The Bookmark at the U

Book of the Month, May 2011

2011-05-06T09:21:00.000-07:00

Michael Kelly, former officer with the Chicago Police Department and now a private investigator, is approached by his old partner, John Gibbons, who is trying to solve an eight year old sexual assault case. Shortly after Kelly agrees to look into it, Gibbons is found dead near Navy Pier. What seems like a coincidental death becomes just the first in a series of murders that has Kelly asking questions in all the wrong places and looking under rocks all around the city of Chicago. He finds a cover-up in the police department, tied to a death row inmate, and of course, the all pervasive Chicago political machine.

Harvey has written a book set in contemporary Chicago that gives the reader a taste of the Windy City salted with touches of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. This is a gritty crime novel that makes you feel the grime and never stops moving once you start turning the pages. This is a great crime novel replete with complicated friendships and a little romance that stays a couple steps ahead of the reader, setting you up for a surprise at the end.

This is a novel that was first published in 2007, but that I only recently discovered by happenstance. I was so intrigued by "The Chicago Way" that I also read the two sequels, "The Fifth Floor" and the "The Third Rail" in short order. Disappointed that I had reached the end of the series, I was heartened to find out that Harvey has a fourth book in the Michael Kelly series being released this summer (July 2012), titled, "We All Fall Down."

Simba's iPad Survey Is A Bit Misleading

2010-11-23T08:32:00.000-08:00

In the past few days I’ve come across a news story about about the percentage of people who use the iPad to read an ebook. Simba Information conducted a nationwide survey which found that 35% of iPad owners have never used it to read an ebook. Simba’s spokesperson tries to make this sound like a shocking statistic, especially with the statement that “over a million iPad buyers haven’t used the gadget for e-books shows that not all new gadgets equate to a new e-reader.”

What?! You have an iPad and haven’t read a book on it?

This is a load of carefully concealed hyperbole and makes me wonder who is behind the survey and about ulterior motives. We could easily take this report and turn it on its head saying, “65% of iPad owners have used the iPad to read a book.” This is a higher percentage than the number of adults in the United States who said they have read a book in the last year.

The problem with this survey is that it engages in making an implied comparison, which is, “While 35% of iPad owners haven’t read a book on the iPad, 100% of Kindle, Nook and Sony Reader owners have used their device to read a book.”

What makes this statistic so laughable is that the the Kindle, Nook and Sony Reader (and a slew of other devices) are dedicated e-readers. These devices do one thing really well- let you read ebooks. The iPad is a platform that happens to have an app (which you must download from the app store) to read ebooks, but also lets you to read email, surf the web, play games, listen to music, watch movies, and on and on.

Maybe Simba should also conduct a study to inform us that “100% of physical book readers have used an amazing device to read. It’s called a book.”

From Whence Do Those Relics Come?

2010-11-03T07:49:00.001-07:00

To whom does the past belong?

Historic landscapes around the world, once virtually littered with archeological treasures, are being looted at an alarming rate, particularly in the American Southwest. Do these artifacts belong to those who find them, to museums, or to the past? Craig Childs, in his book “Finders Keepers,” argues that these artifacts might be best left where they lie, unless the only way to protect them is in a museum. Even then, he scrutinizes museums methods of acquiring and storing these artifacts. He relates stories of how unscrupulous museum directors knowingly turn a blind eye to the questionable provenance of an item and worse yet, of so poorly storing these items that they may eventually rot away in storage spaces.

While Childs uses examples of artifact looting from around the world, he concentrates the story in his own backyard- the Four Corners region of the Southwest, centering on Blanding, Utah. Having worked with and interviewed many of the people involved in digging up and selling archeological artifacts, he tells the story of how many of these people were caught and prosecuted by the Federal Government, and how many of them don’t see a problem with selling these artifacts for personal gain, while others committed suicide rather than be prosecuted.

Childs addresses the issues of archeology, looting, museums and Native American tribal rights with a thoughtful and respectful approach, giving you his thoughts, while acknowledging that he doesn’t hold all of the answers.

“Finders Keepers” is a fascinating, true story of history, archeology, passion and greed.

Get your copy at the Campus Store and receive 30% off. Reg: $24.99 Sale: $17.49

What Is Happiness, and Where Do I Find It

2010-09-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

October's Book of the Month "Hector and the Search for Happiness", while technically a novel, is also an exploration into what makes people happy- a self-help novel, if you will.

Hector is a psychiatrist who is at a crossroads in his life. He is single, working in a profession where people who seem to have everything are constantly unhappy, and he is unsatisfied with himself. He decides to take a trip around the world, meeting old friends and new acquaintances, trying to understand what makes people happy.

From Paris to China, Africa to the United States, Hector makes observations and speaks with people, making a list of about what makes them happy. Along the way he spends an evening with a beautiful woman, befriends a drug lord, is kidnapped by a third world gang, and shares his findings with a world renowned professor.

