143 Seventh Avenue
[between Carroll & Garfield Streets]
[between Carroll & Garfield Streets]
Brooklyn, NY 11215
(718) 783-3075
(718) 783-3075
Thurs. May 2 @ 7pm
Monday, April 29, 2013
Friday, April 26, 2013
Welcome To Malvern Books
Malvern Books is the bookstore blog of a bookstore that does not yet exist. Confused? Pull up a comfy chair and please allow me to explain…
Once upon a time—1987, to be precise—a couple of literary enthusiasts from Austin, Texas, founded a company called Host Publications. Host specialized in publishing literature in translation, and their catalog quickly grew to resemble the reading list of a United Nations book club: there was poetry from Chile and Serbia; short story collections from Italy and Mexico; novels from Brazil and Switzerland. Introducing these international voices to an American audience was fun and frustrating in equal measure. Fun, because what book nerd wouldn't relish the chance to acquaint people with amazing stuff they'd never heard of? And frustrating, because finding a home for your beloved small press babies is hard. Really hard. Independent bookstores were having a tough time—hello giant retail chains, e-books, and the recession—and previously adventurous booksellers began to retreat to their safe place: maybe if I replace my Obscure European Poetry section with a life-size cardboard cutout of Christian Grey, everything will be okay? The good people at Host tried every marketing trick in the book (including, but not limited to, free cookies), but they kept hearing the same thing: looks good, but it's not for us.
So what's a small press enthusiast to do? Give up on indie publications and start sifting through the slush pile for a touching memoir about a psychic Labradoodle? As they say in Texas: nu-uh! In the spirit of “I MUST BE DAFT,” one of Host's founders, Joe W. Bratcher III, decided to take the exciting but fiscally whimsical step of opening his very own bookstore. It had been a longtime dream, and one that I'm sure is familiar to many of us book lovers. (In my I-own-a-bookstore dream, there's a marmalade cat asleep on an overstuffed armchair in the corner, and I'm hanging out behind the counter making small talk with a curmudgeonly regular—I call him Mr. Peabody, and he has very definite views about the weather—and the whole place smells of new books and fresh coffee and… tranquility?) Joe wanted to open a store that thumbed its nose at Fifty Shades and instead stocked only the very best poetry, fiction, and journals from small, independent, utterly awesome presses. And he also wanted to provide a welcoming community space for literary enthusiasts—a venue for nightly readings and performances. And thus, buoyed by the cheering news that many independent bookstores have been experiencing increased sales of late, Malvern Books was born, and a brand spanking new bookstore will soon be opening its doors to Austinites…
But not yet. Not quite yet. Because it turns out opening a bookstore takes time. There's a site to find, a lease to sign, shelves to stock, and horrifying accounting software to
My name is Tracey, and I'm the lucky so-and-so that has the job of writing for Malvern Books, our irreverent internet presence. (The briefest of back-stories: I used to work for Host Publications, and have a background as a writer and editor. And I'm originally from New Zealand, which means you'll have to forgive my incomprehensible slang and my fondness for Vegemite.) We wanted to get the blog up and running as soon as possible, because we thought people might be interested in hearing more about the process of setting up a new bookstore. And, because I am a somewhat random human being, I also thought lit-geeks might be interested in reading about embarrassing library visits, a teenage crush on Kafka, and my penchant for crying in art galleries.
Yes sirree, we cover a wide range of topics on the Malvern Books blog. My brief was blessedly vague—“write about arty stuff, and don't be dull!”—and I'm happy to run with that. We write about books, movies, TV, and art. We write about the horrors of the book conference and the wonders of Janet Frame. And we even have a heavy metal correspondent, Joe's son Adam, who really knows his Megadeth from his Mastodon. Once the store has its grand opening in September, the blog will also be the place to go for event listings, special offers, local literary happenings, and bookstore gossip (so if you plop your leaking coffee cup down on top of a fresh stack of Smartish Pace journals, well, you can expect to be publicly shamed).
