain end up in such a mess, and how will she get herself out of it? Sequel to Jones's beloved classic, Howl's Moving Castle.

Savvy, by Ingrid Law

For generations, the Beaumont family has harbored a magical secret. They each possess a savvy--a special supernatural power that strikes when they turn thirteen. Grandpa Bomba moves mountains, her older brothers create hurricanes and spark electricity... and now it's the eve of Mibsa's big day.

As if waiting weren't hard enough, the family gets scary news two days before Mibs's birthday: Poppa has been in a terrible accident. Mibs develops the singular mission to get to the hospital and prove that her new power can save her dad. Suddenly Mibs finds herself on an unforgettable odyssey that will force her to make sense of growing up--and of other people, who might also have a few secrets hidden just beneath the skin.

Nation, by Terry Pratchett

Mau is the only one left after a giant wave sweeps his island village away. But when much is taken, something is returned, and somewhere in the jungle Daphne--a girl from the other side of the globe--is the sole survivor of a ship destroyed by the same wave.

Together the two confront the aftermath of catastrophe. Drawn by the smoke of Mau and Daphne's sheltering fire, other refugees slowly arrive: children without parents, mothers without babies, husbands without wives--all of them hungry and all of them frightened. As Mau and Daphne struggle to keep the small band safe and fed, they defy ancestral spirits, challenge death himself, and uncover a long-hidden secret that literally turns the world upside down...

Winners will be announced in July!

2009 Man Booker International Prize

2009-05-27T10:55:00.000-04:00

The winner of the 2009 Man Booker International Prize was announced today... and it's none other than Alice Munro!

Born in Ontario, Canada, Alice Munro is one of the world's most talented and beloved writers. Primarily a writer of short stories, Munro has published eleven new story collections (with a twelfth due out later this year), as well as a novel and a volume of selected stories. Her first collection of stories, titled Dance of the Happy Shades, debuted in 1968, and her most recent collection, The View from Castle Rock, was released in 2006. Too Much Happiness is scheduled for publication in November.

The Man Booker International Prize is awarded every other year to a living author in recognition of a body of work that has contributed to excellence in fiction across the world. Previous winners include Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe (2007) and Albanian writer Ismail Kadare, who won the inaugural prize in 2005.

The winner of the Man Booker Prize will be announced in October. For more on the prizes, visit http://www.themanbookerprize.com/.

New Release Tuesday 5/26

2009-05-26T11:00:00.000-04:00

Wow, TONS of new releases today!! Check 'em out...

NEW IN HARDCOVER:

The Scarecrow, by Michael Connelly

"Former Los Angeles Times crime reporter Connelly has said that his goal in writing The Scarecrow was to come up with a story 'that would be a thriller first and a torch song to the newspaper business second.' He succeeds on both counts. By bringing back Jack McEvoy, the reporter star of The Poet (1996), and by beginning the novel with McEvoy downsized from his job as crime reporter for the Times, Connelly puts both plotlines in gear. McEvoy, determined to go out with guns blazing, plans on writing a story about how poverty turns a 16-year-old into a killer, but he quickly learns that the kid’s confession is bogus. That unlocks the door to a serial killer every bit as warped, perverted, and brilliant as the Poet, the case that made McEvoy’s career. It also leads to a reunion, both professional and romantic, with FBI agent Rachel Walling. ... Alternating point of view between villain and reporter, Connelly builds tension expertly, using dramatic irony to its fullest, screw-tightening potential. Even confirmed Harry Bosch fans will have to admit that this Harry-less novel is one of Connelly’s very best." ~ Bill Ott, Booklist

The Emperor's New Clothes: Exposing the Truth from Watergate to 9/11, by Richard Ben-Veniste

Widely respected as a trial lawyer, Ben-Veniste delivers a fascinating insider's tale in his memoir of a career spent fighting hypocrisy and seeking accountability among the highest ranks of government. A legal wunderkind, Ben-Veniste was hired at age thirty by Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox to investigate the Watergate cover-up. In the Senate Whitewater hearings, Ben-Veniste helped expose the partisan agenda behind the effort to take down President Clinton. The author gained further national prominence as a member of the 9/11 Commission, in which his artful questioning of Condoleeza Rice revealed how ill-prepared the Bush Administration had been in the weeks leading up to 9/11. A lifelong devotee to the principles of an open democracy, the author argues that the pursuit of truth is not one that should depend on party affiliations--that we should all seek to be partisans for the truth. Ben-Veniste recounts a remarkable career spent at the center of the most poignant public investigations of the last half century, fighting the abuse of power by those who wielded it most.