“Hector and the Search for Happiness” is an international bestseller that is part novel, part self help guide. Optimistic and simple, it is a book that highlights what you may already know about being happy, but might have forgotten.

Pick up your copy at the Campus Store and save 30%. Regular price $14.00. Sale Price: $9.80.

Hot Mysteries In Ice Cold Northern Michigan

2010-09-07T15:43:00.001-07:00

September’s Book of the Month is a duel selection, introducing readers to the fictional northern Michigan town of Starvation Lake and big town, turned small town newspaper writer Gus Carpenter. “Starvation Lake” and “The Hanging Tree” are the first two books of a fascinating new mystery series written by Bryan Gruley, the Chicago Bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal and a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. Gruley brings the things he knows well to these stories- newspapers and hockey- and winds them together with quirky characters, dark secrets, and small town gossip boiling over with both love and hate.

“Starvation Lake” introduces Augustus “Gus” Carpenter, a journalist who has recently left the Detroit Times under circumstances that he would rather forget about and has gone to work for his hometown paper, The Pine County Pilot. The twice weekly paper normally reports the goings on in town- city council meetings, store openings, Cub Scout meetings- but Gus, the once big city reporter, sees journalism differently than reporting on only the things people want to hear. When the snowmobile of former hockey coach Jack Blackburn, who died when it broke through the ice on Starvation Lake, turns up on the shores of another lake five miles distant, Gus begins to question the history of Blackburn’s death, and even Blackburn himself. Figuring out what actually happened pits Gus against nearly the whole town, where everyone would rather let sleeping dogs lie.

In “The Hanging Tree,” we see Gus resign himself to settling back into life in Starvation Lake, the town he tried to escape by going to college and getting a job as a reporter for the Detroit Times. His old girlfriend, now deputy Darlene Esper, has left her husband giving him the opportunity he squandered years before while his problems at the Detroit newspaper seem to have gone away. It’s not where he’d thought he’d be, but it’s better than where he could have ended up. Unfortunately Gracie McBride, Darlene best friend during their teen years and Gus’ second cousin is found hanging in a tree in an apparent suicide. Gus suspects that there is more than meets the eye and although the town wishes he would leave well enough alone and let Gracie rest in peace, Gus can’t do that. Especially when he discovers a connection between Gracie, big shot lawyer Laird Haskell and the new hockey rink that Haskell is trying to build to replace Starvation Lake’s old, run down rink. Gus left Detroit, but it appears that crime from Detroit is following him all the way to Starvation Lake.

Well written and suspenseful, Gruley has given us two great reads about Gus Carpenter and Starvation Lake and I certainly hope he gives us a few more. Towns like this always have secrets floating beneath the surface.

Don't Call This "Just Another Vampire Story"

2010-07-01T10:10:00.000-07:00

When the publisher rep for Random House suggested I read "The Passage," I was a little put off by her description. All I needed was another corny vampire novel in my massive stack of to-be-read books on my bedside table (at times I'm afraid the pile will come crashing down in the middle of the night and bury me alive). I began with a promise to myself that if this book was corny, light, and went nowhere fast, I was going to put it down and start something else. Four days later I had finished the nearly 800 page volume. It was that good. I think those of you who like suspenseful, post-apocalyptic novels will love this one. And...

If you are not afraid of the dark, you soon will be.

When the army secretly engineers a virus to create a super-soldier, things go wrong- horribly wrong. Instead of an invulnerable soldier, they end up with mutated human subjects that have a taste for raw meat and blood, particularly human, are blindingly fast, and are deterred only by bright light. As the experimental subjects escape the secret compound in Telluride, Colorado, they begin either killing or infecting everyone they come in contact with. Within days, the entire state of Colorado is under quarantine, and weeks later, the entire United States has been cut off by the rest of the world.

Fast forward...

One hundred years after the outbreak a small group of uninfected people eke out an existence, protected within a fortress of towering walls and bright lights that turn night to day. They have established harsh rules and order to keep them safe from the "virals" (just one of the names for the mutated humans that roam the earth). But their order is thrown into chaos when a human teenager appears outside the walls of the compound, seemingly unaffected by the virus. Added to the appearance of Amy, several of the compound residents discover that the technology that keeps the lights on at night is failing and they don't have the equipment to repair it. A group of compound residents is determined to find out where Amy came from and if there are any more uninfected human alive out there. But, to do that, they must leave the safety of the compound and journey back to where it all started- Telluride, Colorado.

Dark and entertaining, "The Passage" will have you wanting to turn the page and dreading what you will find there.

"The Passage" by Justin Cronin is an amazing story driven by great characters and page turning suspense. Halfway through 2010, this is my favorite book to date.

"The Passage" is available at the University Campus Store during the month of July for 30% off, or at our online partner, Powells Books.

You Don't Always Get What You Think You Want

2010-06-02T09:57:00.000-07:00

He placed a notice in a Chicago paper, an advertisement for "a reliable wife." She responded, saying that she was "a simple, honest woman." She was, of course, anything but honest, and the only simple thing about her was her single-minded determination to marry this man and then kill him, slowly and carefully, leaving her a wealthy widow, able to take care of the one she truly loved.

