The Fist Roberto Bolaño...

I know, I know more Roberto Bolaño recommendations from Green Apple...

But this is his first book ever! The book he waited twenty years into his career to publish. The book Bolaño himself said, "the only novel that doesn't embarrass me is Antwerp."

Here is what I will say: Just today opened my locker to see a small, black, hardcover book with gold foil stamping on the front (the picture to the left does no justice). I turned the book to look at the spine to see in the same gold foil stamping ND.

So I spent my breaks reading the first 20 pages of this magical book and trying to figure out just what to make of it. . . .

Well, I'm loving it, though I can see what Bolaño means in his introduction when he says, "I never brought this novel to any publishing house, of course. They would've slammed the door in my face and I'd have lost the copy."

All that Bolaño will later write is in this small, concise, beautiful surrealist murder mystery that travels countries and continents and literary borders.

A New Biography of...

Oprah! Buy it now.
(For more: The Guardian)

All grown up

Green Apple suddenly feels so grown up: we got our very first slatwall last month.

Slatwall, of course, is a retail staple: a simple way to hang or display many different types of merchandise. But at Green Apple, everything from books to DVDs, from shirts to games, has long been housed on plain pine bookcases. I admit, it goes against every bone in our body to remove two bookcases and replace them with slatwall. Our fear is that as bookcases (and books) disappear, we will gradually become a gift store with books, not a bookstore with other stuff.

Luckily, we are still a few hundred bookcases and about 150,000 books away from that fear. So you can feel OK coming in to browse our eclectic and stylish selection of greeting cards. Really, it's OK. Come on in.

Poem of the Week by Anya Logvinova

Let's skip to Russia for this week's poem, shall we?

The following is by Anya Logvinova from Contemporary Russian Poetry: an Anthology, edited by Evgeny Bunimovich (Dalkey Arhive, 2008).  This poem was translated by Larissa Shmailo.

The Best Poems, I Swear to God

The best poems, I swear to God,
aren't about unfaithful husbands,  unfaithful wives.
They remind you of a list of things for the road,
essential, beautiful, permitted.

Usually they're about autumn, about white ovens
about how homes are built, how butter is churned.
They are rarely about the fact that everything could be lovely;
they are more often about what we shouldn't mention.

Willy Vlautin Event on May 3rd!!

Lately I've been reading a couple books in the 600 page range, so I haven't been very good about blogging. But then I saw that we are doing an event with Will Vlautin.

I wasn't the first in the store to read Willy Vlautin; I wasn't even the first to read Lean on Pete; but I am definitely convinced that I don't know of another writer like Willy. He is one of those authors where I was tossed his first book and couldn't wait for the next (but not in one of those mystery series sort of ways). KPR first tossed me Motel Life, Willy's first book and I read it, fully enthralled, in one quick sitting. The next day I read Northline. I will say that none of these books are alike, but Willy's voice and feeling make them a part of a sad and lonely series.

KPR says of Lean on Pete: "Vlautin's prose is skillfully without artifice, telling the story directly and cleanly, and we ache as our protagonist tries to make his way in an indifferent and sometimes dangerous world."

I will say that the event with Willy at the Edinburgh Castle was one of the best readings I have even been privileged to see. Willy read with a pedal steel behind him and once again, KPR's review of that night (or maybe Pete's, not quite sure, but I definitely agree): "Finally, I just have to say...it was the most sublime literary event I've ever attended. This promises to be a rich Monday evening, even if you don't go to author events."

So come by the store, pick up Lean on Pete, and join us on May 3rd.

Our Customers Love Us!

The maxim in retail is that you only hear from your customers when they're unhappy. Which is a good thing- we definitely want to hear from people when they feel that they weren't treated well at the store, or if in some other way they were somehow let down by their pals at Green Apple. But sometimes people write to tell you how much they like you. And sometimes they go even further. We've had people bake cookies for the staff, or drop off baseball tickets because they know there are a lot of Giants fans here. The above paint sample collage was sent to us by an appreciative neighbor as a token of her affection for the store. It is now affixed to the wall of our stairwell, a place of high honor. It is lovely, and we are honored.

Nicest Author in the World?

Working in the book business, we have pretty special access to authors. Between trade shows, book tours, drop-in visits, and just plain old customers who are writers, we meet dozens of authors every year. And, of course, we booksellers think of authors like some people think of movie stars or popes. The authors vary, of course, in their level of success, from self-published scribes to Pulitzer Prize winners. And they vary, of course, in how they treat booksellers and the general public.

Some swoop in with an entourage (like Maya Angelou did a few years ago). Some sneak in under the radar (like Oliver Sacks did with actor Robin Williams once in my early days of bookselling). And some try to steal their own books. Well, OK. One tried to steal his own book. But that's another story.

This winter, I was invited to a publisher sponsored dinner with Howard Norman at a book industry trade show. Alas, at the last minute, he canceled--a combination of his mother dying and crazy winter blizzards kept him from coming. Understandable, right? Sure, I was disappointed. I LOVED the Bird Artist and his short story collection Kiss in the Hotel Joseph Conrad and very much liked The Museum Guard and and The Haunting of L and enjoyed his most recent book What is Left the Daughter (coming this summer). But when your mom dies, all bets are off, right?

So it surprised me to get hand-written card in the mail about a month later apologizing for missing the dinner, thanking Green Apple for its support over the years, offering to come by in August when he's in the area, and giving me his snail mail and email addresses.

A real mensch, I say.

Any other nominations for nicest author ever?