Hell Yeah! Worthy is a weekly feature appearing every Friday where our staff distills the plethora of scat on the Internet into a succinct list of the best you haven’t seen, the best you ignored, and the best you should visit again. 

Jonathan Franzen: Loves America but hates Facebook, e-books, and puppies

JoFranz’s Hate Fest

The internet destroys imagination, Facebook will replace love with “liking,” and e-books are “not compatible with a system of justice or responsible self-government.” Maybe the guy can write, but Jonathan Franzen sure does hate a lot of things, as pointed out in this piece at The Daily Beast. (Libby)

The Lit Pub
If you’re reading the Atticus Books blog and have your ear to the ground of the indie press community, then I imagine you’re already well acquainted with The Lit Pub. This tip is for the uninitiated. As a shameless book junkie who wears dry ink on his sleeve, I often am asked for book recommendations from people even though I haven’t the faintest idea what they would enjoy. Instead of being a narcissist and stating the obvious (“buy a book from me, you dolt”), I like to steer people to Small Press Distribution and now to the newest indie lit distributor on the block, Molly Gaudry’s brainchild. It’s a warm, glowing Small Press Emporium for humans seeking shelter from the veritable shit storm of pop culture tripe. (Dan)

S**t DC Says
While our office is technically just outside Washington, DC (go ‘burbs!), everyone on our staff can relate to this spot-on parody of our hometown. And yes, we are going to that embassy party tonight. (Libby & Lacey)

How (not) to Read Poetry
Understandably poets (and writers for that matter) are not the best performers. As introverts who spend most of their days alone, poets (and writers) often lack back social skills and suffer from severe performance anxiety masked by a slow, plodding reading of their work. A hilarious video by Fishbowl Improv, How (not) to Read Poetry should become requisite viewing for any writer who thinks they might one day face a live audience. (Lacey)

© 2012, Atticus Press. All rights reserved.

Kino by Jürgen Fauth

“Kino is a fast, complex, exhilarating roadster ride through history and time. It is the story of a woman who becomes obsessed with her grandfather, a visionary film director, [and] the powerful bindings of family, the sweet, dark loam of loss, and the high-voltage current of pulp fascism. Kino is an intoxicating Euro-brew, written with enormous skill and dedication.”
– FREDERICK BARTHELME, author of Elroy Nights

KENSINGTON, MD — In gripping debut literary thriller Kino (Atticus Books, $14.95), film critic and Fictionaut co-founder Jürgen Fauth traverses themes of art, family and history during the Weimar Republic and post-9/11 U.S.

Writing a novel about a silent film director’s fall from grace in Nazi Germany “involved many nights spent watching silent films and [reading] stacks of books about the 1920s and 30s in Berlin,” says Fauth, a German-American author who was born and grew up in Wiesbaden, Germany and now lives with his family in Astoria, NY. “They were fascinating, fertile periods that were a pleasure to research in-depth.”

Kino’s postmodern manipulation of genre tackles thorny questions of artistic responsibility and the personal price artists pay in pursuit of their vision. History buffs and film aficionados will appreciate a cast of characters that includes Joseph Goebbels, Fritz Lang and Leni Riefenstahl. A tragic, galvanizing story of discovery and loss set amidst the depraved glamour and infectious panic of Germany between the wars and the United States during George W. Bush’s administration, Kino asks if the search for truth and happiness is worth the price of admission.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JÜRGEN FAUTH is a writer, film critic, and co-founder of the literary community Fictionaut. His short stories have been published in a number of journals including Chiron Review, La Petite Zine, and Berkeley Review. He is a long-time film critic for About.com and has written for Huffington Post, New York Newsday, and Flavorpill. A native of Wiesbaden, Germany, he lives in Astoria, N.Y., with his wife, the writer Marcy Dermansky, and their daughter, Nina.

CONNECT
Tulpendiebe – A Tumblr dedicated to the memory of Klaus “Kino” Koblitz, the Wunderkind of Neubabelsberg.

Jürgen Fauth – Author website (in English and German)

@muckster - Follow Jürgen on Twitter

NetGalley – To request a digital advance copy of Kino

Itasca Books – For wholesale orders

© 2012, Lacey N. Dunham. All rights reserved.

Hell Yeah! Worthy is a weekly feature appearing every Friday where our staff distills the plethora of scat on the Internet into a succinct list of the best you haven’t seen, the best you ignored, and the best you should visit again. 

