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Literary Happenings 9/15 - 9/21

Monday, September 15

• Brookline Booksmith: John Scalzi's Lock In, 7 pm

• Harvard Book Store: Ed Piskor's Hip Hop Family Book Tree (1 & 2), 7 pm

• Porter Square Books: Peter Lovesey's The Stone Wife, 7 pm 

• Trident Booksellers: Demo: Make Your Own Vinegar with Chef Bill, 7 pm 

Tuesday, September 16

• Brookline Booksmith: Gail Gutradt’s In a Rocket Made of Ice, 7 pm

• Harvard Book Store: Adam Tanner's What Stays in Vegas: The World of Personal Data -Lifeblood of Big Business- and the End of Privacy as We Know It, 7 pm

• Porter Square Books: Laurence Ralph's Renegade Dreams, 7 pm

• Trident Booksellers: Beatleness: How The Beatles and Their Fans Remade the World, 7 pm

Wednesday, September 17

• Brookline Booksmith: Graywolf Poetry Night, 7 pm

• Harvard Book Store: Caleb Scharf's The Copernicus Complex: Our Cosmic Significance in a Universe of Planets and Probabilities, 7 pm & Laurence Tribe's Uncertain Justice: The Roberts Court and the Constitution, 7 pm

•  Porter Square Books: Judges Who Write: Gordon Martin & Michael Ponsor, 7 pm

• Trident Booksellers: Paint Nite: Birch Path, 7 pm

Thursday, September 18

• Brookline Booksmith: Steve Almond's Against Football, 6 pm & Small Press Book Club, 7 pm

• Harvard Book Store: Sarah Waters's The Paying Guests (in conversation with Emily M. Danforth), 6 pm & Nick Montfort's Three Works: #!, World Clock, and 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10, 7 pm

• Porter Square Books: David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks, 6:30 pm

• Trident Booksellers: Forensics Panel and Launch of THE SKELLETON CREW, 7 pm

Friday, September 19 

• Brookline Booksmith: Breakwater Reading Series, 7 pm
  

• Harvard Book Store: Rainbow Rowell's Landline, 6 pm & Rowen Jacobsen's Apples of Uncommon Character: Heirlooms, Modern Classics, and Little-Known Wonders, 7 pm

• Trident Booksellers: TRIVIA, 8 am

Saturday, September 20

• Brookline Booksmith: Children's Storytime, 10:30 am
  

Sunday, September 21

• Brookline Booksmith: Carol Dine's Orange Night, 6 pm
  

• Porter Square Books: Book Club, 11 am & Dinner with Laird Hunt, 7 pm

Back in Stock: Crime and Puzzlement!

We're excited to announce that Lawrence Treat's Crime and Puzzlement: 24 Solve-Them-Yourself-Mysteries is back in stock! See how sharp your detective skills are. And note that this predates the opening of an actual store called Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee. We promise that no booksellers were harmed in the making of this book.

Superior Person's Tuesday: Mendaciloquent

MENDACILOQUENT a. Speaking lies. Congressman please note: if you say this quickly enough, on the floor of the house, when characterizing another Congressman (and God knows, in that environment you'll have plenty of occasions for so doing), the Speaker just might let you get away with it.

Each Tuesday we’ll offer up a Superior Word for the edification of our Superior Readers, via the volumes of the inimitable Peter Bowler. You can purchase all or any of the four Superior Person’s Books of Words from the Godine website..

Superior Person's Tuesday: Ygdrasil

YGDRASIL, n. The gigantic ash tree which, according to Norse mythology, binds together with its roots and branches the whole of earth, heaven and hell. Suggested as a pet name for that tree in your backyard — the one you want your husband to chop down before its spreading canopy brings total darkness to your clothesline, your herb garden and your sunbaking spot.

Image via Viking-Mythology.com.

Each Tuesday, we’ll offer up a Superior Word for the edification of our Superior Readers, via the volumes of the inimitable Peter Bowler. You can purchase all or any of the four Superior Person’s Books of Words from the Godine website. Ygdrasil appears in the third.

