Book Culture Blog

Join us tomorrow, Wednesday, July 23 at 3 pm for a special summer storytelling event for children of all ages. Author and illustrator Laura Vila will read her new book, Building Manhattan, and lead a creative interactive art activity for kids.

Building Manhattan is a vividly illustrated picture book about the history of the many cultures who came to the island of Manhattan and what they built. It encompasses Manhattan’s rich history from its conception as an island of natural beauty with diverse wildlife, to its contemporary diversity of cultures and architecture. Illustrated with vivid and detailed paintings, each page is layered with history that is revealed though rich storytelling.

In writing and illustrating Manhattan’s rich history, it was Laura’s goal to make history both exciting and accessible to young children. Along with the book she has created enrichment materials with educational emphasis focused on helping teach children new ways to relate history to their own lives.

“The art of making children’s books is not only one of words and pictures, it is the art of making books into experiences with a life of their own inside a child’s mind.”

- L. Vila

Is the Conservative Era Over?

Dissent Magazine will host a discussion at Book Culture next Tuesday night, July 22 at 7 pm.

With the November election, many are forecasting that the conservative era might finally be coming to an end. Dissent editor Michael Walzer will speak with Joshua Freeman, David Greenberg and Suzanne Nossel in a discussion on the politics, culture, and ideas of the conservative movement that put Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and two Bushes in power.

Is this unraveling a failure of the conservative imagination as well as of its movement’s organizing powers? Are we facing an era of moderate centrism and bipartisanship? Or will the end of conservative politics usher in an era of divisive radicalism?

Come and join in the conversation.

We’ve joined the photo frenzy and created a Flickr account, which will serve as a handy spot for showcasing our event photos. Check out our sets to see if your favorite authors have been to Book Culture recently.

We’re spending the summer catching up on some social networking fun, so it’s probably a good time to mention that you can also find us on GoodReads, LibraryThing and Yelp, where we would graciously applaud any positive reviews of our shop that you might feel like writing up?!

Time Out New York Kids included a nice write-up about our children’s section in their July issue. From the article:

The addition of carpeting, gentle light and a cozy children’s corner has softened the edge, but Book Culture remains committed to showcasing works that might receive less attention elsewhere. You’ll find Carle and Wise Brown on the kid-height displays, but you’ll also find titles like Silent Music: A Story of Baghdad by James Rumford and The Lonesome Puppy by Yoshitomo Nara.

Check out the full piece to see a photo of our owner Chris and his adorable twin daughters - frequent shoppers and readers in our kid’s nook!

This is a good time to mention that we have a summer kid’s event coming up on Wednesday, July 23 at 3 pm with Laura Vila, the author of Building Manhattan. Click here for all the details.

We’ve got a great line up of events this month at Book Culture, starting tonight with Steven Wax, author of Kafka Comes to America. Steven was on Leonard Lopate yesterday, you can search the archives and listen here.

Also this week will be readings and discussions with Tom Engelhardt (The World According to Tom Dispatch) and Elizabeth Pisani (Wisdom of Whores). And Nina Jaffe returns on Sunday for another children’s storytime event, this one celebrating drum culture around the world. Bring Dad along for some Father’s Day fun for the entire family!

Later this month we are also excited about hosting two memoir events with three New York-based female writers, all of whom have taught at our favorite neighborhood university: Judith Matloff will launch her book Home Girl on June 24th and the next night, June 25th, authors Kelly McMasters and Honor Moore will read from and discuss their recently released memoirs.

Come join us for some of these upcoming events!

(It’s air conditioned in here…hope to see you soon!)

Last night Saree Makdisi read from and discussed his new book, Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation. We had a few minutes before the event to ask Saree about what he is reading these days.

What are you currently reading?

Thomas Malthus’ An Essay on the Principle of Population and political writings of the poet Robert Southey. I’m also reading Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.

What are you looking forward to reading?

The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine.

What are writers or books that you count among your favorites?

For poetry, always Blake. And these days the novel I’m recommending to everyone is Caleb Williams:Things as They Are by William Godwin.

Shopping local at Book Culture saves you money and provides hometown advantages for the entire community! We hope to see you in the store this weekend!

Our events season slows down in the late spring and summer, but we do still have several on tap for May, June and possibly July. Our May events include tonight’s conversation with John T. Hamilton and Avital Ronell, who will be discussing Hamilton’s new book: Music, Madness and the Unworking of Language.

Also this week: on Thursday, Michael I. Meyerson will discuss his new release, Liberty’s Blueprint: How Madison and Hamilton Wrote the Federalist Papers, Defined the Constitution and Made Democracy Safe for the World. And on Sunday afternoon, something for the kids! Nina Jaffe returns with another storytelling session, this time highlighting The Golden Flower: A Taino Myth from Puerto Rico, which we have available for sale in both English and Spanish. Bring the whole family and celebrate Mother’s Day at this participatory cultural event.

Another event we are excited about hosting is Saree Makdisi at the end of the month, on May 29. He will be reading from and discussing his new book, Palestine Inside Out.

Please see our events page and children’s event page for more details. And mark your calenders for Book Culture’s biggest May Sale ever: May 16, 17 and 18th - almost everything in the store will be 20% off*!!

(*Excludes standard exceptions: periodicals, text editions, course adoptions.)

Earlier this month Michael Eskin did an event at Book Culture for his new book, Poetic Affairs: Celan, Grunbein, Brodsky. He was introduced by Haun Saussy, Yale professor of comparative literature and editor of the Stanford University Press series that published Poetic Affairs. (Pictured here: Eskin, at left, and Saussy) After the event, Michael Eskin answered a few questions for us:

What books are you currently reading?

I have been reading many books on the very question of reading literature lately in connection with a project I am working on. I have also been reading a range of books on contemporary culture and intercultural prejudice, as well as research in social physics. I have also just reread Albert Camus’ L’étranger.

Is there anything you’re particularly looking forward to the publication of?

I am working on a couple of projects at the moment. In particular, I look forward to a volume that I am currently editing comprising selected prose by D. Grünbein.

Do you have standard titles or writers you like to recommend, either within or outside of your field?

The list would be too long - obviously. But here are some of the author’s that have profoundly touched me in recent years: J. M. Coetzee, J. Brodsky, A. Paton, E. Stein, W. H. Auden, and A. Badiou - and, most importantly, Kathrin Stengel’s book: November Rose: A Speech on Death.

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Last night we hosted a reading with writer and journalist Michael Paul Mason, author of Head Cases: Stories of Brain Injury and its Aftermath. Mason shared moving tales, including audio clips of interviews from his visit to Balad Air Base in Iraq, where he had a first hand look at the harsh realities facing brain injury victims.

After the presentation, we had a few moments to ask him some questions:

What books are you currently reading?

Proust was a Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer, and just yesterday I bought Maps and Legends.

Is there anything that you are particularly looking forward to the publication of?

I have a galley copy of Charles Fort: The Man Who Invented the Supernatural, which comes out next month. Also, Cringe: Teenage Diaries, Journals, Notes, Letters, Poems, and Abandoned Rock Operas, by Sarah Brown (forthcoming by Crown in August 2008.)

Do you have standard titles or writers you like to recommend?

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick and The Man Who Loved Only Numbers by Paul Hoffman.

Have you ever been to Book Culture before?

No, this is my first visit. Thanks for hosting me.

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Mason will also appear at this weekend’s New York Roundtable Writer’s Conference and be on Leonard Lopate this coming Monday, April 14th. A review of Head Cases appears in this week’s NYT Sunday Book Review. An earlier NYT review appears here and you can learn more about the author and his work here.