Downton Abbey’s Literary Pedigree
For everyone scrambling to justify their crackhead-like addiction to Downton Abbey, The Millions is offering a fourteen paragraph article (which is actually interesting) on “The Literary Pedigree of Downton Abbey.” Telling yourself it’s essentially a mash-up of Thackeray, Proust, Waugh and Marx makes it all better. (Libby)

The Casual Optimist: Books, Design and Culture

When Atticus Books first left the womb, I repeated quite often to writers, bloggers, and our then mostly imaginary followers that I sought people “of like mind and spirit.” I continue to use that phrase ad nauseam, but the contextual sensibility of The Casual Optimist is just the kind of substantive site that turns on my reading light. The founder, Dan Wagstaff, is a shameless book junkie like yours truly and his “personal project” is enviable in its organic execution and delivery. I also dig that he lives in Canada, which is where I’m headed if Newt Gingrich is elected to the oval office. (Dan)

If Famous Authors Had Written Twilight
I’ve never read Stephanie Meyer’s books and I’m happy to keep it that way. But what if literary authors had found inspiration in a love triangle between a human, a werewolf, and a vampire? From Annie Proulx (Edward and Jacob defy society’s expectations up in the mountains) to Lewis Carroll (Bella takes acid and charts syllogisms) to Jane Austen (Basically the same as the original), i09 pokes fun at the global phenomenon. (Lacey)

Stephen Colbert Interviews Maurice Sendak
Stephen Colbert interviewing Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are) is hands down the most entertaining thing I’ve seen all week. Good old “Mo” shares his opinions on everything from Newt Gingrich (“hopelessly gross and vile”) to the state of children’s literature (“abysmal”) and even gets a word in about e-books: “I hate those e-books. They cannot be the future. They well may be. I will be dead. I won’t give a s***!” (Libby)

Do yourself a favor and watch Part 1:

Do yourself another favor and watch Part 2:

© 2012, Atticus Press. All rights reserved.

MATT MULLINS

The reviews have started rolling in for Matt Mullins’ story collection Three Ways of the Saw (out on Leap Day). In a forthcoming review from ForeWord: “Mullins, in a fresh and unforgettable voice and writing style, has reached across the human condition, exposing the sinew that holds us together, even while it hopelessly, inevitably shreds.” The collection has also landed a spot on Biblioklept. What did they have to say about it? ”There’s a strong Bukowski-ish vibe to the business, with less ego, more concrete imagery, more Denis Johnson. I like this book.” Matt’s also popping up all over the literary landscape, with a poem in the Hawai’i Review, Fourteen Hills, and two stories in the Spring issue of Mid-American Review. Oh, and if you can’t wait ’til Leap Day for Matt’s gritty, boozy collection, we’re proud to announce that the e-book is now for sale.

JÜRGEN FAUTH

In anticipation of the April release of his literary thriller Kino, Jürgen Fauth has created Tulpendiebe, a tumblr dedicated to the icons of pre-war Berlin and the legendary film industry of the 1920s and ’30s. The cover of Kino was the highlight of a display of Atticus Books covers on the design blog Copertine. Those interested in reviewing an electronic ARC of the novel can now request a copy via NetGalley.

STEVE HIMMER

Steve Himmer’s The Bee-Loud Glade was chosen as part of an audiobook bundle from Iambik, alongside works by Paul Almond, Kirsten Kaschock, Benjamin Parzybok, and Thomas Hardy. Not bad company at all!

ALEX KUDERA

In a somewhat ironic twist, Alex Kudera’s satire of academia Fight for Your Long Day will be used in a graduate class called “Writing Teacher Writing.” This weekend, Alex is headed to a national summit focused on educating the public about the need for academic employment reform. And two more spot-on reviews of Fight for Your Long Day have come across our desk. Originally published in the GC Advocate, this piece at Black Man in the Cosmos says, “Alex Kudera’s book…obliterates the old images of genteel pastoral college life and shows what higher education actually looks like today in these times of corporate education, economic anxiety, digital distraction and political paranoia.” Michael Leone called it “hysterical and sobering, and Cyrus Duffleman [is] one of the great anti-heroes in recent fiction.”

ERIC D. GOODMAN

Tracks author Eric D. Goodman will be hosting Lit & Art at the Watermark in Baltimore this Sunday from 2 to 5 pm at the Watermark Gallery, an event not to be missed. And if you’ve ever wondered where writers do their magic, see Eric’s post at Write Place Write Time, featuring his beloved writing desk. You can also listen to the podcast of Eric reading “Reset,” a story from Tracks and read a new review of his “expressive and reflective novel told in stories” at Savvy Verse and Wit.