What Catherine Land did not realize was that the enigmatic and lonely Ralph Truitt had a plan of his own. And what neither anticipated was that they would fall so completely in love.

Filled with unforgettable characters, and shimmering with color and atmosphere, A Reliable Wife is an enthralling tale of love and madness, of longing and murder.

Two Books, One Great Author

2010-05-03T09:17:00.001-07:00

This month, rather than write a a review of "Last Night in Montreal," which I've already done, Emily Mandel has graciously agreed to tell us a little bit about both "Last Night in Montreal" and her new book, "The Singer's Gun." Both books are available at the University Campus Store.

1. Last Night in Montreal

I began writing my first novel in Montreal. It was winter and I was cold all the time. Last Night in Montreal isn’t autobiographical, except for the parts about what it’s like to be an anglophone in Quebec, but it’s still in some ways a very personal book: I’ve never taken a writing class, and Last Night in Montreal is the novel I wrote when I was figuring out how to write a novel.

I think of that book as forming a sort of bridge in my life: when I started writing the story, I was a dancer in Montreal. I didn’t think of myself as a writer; I was going to auditions for contemporary dance companies and looking for drop-in dance classes to take. By the time I finished the book I was living in New York City, I hadn’t danced in two years, and at some indefinable point I’d begun to think of myself as a novelist.

In Last Night in Montreal there’s a character, Lilia, who travels endlessly. She’s based on no one I know, but by the time I arrived in New York I’d lived in three cities, two countries, and a dozen apartment shares in the previous two years, and it was interesting to write about a character even less geographically settled than I was. I wanted to write a portrait of the city I’d just come from; I know that the Montreal in Last Night in Montreal is capable of annoying life-long Montrealers, and I understand why, but it’s absolutely true to my experience there.

The years when I was working on my first novel marked a transformative period. I was settling into my new city, beginning to think of myself as a writer, getting married.

We honeymooned on the island of Ischia.

2. The Singer’s Gun

Ischia: an island in the Bay of Naples, some distance northwest of Capri, a tranquil place where whole towns shut down over the off-season. Fishing villages and resort hotels ring the coast. Most of the tourists are German. The sea is bright blue, the beaches white. If you’re the kind of slightly morbid person who imagines dark plotlines running through everything (in other words, a writer) it’s the sort of place that seems beautifully sinister.

I was thinking a lot about weddings and honeymoons in those days, having spent months planning both of the above, and at a café table in the piazza in the town of Sant’Angelo I was thinking about a story I’d heard recently about a couple whose relationship hadn’t survived the marriage. The story was that he’d realized it was a mistake during their honeymoon; they divorced, amicably, six months later. (What’s surprising, not to digress too horribly, is that I’ve heard two very similar stories since then. It’s apparently not as uncommon as all that.)

An idea I’d been thinking about around that time, and that I’m still thinking about now, is that it should be theoretically possible to base a novel on almost anything, no matter how random or how slight. I read an interview once in Salon Magazine with Michael Ondaatje, in which he was asked about the genesis of The English Patient. He said in the interview that the book began with three images: a nurse with a patient, a man stealing back a photograph of himself, a plane crash in the desert. It should be possible, I thought, to write an entire book based on the single image of a man leaving his wife on their honeymoon.

In this respect, the writing of The Singer’s Gun was identical to the writing of Last Night in Montreal. I begin with no more than a wisp of a premise, a few disconnected images or a single particularly striking sentence, and keep writing until it turns into a book. (I don’t recommend this process, incidentally; I don’t think I can work in any other way, but I strongly suspect that it’s easier to finish a novel when you know where you’re going in advance.)

Every premise raises questions, and it’s in answering these questions that the plot is formed. Why, for example, would a man leave his wife on their honeymoon? Perhaps if he were being blackmailed. In The Singer’s Gun, Anton Waker arrives on the island of Ischia and is forced by his criminally-inclined cousin to perform one last job for her. Anton’s spent the past few years struggling to carve out a life for himself in the legitimate world; but his first job was a partnership venture with his cousin Aria, selling fake passports and social security cards to illegal aliens in New York—and if he doesn’t perform this final transaction for her, she’ll tell his new wife that his Harvard diploma is a fake.

Various interests and worries attach themselves over time: passport fraud, human trafficking, the architectural salvage industry, identify theft, the New York City water supply, figureheads, the fragility of family, until what began as a sort of private stunt (“I bet I could write an entire book based on a single vague premise!”) has taken on a life of its own and expanded into something with much more depth.

