« older | Main Largehearted Boy Page | newer »
February 29, 2012
Largehearted WORD Books of the Week - February 29th, 2012
In the Largehearted Word series, the staff of Brooklyn's WORD bookstore highlights several new books released this week.
WORD is an independent neighborhood bookstore in Greenpoint, the northernmost neighborhood of Brooklyn, that will celebrate its fifth anniversary in March 2012. Our primary goal is to be whatever our community needs us to be, which currently means carrying a lot of paperback fiction (especially classics), cookbooks, board books, and absurdly cute cards and stationery. In addition, we're fiends for a good event, from the classic author reading and Q&A to potlucks and a basketball league (and anything set in a bar). We're a small operation, just 1000 square feet and four people, but we read too much, so it all works out. If a weekly dose of WORD here isn't enough for you, follow us on Twitter: @wordbrooklyn.
WORD also hosts the monthly Largehearted Lit reading series, featuring authors who participated in this blog's Book Notes series and musical guests.
Moonwalking with Einstein
by Joshua Foer
While the memory palace technique might not be the best way to try and remember your grocery list, Foer's attempts to master it, his journey to the USA Memory Championships, and the revelations about memory along the way are engrossing, entertaining, and educational. Now in paperback.
By Blood
by Ellen Ullman
Says Stephanie: "By Blood was just the book I didn't know I wanted. It's an unnerving story in an eerie setting about some odd people. The story: a professor overhears a woman telling her therapist about her life and gets personally involved in manipulating her life out of a somewhat sincere desire to help (and dislike for her therapist). The setting: 1970s San Fran, home of the Zodiac Killer and the crumbling remnants of the Swinging Sixties. The people: the woman, her therapist, and our narrator, the professor, who is one of those characters who becomes creepier and yet somehow more understandable the more time you spend with him. It's about Nazis but it's not about Nazis; it's about feminism but it's not about feminism. It's about figuring out who you are and whether that even matters in the grand scheme of things. It's fantastic."
Kenny & the Dragon
by Tony DiTerlizzi
If you are like Jenn and snuck off to read The Spiderwick Chronicles on your lunch break, you'll be pleased to hear that DiTerlizzi is back with another winner. Kenny Rabbit befriends the new dragon in town -- until the townsfolk find out and, predictably, object. Hijinks ensue!
Day of the Oprichnik
by Vladimir Sorokin
Sorokin, author of the truly bonkers Ice Trilogy, brings us the story of the New Russia of 2028 and the anti-hero Andrei Danilovich Komiaga, courtier to the czar. There is little crazier than Russian speculative fiction, and Sorokin is tops in the field (which should be taken both as a recommendation and fair warning).
WORD Brooklyn links:
WORD website
WORD blog
WORD on Twitter
WORD's Facebook page
WORD's Flickr photos
also at Largehearted Boy:
other Largehearted Word Books of the Week (weekly new book highlights)
List of online "best of 2011" book lists
52 Books, 52 Weeks (my yearly reading project)
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (weekly comics & graphic novel highlights)
Book Notes (authors create music playlists for their book)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