JOHN MINICHILLO

Read about John Minichillo’s first time over at The Quivering Pen, where he talks about finally seeing what our cover designer Jamie Keenan dreamed up for his debut novel, The Snow Whale. And in his hometown of Nashville, John gave a reading at “Poetry Sucks,” and had his words featured on the pretty terrific flyer (above).

TOMMY ZURHELLEN

Tommy Zurhellen has recently returned from France, researching his new novel, Apostle Islands (Atticus 2012). He spent three weeks walking around Provence and Marseille. Where does the south of France fit into the story? Well, it’s more than just an excuse for Tommy’s love of bouillabaisse; he won’t give anything away, but Tommy tells us it has to do with the ending. We figure if a novel is about the end of the world, where better to end it than the south of France? Apostle Islands is the sequel to his first novel, Nazareth, North Dakota (Atticus 2011) which follows the young Messiah as he grows up in the midwest America, starting in the 1980s.

Icicle Photo by Barfooz

© 2012, Libby O’Neill. All rights reserved.

ADVANCED PRAISE FOR THREE WAYS OF THE SAW

“There’s a brooding, raw, rustbelt, jazzy, Motown energy that informs the sensibility and sound of this writer, fuels his prose, and gathers this collection into a compelling whole.” – Stuart Dybek, The Coast of Chicago

KENSINGTON, MD — A gritty debut of alienation, longing, and redemption, Matt Mullins’ Three Ways of the Saw (Atticus Books, $14.95) unites ragged characters with themes reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy’s novels.

“He who touches this book touches the ghost of a man still living,” Mullins says about Three Ways of the Saw. Structured into three sections—Black Sheep Missives, Dischords, and Ghost Limbs—the twenty stories are bound by the characters’ self-destruction and their yearning for an authentic connection with the world, one that the author shares.

“One night I wandered off from a good party, returned to find a riot in progress, and threw the bicycle I’d stolen into the bonfire because I thought I had something to say that hadn’t been said already,” Mullins says, describing an incident from his time as an undergraduate at Michigan State University in the late eighties.  “I’ve broken my nose a few times playing sports and fighting. I’ve broken a couple toes… I keep thinking I’m too old now, too careful and hedgy to break a bone. But then again, things happen, don’t they?”

With sharp attention to language and imagery, Mullins’ vibrant prose ranges from the experimental to the realistic and searingly dissects the idea of alienation. With a startling new voice in traditional storytelling that carves out a territory all its own, Three Ways of the Saw doesn’t shy away from the human condition—it embodies it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MATT MULLINS is a writer, musician, experimental filmmaker and multimedia artist. His fiction and poetry have appeared in Mid-American Review, Pleiades, Hunger Mountain, Harpur Palate, Descant, Hobart, and a number of other print and online literary journals. He is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Ball State University where he is a faculty fellow with the Emerging Media Initiative. His recent works of interactive/digital literature can be found at lit-digital.com. Read excerpts, find info about readings, and more at his blog.

© 2012, Lacey N. Dunham. All rights reserved.

To celebrate the launch of Get Lit: Round 1, a collection of poems, short stories, and flash fiction from the first thirteen weeks of Atticus Review, we asked our friends on Twitter to use the #GetLit hashtag and tell us what books and authors get them fired about reading. Below is a smattering of responses.

As a writer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez reminds me that anything is possible in fiction…and life
@graceoctavia2

I’m reading collected Carl Sandburg this holiday season.
@dougshiloh

Mordecai Richler, Chris Hitchens, Nino Ricci, Lionel Shriver
@Beverly_Akerman

I LOVE Melissa de la Cruz’s Blue Bloods Series. I also love all of her other works as well.
@loveforlillie

I have a tradition of rereading SIR GAWAIN & THE GREEN KNIGHT every year on New Year’s Day.
@SteveHimmer

Follow Atticus Books on Twitter.

© 2012, Lacey N. Dunham. All rights reserved.

Publisher and Editor Threaten Defamation Suit, Author Chortles (Off the Record)

© 2012, Atticus Press. All rights reserved.

Hell Yeah! Worthy is a monthly feature where our staff distills the plethora of scat on the Internet into a succinct list of the best you haven’t seen, the best you ignored, and the best you should visit again. We’ll see you next in 2012! Happy Holidays! 

