February 2012
15 posts
“I tried to look serious and journalistic. Then I thought I’d take a crack at the...”
– Newish McNally J staffer Emma has a new column over in the Observer. In the first installment, she looks at a Damien Hirst dot painting for half an hour.
strandedstmarkscitylights asked: I'm curious as to McNally Jackson's stance on Amazon's so-called publishing. A lot of bookstores are opting to not carry their books, will McNally Jackson follow suit?
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Sarah McNally on the Brian Lehrer Show →
Here’s Salz “The Owner of the Joint” McNalz on the Brian Lehrer Show talking about—wait for it—books! She likes Tony Judt, The Orphan Master’s Son, and The Loss Library and Other Unfinished Stories.
“Meanwhile you have rolled yourself a cigarette, say, and inserted it with great...”
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“In the Electric Tram” by Robert Walser at the NYRblog, an excerpt from the recently released Berlin Stories, translated by Susan Bernofsky
Find NYRB Classics on Tumblr here.
(Bonus: Bernofsky also translated Walser’s novel The Tanners, published by New Directions.)
Like I said on the twitter,...
Anonymous asked: Hi there, could you proved a list of all literary magazines you sell in your shop, please? I saw one I loved but didn't buy when I was there in September (already spent all my holiday money at your shop), and would like the chance to get it now.
“A city like Berlin is an ill-mannered, impertinent, intelligent scoundrel,...”
– “Berlin and the Artist” by Robert Walser at the NYRblog, an excerpt from the recently released Berlin Stories. (via nyrbclassics)
The List (So Far)
Diane Williams, Vicky Swanky is a Beauty
Alan Lightman, Mr g
Gustav Janouch, Conversations with Kafka
Ben Marcus, The Flame Alphabet
Leigh Stein, The Fallback Plan
Michel Houellebecq, The Map and the Territory
Ivan Vladislavic, The Loss Library and Other Unfinished Stories
Nick Laird, The Impossibly
Adam Johnson, The Orphan Master’s Son
Shalom Auslander, Hope: A Tragedy (here...
January 2012
32 posts
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“When Jezebel launched in spring 2007, I myself was keenly interested in being a...”
– While we’re closed, we recommend this piece by Molly Fischer on the ladyblogosphere over at n+1: So Many Feelings.
Today is Inventory Day
And we are closed. Read the books you already own, browse some ebooks, and, today only, you have our blessing to go to Housing Works.
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Porridge
thedizzies:
General Liddament pondered this assertion for some seconds in resentful silence. He seemed to be considering porridge in all its aspects, bad as well as good. At last he came out with an unequivocal moral judgment.
“There ought to be porridge,” he said.
—Anthony Powell, A Dance to the Music of Time
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Weekend New Book Round-Up
Books: We have them. You want them. Sometimes. Now is one of those times, because I am about to tell you what’s new and good.
In paperback:
Blood, Bones & Butter: This is a memoir by the woman who runs Prune. Astaff pick of Douglas, hated by the serial commatariat.
Open City: Teju Cole’s meandering novel about a man meandering through New York City.
Leaving the Atocha...
Robert Walser's Berlin Stories
nyrbclassics:
Today is the publication date for Robert Walser’s Berlin Stories, a collection of his early stories set in Berlin where he followed his elder brother in 1905, all in original translations by Susan Bernofsky. We thought we’d share the first story in the book, titled “Good Morning, Giantess!”:
It’s as if a giantess were shaking her curls and sticking one leg out of bed when—early...
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“I know few towns which inspire me with so great disgust and contempt.”
– Edgar Allen Poe on Brooklyn. Quoted in Dwight Garner’s review of New York Diaries: 1609 to 2009.
intervital asked: I want to read Anais Nin but I don't know if I should start off with her fiction, her diaries, or her biographies. What do you think I should try first?
jaimealyse asked: For the person looking for Atwoody, epistolary romances-- they may like AS Byatt! Possession is epistolary, in part, and although there is romance it is very unromantic. The Biographer's Tale is excellent, too. Maybe even better.
Anonymous asked: What would you recommend for a reader who enjoys Margaret Atwood, "House of Leaves", epistolary novels, and modern fantasies that don't center around romance?
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“I prefer women like books — very good and not too long.”
– Things I didn’t expect to find in Henry James’ The Portrait of a Lady: An “I like my women like I like my ______” joke. (It couldn’t be the first ever? There must be one in Chaucer: I liken mine wimman lyk I liken mine ______.)
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“It was impossible, while living there, to avoid all of the people who knew how...”
– Our own Sarah Gerard, on the BOMBLOG, writing about Florida, Charles Yu, and black holes.
The Situation in American Writing →
Our friends at Full Stop are polling authors on the situation in American writing, an update of a 1939 questionnaire sent out by the ye olde Partisan Review. We recommend (Maud Newton, Marilynne Robinson, Gary Shteyngart, George Saunders, etc. etc. etc.)!
Anonymous asked: Do you currently have part-time positions open for the McNally Jackson cafe?
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McNJ bookmonger Sandeep lists her 10 all-time... →
Anonymous asked: pity about the internship. sooooo, any tips for other possible places (apart from NYT and the obvious) for internships in the city then? should one of them be happening, i make sure i spend half the money of my student loan in your store. ALL the books.
rachelfershleiser asked: What about your top-sellers list was McNally-specific in a way we might not know about? Anything on there because of staff picks, special events, a certain staffer being nuts about it, an author living next door, etc?
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McNally J's Bestsellers of 2011
Here are McNally J’s bestselling books of 2011. It’s a list! 31 books long. Arbitrarily. I had to go get my laundry.
Just Kids, Patti Smith (Now also the bestselling book in McNJ’s history.)
A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan
On Booze, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Bossypants, Tina Fey
The Imperfectionists, Tom Rachman
The ReadyMade 100 Project Manual (printed on our book...
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December 2011
32 posts
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Anonymous asked: do you offer internships of some kind?