There are some similarities in atmosphere and theme between the two books: disappearance and reinvention, immigration, plots that hinge on criminal mysteries, a touch of noir. It’s impossible for any writer to evaluate their own work with any trace of objectivity, but it seems to me that Last Night in Montreal is a much more lyrical novel than The Singer’s Gun—perhaps, in the manner of first novels, a little self-consciously so in places—and it’s driven as much by sheer atmosphere as by plot mechanics. The Singer’s Gun is a harder, faster piece of work, plot-driven and perhaps somewhat more precise. I tried my best to make it bulletproof.

Renaissance Art, History, & Mystery

2010-04-05T09:06:00.000-07:00

In this exhilarating cross between The Da Vinci Code and The Birth of Venus, an irrepressible young woman in 15th-century Italy must flee for her life after stumbling upon a deadly secret when she serves as a model for Botticelli...When part-time model and full-time prostitute Luciana Vetra is asked by one of her most exalted clients to pose for a painter friend, she doesn't mind serving as the model for the central figure of Flora in Sandro Botticelli's masterpiece "Primavera." But when the artist dismisses her without payment, Luciana impulsively steals an unfinished version of the painting--only to find that someone is ready to kill her to get it back.

What could possibly be so valuable about the picture? As friends and clients are slaughtered around her, Luciana turns to the one man who has never desired her beauty, novice librarian Brother Guido. Fleeing Venice together, Luciana and Guido race through the nine cities of Renaissance Italy, pursued by ruthless foes who are determined to keep them from decoding the painting's secrets.

Gloriously fresh and vivid, with a deliciously irreverent heroine, The Botticelli Secret is an irresistible blend of history, wit, and suspense.

The Botticelli Secret is available at the University Campus Store during the month of April for 30% off the regular price (sale price, $10.49), or is available at the regular price through Powells.com

A New Voice in Southern Literature

2010-03-08T15:11:00.000-08:00

On a summer night in 1931, in a small Alabama coal town, Tess Moore is sitting in her favorite place in the world- the porch of her small family home, overlooking an old stone well in the yard. Someone, thinking they are not being watched, creeps into the yard, removes the heavy cover from the top of the well, and dumps what Tess thinks is a baby, down the well.

Although, her family does not believe her at first, her story is born out when the baby is brought up from the well bottom. Thus begins a chain of events that causes Tess, and her older sister Virgie, to explore the composition of their small town in more depth, learning kindness and compassion along the way. Tess comes to understand hatred and racism, community and family, and life and love during the midst of the Great Depression.

The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips is exceptional Southern literature, reminiscent of To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, yet with a voice and style distinctly her own.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Story

2010-02-01T08:13:00.000-08:00

Finding good books to read is a little harder than it sounds. I often pick up a new book to read, only to put it down again, disappointed in the writing, the story, or the characters, or occasionally all three. Perhaps I'm a little harsh when it comes to judging books, but there are just so many books out there, that when you find something bad, there is no point in reading any further. But, when you discover something really good, you wish that it would go on and on.

"The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie" by Alan Bradley is one of those discoveries. It is one of those books where the writing is so well done, the story so magnetic in its appeal, and whose characters are so intriguing, that you savor every page, then hope the author is going to make this a series (which he is). What I found so interesting is the main character is not one that would normally captivate me the way she did.

Flavia de Luce is a precocious eleven year old who loves her father, misses her dead mother, detests her two older sisters, and has a penchant for chemistry, particularly poisons. When a series of mysterious events ultimately leads to the death of a visitor to her family home and the implication of her father in the murder, young Flavia takes on everyone, including both police and perpetrator, to prove her fathers’ innocence. Using wit and wisdom beyond her age, Flavia takes the reader on a journey across the English countryside and through her father’s troubled history.

"The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie" is truly one of those stories that is a joy to read. Filled with mystery and humor, Bradley has created one of the great new characters of the mystery genre.

"The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie" by Alan Bradley is available at the University Campus Store (30% off during February 2010) or through our online partners at Powells.com in both a paperback edition and a signed first edition.

The Swan Thieves, aka The Time Thieves

2010-01-22T09:09:00.000-08:00

I haven't written a blog post for a few months- that's how long it's taken me to finish the last book I was reading. Ok, maybe not that long, but it kind of felt that way.

I just finished reading "The Swan Thieves" by Elizabeth Kostova, whose debut novel, "The Historian" was a runaway bestseller. In fact, "The Historian" was the first debut novel to hit #1 on the New York Times Bestsellers list. While "The Swan Thieves" will undoubtedly finds its way to this and other bestseller lists, my feeling is that it will quickly find its way off those same lists.

"The Swan Thieves" is primarily the story of two men, Dr. Andrew Marlow and Robert Oliver, as well as love, art and obsession.

Robert Oliver is a brilliant artist who is remanded to psychiatric care after attempting to slash a painting with a pocketknife at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.. Andrew Marlow is the doctor who attempts to treat Oliver, but runs into a major problem- shortly after his commitment to the hospital, Oliver gives Marlow permission to speak with anyone about him, then refuses to speak anymore.