This Isn’t Happiness
This Isn’t Happiness is a well-traveled art scrapbook of links and images updated several times daily. There was a time that I underestimated the powerful impact of design. There was a time that I would fight the case for words over pictures every time. Thankfully I’ve woken up to the fact that a picture (captured, illustrated, painted just so) truly is worth a thousand-and-one words. Working with designers like Jamie Keenan has afforded me this education, and I’m tickled kaleidoscope red that Jamie’s cover of Kino - the forthcoming debut novel by Jürgen Fauth and our first literary thriller(!) – graces the pages of This Isn’t Happiness.  If it’s not happiness that these pages bring, then apparently I’ve misplaced the meaning of bliss. (Dan)

Books for Christmas?!?!?
 I know I’m late to the YouTube party on this one, but this kid’s reaction to getting books for Christmas is enough to send a shiver down the spine of anyone in the publishing business. But it’s worth it because, hey, it’s pretty damn funny.  And if you’re feeling all doom and gloom about the book industry after watching, don’t worry.  His reaction is more inspiring the next time around, maybe after a few months in kindergarten? (Libby)

What Slate Doesn’t Get About Bookstores
by Will Doig via Salon

I’m in love with independent bookstores. I used to work as a bookseller at two DC-area indies. I love the knowledgeable staff, the curated selection, and the community atmosphere of indie bookstores. I attend author readings (and I never bring in a book purchased on Amazon for the author to sign, just as I wouldn’t bring a hamburger purchased at McDonald’s to Thanksgiving dinner). Thank goodness Salon understands that independent bookstores  ”function as communal spaces, which makes them valuable urban amenities” and that they “foster a local culture, period.” (Lacey)

Indiebound Book Wish Lists
Yeah, it seems sort of passé now to take up the fight against Amazon and tell all of your friends and family to shop at their indie bookstore. It’s true, no one likes being preached to – and the whole idea of speaking down to people doesn’t exactly endear you to them or make for a comfortable holiday visit.  But whenever I get the chance, I like to turn people on to the idea of changing their habits, particularly when their habits don’t necessarily benefit their lives.  Ordering books from this site via your local indie bookseller is just as convenient as ordering books via Amazon.  Really, it is.  Go ahead, try it. (Dan) 

Chamber Four
There’s something unmistakably charming when a group of terrifically hip book nerds gather and share their love of all things books.  Yes, there are dozens of stellar sites that lead readers to cool indie books, but not all of them do it as authentically underground chic as Chamber Four.  Love the logo, love the tagline, and yes, I unashamedly love that The Snow Whale made their list of best books of 2011.

Hell Yeah! Worthy Extra: Chamber Four’s special features section includes great columns such as “I Loved This Book When…” (Dan)

How to Make a Decent Cup of Tea
by Christopher Hitchens via Slate

Tea drinking has a long history of ritual. From Japan to China to India to the U.K., preparing tea speaks volumes about culture – and considering that Americans think a good cup of tea is Lipton says more about the direction of American culture than any reality television show. With the American tea drinker in mind, the late Christopher Hitchens updates George Orwell’s famous essay on tea making tips. For the tea drinker in your life who pities the fool who doesn’t know how to make a decent cup of tea, there’s the “Mr. Tea” tea set. (Lacey) 

Navy Homecoming
via The Advocate

Navy tradition dictates a raffle to determine the first sailor off the ship to kiss a loved at Navy homecomings. For the first time since the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” the homecoming kiss was shared by a couple of the same-sex. (Lacey) 

Read Finn
Say what you will about the cold, corporate soullessness of conglomerate publishing houses but sometimes they get it right. Jon Clinch’s author website on Random House for his novel, Finn, is marvelous for several reasons. First, major props to website designer Jefferson Rabb for the aesthetically sleek, sweet goodness of marrying a killer design with an even better navigation. Second, for fans of Mark Twain and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, it is a celebratory nod to one of modern American literature’s finest creations. Third, educators should be elated to know that it comes with a nifty package of teacher resources and guides that encourage interactive class participation. Finally, though I have not yet read the book, Finn appears Hell Yeah! Worthy to be added to my Indiebound Book Wish List. (Dan) 

Deck the Halls Flash Mob
My dream in life is to witness a flash mob while I’m reading in the park or innocently shopping for tea at the grocery store. Until then, I watch YouTube videos of other people caught by flash mob surprise. One of this year’s favorites are students and staff at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson Business School, a feeder for local companies like Target, 3M, and General Mills, startled by the choral takeover delivering holiday cheer. (Lacey)

The Literary Gift Company
I only wish I had discovered The Literary Gift Company about a month ago. This site goes well beyond your basic tee-with-a-vintage-book-cover-on-it. We’re talking Oscar Wilde chocolate bars, cards featuring some disturbing titles (see below) and books about books. Merry Christmas, folks. (Libby)

Cook Book

© 2011, Atticus Press. All rights reserved.

