Mid-Week New Book Round-Up

August 17, 2011

Time was I used to round up the new or newish books that came in each week. It’s been so long that this is basically just an excuse to talk about the books that I like that have come out in the last probably 4 months.

In paperback:

Leaving the Atocha Station. Ha! Maybe you thought I wouldn’t mention it. I would. Did I mention it involves hilarious webs of lies and is largely about the profound and fundamental anxiety about misunderstanding and being misunderstood? It does, it is.
The Assassin’s Cloak. Is this about assassins? No, it’s not. It’s about diaries. Specifically everyone’s diaries in this mondo anthology that’s arranged by day (!). So, e.g. you open up to August 18th, and you’ve got your Pepys, you’ve got your Noel Coward, you’ve got your Dorothy Wordsworth—through time! It’s neat.
Dustin liked Manchette’s Fatale, European crime from NYRB (pronounced “nerb”).
WORD, our friend in Brooklyn, has been advocating for The Chairs Are Where the People Go, which I will co-sign. Non-stop charm. Just when you think you might get tired of it, you just get more charmed.
So many Duels!
There’s a new issue of n+1 out. I was recently joking with Dustin about how every time there’s a new issue, they send out an email saying “one of our best issues yet.” But it is! We’re talking, like, Issue 4 grade quality here. Very good.
And everyone’s got a crush on Girl Crush.

In hardcover:

Binyavanga Wainaina’s One Day I Will Write About This Place, which is supposed to be excellent.
Nicky Baker’s big book of bumping uglies, House of Holes.
Amy Waldman’s The Submission, which Michiko just called it “nervy and absorbing.” She—Waldman, I mean, not the elusive Michiko—reads here tonight.
~~Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding~~. Just kidding—that’s not out yet. But it’s very great. It’s going to be great.
Other stuff!