Day after day, Oliver draws and paints pictures of the same beautiful woman whom Marlow is convinced holds the key to helping Oliver. As Marlow tracks down and speaks with Robert's former wife and girlfriend, he becomes nearly as obsessed with the mystery woman in the paintings, causing him to straddle the lines of professional ethics. His search for answers, ostensibly in his patients behalf, lead him to travel up and down the east coast, to Mexico and then to Europe.

"The Swan Thieves" is an impressive story that has alternating chapters with historical elements, discusses art, particularly Impressionism, contains a mystery at its core, and deals with love- love realized, love lost and love that was never meant to be. Having said this, "The Swan Thieves" also contains some near-fatal flaws.

Kostova is a wordsmith who has an love of description, which, much like her character Robert Oliver, who was sidetracked from a bright career by his obsession, her story is often sidetracked by obsessively over-descriptive prose. The story arc is interesting, but could have benefited from an editor unafraid to assert some editorial control, allowing the same story to be told in three to four hundred pages rather than the nearly six-hundred page tome that it is. I often got bored and distracted, having to put the book down, as the story seemed to be progressing to nowhere (while reading the first 200 pages of "The Swan Thieves", I started and finished two other books).

The other problem that continues to stalk Kostova, as it did in "The Historian," is the inability to provide a satisfying ending. The climax of the story comes very late, wrapping up the story in an weak and insubstantial denouement. I already understood why Robert Oliver attacked the painting by about page 300 and all the final pages did was confirm what I already knew. As in "The Historian," the story overpowers and supplants the ending, making the book worth the read even with a disappointing ending.

Just be warned, a casual read this is not. "A" for effort, "B" for the story, but a "D" for the long-winded telling.

Love, Dating and Other Disasters

2009-09-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

I read "The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance" for two reasons: 1) when going through the Penguin Fall 2009 catalog, it intrigued me when I found out the local Mormon bookstores weren't ordering copies, and 2) I was given an advanced reading copy.

I'm normally opposed to reading "memoirs" by people who haven't passed the age of 30 (have you really done enough to make me want to read about your life?), but because of the description in the catalog and on the book cover, it sounded intriguing- so I dove in, finishing the book in just a couple of days.

Elna Baker is a young LDS (Mormon) woman living in New York who has an internal war taking place between head and heart. Being Mormon means no drinking alcohol or engaging in pre-marital sex, among other things, and this seems to conflict with most of the non-Mormon men she attempts to date. As Elna relates, her longest relationship lasted a month and that was because the guy was out of town for two weeks. Her search for love and acceptance leads her to fall for the most unlikely of men- an atheist. A man who seems to be the exact opposite of a practicing Mormon, yet one who seems to be everything she wants in a potential husband. Can she make it work?

"The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance" is a funny story of how a young Mormon woman navigates dating, love and other disasters. While an engaging read, some parts of the book slow down, due not to story, but to the occasional awkwardness of Baker's writing style. When dealing with Mormon issues and doctrines that play a role in her story, Baker does a satisfactory job of explaining her religion to non-Mormons, but a few statements on Mormonism aren't explained well, and would only be fully understood by a member of the LDS faith. Conversely, there will be many practicing members of the LDS faith that will be offended by some of the language Baker uses as well as some of her feelings about, descriptions of, and encounters with sexual situations.

A book that made me laugh out loud and question my own beliefs and doubts about God and religion, "The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance" will find a niche, both inside and outside Mormonism, among those who enjoy a quest for self and a good laugh along the way.

"The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance" is available to order from our online affiliate Powell's, or by coming into the Bookmark at the U.

Pieces of Me | Guest Blogger Mattox Roesch

2009-09-15T14:54:00.001-07:00

Note: Occasionally we invite authors to write a blog post on any topic they choose. This post is being written by Mattox Roesch, author of "Sometimes We're Always Real Same-Same" his debut novel. I am excited to have Mattox sharing his thoughts on how writing is affected by our own lives. -Drew Goodman

“Fiction’s about what it means to be a fucking human being.” –David Foster Wallace

At the same time my good friend was sentenced to three years in a penitentiary, I moved off the North American road system, to Unalakleet, AK. This is similar to the plight of the narrator in my novel Sometimes We’re Always Real Same-Same, and yet, I hardly made the personal connection when writing it. I thought I was writing the book to better understand the humanity behind imprisonment—how it affects the inmate and his/her family. And I was. But recently, while flipping the pages to find something to read at upcoming events, I saw another reason for writing the novel. I think I was trying to save my friend, using a pen instead of a megaphone. And by leaving Minneapolis I felt like I failed him.