The Ascent of George Washington: The Hidden Political Genius of an American Icon, by John Ferling

Even compared to his fellow founders, George Washington stands tall. Our first president has long been considered a stoic hero, holding himself above the rough-and-tumble politics of his day. Now John Ferling peers behind that image, carefully burnished by Washington himself, to show us a leader who was not only not above politics, but a canny infighter--a master of persuasion, manipulation, and deniability. Ferling argues that not only was Washington one of America's most adroit politicians--but that the proof of his genius is that he is no longer thought of as a politician at all.

Bangkok Days, by Lawrence Osborne

Tourists come to Bangkok for many reasons--a sex change operation, a night with two prostitutes dressed as nuns, a stay in a luxury hotel. Lawrence Osborne comes for the cheap dentistry. Broke (but no longer in pain), he finds that he can live in Bangkok on a few dollars a day. And so the restless exile stays.

Osborne's is a visceral experience of Bangkok, whether he's wandering the canals that fill the old city; dining at the No Hands Restaurant, where his waitress feeds him like a baby; or launching his own notably unsuccessful career as a gigolo. A guide without inhibitions, Osborne takes us to a feverish place where a strange blend of ancient Buddhist practice and new sexual mores has created a version of modernity only superficially indebted to the West. Bangkok Days is a love letter to the city that revived Osborne's faith in adventure and the world.

NEW IN PAPERBACK:

The Last Campaign, by Thurston Clarke

After John F. Kennedy's assassination, Robert Kennedy--formerly Jack's no-holds-barred political warrior--had almost lost hope. He was haunted by his brother's murder, and by the nation's seeming inabilities to solve its problems of race, poverty, and the war in Vietnam. Bobby sensed the country's pain, and when he announced that he was running for president, the country united behind his hopes. Over the action-packed eighty-two days of his campaign, Americans were inspired by Kennedy's promise to lead them toward a better time.

With new research, interviews, and an intimate sense of Kennedy, The Last Campaign goes right to the heart of America's deepest despairs--and most fiercely held dreams--and tells us more than we had understood before about this complicated man and the heightened personal, racial, political, and national dramas of his times.

The Little Book, by Selden Edwards

Thirty years in the writing, Selden Edwards's dazzling first novel is an irresistible triumph of the imagination. Wheeler Burden--a banking heir, philosopher, student of history, legendas son, rock idol, writer, lover, recluse, half-Jew, and Harvard baseball hero--one day finds himself wandering not in his hometown of San Francisco in 1988 but in a city and time he knows mysteriously well: Vienna, 1897. Before long, Wheeler acquires a mentor in Sigmund Freud, a bitter rival, a powerful crush on a luminous young woman, and encounters everyone from an eight-year-old Adolf Hitler to Mark Twain as well as the young members of his own family. Solving the riddle of Wheeler's dislocation in time will ultimately reveal nothing short of one eccentric family's unrivaled impact upon the course of human history.

The Likeness, by Tana French

Tana French astonished critics and readers alike with her mesmerizing debut novel, In the Woods. Now both French and Detective Cassie Maddox return to unravel a case even more sinister and enigmatic than the first. Six months after the events of In the Woods, an urgent telephone call beckons Cassie to a grisly crime scene. The victim looks exactly like Cassie and carries ID identifying herself as Alexandra Madison, an alias Cassie once used. Suddenly, Cassie must discover not only who killed this girl, but, more importantly, who is this girl? A disturbing tale of shifting identities, The Likeness firmly establishes Tana French as an important voice in suspense fiction.

