The Roaring 20s

How the French Invented Love

L'amour, l'amour, how we suffer for it! For the bibliophile, there is an exquisite torture in reading Marilyn Yalom's How the French Invented Love, a paralyzing sense that there are many French novels, plays, and poems that demand a reader's attention and have not yet received it.  Works that could, if granted the chance, change our lives.  

How the French Invented Love takes us on a tour of French literature from the Middle Ages to the present—from Lancelot and Guinevere to Rimbaud and Verlaine, to existentialism’s Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.  You don’t have to be a Francophile to appreciate Yalom’s passion for the material: each topic, literary mention, and anecdote from her own experience is backlit with joy. Publishers Weekly gave the book a starred review, writing that “readers will want to run to the library and stay there for a year, reading everything she deconstructs.”  A promise and a threat—my to read pile is groaning with the additions Marilyn has given me.  The good news? I've got five, count 'em, five copies of Marilyn's book on my desk.  If you'd like to read How the French Invented Love, please leave a comment below with the name of your favorite French writer.  Bonne chance!    

PS: for more on Marilyn, and the French literary je ne sais quoi, check out this lovely feature in Interview.   

The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope

If a book has either time travel or a love story with supernatural elements, there's a good chance I will read it (as the Greeks say, "know thyself").  My teens were cluttered with books like Diana Gabaldon's Outlander, Linda Howard's Son of the Morning and movies like Somewhere in Time.  When The Time Traveler's Wife came out, I was thrilled to see someone launching a book with those elements out of genre and into the mainstream.  All of which is a long way to say that if you were a fan of Audrey Niffenegger's strange and beautiful novel, I wholeheartedly recommend Rhonda Riley's forthcoming debut, The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope. 

Like The Time Traveler's Wife, The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope centers around a character with supernatural gifts, and a love story. The writing is gorgeous, and the bucolic setting (on a North Carolina farm) is so lush with detail, it's practically a character in the book.  Backing up my wild assertions and praise, Library Journal writes, "first-time novelist Riley’s exquisite language draws the reader into this improbable, beautifully rendered, somewhat biblical love story with a wildly imaginative premise that is irresistible, tender, and provocative."       

The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope hits shelves next April.         

More on *Vagina*

This summer I got fairly uppity trying to convince everyone to read Naomi Wolf's latest book, Vagina.  The good news? Loads of people are reading it, loving it, and recommending it.  Here's un petit roundup, including your chance to catch Naomi in person.  

"I felt – on both a creative and a physical level – that I had been punished for 'going somewhere' that women are not supposed to go."  The Guardian has an excerpt from Vagina on sexist language, performative utterances, and their effect on the female brain.  

"Does really special sex, sex that engages the vagina, emotions, and body in very specific ways — ways that involve very concrete kinds of activation of the parasympathetic nervous system — actually lead to female euphoria, creativity, and self-love?" Find out in an exclusive excerpt via New York Magazine's blog, The Cut.  

Need reading recommendations? Naomi has curated a list of books about gender for Goodreads.  Check 'em out!   

And if you're in the tristate area, head on over to BookCourt next week for Naomi's release party.  I'm especially excited for the audience Q&A.  

Hummingbird Knowledge, Hummingbird Chance

If I were going to send up Charles Bukowski properly on what would've been his 92nd birthday, there would be a whiskey bender, a filthy gutter, and a sweet-faced one-legged hooker.  What I can do during work hours is thoroughly upset myself (and you) by re-reading two of his most heartbreaking poems about his first love, Jane Cooney Baker.  Tell me they aren't precious things, and I'll tell you your heart is cold.  

For Jane

For Jane: With All the Love I Had, Which Was Not Enough

Ecco has recently made available 10 of Bukowski's eBooks, each at $1.99.  If you know the depth and desperate beauty of his work, you know that's a steal.  Happy Birthday, Chinaski.            

What the Dickens?

"You must know," said Estella, condescending to me as a brilliant and beautiful woman might, "that I have no heart."