Literary Happenings 8/19 - 8/22

Monday August 18

• Porter Square Books: Joshua Wolf Shenk's Powers of Two, in conversation with Sven Birkerts, 7 pm
  

Tuesday August 19

• Brookline Booksmith: Gail Gutradt’s In a Rocket Made of Ice, 7 pm

• Porter Square Books: Therese Sellers's Alpha Is for Anthropos, 7 pm

Wednesday August 20

• Brookline Booksmith: Stephanie Feldman’s The Angel of Losses, 7 pm

•  Porter Square Books: Elizabeth Benedict's Don't Sweat the Essay, 7 pm

Thursday August 21

• Brookline Booksmith: Small Press Book Club discusses The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson, 7 pm
• Trident Booksellers: Kristen Harnisch’s The Vintner’s Daughter, 7 pm

• Porter Square Books: Dan Ward's F.I.R.E. How Fast, Inexpensive, Restrained, and Elegant Methods Ignite Innovation, 7 pm

Friday August 22

• Harvard Bookstore: Fiction Fridays, get 15% off fiction purchases in store. 

"I Remembers" from the Staff at Godine: Heather

In celebration of Godine's new publication of Perec's I Remember, the office staff reflected on a few of our own I-Remember moments. Here are a few reminiscences from production manager Heather Tamarkin:

1.       I remember slap bracelets
2.       I remember when Joey Potter sang "On My Own" for the pageant episode of Dawson's Creek and everyone imitated her in the high school cafeteria for weeks
3.       I remember Gak, and Floam, but I don't remember what you were supposed to do with them
4.       I remember (and try to forget) overall shorts, butterfly clips, white eyeliner, and metallic taupe-brown lipstick

Check out I Remember and other Perec titles from Godine on our website!

"I Remembers" from the Staff at Godine: Dan

In celebration of Godine's new publication of Perec's I Remember, the office staff reflected on a few of our own I-Remember moments. Here are a few reminiscences from editorial assistant Dan Turkel:

1. I remember waking up at seven a.m. on a Saturday to watch early morning cartoons, parents in bed but me not big enough to reach everything yet so they would leave out breakfast the night before.
2. I remember the cathode ray TV I played video games on, with a knob for vertical-sync, another to adjust the picture quality, another for the color saturation.
3. I remember the hard plastic door of my mother's red Dodge Caravan, where I could sometimes find a spot shaped just right to rest my head on long trips.
4. I remember meals served on airplanes on domestic flights, free.

Check out I Remember and other Perec titles from Godine on our website!

"I Remembers" from the Staff at Godine: Chelsea

In celebration of Godine's new publication of Perec's I Remember, the office staff reflected on a few of our own I-Remember moments. Here are a few reminiscences from editorial assistant Chelsea Bingham:

1. I remember crushing the protrusions of plastic that stuck into the reels in the case of every VHS my family owned. 

2. I remember reading The Lord of the Rings at sunrise through the crack of the window shade while my little sister continued to sleep in the room we shared.

3. I remember the late-night car ride to pick up my father after his deployment in Qatar.

4. I remember waiting in line at midnight for the release of the newest Harry Potter book with my best friend, multiple times, and spending the next days at school sleep-deprived after attempting to stay up as long as possible reading.

5. I remember celebrating outside my dorm the night Obama was elected.

Check out I Remember and other Perec titles from Godine on our website!

Superior Person's Tuesday!

SHIBBOLETH, n. A doctrine or principle once held essential by a particular group or party but now seen as rather old-hat, if not abandoned altogether. It is probably a comment on the nature of life and mutability, rather than on etymological processes, that the original meaning was a password or other identifying sign, such as an opinion or style of dress, that distinguished the members of a particular group because of their unique attachment to it. Thus advocacy of the nationalization of industry was a shibboleth of the political left wing in former years in a sense quite different from that in which it is now  their shibboleth. Just how important it was in earlier times to be on the right side of a shibboleth can be judged from the original usage in Judges 12:6: "... and it was so that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilea said unto him [sic] Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay; Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him..."

Each Tuesday, we’ll offer up a Superior Word for the edification of our Superior Readers, via the volumes of the inimitable Peter Bowler. You can purchase all or any of the four Superior Person’s Books of Words from the Godine website. Shibboleth appears in the first.

"I Remembers" from the Staff at Godine: Megan

In celebration of Godine's new publication of Georges Perec's I Remember, the office staff reflected on a few of our own I-Remember moments. 

