Why you should read Special Topics in Calamity Physics

I've said it before and I'll say it again, don't let the title intimidate you. We're getting closer to our instore Book club, so I wanted to say a few things on Special Topics to get your engines running and those pages turning.








First off, I think I'm a litte jealous of Marisha Pessl. I'm jealous because she's amazing. She's a fantastic writer, she's not that much older than I am and she's pretty too. If you don't believe me I'm attaching a visual.


Marisha looks like the kind of girl you don't like because you think she's really cool. Maybe that's just how I feel about her, but don't let her picture keep you from reading this book.


In all seriousness though I loved 'Special Topics'. I was excited that there was a table of contents set up like a college course. I was excited that the narrator sites all of her references like it's a term paper. It's strange and quirky, and unbelievable. When I was done with the book I made my friends read it because I enjoyed it so much. If you're thinking about reading it you should. When you're done reading it you can come talk to us about it on September 18th. We'll be in the bookstore the third Tuesday of this month at 7:00pm dying to talk about 'Special Topics' with you!



I can't wait to talk to people about this book. It's one of those books that I think will get better the more it is discussed.


Here are some clues to get you started in your reading:


1. THE FLYING DEMOISELLE: An archaic means of hanging someone, popular in the American South between the years of 1829 to 1860. It is also, in all likelihood, how Hannah Schneider died.


2. THE IRON GRIP: An unfinished tour de force.

3. LION SEX: Something that happens in Room 222 of The Dynasty Motel.

4. VALERIO: A clue


MORE RESEARCH is available at: http://www.calamityphysics.com/



If you still need convincing I will leave you with one last push to get you to pick up the book:



Yes that is Tom Hanks, and yes that is a copy of Special Topics in Calamity Physics, so come pick up your copy and start reading.



Hope to see you Tuesday, September 18th in the store! (7:00pm)


Happy Reading!

Kristiana

Sena Jeter Naslund!

Last night we had the pleasure and privilege of having Sena Jeter Naslund, the acclaimed author, in Laguna Beach Books for a reading and signing!

Everyone was charmed by her eloquence and insight into both the history of France and Marie Antoinette the human being. Sena told the story of Stefan Zweig's earlier biography, Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman, which not only portays the French queen as dim-witted and self-absorbed, but insinuates that this is what the "average woman" is. Average woman?? In a way, Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette, she said, is a response to that. In it, Naslund gives Marie Antoinette her most full, human, sympathic and nuanced rendering, drawing deeply from historical sources but giving her life as only a novelist can.

Many in the audience were intrigued to hear Sena talk about writing Four Spirits, set in Birmingham, Alabama during the Civil Rights era -- a time and place that she experienced first-hand. And she assured everyone: you don't have to have read Moby Dick to appreciate her female retelling of that story in Ahab's Wife!

I'll admit, this is my only experience with the great white whale:

We'd like to thank Ms. Naslund and Julie Brickman for their time, and everyone who attended for making the evening such a wondeful experience.

And yes, we still have some signed copies if you missed the good time!

Things I Did at Work Today - a haiku

i put in orders

i opened bills to be paid

damaged books called on

by Kristiana

Simon Van Booy Event!

Simon Van Booy joined us Tuesday night at the Mandarin Fine Art gallery, and besides being a gentleman and a scholar (of course), his earnest demeanor and genuine interest in all of the attendees was wonderful to see.

He began the evening reading from ancient Chinese poetry. The aspect of their art he kept referring back to was how readers at the time were trained to read for the metaphor first, and then to savor the actual, physical, realistic minutiae secondly. We tend to go the opposite way: the dying flower is a dying flower first, a reminder of death second.

To close the evening, Simon read "Little Birds" from his collection The Secret Lives of People in Love. It's the story of a fifteen year old Chinese boy and his adopted French father, and it's a tender and elegant portrayal. In addition to the fine language that pervades the story is a genuine-ness and level of empathy for characters that is hard to come by. Most short stories, especially with "literary" aims, lean so heavily on irony, on mocking anything that resembles sentiment. We talked a little about this, how irony is easy but trying to be beautiful is difficult and a brave, vulnerable step to make. Simon's modesty might prevent him from saying so, but I think his book takes that step confidently and successfully.

Thanks again to Simon, and to Kim and John at Mandarin, and to everyone who turned out and made the evening such a pleasure!

-Patrick

(and we have signed copies in the store!)

Joseph Cornell, John Taylor, and Poetry

In honor of the Festival of Arts closing up shop, I want to single out a particular artist there that blew my mind.

Not that the other fine artists didn't -- some of the childrens' art was breathtaking -- but in John Taylor, there is something so contrary to the other pieces on display. Wildly detailed and even quietly fanciful ships and submarines made of scraps of refuse that he lovingly collects and then shapes into something like this:

Out of who knows what junk, he crafts these rusted remains of battleships and submarines that are simultaneuously hyper-realistic and ever-so subtly skewed into the fantastic. They tap into multiple layers of child and adult fantasy: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea wonder, World War heroism and destruction, Little Mermaid romanticism and the unrelenting progress of death and time in the body of an unreasonably large shark in Jaws. They cause a sort of associative disorientation, bringing out (in this viewer) childlike wonder and the chill awareness of inevitable decay.

And then there's the added level of these wondrous things being made from other peoples' cast-off and disposables. Upon closer inspection, the deck is a bit of CD jewel case. Over there is a fan cover from a computer. Look beneath the rust:

It's these qualities in Taylor's work that remind me of Joseph Cornell's shadowboxes. Cornell has been discussed and explicated (and envied and admired and...) to an overwhelming degree. But they're still fantastic, I don't care. And if you want a new way to approch Cornell, you should check out Dime-Store Alchemy, by our new Poet Laureate Charles Simic. It's Simic's dark, powerful poetry being driven by Cornell's whimsey and history, and it's a real treat.

And if you're the type that is sick to death of Cornell, sick to death of poets taking inspiration from that scumbag Cornell, then take a gander at this fine and funny essay by Naem Murr: http://www.poetrymagazine.org/magazine/0707/comment_179843.html

-Patrick