Angela Y. Davis, in her book Are Prisons Obsolete? argues that “Mass imprisonment generates profits as it devours social wealth, and thus it tends to reproduce the very conditions that lead people to prison.” It’s important that we question everything, (right?) politically and socially, including prisons. But how often do you hear a guy on the street corner with a megaphone yelling “Close the prisons!”? It seems we generally don’t question things until they are personal. I didn’t question prisons until I was passing my ID through a slot and walking through magnetically sealed doors and sitting at a booth to talk to the same person I had shared nachos with a few weeks earlier. We see this every day. We see authors write the same memoir over and over, and authors write the same characters over and over. And then I wondered if I was doing the same. Was I only expressing an interest in issues that I had experienced firsthand? It seemed to be the case with my novel. Prison, personal. Spirituality, personal. Mental illness, personal. Rural Alaska, personal.

But when I think about it, I hope that’s not the case. I don’t think it is. Not for most of us, anyway. Of course nobody is perfectly compassionate, but many of us have baked bread for a friend who lost her job, or driven an extra hour to give a family member a ride, or threw in fifty bucks to a local youth group fundraiser. Even if we had never lost a job or waited for a bus or went to church, we felt empathy for those who had.

And I look at some of the best-selling contemporary novels lined up on my bookshelf—Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich, What is the What by Dave Eggers, Lark & Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips. These all, in a way, personalized an issue or two for me that I hadn’t experienced. These novels, in a way, changed my life. So maybe the easy answer is that stories, explicitly and implicitly, transform the personal into the communal.

So by writing about an ex-gangbanger whose older brother is locked up for life, maybe I was, on some level, trying to save my friend. And sure, maybe I was trying to convince the reader to care. But I didn’t write the story with the same motivation that I have for reading stories. I wrote the novel to convince myself to care, over and over, edit after edit. I wrote it to feel this life more fully. I wrote it, standing in front of a mirror with a megaphone, paraphrasing David Foster Wallace, “This is what it’s like to be a fucking human being.”

"Sometimes We're Always Real Same-Same" by Mattox Roesch is available at the Bookmark at the U and at our online fulfillment partner, Powell's Books, and wherever great books are sold.

September 2009 Book of the Month

2009-09-01T08:37:00.000-07:00

I little while back, I wrote a post about my favorite independent publishing house, Unbridled Books. They consistently publish great authors with well written books, and the Book of the Month for September 2009, "Sometimes We're Always Real Same-Same," by Mattox Roesch, is no exception.

Cesar, the teen gang-banger from Los Angeles, watched his older brother, Wicho, go to prison for his gang activities. Cesar's mother, determined to keep him from the same fate, moves herself and Cesar back to her native village in western Alaska. The only thing that the pessimistically minded Cesar wants is to do is get back to LA, but, Go-boy, his older, overly optimistic cousin bets that Cesar won't go back.

How these two cousins affect each other, and how their surroundings affect both of them is the basis of this wonderfully told story of life in a small village where everyone knows who you are and what you do. Infused with doses of melancholy and humor, "Sometimes We're Always Real Same-Same" is a touching novel of how we are often more alike in our wants, needs and feelings than we really like to admit to ourselves and others.

"Sometimes We're Always Real Same-Same" by Mattox Roesch is available at the University Campus Store or through our online fulfillment partner, Powell's Books.

Well Written, But, Kind of Boring

2009-08-18T10:21:00.000-07:00

The other day I sent a message out to the world on Twitter that said, “Major author + really good writing, but = somewhat boring story. I almost feel like I wasted a few days of my life reading the book.” That of course, brought a number of responses from my Twitter followers. Some wanted to know who I was talking about, others tried to guess, and one bookseller hit it right on the head on his first guess. At that point, I felt like I had to come clean; to admit to everyone who I was talking about. I also felt like I was committing bookseller blasphemy.

The author is E. L. Doctorow and the book I was talking about is his newest novel, “Homer & Langley.”

Before I go further, let me just say a couple of things. I like Doctorow. I mean, I really like him. I was introduced to writing fiction in high school by being told to read “World’s Fair” and learn to write emulating him. “Billy Bathgate” was incredible. Doctorow easily has more awards for his writing than I have years in my life. I would love the chance to meet him one day. But, while immaculately written, “Homer & Langley” was not my favorite Doctorow novel. Why?

“Homer & Langley” is a fictional biography of the infamous New York City Collyer brothers who, while living in a mansion on Fifth Avenue, became the poster boys for pack-rats worldwide. They were born in the 1880‘s and died in 1947. Doctorow changed their timeline, moving them forward into the twentieth century so they could experience all the great events from World War I to the Vietnam War and the moon landing. While an interesting story to have two recluses experience the major events and watersheds of twentieth century United States from inside their mansion, the story also seemed a little contrived, kind of like Forrest Gump becoming inadvertently involved in most of the major political and cultural events of his lifetime.

While excellently written (Doctorow is incapable of writing a poor sentence), the story itself did not envelop me, pull me along and make me want to turn the page before I had finished reading the one I was on. The best episode of the entire story, where Homer and Langley are forced to house a wounded gangster, falls in the middle of the book.

If you are a Doctorow fan, “Homer & Langley” is a book worth reading, but I don’t expect this new novel to win new fans for this traditionally amazing author.