I Remember is the last of this essential writer's major works to be translated into English. Consisting of 480 numbered statements, all beginning identically with "I remember," and all limited to pieces of public knowledge—brand names and folk wisdom, actors and illnesses, places and things ("I remember: "When parents drink, children tipple"; "I remember Hermès handbags, with their tiny padlocks"; "I remember myxomatosis")—the book represents a secret key to the world of Perec's fiction. As playful and puzzling as the best of Perec's novels, I Remember began as a simple writing exercise, and grew into an expansive, exhilarating work of art.

Here are a few reminiscences from publicity manager Megan Sullivan:

1.     I remember driving around in the ’84 Toyota Camry that was passed down to me when I was in high school.

2.     I remember watching Star Wars: the Empire Strikes Back and immediately wanting a Princess Leia action figure afterward.

3.     I remember misdialing our rotary phone constantly and having to start all over again.

4.     I remember the dinginess and odd smell of the Waltham Tap in the South End, Boston.

Check out I Remember and other Perec titles from Godine on our website!

Literary Happenings, 8/11 - 8/17

Monday August 11

• Porter Square Books: Prajwal Parajuly’s The Gurkha's Daughter, 7 pm
• Trident Booksellers: Cymbeline, a Shakespearean Reading with Hub Theatre Co., 7 pm

Tuesday August 12

• Porter Square Books: Matthew Gilbert’s Off the Leash, 7 pm
• Brookline Booksmith: Norman Miller’s Boston Beer: A History, 7 pm

Wednesday August 13

• Porter Square Books: Kate Manning’s My Notorious Life, 7 pm

Thursday August 14

• Porter Square Books: Ellen Cooney’s The Mountaintop School for Dogs and Other Second Chances, 7 pm
• Brookline Booksmith: Nomi Eve’s Henna House, 7 pm
• Trident Booksellers: Hend Hegazi’s Normal Calm, 7 pm

Friday August 15

• Harvard Bookstore: Fiction Friday, get 15% off fiction purchases at the store
• Brookline Booksmith: BASH Reading Series, with poetry readings featuring Donald Dunbar, Rachel Springer Dunbar, and Andrew Morgan

Saturday August 16

• Harvard Bookstore: Tax Holiday Sale 2014, Offering a 15% discount on top of purchases being tax-free! In-store and online all weekend.
• Brookline Booksmith: Children’s Storytime, 10:30 am

Sunday August 17

• Harvard Bookstore: Tax Holiday Sale 2014, Offering a 15% discount on top of purchases being tax-free! In-store and online all weekend.

Summer Intern Field Trip

Last week all of the interns here at Godine went on a summer field trip—nothing says staff bonding like a (few) long car-ride(s) and delicious small-town deli sandwiches. During this two-day trip we had the pleasure of visiting Puritan Press, where we were led around by a father-daughter printing duo; the New Hampshire Bindery, where we learned what a Parmachene Belle was (hint: it has nothing to do with binding); and Monadnock Paper Mill, a huge factory that puts a priority on high quality products that are still ecologically friendly. The most important stop was at our own warehouse, where at long last we met Michele and Christine, with whom we normally only get to speak on the phone. They're even more charismatic and helpful in person.

At each place we took an extensive tour. At Puritan, we learned about the challenges with printing ink on paper. It requires the correct balance of inks, all layered as minuscule dots in order to create the correct color. One of the coolest parts was seeing the replication of artwork for print in books. The way they match the colors from the original so exactly is incredibly impressive.

While visiting the New Hampshire Bindery, we learned that some of their machines have been in use for over a century, and they still work just as well now as they did when they were new. One machine in particular could hold dozens of books in the binding process at a time. A fly-fishing expert led us through the binding process, start to finish, and let it suffice to say that you should appreciate your well-bound books (and a hand-tied fly), because the process is deceivingly complex!

At Monadnock, we followed the process of paper-making, from stirring the pulp to checking the finished papers with various tests. Enormous machines strung the pulp out into perhaps miles-long reams, perfecting the tone, caliber, and consistency along the way and adjusting the process as necessary. It did not smell as terribly as we expected, though it was a bit loud!

We stayed the night at David Godine's gorgeous New Hampshire house after enjoying a cookout and reading until the last light of day faded. 

One of our favorite little treasure from the trip was a series of photographs of Mark Twain at the New Hampshire house.