We hope you'll stop by and say hello—first at the blog, and then at the bookstore. We really look forward to meeting all you lovely book people. And though the prospect of launching Malvern Books might make some people as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs (I told you we was Texas), we're not-so-quietly confident that the Austin literary scene will welcome a little new energy and a big new venue (1900 square feet!), and that the blogosphere will make room for one more voice—even if it does have a peculiar Kiwi/Lone Star twang.
CUNY will host the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Marilynne Robinson
Wed, May 1 / 6:30 p.m. / Elebash Recital Hall
Marilynne Robinson, the Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist and essayist and longtime faculty member at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, in a rare
public appearance.
Blind Curves: One Woman’s Unusual Search to Reinvent Herself and Answer: “What Now?
Funny, irreverent, and extraordinarily honest, this is the perfect read for people looking for ways to reinvent themselves, and anyone asking: “What now?”
Synopsis: After eighteen months of following one-size-fits-all advice for a 57-year-old widow, Linda Crill was still miserable. In a moment of rebellion, she traded her corporate suits for motorcycle leathers and committed herself to a 2,500-mile road trip on a Harley, without knowing how to ride.
Four short weeks later, Linda joined two men and another woman for a white-knuckled, exhilarating road trip along America’s Pacific Northwest coast from Vancouver, Canada, to the wine country of Mendocino, California. Along the way she encountered washed-out mountain roads, small town hospitality, humming redwoods, and acceptance from gentle souls who happened to have
tattoos and piercings.
Blind Curves is the extraordinary story of a woman who had tried everything to reinvent herself and recapture excitement for what comes next. Exercising, reading, making endless to-do lists, putting others’ needs first, and pampering herself was not working.
What did work? Blind Curves will share the path Linda took and how her experience of creating her own turn-by-turn route succeeded after traditional wisdom and practices had failed.
Joshua R. Helms Wins Dzanc Books Poetry Collection Award
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Friday, April 19, 2013
The Spirit of the Heart
Written by former leading cardiac surgeon Dr. Ismael Nu̱o РThe Spirit of the Heart is a collection of heart-warming stories that resonate at the core of our humanness.
Fixing "broken" hearts gave Dr. Nuño a unique and intimate view into the power of the heart. Over the years he learned that even while coming face to face with death and losing patients, there is a beauty that can exist, even in loss.
Dr. Nuño graciously offers the insights he has gained from occupying a front-row seat at some of life's most real and raw moments. Part memoir, part self-help - these tender stories teach us about what it means to be human, to be connected to others, to love, to live, to forgive.
Aleksandar Hemon
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Aleksandar Hemon is the author of The Lazarus Project, which was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award, and three collections of short stories: The Question of Bruno; Nowhere Man, which was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Love and Obstacles, which will be published by Riverhead Books on May 14, 2009. Born in Sarajevo, Hemon visited Chicago in 1992, intending to stay for a matter of months. While he was there, Sarajevo came under siege, and he was unable to return home. Hemon wrote his first story in English in 1995. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003 and a “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation in 2004. He lives in Chicago with his wife and daughter.
Ian McEwan
Ian McEwan’s new novel is Sweet Tooth. It “provides all the pleasures one has come to expect of him: pervasive intelligence, broad and deep knowledge, elegant prose, subtle wit and, by no means least, a singularly agreeable element of surprise,” wrote The Washington Post.
Date: Mon, Jul 22, 2013, 8 pm
Location: Lexington Avenue at 92nd St
Venue: Kaufmann Concert Hall
Price: from $29.00
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Etgar Keret & Gary Shteyngart
Strange situations, kooky misunderstandings, the world turned around and upside down and just the way it is. Stay tuned for some hilarity when these friends and fellow comic writers team up. Readers include Willem Dafoe (The English Patient, Spider-Man 3), Parker Posey(Price Check, Louie), Denis O'Hare (AmericanHorror Story, True Blood) and Alex Karpovsky(HBO's Girls, Rubberneck). Hosted by BD Wong.