"Homer & Langley" by E. L. Doctorow, available September 1, 2009, is available for purchase by coming into the Bookmark at the U or by ordering from our online partner, Powell's.

You Can Go Home Again | Guest Post by Emily St. John Mandel

2009-08-14T08:42:00.000-07:00

Note: Occasionally we invite authors to write a blog post on any topic they choose. This post is being written by Emily St. John Mandel, author of "Last Night In Montreal," her debut novel. I am personally very pleased to have Emily sharing her thoughts on reading with us. -Drew Goodman

I’ve been thinking a lot about reading lately. Books are a passion only recently rediscovered; I’m trying my best to make up for lost time, but I haven’t read very many books over the past decade or so. As a child I read novels constantly, and I’m not sure exactly how or when I fell out of the habit. It may have been around the time I left home—I moved across the continent at eighteen with only the belongings I could carry with me on the airplane, and the books I brought from British Columbia were only the small handful I absolutely couldn’t live without.

In the years after my airplane landed in Toronto I spent hours reading literary journals at the library, but mostly I’d become a voracious reader of newspapers and magazines. I developed an adoration for the International Herald Tribune and The New Yorker and I didn’t read books very often, although after a few years I found that I was trying to write one.

It’s been exactly twelve months since I sold my first novel. I think it’s really only been over the course this hectic and delightful past year that I’ve remembered how much books mean to me, and how soothing it is to find yourself in a room filled with them, and how perfectly a good book can transport you elsewhere. I’m not sure how I forgot these things.

I see people reading everywhere in my city, on benches during their lunch hours and on the trains to and from work. It’s partly a question of refuge: in a city as crowded as New York, books and headphones are our only privacy. In other places people commute alone in their cars; but packed into a subway car with a hundred strangers, the only way to be alone is to disappear into music or narrative.

But questions of escape aside, I’ve been thinking lately about the way the experience of reading a book over a number of days provides us with a certain continuity, a narrative thread that binds our days and our weeks. Like most writers, I lead a double life, and these two lives are entirely separate. There’s the day job: I do the filing and stare at spreadsheets and count down the hours to the end of the afternoon, and then I go home and attend to an entirely other, considerably more vivid life, a life that involves writing novels and approving copy edits and talking to booksellers and fielding interview requests.

My working and writing lives couldn’t possibly be more different, and it occurred to me recently that reading is the only bridge between them. The same book carries me from the morning commute to the calm hours of the late evening, the joys and responsibilities of the double life set aside for the day.

"Last Night in Montreal" by Emily St. John Mandel is available at the Bookmark at the U and at our online fulfillment partner, Powell's Books, and wherever great books are sold.

The August 2009 Book of the Month

2009-08-03T12:23:00.000-07:00

Our selection for the August 2009 Book of the Month is "The Meaning of Night" by Michael Cox. Recently, I was saddened to learn of Cox's death earlier this year, so I decided to make this the book of the month selection

The Meaning of Night is a fabulously written, historical mystery set in Victorian England, infused with life by a cadre of characters that inhabit its pages. The protagonist, Edward Glyver, a man undone by an event from his early childhood, feels the only way to reacquire what is rightfully his is to exact revenge on the man he blames for everything gone wrong in his life- Phoebus Daunt. But, what seems to be a straight-forward story of retribution and revenge takes turns both dark and twisted, ultimately revealing an outcome that leaves the reader surprised and satisfied in a morbidly curious way.

This is one of my top ten all time reads, and a must for mystery lovers.

The July 2009 Book of the Month

2009-07-07T14:43:00.000-07:00

Stieg Larsson finished a trilogy of books that he claimed he really wrote for his own pleasure. Shortly after finishing the "Millennium Trilogy," Larsson died. The first book of the trilogy, "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" was published posthumously to great international acclaim and success.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines a murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.

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.

The Cold Dish: Book of the Month for June 2009

2009-06-02T14:06:00.000-07:00

The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson, 30% off during the month of June 2009 (in-store purchases only).

"The Cold Dish" by Craig Johnson is the Book of the Month for June 2009 at the Bookmark at the U, at the University of Utah Campus Store. Johnson is an exciting voice in the mystery genre, who tells his stories with both great characters and settings. The characters of Walt Longmire, Henry Standing Bear, and Victoria Moretti have become some of my favorites in the mystery genre. Sitting down with a Walt Longmire mystery is like sitting down for a chat around the campfire with old friends.

"The Cold Dish" introduces us to Walt Longmire, sheriff of the fictional Absaroka County in northern Wyoming and his attempts to keep the peace in what should be a relatively peaceful place.

"Longmire knows he’s got trouble when Cody Pritchard is found dead. Two years earlier, Cody and three accomplices had been given suspended sentences for raping a Northern Cheyenne girl. Is someone seeking vengeance? Longmire faces the most volatile and challenging case in his twenty-four years as sheriff and means to see that revenge, a dish that is best served cold, is never served at all."