The Beach House, by Jane Green

Nan Powell is a free-spirited, sixty-five-year-old widow whoas not above skinny-dipping in her neighborsa pools when theyare away and who dearly loves her Nantucket home. But when she discovers that the money she thought would last forever is dwindling, she realizes she must make drastic changes to save her beloved house. So Nan takes out an ad: "Rooms to rent for the summer in a beautiful old Nantucket home with water views and direct access to the beach."

Slowly people start moving in to the house, filling it with noise, laughter, and with tears. As the house comes alive again, Nan finds her family and friends expanding. Her son comes home for the summer, and then an unexpected visitor turns all their lives upside down. As she did so masterfully in her New York Times bestseller Second Chance, Jane Green once again proves herself one of the preeminent writers of contemporary women's fiction.

Lucky Everyday, by Bapsy Jain

Forced to flee Bombay when her wealthy and charming husband divorces her and squashes her career, Lucky Boyce feels defeated and desperate for respite. Fortunately, old friends welcome her to New York where life begins with promise. Determined and trying to make a difference, she volunteers to teach yoga to prison inmates. But with her confidence in question and love starting to surface, a series of bizarre events leave Lucky searching once again for answers. Is her journey through life destined to be marred by duplicity and betrayal? Or does she simply need to overcome her fears and look within for the strength to break free? A stunning novel about one womanas struggle toward enlightenment, Lucky Everyday blends the principles of yoga with a thoroughly modern take on the quest for a fulfilled life.

A Vengeful Longing, by R.N. Morris

The acclaimed author of The Gentle Axe returns with another atmospheric thriller starring investigator Porfiry Petrovich.

Hailed with glowing reviews, R. N. Morrisas The Gentle Axe borrowed Porfiry Petrovich of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment to create a wholly new, hauntingly authentic novel of suspense. A Vengeful Longing, Petrovichas next outing, is even more engrossing. As the laconic investigator follows a trail that begins innocently with a box of chocolates, he is drawn deep into St. Petersburg's squalid heart. Aided by Morris's effortless prose, readers are immersed in the stifling world of nineteenth-century tsarist Russia and treated to an unforgettable rendering of a brutal time and place that will ensnare every fan of sophisticated historical fiction.

Cost, by Roxana Robinson (local author!!)

Julia Lambert, an artist, is spending the summer in her old Maine farmhouse. During a visit from her elderly parents, she hopes to mend complicated relationships with her domineering father, a retired neurosurgeon, and her gentle mother, who is descending into the fog of Alzheimer's. But a shattering revelation intrudes: Julia's son, Jack, has spiraled into heroin addiction. In her attempts to save him, Julia marshals help from her loosely knit clan, but Jack's addiction courses through the family with a devastating energy, sweeping them all into a world of confusion, fear, and obsession. In Cost, Roxana Robinson applies her "trademark gifts as an intelligent, sensitive analyst of family life" and creates a "warmly human and deeply satisfying book, marking a new level of ambition and achievement for this talented author" (Chicago Tribune).

My Stroke of Insight, by Jill Bolte Taylor

On December 10, 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven- year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist experienced a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. As she observed her mind deteriorate to the point that she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life--all within four hours--Taylor alternated between the euphoria of the intuitive and kinesthetic right brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace, and the logical, sequential left brain, which recognized she was having a stroke and enabled her to seek help before she was completely lost. It would take her eight years to fully recover.

For Taylor, her stroke was a blessing and a revelation. It taught her that by astepping to the righta of our left brains, we can uncover feelings of well-being that are often sidelined by abrain chatter.a Reaching wide audiences through her talk at the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference and her appearance on Oprah's online "Soul Series," Taylor provides a valuable recovery guide for those touched by brain injury and an inspiring testimony that inner peace is accessible to anyone.

Book Signing w/Dennis Tafoya!

2009-05-25T13:53:00.001-04:00

This weekend, we hosted a signing with the talented and delightful Dennis Tafoya! His debut crime novel, Dope Thief, is set right here in Bucks County, and we had a great time with him!

Take a look at a few photos from the event:

View more photos on our Facebook page here!

To learn more about Dennis, check out his website, http://www.dennistafoya.com, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DennisTafoya.

Thanks, Dennis, for a great event!!

