Archive for the 'books' Category

Page 23 of 30

Michael O’Flaherty Reads Shiny Shiny

Published on September 2, 2010 0 Comments
Oct ’10
2
4:00 pm

ShinyShiny

Shiny, Shiny: A Novel by Michael O’Flaherty is a retooled, rocket-fueled Alice In Wonderland for the grandchildren of Marx and Coca-Cola.

In his critical essays on rock and roll for The Baffler, Michael O’Flaherty investigated the complex attempts of human subjectivity and imagination to transcend the political and social constraints of everyday life. Now, in his novel Shiny Shiny, that exploration broadens and deepens into the realm of dreams and possible worlds. The narrative tracks the protagonist, Jane, as her quest for a place to open up and become one takes her from memories of her ‘70s/‘80s girlhood, to exurban family life, to armed communist revolution, only to end in the one destination she never expected….

When put on the spot, O’Flaherty will cite writers like Jane Bowles, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Jean Rhys, and Eduardo Galeano as having influenced his work.  But comic books, punk rock, and the wide world of TV (sometimes observed while semi-conscious) have played an equally important role in his writing.

For more info: http://www.goodbaitbooks.com/index.htm

Jean-Christophe Valtat Reads From Aurorarama

Published on August 19, 2010 0 Comments
Sep ’10
22
7:00 pm

Aurorarama

Info about the book: Set in the glittering Arctic city of “New Venice,” Jean-Christoph Valtat’s Aurorarama imagines an intricate “steampunk” society populated with anarchists, hypnotists, rock stars, drug-addled bohemians, dapper secret police, and a secret society of subterranean garbage collectors. French author Jean-Christophe Valtat has drawn on a wealth of research about Arctic exploration, Victorian mysticism, and 19th-century technology to create a truly unforgettable literary adventure tale that calls to mind Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the graphic-novel classics of Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman, and such genre-bending literary sensations as Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell or Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series.  Smart, playful, sexy, and surreal, Aurorarama marks the first book in an enchanting new trilogy.

So whether you’re into science fiction/fantasy or just fiction, whether you’re into steampunk or neo-Victorian, or you just want to come out and support an independent bookstore, you should come. And! Wine will be served. At least one french accent will be there for your enchantment. And of course there will probably at least one person with brass goggles. Come wearing your steampunk gear, and the best costume gets a prize! Need some help with understanding what steampunk is? Here’s some helpful info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk

[Valtat] has a magical sense of shape, and a gift for lyrical prose that are rare in modern writing.

—La Croix

Jean-Christophe Valtat is a writer of “beautiful energy.”

—Le Monde

Nabokovian.

—Words Without Borders


For more info: http://mhpbooks.com

A Night With Continuum’s 33 1/3 Book Series

Published on August 18, 2010 0 Comments
Sep ’10
17
7:00 pm

33.3 Series

33 1/3 is a series of short books about critically acclaimed and much-loved albums of the past 40 years. By turns obsessive, passionate, creative, and informed, the books in this series demonstrate many different ways of writing about music.  The series now spans over 70 titles, covering a wide range of albums, from Public Enemy and Slayer to ABBA and Celine Dion. Indeed, this event is probably the only time in history that AC/DC and Belle and Sebastian will share a bill. Three writers, three albums. One event.

Joe Bonomo – AC/DC’s Highway to Hell

Joe Bonomo strikes a three-chord essay on the power of adolescence, the durability of rock & roll fandom, and the transformative properties of memory. Why does Highway To Hell matter to anyone beyond non-ironic teenagers?  Blending interviews, analysis, and memoir with a fan’s perspective, Highway To Hell dramatizes and celebrates a timeless album that one critic said makes “disaster sound like the best fun in the world.”

Joe Bonomo teaches in the English Department of Northern Illinois University. He is the author of Sweat: The Story of the Fleshtones, America’s Garage Band (Continuum 2007), and Installations (Penguin), a collection of prose poems.  His personal essays and prose poems have appeared in numerous literary journals.

* * * * *

Mark Richardson – Flaming Lips’ Zaireeka

“[A] wildly accessible, entertaining, and thoughtful book about the importance of an album that nobody talks about much anymore.” –The Stranger

The Flaming Lips’ 1997 album Zaireeka is one of the most peculiar albums ever recorded, consisting of four CDs meant to be played simultaneously on four CD players. Approaching this powerful and complex art-rock masterpiece from multiple angles, Mark Richardson’s prismatic study of Zaireeka mirrors the structure the work itself. Thoughts on communal listening and the “death of the album” are interspersed with the story of the Zaireeka’s creation (with assistance from Wayne Coyne) and an in-depth analysis of the music, leading to a complete picture of a record that proved to be a watershed for both the band and adventurous music fans alike.