May 2009 Book of the Month, City of Thieves

2009-05-01T07:26:00.001-07:00

The Bookmark at the U's Book of the Month for May 2009 is "City of Thieves" by David Benioff. The review of this book was written by Josh Clemens, buyer at The Bookmark.

When Lindsay Wood, a rep from Penguin, recommended this book to me, I told her that I was planning on reading it but I had to get over my unfounded resentment towards the author first. She rapidly deduced the root of my envy and responded “Why? Because he’s married to Amanda Peet?” Absolutely! David Benioff has a successful writing career and he’s married to Amanda Peet! How lucky can one guy get? Wait until you read this book before you answer that question. It is purportedly based on the experiences of his grandfather during the siege of Leningrad in 1942, and it would seem that luck runs in the Benioff genes. One could say that the author has a diluted variation of the Benioff luck gene, and he would likely agree with that assessment.

A blazing quick read, City of Thieves reads like a screenplay, implausible yet not surprising, considering the author is also a screenwriter. The action takes place over a few days in the drawn out siege, and there is no surfeit of transcribed Russian words to stumble over. The narrator does his share of stumbling, but each time it is fortuitous. “Not everybody has talent,” Lev Beniov tells another character who inquires about his talents, but he doesn’t yet realize his own talent for survival. Mistaken for a thief, Beniov is paired with Kolya, a charismatic deserter, and given the task of locating a dozen eggs by a colonel in the NKVD. It is an impossible task in a besieged city, but Kolya is irrepressible. When the pair falls in with a band of partisans and meets Vika, a tomboy sniper, finding the eggs becomes Lev’s second most important conquest. Full of likable characters and humor even in the face of atrocities, City of Thieves deserves to be recommended rather than resented!

It's Time to Play- Book of the Month Contest

2009-04-30T09:10:00.000-07:00

It's here! The Bookmark at the U "Book of the Month" contest for May. In April we selected, "The Elegance of the Hedgehog." We have selected another book that we really like, a book that has made an impression on us, and one that we think many of you would like as well. We will write about it in the blog and hope that, if you have read it, or read it during that month, you will be part of the conversation about that month's book.

But, wait! We're not going to tell you what the book for May is yet.

To kick off the Book of the Month for May we are holding a contest where you can win a free copy of the book. All you have to do is this: follow us on Twitter and watch for clues about the book. The questions will start vague and difficult, and then begin to get specific. If you are the first person to send us a DM (Direct Message) via Twitter, with the title of the book and the author's name, you will win a free copy of the book. The first person to DM us will be based on the time and date stamped on Twitter. We do need to limit this contest to the United States and Canada, but other than that, start following us on Twitter and play along.

In Remembrance: Henry Hubert

2009-04-13T11:13:00.000-07:00

The Bookmark at the U is saddened to note the passing of our friend and former book sales representative, Henry Hubert. On Saturday, April 11, 2009 I received an email informing me that he was no longer with us.

Henry had worked in the book industry for many, many years, longer than many of us who worked with him, and longer even than some of our younger booksellers have been alive. For many years he sold for Oxford University Press, University of Chicago Press and other University Presses, and we valued the relationship we had with him. Henry was knowledgeable about the books he recommended and sold to us and his suggestions made our store better.

In an earlier post, we mentioned that Henry among others were forced into retiring or leaving the book business because the economic climate no longer made selling books profitable (what little profit there is in our business). So, while we were originally saddened by the last visit Henry made to us in the spring of 2008, his recent passing makes this loss even harder to bear.

Thank you Henry for the time you spent with us in this business you loved. We won't soon forget you.

News Flash! Zombies Attack the Bookmark

2009-04-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

I have gained a new appreciation for Jane Austen this last week, more specifically, for "Pride and Prejudice," a book I was forced to read in high school (thanks a lot Mrs. Hansen). I hated the book.

Now, before I start receiving hate comments from you Darcyophiles who read the book every year, I want you to know I consider it to be great and classic literature- for someone else. "A Tale of Two Cities" or "To Kill a Mockingbird" are more my style of classics. But, I am considering reading "Pride and Prejudice" in its new incarnation- "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith.

How can you go wrong with an opening sentence that not only embodies the classic style of Jane Austen but includes a warning about zombie attacks? "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains."

This has turned out to be the hottest book on the shelves this last week, not just here at the Bookmark, but in stores around the country. The publisher has already gone back to the presses for two reprints. We sold our last copy on Friday, three days after it arrived in the store. And, what's worse, somebody stole the "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" poster we had hung up in the store to promote the book. They stole it from a main aisle, in broad daylight, with the lights on! I don't know about anyone else, but I'm blaming zombies.

"Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith is published by Quirk Books and is $12.95 in paperback.

Video- The Elegance of the Hedgehog

2009-04-01T07:27:00.000-07:00

Join us in reading this fabulous book during April 2009! Purchase the "Elegance of the Hedgehog" by Muriel Barbery in the store or through our online fulfillment partner, Powells.com.