Wednesday, April 17 at 7:30 pm
Peter Jay Sharp Theatre at Symphony Space$28; Member $24; 30 & Under $15
Peter Jay Sharp Theatre at Symphony Space$28; Member $24; 30 & Under $15
2013 Walt Whitman Award Winner
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Literary Festival
Sun 10am-5pm: Local book sellers McNally Jackson + Housing Works team up for the downtown literary festival with tours, readings, discussions, drinks, more. followed by a happy hour at Housing Works and an after-party at Pravda on Lafayette. free.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Single Effort by Joe Keller
Review:
Single Effort, is a book filled with practical pointers and real-world advice for living a dynamic, happy, and successful life as a single guy. The author took his own experience with a painful divorce and discovered how to approach being single, live smarter, date better and be awesomely happy. If you are looking to find the life and love you seek, then this guide is right for you. This has been called the best guide to being single, but not necessarily staying single, that you'll ever read!
Each chapter is chock full of advice from navigating your divorce to meeting the woman of your dreams. Keller takes you step by step from after the breakup to outfitting your new living space. He encourages you to create a female-friendly home explore cooking, especially some of his top single effort recipes. If you are shy and unsure of how to meet the right women, then you need to check out Chapter 8: Meeting New Women- Stack the Odds in Your Favor! or Chapter 9: Approaching and Talking to Women (KISS).
Since Keller has experienced the pitfalls of being single, he is an expert on assisting you on knowing exactly when you are ready to begin dating, what your first two dates should look like, along with recommendations for your first big date and where you should actually go on this date. In this digital age, it is important too that you are aware of the success that online dating can bring and where it can lead you.
Overall, this book is perfect for single guys everywhere. If you are looking to spice up your dating life or develop a more fulfilling life, Keller has some advice that can work for you as well as the single guy. I highly recommend this book and cannot wait to read more books by this author.
Monday, April 8, 2013
When Can You Start? by Paul Freiberger
From the Author:
In a tough job market, only a select few succeed at the interview process. What sets them apart? Author Paul Freiberger argues: Preparation. The interview is the last step in a long and important process. It is a make-or-break moment with the potential to change your life. For this performance, you need to be as ready as you’ve ever been.
When Can You Start? guides you through every step of job interview preparation and gives you the practical, effective, and proven tools to ace the interview and win the job.
Discover the best ways to research your chosen industry and companies before you even begin your job search. Master phone, panel, and one-on-one interviews. Turn any type of question to your advantage by speaking to your strengths. Know the best way to present yourself if you’re reentering the workforce, need to explain gaps in your resume, have jumped from job to job, or have stayed in the same job for a long time. And never be tongue-tied again when an interviewer turns to you and says, “So, tell me about yourself.”
With the right preparation, even in the toughest of job markets, you can walk into the interview with a real advantage over the competition. You can convert “We’ll be in touch” to those four words everyone wants to hear: “When can you start?”
You will learn how to:
• be ready for The Only Question You Must Be Able to Answer
• (not) tell the interviewer about your weaknesses
• answer any trick question or oddball question
• ask the right questions
• be confident in any interview situation
• avoid interview mistakes
• negotiate the salary you deserve
• (not) tell the interviewer about your weaknesses
• answer any trick question or oddball question
• ask the right questions
• be confident in any interview situation
• avoid interview mistakes
• negotiate the salary you deserve
Review:
Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winner and New York Times best-selling writer Paul Freiberger provides you with all the tips and tricks you need to land your dream job. He teaches you how to ace the interview and what comes after you have cleared that hurdle. The most compelling part of this book is how it is written. Freiberger gives you honest advice and does not hold back what so ever. He empowers the reader by filling them in on all the secrets that the interviewee holds. He encourages the interviewer to do their homework and prepare themselves in a sensible way before they even attempt to be interviewed.
Most business books recommend you highlight your strengths only, but Freiberger actually encourages you to highlight your weaknesses too. I am not sure that I would ever try this strategy, but according to him, it seems to work. He claims: "With the right preparation, even in the toughest of job markets, you can walk into the interview with a real advantage over the competition."