JOHN MINICHILLO

John’s debut novel The Snow Whale is popping up on best-of lists across the blogosphere. Small Press Review included the Moby-Dick inspired book on their Best of 2011 list, calling it “the funniest book we reviewed all year.” We couldn’t agree more. And Chamber Four is jumping on the bandwagon as well, naming it one of the Best Books of 2011.

At The Northville Review, John takes a look at the literary world’s transition to digital, starting with the days when writers asked questions like “Did publishing on the web even count?” A stark contrast to today when, as John puts it, “I prefer to be within range of WiFi unless I am sleeping or underwater. Probably, there are engineers working on this at this moment. Everything is getting smaller and cooler and new. I have this drum I play on the Internet where I subtly pester everyone to buy my novel and they do the same back. It’s exhausting and exciting and fun, all of us clacking on our keyboards.”

But not as exhausting and exciting as doing it while raising a kid, an experience explored by John in his read-worthy piece at Father Mucker. To really catch the chaos, see this writer dad’s year in tweets, as published on fictionaut.

JÜRGEN FAUTH

Jürgen, whose literary thriller Kino comes out this April, has co-written a review of Simon Curtis’ film My Week with Marilyn.

STEVE HIMMER

It’s been quite a month for The Bee-Loud Glade. Included in best-of-2011 lists by Kathy Fish, Amber Sparks and Three Guys One Book, it’s also made the longlist for novel of the year at 3:AM Magazine!

Steve’s also recounted his introduction to the literary web at The Northville Review, admitting that while he does “worry about the echo chamber of online literature…because it offers such a constant, clammering feedback loop that it’s hard to put out of your head how much other people are publishing,” he’s mostly optimistic since ” the web makes it easier to reach out to multiple audiences…and that’s when writing and publishing, and the web, are most appealing.”

And don’t miss the newest reviews of The Bee-Loud Glade at SFF Chat and Mharvi Reads.

TOMMY ZURHELLEN

Mharvi Reads had some great things to say about Tommy’s debut novel Nazareth, North Dakota, as well. The highlight of this review:

“How could I not truly enjoy this novel? Compelling characters that are familiar and yet brand new, a well known tale wrought anew by a slight twist of perspective. Each day I approached my reading with an eager spirit and, in the end, that is all I could ask of any novel.”

ERIC D. GOODMAN

Eric’s novel-in-stories Tracks has been racking up some well-earned reviews this month. Baltimore Jewish Times called Eric’s voice “observant and authoritative” and Nik Korpon at The Nervous Breakdown wrote, “[in] an age of high-speed internet, Facebook lives and thoughts that only last 140 characters, it’s refreshing to see a book with such unhurried attention to character.”

In a follow-up to his essay on the thrill of Tracks’ release day, Eric has published “Beyond the Release: It Doesn’t End on Release Day” at Potomac Review.

He’s also been busy with readings and signings in Lancaster and Philadelphia, PA. And don’t worry: if you can’t take another minute of your Christmas Pandora stations, take a break with readings of stories from Tracks, complete with music and sound effects. But if hearing “So This Is Christmas” for the 200th time is just your cup of tea, well, more power to you.

Photo Sources
Book Tree: Media Tinker
John Lennon: Gelato Baby

© 2011 – 2012, Libby O’Neill. All rights reserved.

For readers with an insatiable appetite for wild-eyed fanciful creations and dark-eyed reality checks, this round of lit is on us. Sit back, spark it up, and if you like how you feel when you’re finished, do pass it around.

© 2011, Atticus Press. All rights reserved.

The following compilation of flash fiction contains 23 previously unpublished stories. These sudden streaks of brilliance first saw the light of day in Atticus Review from May through September 2011. We’re so impressed by the caliber of writing that we’re sure one or more of these authors will be famous one day — and you and other Atticus Review readers can say we knew them when.

Enjoy this sample serving of Atticus Review. We hear it goes superbly with a glass or three of Chianti.

© 2011 – 2012, Atticus Press. All rights reserved.

© 2011 – 2012, Atticus Press. All rights reserved.

You’ve done it before: spent money on something you didn’t need, didn’t want, and later regretted. Maybe you’ve looked at your wallet on Friday afternoon and thought, “Did I really spend thirty dollars this week on tall triple mocha breve lattes with an extra shot of almond flavoring and multi-colored sprinkles?”

In the present austerity economy, fifteen dollars is a lot of money. Here at Atticus Books, we believe in getting the most bang for your buck. That’s why we’ve created a handy cheat sheet of fifteen ways you routinely blow fifteen dollars—and our recommendations for a more satisfying use of your time and money.

You Routinely Blow Fifteen Dollars On….

