what more of my bookseller colleagues are reading

A few weeks ago,  I posted book recommendations from some of my colleagues at Politics and Prose Bookstore.  It was so much fun that I've decided to continue and make it a regular feature.  I cannot say enough how much I love and respect my colleagues at the store. It seems we can talk about anything when we link it to the books we are reading - and that also means we can be fully ourselves. I love the range of our reading material.  That's why I am sure  you will  find something here that piques your interest.

Marija

"I've been reading Sally Rooney's Normal People. The writing is so effortless but on point, and the emotions and thoughts ring true.  It makes me wonder,  are we trying to be normal to fit in, or trying to find someone we fit in with?"

Adam

 "I'm reading Hilary Mantel's Beyond Black.  It's a book she wrote before she wrote Wolf Hall, which made her name.  But this is not historical fiction.  It's kind of a horror novel or ghost story. But really it's about two people and modern British life, and the hollowness of life in these sort of central tracks of Britain.  It tackles a lot of stuff from the '90s and early 2000s. It's kind of a social novel and there are some really weird creepy bits and kind of overlapping feelings.  It's pretty neat."

Gibs

"I'm reading Meader Spiral Explode. It's a bit of literary criticism by Jane Alison, who is a professor at the University of Virginia.  Basically what it does is it re-explores narrative structures,  especially in postmodern literature.  She says that instead of a typical pyramid structure for books, we should  look at how authors deviate from plot and talk about other things that give narrative structure context.  Also, how you can pick up lots of patterns while you're reading fiction. Things like that. So it's really cool. It gives you a new way to look at novels and I highly recommend it."

Sly

"I'm reading Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra. It's a fun detective crime novel set in Mumbai. The streets of India really come to life here and you get enthralled by this big showdown as the detective tries to capture an evil gang lord.  It's really fun."

Teddy

"I've been reading a book called Ambient Commons: Attention in the Age of Embodied Information by Malcolm McCullough.  I bought this book in New York City where I paid $11.00 for it, at a small used bookstore that only accepted cash.  The owner of the bookstore didn't look up from his laptop the entire time I was there. He didn't play any music in the store.  He asked for 11 units instead of dollars. But this entire experience relates very much to the kind of information that's presented in this book, which has to do with environments, the texture of environments, the spaces we inhabit - whether virtual or virtual within a real environment - and the way that form - be it a landscape or a city or any other place we inhabit, keeps its past while informing our present, even thought there might be new virtual information in it.  So, when he was looking at his laptop, and asking for 11 units, I wasn't expecting it to relate so much to the book I purchased there!"


#bookrecommendations #bookspoliticsandprose. #booksellerrecommendations