Local Author Spotlight: Dennis Tafoya

2009-05-21T12:33:00.000-04:00

Bucks County, Pennsylvania has a rich literary history that only continues to expand as a number of talented local authors share their voices with the world. We want to help spread the word on these fantastic local writers, so we're excited to announce a new blog feature: the Local Author Spotlight.

Every so often, we'll take an opportunity to introduce you to some of our favorite local talent. And since he'll be joining us for a signing this Saturday (more on that in a bit!), we thought we'd begin with none other than Dennis Tafoya!

Hailed as "an important new voice in crime fiction," Dennis Tafoya lives in Doylestown, PA, and his first novel, Dope Thief, is a gripping mystery/thriller set in our very own Bucks County.

"Ray and Manny, flashing bogus badges and wearing DEA windbreakers purchased at a 'flea market in Jersey,' take down small drug dealers in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It’s easy and lucrative, but they know it can’t last: 'Everyone was high. Everyone was stupid. Everyone had guns.' Reality, in the form of New England bikers trying to muscle into the Philadelphia–New Jersey drug trade, rears its head quickly, and Ray and Manny are on the run. But that’s only half of this fine first novel. An abusive, criminal father and a number of jail stints beginning in high school seem to have doomed Ray to relive his father’s sordid life, but Ray is a bright man looking for a shot at redemption. When it comes, redemption is both unlikely and interesting. Tafoya is off to a promising start: Ray and a number of other characters are quirky and engaging. The locale of Bucks County, which ranges from city gritty to bucolic beauty, works well. The plotting is solid, and the action has a hard, violent edge that recalls Richard Price." ~ Thomas Gaughan, Booklist

To learn more about Tafoya, visit his Web site at http://www.dennistafoya.com/. Better yet, come meet him this weekend at Farley's, where he will be joining us to sign copies of Dope Thief!

Where:
Farley's Bookshop
44 S. Main Street
New Hope, PA

When:
Saturday, May 23rd
from 1-4 p.m.

And, if you buy your copy of Dope Thief during the signing, you'll save 10% off the cover price! Hope to see you there!!

Take 5: Butter's Favorite Animal Books

2009-05-20T10:11:00.000-04:00

Those of you who have visited Farley's have no doubt met Butter, our handsome and charming store cat.

Isn't he adorable?? Check out his top five animal books:

1. Dewey, by Vicky Myron.

How could Butter pass this one up? It's the story of Dewey Readmore Books, who was abandoned as a kitten in the book return slot of the Spencer Public Library in Spencer, Iowa.

2. I Can Has Cheezburger?

Do you love those LOLcats?? Then you'll really love this collection of favorite captioned images from the site.

3. Indognito, by Karen Ngo

Did we mention that Butter likes dogs too? We get lots of canine visitors to the bookshop, and Butter is always more than welcome to share the store with them. This book features a collection of "canines in costume" and is super amusing.

4. Wesley the Owl, by Stacey O'Brien

Wesley the Owl tells the heartwarming story of Stacey O'Brien, who on Valentine's Day in 1985 met a four-day-old baby barn owl with an injured wing. So began a 19-year relationship between the owl and his girl...

5. Farley Follows His Nose, by Lynn Johnston and Beth Cruikshank

How could Butter--or anyone?--resist a picture book about a dog named Farley??

Come visit Butter yourself, and take a closer look at his top 5 animal books! And don't forget to share your ideas for future editions of Take 5 in the comments...

New Release Tuesday 5/19

2009-05-19T14:10:00.000-04:00

It's that time of the week again! Today, we've got two great new titles in paperback: Ethan Canin's America America and Marlena De Blasi's That Summer in Sicily. Read on to find out more about them!

"Ethan Canin's new novel is a powerful lament that haunts us like a latter-day ghost of The Great Gatsby. Delivered its own corrupt and luscious poetry, Canin gives us a poisoned lullaby of the Nixon era.