1. Snooki’s A Shore Thing
2. Fifteen bars of soap on a rope from the Dollar Store
3. Four McRib sandwiches
4. Five Powerball lottery tickets
5. Three happy hour priced rum and Cokes that aren’t nearly as good as a Tom Collins.
6. One ticket to the movie “Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Part 1”
7. Three Starbucks lattes
8. Fifteen different versions of “The House of the Rising Sun” on iTunes
9. A Netflix subscription you don’t need because now you’ve got Hulu
10. Two pounds of warmed over, pre-made food from the hot bar at Whole Foods
11. Dry cleaning a sweater you could have hand washed at home
12. Paying a thirteen-year-old for two and a half hours of mediocre childcare when you could have let Dora the Explorer do all the work for free
13. Forever Lazy®
14. Writing and mailing 34 letters via USPS
15. Justin Bieber’s Christmas album “Under the Mistletoe”

…When You Could Spend Your Fifteen Dollars Wisely

1. Send the Midwest Some Lovin’
Pre-order Matt Mullins Three Ways of the Saw, a haunting debut collection of short stories that Stuart Dybek (The Coast of Chicago) describes as “brooding, raw, rustbelt, [and] jazzy.” Peter Markus (We Make Mud) adds, “This book is lit from within, the pages dunked in the holy water of booze and kerosene.” Gritty, tough, and tender–what reading could better prepare you for the holiday season ahead?

2. Unite History Buffs and Film Aficionados
German-American writer Jürgen Fauth’s debut novel KINO shifts between Germany during the Weimar Republic and the United States post-911 to tell the story of a famous film director swept into the Nazi Propaganda machine and his granddaughter’s efforts to clear his name. Frederick Barthelme (Tracer and Elroy Nights) calls KINO a “fast, complex exhilarating roadster ride through history and time.”

3. Reclaim Your Rightful Heritage
When John Jacobs, a mild-mannered suburban office worker, takes a DNA test and discovers that he is part-Inuit, he so embraces his new identity that he declares it his Inupiat tribal right to set forth on a whale hunt. Described by the Los Angeles Times as “wry, dry, pure hilarity all around,” John Minichillo’s The Snow Whale is a postmodern satire and twist on Melville’s classic that re-examines identity, race, and our connection to nature, all while poking fun at our contentment with heated socks in an era defined by global warming.

4. Fake Your Death
A ravishing young British woman’s falsely reported death gives her the opportunity to begin a new life. Before Lenore can disappear for good, however, she longs to know the reaction of her two-timing husband and his aristocratic family. To find out, she enlists Richard—an outsider in the money-and-booze sodden landscape of Nantucket high society—to be her eyes and ears in the secretive world of money and duplicity. The New York Journal of Books calls JM Tohline’s The Great Lenore “beautiful in the same way that J. D. Salinger’s books are beautiful. Lyrical without being pretentious or self-absorbed, melodic without being baroque.”

Karma Points: Pay It Forward and Win a $200 Gift Card to the Independent Bookstore of Your Choice
Enter to win a drawing for a $200 gift card to your favorite indie bookstore, a signed copy of The Great Lenore, curated wall art, and more! All you need to do is tell your family, friends, and enemies how much you loved The Great Lenore–and earn multiple entries for each person you tell! Details are here.

5. Ride the Rails
They are the strangers we encounter every day: a soldier returned from war, a traveling salesman, a computer geek, a Holocaust survivor, a couple in love, a poet, a hit man. On a train from Baltimore to Chicago, our lives intersect with theirs, altering the path ahead and casting past experiences and choices in new light. Eric D. Goodman’s Tracks is “a most cunningly crafted tale” (Madison Smartt Bell, All Souls’ Rising) by “an exciting talent” (Thomas Steinbeck, Down to a Soundless Sea).

6. Drop out of Society. Become a Hermit.
When laid-off office drone and daydreamer Finch responds to what he thinks is innocuous spam, he’s unexpectedly swept into the world of billionaire Mr. Crane, who offers him the job of a lifetime—to live and work as a decorative hermit in a cave on Crane’s estate. Darkly comic and refreshingly playful, The Bee-Loud Glade delves deep into the nature of work, relationships, society and what happens in their absence, begging the question: Can we ever truly escape? Tom McCarthy (Remainder and C) calls The Bee-Loud Glade “an allegorical novel that seems eerily contemporary. Thoreau meets Ballard, meets Huysmans and many more.”