I am still busy gnawing my way through Anna Karenina, but in the meantime, the trailer for another 19th century epic-novel-movie-adaptation has hit the interwebs.  Please to enjoy, the international trailer for Charles Dickens' Great Expectations.  Full disclosure: I was obsessed with GE as a pre-teen and still harbor dreams of dressing as Miss Havisham for Halloween (moldy wedding cake, I'm looking at you).  And seeing as I'd watch Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes do anything--eat ice cream, re-tile the guest bathroom, etc--this is a special, gothic treat indeed.

 

Review for Vagina: A New Biography

I cannot even tell you how difficult it was coming up with a headline for this post.  Seemingly innocuous phrases made me cringe upon reflection.  The tamest ones: 

Booklist Gives Naomi Wolf's Vagina Starred Review

Critical Attention for Vagina

Vagina Receives Acclaim

Praise for Vagina

There's one I said with ample sincerity (and zero self-awareness) a few months ago, when I was describing the book to some feminist librarian friends as "Vagina, bigger than [Inga Muscio's] Cunt." 

But here's the thing, friends. I absolutely adore this book.  Enough to accidentally humiliate myself nearly every time I discuss it.  Really.  I will do whatever it takes to make sure every woman—and man—within a 500 mile radius reads this book when it comes out this Fall.  It's an incredibly necessary work, one of such insight and compassion that, once you stop snickering at the title, can only help to illuminate the female experience for those apart from it, and within.  So in the interest of preventing any future puns, I'm going to turn the floor over to Booklist, and quote their forthcoming review of Vagina.  

Vagina: A New Biography.
Wolf, Naomi (Author)
Sep 2012. 384 p. Ecco, paperback, $14.99. (9780061989162). 306.708.

It is often said, however jokingly, that a man thinks with his penis.  Influential feminist writer Wolf contends that a woman thinks from her vagina. She is referring to the extraordinarily complex neural network that travels via the spine from the entire vaginal region to the brain. And to the fact that what a woman’s vagina enacts, sexually or reproductively, profoundly affects the way she thinks about herself and her intellectual and creative abilities. On a global plane, Wolf says, the way a culture views and treats the vagina demonstrates how much respect the society has for all women. This applies to physical assault, including rape and gratuitous intravaginal examinations, as well as psychological assault, including a collective dialogue that speaks derisively about women’s vaginas. She also holds that such treatment is a calculated attempt to subjugate women as a class. This is not pop-culture, chick magazine pseudopsychology. Although Wolf’s investigation began with her own experiences, she conducted extensive research and cites numerous expert sources and scientific studies that lend credible support to her hypothesis. Despite going a tad afield by referencing Tantric lovemaking, Wolf’s inquiry promises to be an authoritative and useful resource, particularly in view of the current highly charged political and religious dialogues regarding women’s sexual and reproductive rights.— Donna Chavez

Golden Age Reads

The 1790s are the new 1920s.  

There.  I've made the prediction, stuck a stake in the ground, made a line in the sand.  Sometimes my predictions are less than accurate*, and sure, I didn't call 50 Shades of Grey, but then again, I don't live in New Jersey.*  

Snarking aside, working in the book world means I see a fair amount of debauchery trends before they hit the general readership.  One pattern I'm noticing is a move towards books set in Europe's Golden Age, before monarchy gave way to anarchy and dissolution.  Like the Roaring 20s, it's a trip to the precipice, with all of the dramatic irony history can afford us.  Unlike the 20s, these books have ice palaces, cartomancy, dauphins, apothecaries, guillotines, and--of course--some impressive wig action.  Add sex, magic and assassination plots, and you've got a fantastic summer binge read.  So, without further ado, please to enjoy this selection of current and forthcoming books, all set in the latter half of the 18th century.  

Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie.  Folks, it didn't win the Carnegie Medal for nothing.  The New York Times called it a "consistently nimble and buoyant performance, defying what might in a lesser writer’s hands prove a deadly undertow of exhaustively researched historical facts.  Of course, Massie...has always been a biographer with the instincts of a novelist."  This biography has been on a million 'best of' lists and is sure to remain the definitive work for years to come. 