Canin's narrator, Corey Sifter, is a kind of Nick Carraway (but with working-class origins), who finds his way into the land of the rich. Corey is 16 in 1971; he lives in a little town in western New York State that used to belong to the Erie and Seneca Indians, but is now ruled by Liam Metarey, a tycoon of Scottish descent whose holdings cover a third of the county. Riddled with guilt over his father's rapacious gathering of wealth, Liam longs, like some benevolent laird, to reverse America's politics of greed. He sets about creating his own president, Henry Bonwiller, a United States senator from New York who is a champion of the working man and wants to get America out of Vietnam. He also "adopts" Corey, who becomes a caretaker of Liam's grounds and mingles with his dysfunctional family. Corey soon becomes involved in Bonwiller's presidential campaign, but Bonwiller is a deeply flawed candidate--a megalomaniac, a drunkard and a philanderer." ~ Jerome Charyn, Publisher's Weekly

“At villa Donnafugata, long ago is never very far away,” writes bestselling author Marlena de Blasi of the magnificent if somewhat ruined castle in the mountains of Sicily that she stumbles upon one summer while traveling with her husband. There de Blasi is befriended by Tosca, the patroness of the villa, who shares her own unforgettable love story. In a luminous and tantalizing voice, de Blasi re-creates Tosca’s life and romance with the last prince of Sicily descended from the French nobles of Anjou. But when Prince Leo attempts to better the lives of his peasants, his defiance of the local Mafia costs him dearly. The present-day narrative finds Tosca sharing her considerable inherited wealth with a harmonious society composed of many of the women–now widowed–who once worked the prince’s land alongside their husbands. This marvelous epic drama reminds us that in order to live a rich life, one must embrace both life’s sorrow and its beauty.

What We're Reading: Rebekah visits The Lost City of Z

2009-05-18T10:32:00.002-04:00

Hmmm... I'm sitting here at the computer knowing I should be going through the bookstore to set things straight after the weekend but I seem unable to leave my cup of tea. There is a chance that I should not have left my bed this morning. I couldn't sleep last night so I read of course. I'm reading the Lost city of Z (among other books, but that is my primary). It is wonderful, all about the Amazon and perhaps its most well-known explorer, Percy Fawcett. His exploits were thought to have inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost World as well as Evelyn Waugh's Handful of Dust (which of course are now sitting on my bedside table as well). Check it out below!

A grand mystery reaching back centuries. A sensational disappearance that made headlines around the world. A quest for truth that leads to death, madness or disappearance for those who seek to solve it. The Lost City of Z is a blockbuster adventure narrative about what lies beneath the impenetrable jungle canopy of the Amazon.

After stumbling upon a hidden trove of diaries, acclaimed New Yorker writer David Grann set out to solve "the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century": What happened to the British explorer Percy Fawcett and his quest for the Lost City of Z?

In 1925 Fawcett ventured into the Amazon to find an ancient civilization, hoping to make one of the most important discoveries in history. For centuries Europeans believed the world's largest jungle concealed the glittering kingdom of El Dorado. Thousands had died looking for it, leaving many scientists convinced that the Amazon was truly inimical to humankind. But Fawcett had spent years building his scientific case. Captivating the imagination of millions around the globe, Fawcett embarked with his twenty-one-year-old son, determined to prove that this ancient civilization--which he dubbed "Z"--existed. Then he and his expedition vanished.

Fawcett's fate--and the tantalizing clues he left behind about "Z"--became an obsession for hundreds who followed him into the uncharted wilderness. For decades scientists and adventurers have searched for evidence of Fawcett's party and the lost City of Z. Countless have perished, been captured by tribes, or gone mad. As David Grann delved ever deeper into the mystery surrounding Fawcett's quest, and the greater mystery of what lies within the Amazon, he found himself, like the generations who preceded him, being irresistibly drawn into the jungle's "green hell." His quest for the truth and his stunning discoveries about Fawcett's fate and "Z" form the heart of this complex, enthralling narrative.

Autographed Books the Bookshop!

2009-05-12T12:11:00.000-04:00

We have some great new titles in the bookshop autographed by two of our favorite authors. Stop in to pick up a special volume for yourself or someone you love!

A chilling and vividly rendered ghost story set in postwar Britain, by the bestselling and award-winning author of The Night Watch and Fingersmith.