7. Put Christ Back in Christmas
When Roxy is left with an abandoned newborn after a shootout at the Motel de Love No. 3, there’s no way for her to know that the boy she names Sam just might be her savior in more ways than one. But as Sam and his hippie cousin John soon learn, challenging the status quo in a small town is no way to get popular, whether you’re in Israel or North Dakota. Take a quirky, dirt-kicking ride through the 1980s Badlands in Tommy Zurhellen’s debut Nazareth, North Dakota, a splendidly funny and modern take on the story of the young messiah that Ron Carlson (Five Skies and The Signal) calls “a large-hearted book about the everpresent fundamental human verities written with empathy, force, and verve.”

8. Forgo Health Insurance
Meet Cyrus “Duffy” Duffleman, an adjunct professor who can barely afford his two-room apartment. Forget about an unfinished novel: he’d be thrilled with health insurance. Still, he gamely shuffles to four urban universities each day to teach, and works a security guard graveyard shift once a week. Cobbled together, he can almost make a living. Part A Confederacy of Dunces (John Kennedy Toole) and part Straight Man (Richard Russo), Alex Kudera introduces a beloved, frazzled, wholly magnetic character in his 2011 IPPY Gold Medal Award for Best Fiction, Fight For Your Long Day.

9. Add Fruit to Your Diet
Denton Pike is stuck: divorced, his translation work floundering, trapped inside the status quo of his life. The reappearance of an old friend sets into motion a series of watershed events and conflicting forces that will change Denton’s life forever. With an economy of language reminiscent of Raymond Carver, Joseph Zeppetello’s Daring to Eat a Peach illuminates our daily struggles to interpret history and to translate the language of our relationships.

10. Take a Trip
Charles Lime eats, breathes, and sleeps the romantic idea of leaving Small Town, USA. In reality, Charles is a dazed and bemused misfit bewitched by a girl and bewildered by a string of misfortunes. Gradually, Charles creates a parallel life filled with overseas travel, adventure and Serbian pop music—except it exists solely within in his imagination. Randall DeVallance’s The Absent Traveler “simply exudes talent from its pages” (Deb Fowler, National Book Critics Circle member).

© 2011, Lacey N. Dunham. All rights reserved.

Atticus Books: When we say Saturn Booksellers is an award-winning store, we’re not kidding. You’ve received the Michigan Retailer of the Year Award, the Golden Pineapple Award and the Best Bookstore and Best Staff Awards. What do you think makes the store such a noteworthy place?

Jill Miner: Most definitely my staff. In a small community like Gaylord, having just the right mix of personalities is critical, as the one-on-one dialogue with customers is what moves the books out the door. Our customers are much more likely to come in wanting to know what we think they should read as wanting to know where such-and-so book they read a review of is shelved. We always have several high school and college-aged kids working with us, and they add a real family dynamic to the atmosphere. We are a closely-knit group, and have a lot of fun at work. I think that customers can sense that, and it makes them feel like our store is a comfortable place where they can have fun, too!

AB: What makes Gaylord an ideal spot for an indie bookstore and coffee shop?

JM: Gaylord is a resort town, so folks are coming up north wanting to be entertained and to have an experience they might not get at home. As more and more of the country re-focuses on the value of community and small business, I think we give our vacationing customers a way to connect to that small-town vibe, and feel a part of something special. That being said, I really think that any community is a good place for an indie, and that every community deserves one. I’ve always said that I strive to create the kind of bookstore where I would want to shop, and I’d want to shop at an indie bookstore no matter where I lived. The coffee shop? It just adds to the hanging-out-with-friends feeling we always strive to achieve.

AB: Seems like there’s always a reading, signing, storytime or crafting event going on at Saturn–is there one event that stands out in your mind as the most successful  or unique?

JM: Very early on in our author event scheduling, we hosted Claire Cook, whose novel (and later movie) Must Love Dogs was about a woman re-entering the dating scene after many years of married life. Her well-intentioned family puts ads in the relationship section of the paper on her behalf, and mayhem ensues. We created a whole slew of personal ads to hang from our ceiling for the reading, and then adjourned outside underneath our town Pavilion where we held a community -wide bachelor auction, selling off males in our community to do everything from washing cars in shorts only to giving golf lessons. We raised over $3,000 for our local school libraries at the auction, Claire got a great photo of her signing our local radio station DJ/auctioneer’s stomach in Sharpie in PW, and we established our author events as the place to see and be seen all in one fell swoop!

AB: How have customers responded to Saturn selling Google ebooks and how has your experience been so far, getting them to think of the store as a source of digital literature?