In this day and age the interview process has taken technology into consideration and more and more companies are interviewing via phone or video communication. There is a balanced mix of traditional and non traditional ways to approach this whole process and Freiberger does a beautiful job of presenting this information in a clear and user friendly way. Freiberger offers suggestions on the rules that apply to some of these non traditional approaches. He provides you with a series of questions and answers that you can practice before the interview and sheds some light on the possible pitfalls that one may face during this process.
Overall, I would suggest this book to anyone looking for a job, whether it's a first job or career change. There is so much to learn from this guide and it was fun to read.
Disclosure: I received a copy of When Can You Start? gratis. Any opinions expressed are my honest opinions and were not impacted by my receipt of the free book. I received no monetary compensation for this post.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Eviction Notice by Robyn Wyrick
When a group of teenage kids make a crop-circle out in a corn field as their senior high school prank it doesn't quite go as planned. They accidentally create a landing beacon for an alien spaceship and a premise for a first novel. So begins Eviction Notice, a fun and lighthearted adventure story about hope, adventure, and amazing second chances.
In enters our savior. "In a few moments she would reach over to the end table and pick up a handful of pills and her glass of wine. And soon this nice man and his magical beast would lead her off into oblivion, all her cares forgotten."
In enters our savior. "In a few moments she would reach over to the end table and pick up a handful of pills and her glass of wine. And soon this nice man and his magical beast would lead her off into oblivion, all her cares forgotten."
Review:
After her marriage goes south and she sees no reason to continue on,.Alice Abel attempts to commit suicide, but a knock at the door by Inspector Clayton changes her life forever. He tells her that Humans have to vacate the planet or face a forced eviction into deep space where they will all die. She is not at all convinced by him and thinks that she must be losing her mind. She next meets Inspector Tyler, an eight-foot tall Wolzon Strangle Beast with four arms, a huge fang-filled mouth, and a well tailored tweed suit and starts to believe that these two are going to take her to heaven. It is ironic that a woman who was about to end her own life is now asked to save the world. Alice is a strong heroine and the trip she takes you on is a humorous adventure with tons of twists and turns. You will find yourself rooting for her throughout the entire story. She is honest and charming and these two qualities help her evolve from down on her luck to the luckiest character in the book.
Although, I am not a real fan of science fiction, I thoroughly enjoyed the format of this book. The book follows several subplots, where some chapters are Alice’s story with the investigators, some chapters are the high school kids with the Glen Fairy and some are the aliens trying to find the Glen Fairy. Eviction Notice is packed with alien abductions, space battles, and lost alien cargo. The characters are clever and the dialogue is witty. I recommend this to older teens and adults. This is the type of book you could lay on the beach and read or plow through on a lazy Sunday afternoon. It was not too heady and had just the right balance of action and humor.
Trilogy: A Collection by Prudence MacGregor
MacGregor presents to us a collection of three strange and wonderful tales about everyday people. This is a work of fiction. The events and characters described are imaginary and are not intended to refer to specific places or living persons. Although the characters are common, their conflicts are out of the ordinary. All of these stories have a lesson for not only the characters to learn, but for the reader as well. MacGregor takes us on a quest alongside the main characters as they find their way in unbelievable circumstances.
"Parallelograms"
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you had a twin or a double? What if finding this other you only created chaos? This is the first story that revolves around the protagonist Justine, a young girl who has an affinity for many things. She loves to read and questions everything. Her life is usually pretty organized and unfettered until she meets her double and things spiral out of control. Now she has to try to make sense of her life, and find her purpose in the world.
"Random"
Ulyssa Archer, Lyss to her friends and parents- was an only child and liked it that way. The story starts off when her Mother and Dad head off to a tropical resort in the Caribbean for the New Year. She is off from college for one more week before the next semester begins and has hatched a plan. Ulyssa is going to write a note, attach it to a balloon and see where it lands. The note read:
My name is Ulyssa Archer, but whoever finds this can call me Lyss. I sent this up not knowing where it would land. Please, if you find this, do call me on my cell phone number, and do leave a message if I'm not there. Just please let me know you got it and where you're from. I am doing this as a special project. Thanks very much. What seemed like an honest exercise in human contact, turns in to a wild ride that picture perfect Ulyssa may not be able to handle.