This series of 7 photographs registers with scientific precision, stage by stage, the progress of a moral purpose through the mind of the human race’s oldest friend.

Shall I learn to be good? …….. I will sit here and think it over. Truly Yours, Mark Twain.

There do seem to be so many differ….

And yet if I should really try….

…and just put my whole heart in in…

…But then I could break the Sab….

…and there’s so many other privileges, that… perhaps….

Oh, never mind, I reckon I’m good enough just as I am.

At the Godine warehouse we helped Michele and Christine with restocking books and sorting through hurt books and jackets. 

Overall, the trip was a wonderful experience. We experienced first hand how books are brought into being, beginning to end.  If you are interested in becoming a Godine intern, visit here for more info...and psst, you get to grab some books from the warehouse!

Literary Happenings, 8/4 - 8/9

Monday, August 4

• Brookline Booksmith: Matthew Gilbert’s Off the Leash: A Year at the Dog Park, 7 pm

Tuesday, August 5

• Brookline Booksmith: Elizabeth Little’s Dear Daughter, 7 pm 
• Porter Square Books: Annie Weatherwax’s All We Had, 7 pm 

Wednesday, August 6

• Brookline Booksmith: Annie Weatherwax’s All We Had, 7 pm
• Porter Square Books: YA Author Panel with Marjorie Agosin, Eileen O’Connor, John Plotz, and Laurie Stolarz, 7 pm 

Thursday, August 7

• Brookline Booksmith: Lev Grossman’s The Magician’s Land, 7 pm
• Newtonville Books: Andre Dubus III’s Dirty Love and Josh Weil’s The Great Glass Sea, 7 pm 
• Trident: Mr. Hip Presents Poetry Series, with youth poetry readings with guest poet Tara Skurtu, 7 pm 
• Porter Square Books: David Cleveland’s Love’s Attraction, 7 pm 

Friday, August 8

• Harvard Bookstore: Fiction Fridays, 15% off fiction purchases this summer

Saturday, August 9

• Brookline Booksmith: Tove Jansson Bithday Party, 10:30 am

Superior Person's Tuesday!

PEEN, n. The wedge-shaped or thin end of a hammer head. A ridiculous word.

Each Tuesday, we’ll offer up a Superior Word for the edification of our Superior Readers, via the volumes of the inimitable Peter Bowler. You can purchase all or any of the four Superior Person’s Books of Words from the Godine website. Peen appears in the first.

Literary Happenings: 7/28-8/2

Where has the summer gone?  Make the most of what remains by attending events put on by some of our favorite bookish locations!

Monday July 28

• Brookline Booksmith: Benoit Denizet-Lewis's Travels with Casey, 7 pm.
• Harvard Book Store: The Harvard Square Book Circle discusses Adam Johnson's The Orphan Master's Son: A Novel, 7 pm.

Tuesday July 29

• Boston Public Library: Story Time: Science Behind the Story (Children), 10:30am.
• Harvard Book Store: Mark Epstein reads from The Trauma of Everyday Life, 7 pm.
• Porter Square Books: Rebecca Gordon on Mainstreaming Torture, 7 pm.
• Newtonville Books: Celeste Ng on Everything I Never Told You:  A Novel and David Ryan on Animals in Motion: Stories, 7 pm.

Wednesday July 30

• Boston Public Library: Imagine Your Future Writing Workshop (Teen), 11 am.
• Brookline Booksmith: Amy Bloom's Lucky Us, 7 pm.
• Harvard Book Store: Stephen L. Carter reads from Back Channel: A Novel, 7 pm.
• Newtonville Books: Susan Mizruchi on Brando's Smile: His Life, Thought, and Work and Lucas Mann on Class A: Baseball in the Middle of Everywhere, 7 pm.

Thursday July 31

• Boston Public Library: Teen Book of the Month, The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart, 3 pm. Harry Potter Science Party, 3:30 pm (groups call ahead).
• Brookline Booksmith: Find Waldo Local Fete, 3-5pm.
• Porter Square Books: Where's Waldo Party, 5 pm. Suzanne Strempek Shea's This Is Paradise, 7 pm.

Friday August 1

• Noah Levine's Refuge Recovery: A Buddhist Path to Recovering from Addiction, 7 pm.
• Harvard Book Store: Fiction Fridays! All day.
• Porter Square Books: Nell Burnstein's Burning Down the House, 7 pm.