The Queen's Lover by Francine Du Plessix Gray.  I hadn't heard of Axel von Fersen until I read this book, and I am glad to have been informed.  Combining bravery with chivalric devotion and matchless elegance, Axel is sure to vault himself to the top of your dead crush list.  The book itself is an interesting hybrid of history and novel, using von Fersen's real letters and his invented diaries, framed by the--at times--contradictory interjections of his sister, Sophie.   

The Stockholm Octavo by Karen Englemann.  I still can't believe this fantastic yarn, with its intersecting plotlines and multitude of characters, is a first novel.  Karen, how'd you do it? We've all been gunning for this book since it was announced at launch, and no wonder.  The Stockholm Octavo has an incredible setting, memorable characters, and enough twists to keep you reading long after bedtime.  

The Mirrored World by Debra Dean.  I cannot wait for book groups to get their mitts on this deft, gorgeous historical novel.  If you'd like to listen to me raving about the delicacy and beauty of this book, today's your lucky day.      

They may not be on sale yet, but The Stockholm Octavo and The Mirrored World are both up on Edelweiss as eGalleys.  Just head on over to www.harperlibraryegalleys.com and start reading!

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*I wish I could take you back to 1999, when I dismissed Jennifer Lopez' burgeoning career and said, "Tal Bachman is going to be big, guys.  I just know it."  

*The 50 Shades phenomenon really did gather steam in the suburbs of New Jersey.  Something about soccer moms leaving the manuscript at Starbucks.  Or so I heard.      

One Day More

Apologies for the hiatus from posting! Between Boston and Baltimore, BEA and ALA, it's been a challenge to set aside the time to write.  I have, however, been dipping into many fantastic manuscripts (Hello, Indiscretion) and cannot wait to share them with you. For now I'm off to Anaheim, but I promise to return from ALA with a complete list of my book buzz titles and several--I hope-- choice anecdotes.  In the meantime, content yourself with this stirring musical number, which best captures the feeling that awaits all conference-goers...    

Be Our Guest

Try the gray stuff, it's delicious.  Don't believe me? Watch the video?

 

No, seriously, watch the video.  If you haven't RSVP'd to our book buzz by the end of it, well, trust that a beautiful enchantress disguised as an old beggar woman will visit your castle.  Just sayin'.  

Madeleine Albright's Prague Winter

It’s safe to say, Madeleine Albright is a woman who needs no introduction.  And after swiftly landing on the New York Times bestseller list, Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948 probably doesn’t need one either.  Unfortunately, I can’t help but write a little something about what has become one of the most inspiring pieces of nonfiction I’ve ever encountered.    

Prague Winter unfurls, first, through the history of Czechoslovakia—its leaders, myth-makers, diplomats, and citizenry.  By the time we get to 1937 and the genesis of the Second World War, we’ve fallen in love with democratic renaissance man T.G. Masaryk and are anxiously waiting to see what his successor, Edvard Beneş, will do.  The subsequent German occupation of Prague is crushingly vivid, as are the bloodshed and desperate acts of resistance against the Reich. Though there is a brief respite in the Allied victory of 1945, we soon contend with the despair of a descending Iron Curtain.  And really, it does feel like despair.  Reading Prague Winter was such an immersive, visceral experience, I had to periodically remind myself that the book was not fiction but history, with its own tragic and true outcomes. Heads of state feel as familiar as Secretary Albright’s own family, which is a testament both to her abilities as a storyteller and the benefits of her diplomatic background. Who better to show us the intricate maneuverings of several governments with vested, competing interests than someone who has mapped that terrain firsthand?

Simply put, Prague Winter is unforgettable.  Albright makes the political machine personal and has—as a result—created something like the antidote to apathy.  Something truly transcendent.    

 

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Secretary Albright appeared at the Enoch Pratt Free Library last week, signing hundreds of books and speaking for a crowd that nearly hit 900.  Here we are before the event!