Sarah Waters's trilogy of Victorian novels Tipping the Velvet, Affinity, and Fingersmith earned her legions of fans around the world, a number of awards, and a reputation as one of todayas most gifted historical novelists. With her most recent book, The Night Watch, Waters turned to the 1940s and delivered a tender and intricate novel of relationships that brought her the greatest success she has achieved so far. With The Little Stranger, Waters revisits the fertile setting of Britain in the 1940s' and gives us a sinister tale of a haunted house, brimming with the rich atmosphere and psychological complexity that have become hallmarks of Waters's work.
The Little Stranger follows the strange adventures of Dr. Faraday, the son of a maid who has built a life of quiet respectability as a country doctor. One dusty postwar summer in his home of rural Warwickshire, he is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at twenty to nine. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more ominous than a dying way of life? Little does Dr. Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entwined with his.

Abundantly atmospheric and elegantly told, The Little Stranger is Sarah Waters's most thrilling and ambitious novel yet.

Bestselling author Ruth Reichl examines her mother's life, giving voice to the universal unarticulated truth that we are grateful not to be our mothers.
In Not Becoming My Mother, bestselling author Ruth Reichl embarks on a clear-eyed, openhearted investigation of her mother's life, piecing together the journey of a woman she comes to realize she never really knew. Looking to her mother's letters and diaries, Reichl confronts the painful transition her mother made from a hopeful young woman to an increasingly unhappy older one and realizes the tremendous sacrifices she made to make sure her daughter's life would not be as disappointing as her own.

Growing up in Cleveland, Miriam Brudno dreamed of becoming a doctor, like her father. But when she announced this, her parents said, "You are no beauty, and it's too bad you are such an intellectual. But if you become a doctor, no man will ever marry you." Instead, at twenty, Miriam opened a bookstore, a profession everyone agreed was suitably ladylike. She corresponded with authors all over the world, including philosophers such as Bertrand Russell, political figures such as Max Eastman, and novelists such as Christopher Marlowe. It was the happiest time of her life.

Nearly thirty when she finally married, she fulfilled expectations, settled down, left her bookstore behind, and started a family. But conformity came at a tremendous cost. With labor-saving devices to aid in household chores, there was simply not enough to do to fill the days. Miriam and most of her friends were smart, educated women who were often bored, miserable, and silently rebellious.

On what would have been Miriam's one hundredth birthday Reichl opens up her mother's diaries for the first time and encounters a whole new woman. This is a person she had never known. In this intimate study Reichl comes to understand the lessons of rebellion, independence, and self-acceptance that her mother, though unable to guide herself, succeeded in teaching her daughter.

New Release Tuesday 5/12

2009-05-12T11:50:00.000-04:00

It's Tuesday--and that means new releases at Farley's! Check out some of our favorite new titles... We are really excited about these!!!

The comics that first launched Tomine into his luminary career, in a special-edition box set
Redesigned to coincide with the release of "Shortcomings" in paperback is a brand-new edition of Adrian Tomine's first book, "32 Stories," that collects his inaugural mini-comics in a special edition. This onetime printing includes facsimile reprints of the seven mini-comics packaged in a slipcase, as well as an additional pamphlet containing a new introduction and notes by Tomine.

The bestselling author of "A History of the World in 6 Glasses "brilliantly charts how foods have transformed human culture through the ages.

Throughout history, food has acted as a catalyst of social change, political organization, geopolitical competition, industrial development, military conflict, and economic expansion. "An Edible History of Humanity "is a pithy, entertaining account of how a series of changes--caused, enabled, or influenced by food--has helped to shape and transform societies around the world.

The first civilizations were built on barley and wheat in the Near East, millet and rice in Asia, corn and potatoes in the Americas. Why farming created a strictly ordered social hierarchy in contrast to the loose egalitarianism of hunter-gatherers is, as Tom Standage reveals, as interesting as the details of the complex cultures that emerged, eventually interconnected by commerce. Trade in exotic spices in particular spawned the age of exploration and the colonization of the New World.

Food's influence over the course of history has been just as prevalent in modern times. In the late eighteenth century, Britain's solution to food shortages was to industrialize and import food rather than grow it. Food helped to determine the outcome of wars: Napoleon's rise and fall was intimately connected with his ability to feed his vast armies. In the twentieth century, Communist leaders employed food as an ideological weapon, resulting in the death by starvation of millions in the Soviet Union and China. And today the foods we choose in the supermarket connect us to global debates about trade, development, the environment, and the adoption of new technologies.