Saturday August 2

• Boston Public Library: City-Wide Friends Book Sale, 10 am.

Superior Person's Tuesday!

Lucifugous (a.) Avoiding daylight. A botanical term. "I'm afraid John's not up yet, Mrs. Applecore; he overindulged somewhat last night and the poor dear is distinctly lucifugous this morning." 

Literary Happenings: July 21-27

Monday July 21

• Porter Square Books: Alysia Abbott's Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father, 7 pm.
• Boston Public Library: Monday discussion group, The Bully Pulpit, by Doris Kearns Goodwin, 7 pm.

Tuesday July 22

• Boston Public Library: Story Time: Science Behind the Story, 10:30 am.
• Brookline Booksmith: Lesley and David Solmonson present their book, The 12 Bottle Bar, 7 pm.
• Porter Square Books:  John Warley's A Southern Girl and James Magruder's Let Me See It, 7 pm.
• Harvard Book Store: Sukey Forbes's The Angel in My Pocket: A Story of Love, Loss, and Life After Death, 7 pm.
• Newtonville Books: Celebrity book club, discussing Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady, hosted by Douglas Bauer, author of What Happens next?: Matters of Life and Death, 7 pm.

Wednesday July 23

• Boston Public Library: Imagine your future: writing workshop for teens, 11 am.
• Brookline Booksmith: Celeste Ng's Everything I Never Told You and Jennifer de Leon's Wise Latinas: Writers on Higher Education, 7 pm.
• Porter Square Books: Patricia Nolan-Brown's Idea to Invention, 7 pm.
• Harvard Book Store: Judith Frank reads from All I Love and Know: A Novel, 7 pm.

Thursday July 24

• Brookline Booksmith: Edan Lepucki's California and Joanna Rakoff's My Salinger Year, 7pm.
• Porter Square Books: Livia Blackburne's Midnight Thief, 7 pm.

Friday July 25 

• Brookline Booksmith: Booksmith Staff Talent Show, 7 pm.
• Porter Square Books: Roger Roffman's Marijuana Nation, 7 pm.
• Harvard Book Store: Fiction Friday! All day.

Saturday July 26

•   Boston Public Library: Children's Book Club, How to Clean a Hippopotamus, 11 am.

Sunday July 27

•  Brookline Booksmith: Children's Storytime, 10:30 am.

New Release: Wesley McNair's "The Lost Child"

We all feel lost at times, and Wesley McNair helps reground us with his newly released book of poems, The Lost Child, Ozark Poems.

 

His accolades are many, including being the recipient of fellowships from the Rockefeller, Fulbright, and Guggenheim Foundations; he was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship in literature, two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships for Creative Writers, and a United States Artists Fellowship.  He has served four times on the jury for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, a testament to his ability not only to write, but also to judge others' writing.  Oh, and he is the Poet Laureate of Maine (1).

Are you convinced he knows what he's doing yet?  Well, instead of reading all that he's earned through his writing (only a small handful of his achievements are listed here), why not try reading one of his poems.  It is not the prizes earned by the artist that you remember, but the way he makes you feel.

And McNair will certainly make you feel.  Donald Hall calls McNair's art an experience in "the strangeness of the ordinary."  McNair's language "is our speech observed-preserved in poetry" (2).

McNair declares in an interview, "there is the America of Britney Spears and CNN and the so-called mainstream culture, and there’s the America of those who live around us in what we call the margins of our society, though there are far more of them than the term implies" (3).

Most of us probably do not fall into the Britney Spears bracket, with our own break downs passing by mostly unnoticed, and as much as we may deny it, associate with the marginal more than we realize.  McNair gives us a reason to turn away, however briefly, from mainstream culture, for a moment of quiet reflection, with his newly released The Lost Child, Ozark Poems.

Set in the Ozarks of Southern Missouri, a place far from the world we see represented in the media around us, we find a cast of characters that seem uncannily familiar: a veteran of six tours of duty who comes unraveled at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon, two newlyweds who pin their dreams for the future on a long-haul semi, and Ruth, confused in her aging mind - abducted by aliens.  Through it all runs a theme of reconciliation, providing comfort and humor, forces that penetrate through the sorrow conveyed by McNair as he copes with the loss of his mother.