JM: Sadly, our reception has been luke-warm. I really think the problem is marketing and perception. It is so difficult to spread the word that ‘Kindle’ is not synonymous with ‘eReader’ and that owning a Kindle will divert all of your ebook purchases away from us and straight to Amazon. Amazon has a huge marketing budget and fighting for mind-share is such an up-hill battle. Several of the bookstores in our region have banded together to buy some print ads for the holidays beseaching customers to consider an eReader purchase that will allow them to continue to buy locally, and I really hope we get some reach from that. The message is on our website, it’s in our store, it’s in our ads, but I feel as if I’m mostly preaching to the choir. It’s all of those OTHER people we need to get to before the holiday buying frenzy takes hold!

AB: To what extent have you seen the closing of Borders impact Saturn and how do you see it affecting sales in the future?

JM: The closest Borders to us was 1 1/2 hours away, in Traverse City. It has generated a lot of talk in Gaylord–I had a guest column in our local paper about it and we offered a gift card for any Borders Rewards cards turned in to us, but I think the greater impact by far is on the stores in the TC area.  That space was one of the ones immediately filled by a Books-a-Million.

AB: As a bookseller, what part of your job do you look forward to the most each day?

JM: Talking to customers about books. Hands down.

AB: If you weren’t selling books, you’d be…

JM: Reading them. Haha! I’m a dilettante–I always said I wanted to work in advertising (I did, for years), stay at home with kids (I did, until my two youngest, twins, were in second grade and our oldest in seventh, and then I opened the store), own a bookstore (that would be the ‘now’ phase), and go to law school. I always tell folks that since I often can’t remember why I’ve gone from one side of the store to the other these days, I might not flourish in law school, so they’re just stuck with me in bookstore phase for now!

AB: What books are you expecting to fly off the shelves this season?

JM: The obvious ones, Steve Jobs, Night Circus, the Jaqueline Onassis tapes, but we always have a table front and center of special staff picks of books we think you shouldn’t miss this year. It usually generates a lot of business in more obscure, or not such commercial titles. We’re still honing that list right now…

AB: While there are plenty of reasons people like to predict doom for indie bookstores, what gives you hope that indies like Saturn can not only survive but thrive?

JM: I think we fill a niche. If touching, smelling and reading a ‘real’ book have value, so do talking, laughing and listening to ‘real’ booksellers. Amazon’s kids can’t tell you about their last semester at college, Amazon’s staff doesn’t care about your pet troubles, and you can’t smell Amazon’s coffee shop from out on the sidewalk.

AB: Favorite bookstore memory to date?

JM: Every time someone tells us that we are their favorite store. No matter how rotten my day has been, or how many customers have come in with cell phones poised to scan ISBNs, being thanked for just being here has the power to make my day.

© 2011, Libby O’Neill. All rights reserved.

Hell Yeah! Worthy is a monthly feature where our staff distills the plethora of scat on the Internet into a succinct list of the best you haven’t seen, the best you ignored, and the best you should visit again.

 

J.R.R. Tolkien

Art of the Hobbit: Never-Before-Seen Drawings of J.R.R. Tolkien by Maria Popova
via Brain Pickings
I’m awestruck by people whose artistic talents delight and amaze in cross-disciplinary fashion.  Tolkien’s genius and wizardry did not stop with narrative; his words merely served as a conduit to his magnificent artwork.  I recall The Hobbit being the first book I owned as a child, perhaps in the first grade. I can see my name written inside the front cover of the worn pocket paperback and I can remember feeling utterly captivated by the magic within those pages. (Dan)

 

The winner of the 2011 National Book Award for Fiction

Who Should Judge the National Book Awards? by Victor LaValle
via Salon
Every year there’s a hubbub around literary awards as too orientated toward the literary community and not concerned with the broader reading public. Unfortunately for this year’s National Book Awards, not only was there a gaffe in the finalist announcement for young adult literature, the judges failed to nominate any appropriately “big name” authors (prompting The Washington Post book reviewer Ron Charles to opine on Twitter that many of the year’s beloved novels weren’t included.) In his essay, LaValle argues that the awards community should include dedicated, professional booksellers among their judges because they “have more contact with the general reading public than most writers, editors, or critics ever will.” Booksellers know that the reading public “is a complex and surprising organism”– the rampant success of Dan Brown aside. (Lacey)

Blue Velvet, directed by David Lynch

David Lynch Makes a Mix Tape
via Pitchfork
If you aren’t entranced by David Lynch‘s surrealist subversions of the classic American dream—from small town diners serving up mouth-watering cherry pie to the wanton hopes of fame—then you have an undiagnosable illness. Regardless of how many times you’ve watched Blue Velvet, Lynch (who recently released an album himself) creates a blues, indie, and classic rock-infused playlist that merits repeated listens. (Lacey)

© 2011, Atticus Press. All rights reserved.