"Up There"
Often times we hear an airplane passing over head and wonder where the passengers are going and where did they come from. Gregory M., a simple office worker quite often engages in this activity and is fascinated by the jets that he notices in the sky. This begins to cause a problem for him, clouding his sense of reality and fantasy. He innocently meets an attractive motivational speaker, Sherry, who happens to have a connection to one of the planes and his nice, simple world begins to become interesting.
Overall, MacGregor's writing is similar to a great science fiction short story with normal everyday characters whose lives take a paranormal twist. I really enjoyed this book as I love books with paranormal themes and liked the last two stories in the trilogy slightly more than the first one.
Full Disclosure: Many thanks to the author and 'The Cadence Group' as I received a copy of this book for free from them.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Russian Underground Poetry & Kirill Medvedev
Mon Apr 22, 8:00 PM
Russian Underground Poetry & Kirill Medvedev
at The Poetry Project @ St. Mark’s, 131 E. 10th St., NY
Russian Underground Poetry from OBERIU to Moscow Conceptualism: Alexander Vvedensky and Vsevolod Nekrasov, plus a special appearance by Kirill Medvedev.With Ainsley Morse, Eugene Ostashevsky, Bela Shayevich, Matvei Yankelevich.
Honey Badger Duet
By Sally Wen Mao
Our father wanted to kill us
before we were born. Starve us,
stave off hyenas with our youth—
our muscle as protein, lion’s bait.
We drained the flummoxed milk
out of our mother, who hissed
at predators. Her sonic cry could shred
raglan to scraps. Now we dance
to shed her from our spines.
The long years tilt—we bite spleen
& anodyne. For all the glory
of gore, we imagine ourselves
dead: asleep inside the culverts,
bald, piebald, very lonely. When
the sky’s meat smudges the valley
russet & that blood is so silent
we only listen to snow falling
on distant trains, the hunger stalks
close enough to scoop the pupils
from our eyes & we are danger.
We shovel out old kills from dirt.
Only in sleep do we return
home from hive-coma, disinter
detritus, gulp down the dead.
Our father wanted to kill us
before we were born. Starve us,
stave off hyenas with our youth—
our muscle as protein, lion’s bait.
We drained the flummoxed milk
out of our mother, who hissed
at predators. Her sonic cry could shred
raglan to scraps. Now we dance
to shed her from our spines.
The long years tilt—we bite spleen
& anodyne. For all the glory
of gore, we imagine ourselves
dead: asleep inside the culverts,
bald, piebald, very lonely. When
the sky’s meat smudges the valley
russet & that blood is so silent
we only listen to snow falling
on distant trains, the hunger stalks
close enough to scoop the pupils
from our eyes & we are danger.
We shovel out old kills from dirt.
Only in sleep do we return
home from hive-coma, disinter
detritus, gulp down the dead.
"What I Read When Nobody Can Bother Me"
We asked some of the most celebrated authors in America what they read in the doctor’s office or the car pool line—any time they have a short, unexpected window of free time.
News from Dzanc books
Jen Michalski's collection of novellas, Could You Be With Her Now, has been receiving praise since it hit the reading world:
"...the book feels like a tour de force statement on how--and why--novellas continue to be written."
--Baltimore Fishbowl
"This is an admirable and original book. Michalski is a skilled storyteller."
--Chamber Four
"Jen Michalski explores what it means to be vulnerable in a modern society."
--Little Patuxent Review
"The two very different styles in Could You Be With Her Now, not only make the case for the novella as a form, but also for Michalski as a wise writer and a master stylist."
--Baltimore City Paper
"Jen is an astonishingly sensitive writer."
--HTML Giant
Monday, April 1, 2013
Celebrate Poetry Month in NJ
New Jersey's gift to its poets . . . is that
it's a place of many places, essentially amorphous, freeing us to look at the
world.
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