This collection of poetry follows many others, most recently Lovers of the Lost (2010) and The Ghosts of You and Me (2006), both published by David R. Godine.  See our website for more information and to order: www.godine.com.

Literary Happenings July 13 to July 19

Sunday July 13

• Brookline Booksmith: Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Signature of All Things, 2 pm (ticketed) 

Monday July 14

• Porter Square Books: Hester Kaplan and Carolyn Cooke, 7 pm
• Story Club Boston: an open-mic reading event, featuring Steve Macone, 6:30 pm (ticketed)

Tuesday July 15

• Porter Square Books: Lorenz Finison’s Boston's Cycling Craze, 7 pm
• Harvard Bookstore: Gary J. Bass discusses The Blood Telegram:
 Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide, 7pm
• Newtonville Books: Tom Perrotta, author of The Leftovers, and Paul Harding, author of Enon, 7 pm

Wednesday July 16

• Porter Square Books: Ron MacLean, Lisa Borders, and Courtney Elizabeth Mauk
• Harvard Bookstore: Will Chancellor reads from A Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall:
 A Novel, 7 pm
• Brookline Booksmith: Rebecca Makkai’s The Hundred-Year House, 7 pm

Thursday July 17

• Porter Square Books: Gregory Flemming, At the Point of a Cutlass, 7 pm
• Harvard Bookstore: David Rose discusses Enchanted Objects:
Design, Human Desire, and the Internet of Things, 7 pm
• Brookline Booksmith: Small Press Book Club, 7 pm 
• Newtonville Books: Amy Sohn, author of The Actress, and Julie Wu, author of The Third Son, 7 pm 

Friday July 18

• Brookline Booksmith: Deborah Harkness’s The Book of Life, 7 pm

Saturday July 19

• Brookline Booksmith: Children’s Storytime, 10:30 am

Godine's Meet the Authors Series: Llewelyn Howland III, No Ordinary Being

We sat down with Llewellyn Howland III, author of No Ordinary Being, to talk about his upcoming Godine book. No Ordinary Being tells the story of W. Starling Burgess, "an authentic American polymath," who designed everything from yachts to airplanes and even helped Buckminster Fuller in designing and building the famed Dymaxion car. No Ordinary Being, a biography long in the making and packed with beautiful illustrations and photographs of Burgess' designs, is due to publish in December.

Watch Howland discuss Burgess and No Ordinary Being below and shed insight on just what makes Burgess so worth reading about.

This post is a part of our Meet the Authors series. Be sure to check back as we post more interviews with Godine authors!

Upcoming Meet the Authors Series!

Have you ever read a book and ended up dying to know more about the story? Did you ever write the author and ask them what happens next or wanted to know why they wrote a plot twist the way they did? Maybe you haven't. Perhaps you are a reader who assumes that most authors of the books you read are dead or of no importance to the story. Authors can be some unknown entity that weave you so well into their magical worlds that you no longer pay attention to the real world around you.

Here at Godine, we enjoy getting to know our authors and seeing what enticed them to share the stories that fascinated them. We would like to share the same opportunity, this glimpse into the minds that create our books, with you.

In the upcoming weeks we will be posting our Meet the Authors series. In these short videos you can hear what sparked the inspiration for our authors to write some of the big upcoming works this season. Our interviews can give you a bit of insight into the work that it takes to research and write a book.

The authors scheduled for this series during our current season are Llewellyn Howland III, author of No Ordinary Being; Belinda Rathbone, author of The Boston Raphael; and Valerie Lester, author of Giambattista Bodoni.

No Ordinary Being is about the Boston-born aviation pioneer and yacht designer W. Starling Burgess. He was a personality of enormous charm, physical courage, and energy. Here is a book that covers the entire fascinating career of a genuine native polymath.

The Boston Raphael is the riveting story of a museum director caught in a web of local and international intrigue while secretly pursuing a forgotten Renaissance painting.

Giambattista Bodoni is a lively, lavishly illustrated biography of the great printer Bodoni, vividly describing his work, life, and times while justifying his reputation as the "prince of typographers."

Be sure to look out for our videos! Thanks!

Superior Person's Tuesday!