Encompassing many fields, from genetics and archaeology to anthropology and economics--and invoking food as a special form of technology--"An Edible History of Humanity "is a fully satisfying discourse on the sweep of human history.

John Hart's "New York Times" bestselling debut, "The King of Lies," announced the arrival of a major talent. With "Down"" River," he surpassed his earlier success, transcending the barrier between thriller and literature and winning the 2008 Edgar Award for best novel. Now, with "The Last Child," he achieves his most significant work to date, an intricate, powerful story of loss, hope, and courage in the face of evil.
Thirteen year-old Johnny Merrimon had the perfect life: a warm home and loving parents; a twin sister, Alyssa, with whom he shared an irreplaceable bond. He knew nothing of loss, until the day Alyssa vanished from the side of a lonely street. Now, a year later, Johnny finds himself isolated and alone, failed by the people he'd been taught since birth to trust. No one else believes that Alyssa is still alive, but Johnny is certain that she is---confident in a way that he can never fully explain.
Determined to find his sister, Johnny risks everything to explore the dark side of his hometown. It is a desperate, terrifying search, but Johnny is not as alone as he might think. Detective Clyde Hunt has never stopped looking for Alyssa either, and he has a soft spot for Johnny. He watches over the boy and tries to keep him safe, but when Johnny uncovers a dangerous lead and vows to follow it, Hunt has no choice but to intervene.
Then a second child goes missing . . .
Undeterred by Hunt's threats or his mother's pleas, Johnny enlists the help of his last friend, and together they plunge into the wild, to a forgotten place with a history of violence that goes back more than a hundred years. There, they meet a giant of a man, an escaped convict on his own tragic quest. What they learn from him will shatter every notion Johnny had about the fate of his sister; it will lead them to another far place, to a truth that will test both boys to the limit.
Traveling the wilderness between innocence and hard wisdom, between hopelessness and faith, "The Last Child" leaves all categories behind and establishes John Hart as a writer of unique power.

Be Cool. If Elmore Leonard hadn't already used it for the sequel to Get Shorty, it would have been a natural title for this deliciously breezy follow-up to another Leonard-to-Hollywood hit, Out of Sight. You may best recall Jack Foley, as played by George Clooney, bantering with Jennifer Lopez in the trunk of a jailbreak getaway car, but when Out of Sight ended, Foley was headed back to the clink to finish a 30-year bid. Road Dogs opens with Foley on the van to prison with Cundo Rey, a pint-size Cuban who soon engineers their early release--legally, this time. Jack's happy to be out and enjoying the California hospitality of Cundo and his wife Dawn (both Leonard veterans too, from LaBrava and Riding the Rap). But Dawn is lovely and wily (and maybe a psychic), Cundo is a murderously jealous husband who may well think Jack owes him big-time, and Jack? Well, when you've robbed a hundred-twenty or so banks, is it that easy to go straight? As so often with Leonard, the real fun is less in the action than the talk, especially from Foley, the pleasure-minded, level-headed hood: an ex-con whose biggest con may be that he is exactly who he says he is. --Tom Nissley

The third installment of this new series by the "New York Times"-bestselling author of the Warriors saga continues the journey of a black bear, a polar bear, and a grizzly cub that are brought together by a twist of fate for a mystical quest to find the Last Great Wilderness.

Take 5: Katie's Favorite Food Writers

2009-05-09T13:07:00.000-04:00

We're starting a new feature here at the Farley's blog... Take 5! Every so often, we'll feature a top 5 Q&A with a Farley's Bookshop staffer.

Today's Take 5 is with Katie, who is one of our resident foodies. Here, she shares her top 5 favorite food writers.

In no particular order:

1. Ruth Reichl

2. Alice Waters

3. Laurie Colwin

4. Nigel Slater

5. Deborah Madison

If you've got any suggestion for future editions of Take 5, we'd love to hear them! Send us your ideas in an email, or in the comments!