Battology (n.) The continual reiteration of the same words or phrases in speech or writing. A battologer is one who battologizes. One of those words whose lack of wider currency seems undeserved and puzzling in the light of its wide potential for application to television commercials, sales pitches by car and encyclopedia vendors, spouse's homilies, etc. 

Each Tuesday, we’ll offer up a Superior Word for the edification of our Superior Readers, via the volumes of the inimitable Peter Bowler. You can purchase all or any of the four Superior Person’s Books of Words from the Godine website. Ergasiophobia appears in the first.

Summer Reading

Need something to read this summer?  Follow along with The Guardian as they discuss Laurie Lee's Cider With Rosie, a fantastic choice for their July reading group.

The Guardian says, "I'd be delighted if anyone has suggestions for ways to approach the book, topics we might discuss and further reading. I'm also keen, time allowing, to press on into the war territory of Lee's later volumes of autobiography, so let me know if there's demand for that."

Whether you're a first time or repeat reader of Lee's classic, this is a great opportunity!  As a bonus, readers in the UK have a chance to snag a free copy, but don't worry, David R. Godine will have copies in stock for readers in the US soon.  Get more information from the link below.

July's Reading Group: Cider With Rosie

Literary Happenings, July 7 - July 11

Monday July 7

• Brookline Booksmith: Rachel Bertsche's
 Jennifer, Gwyneth & Me, 7 pm
• Porter Square Books: Lauren Clark's Crafty Bastards with craft beer samples, 7 pm 

Tuesday July 8

• Porter Square Books: Hiawatha Bray's You Are Here, 7 pm 
• Harvard Bookstore: Kim Elkins reads from What Is Visible: A Novel, 7 pm 
• Newtonville Books: Craig Davidson, author of Cataract City, 7 pm 

Wednesday July 9

• Porter Square Books: C.L. Fornari's Coffee for Roses, 7 pm 
• Newtonville Books: Sue Miller, author of The Arsonist, 7 pm 

Thursday July 10

• Brookline Booksmith: Jacqueline Winspear's 
The Care and Management of Lies, 7 pm 
• Porter Square Books: David Kaiser's No End Save Victory, 7 pm 
• Harvard Bookstore: James Carroll reads from Warburg in Rome: 
A Novel, 7 pm 

Friday July 11

• Brookline Booksmith: BASH Reading Series with Matt Hart, Stephen Burt, and Francesca Chabrier, 7 pm 
• Porter Square Books: Kate Racculia's Bellweather Rhapsody, 7 pm 
• Harvard Bookstore: Grub Street Launch Lab: Thieves, Idealists, Scholars, and Sleuths featuring Michael Blanding, Christine Cipriani, Jennifer de Leon, and Deborah Halber, 7 pm  

Happy birthday, George Orwell!

Eric Arthur Blair, better known as George Orwell (June 15, 1903-January 21, 1950), would have turned 111 today. He is of course best known for his much-read and much-quoted masterpiece Nineteen Eighty-Four, which depicts the bleak, anti-individualist dystopian state of Big Brother and the Thought Police, and for Animal Farm, the farmyard allegory of communist collapse.

Like our last birthday boy, William Shakespeare, Orwell is also responsible for the introduction of a variety of new vocabulary into English. He is credited with coining “cold war,” “Big Brother,” “thought police,” and “Room 101,” among others. 

Considering that much of his life was spent in poverty and ill health, it is something of a miracle that in only forty-six years George Orwell managed to publish ten books and two collections of essays.

Last year, celebrating Orwell’s 110^th birthday, Dutch artists Front404 drew attention to today’s Orwellian surveillance by decorating CCTV cameras in Utrecht’s city center…with cheery party hats. The stunt was a viral online success, but we’ve yet to hear if it’s been repeated this year. 

Superior Person's Tuesday!

Ephetic: a. Habitually suspending judgement, given to skepticism. Like aporia (q.v.) an exceptionally Superior word.  The fact that ephecticism generally engenders ineffectualness should enable you to develop one or two phonically pleasing sentences. Alternatively, cultivate its use in the same sentence as eclectic (wide-ranging in acceptance of doctrines, opinions, etc.).














Each Tuesday, we’ll offer up a Superior Word for the edification of our Superior Readers, via the volumes of the inimitable Peter Bowler. You can purchase all or any of the four Superior Person’s Books of Words from the Godine website. Ergasiophobia appears in the first.