Mark Richardson is the managing editor of Pitchfork. He was a contributing editor to The Pitchfork 500 and his writing on music has appeared in publications including the Village Voice, LA Weekly, and Metro Times Detroit.

* * * * *

Scott Plagenhoef – Belle and Sebastian’s If You’re Feeling Sinister

If You’re Feeling Sinister shows how Belle & Sebastian transformed themselves over the space of a decade, from a slightly shambolic cult secret into a polished, highly entertaining, mainstream pop group. Along the way, the book shows how the internet has revolutionized how we discover new music—often at the cost of romance and mystery.

Scott Plagenhoef is Editor-in-Chief for Pitchfork Media.

* * * * *

For more info: http://33third.blogspot.com/

Kate Zambreno Reads From O Fallen Angel, With Friends

Published on April 23, 2010 0 Comments
May ’10
15
7:00 pm

OFallenAngel

Kate Zambreno will read from her debut novella O Fallen Angel, published in April by Chiasmus Press, winner of their “Undoing the Novel” contest. The work is a triptych of modern America set in a banal Midwestern landscape, inspired by Francis Bacon’s Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, also a grotesque homage to Mrs. Dalloway. O Fallen Angel commits an act of anarchic literary sacrilege that calls to mind the rant and rage of an American Elfriede Jelinek, an exorcism of the culture wars and pop-cultural debris, a sneering indictment of deaf ears, blind eyes, and mute mouths. An editor at Nightboat Books, Zambreno keeps the literary blog Frances Farmer Is My Sister (http://francesfarmerismysister.blogspot.com/). An essay collection inspired by the blog will be published by Semiotext(e)’s Active Agents series in Fall 2011.

Like Angela Carter’s fairy tales, Kate Zambreno’s O Fallen Angel deftly exposes the psychic brutality that lies underneath the smooth glassy surface of parable. Set in Midwestern America in approximately 2006, Zambreno’s character/archetypes—a Mommy who names her golden retriever after Scott Peterson’s murdered wife Laci, a daughter who signs her suicide note with a smiley face and a doomed psychotic prophet—are all agents and victims of disinformation, but this doesn’t make their pain any less real. In Zambreno’s SUV-era America, unhappiness doesn’t exist because it can be broken down into treatable diagnostic codes. As she writes, “Maggie wants to be FREE but she also wants to be LOVED and these are polar instincts, which is why she is bipolar, which is a malady of mood.

” A brilliant, hilarious debut.”    -Chris Kraus, author of  I Love Dick and Aliens & Anorexia

Also joining the bill is John Beer, Jeremy Davies, Daniel Borzutsky, Megan Milks, AD Jameson and James Pate.

For more info: http://francesfarmerismysister.blogspot.com/

Mountains of New Stuff!

Published on April 17, 2010 0 Comments

We’ve been pretty busy as of late, but wanted to make sure you knew what new things we’ve been getting in lately, so here’s our list of 139 things you simply can not live without (that we conveniently have in our store):

funnynotfunny

(Funny (Not Funny))

Artsy Fartsy Books

Mythical Beasts of Japan From Evil Creatures to Sacred Beings (PIE Books) $35
You Are Forgiven by Matt Leines (Free New Projects) $45
Art of Bollywood by Rajesh Devraj (Taschen) $29.99

Kid’s Stuff

Mama is it Summer Yet by Nikki McClure (Abrams) $17.95

DIY/How To

Old Man Drinks Recipes Advice and Barstool Wisdom By Robert Schnakenberg (Quirk Books) $14.95
Steampunkery Polymer Clay and Mixed Media Projects By Christi Friesen (CF Books) $14.95

Drugs! (books about)

Altered State the Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House By Matthew Collin (Seprents Tail) $15.95

Erotic Comics

Hot Moms vol 1 TPB By Rebecca (Eros) $18.99

Fiction

Awful Possibilities By Christian TeBordo (Featherproof Press) $14.95
Going in Circles By Pamela Ribon (Simon & Schuster) $15
Little Brother By Cory Doctorow (Tor Tom Doherty) $9.99
People Who Watched Her Pass By By Scott Bradfield (Two Dollar Radio) $14.50
Perscription Errors By Charles Demers (Insomniac Press) $15.95
Sex Dungeon For Sale By Patrick Wensink $10
Stories of Ibis By Hiroshi Yamamoto (Haika Soru) $15.99

Gewgaw

Absinthe Flavored Toothpicks (Accoutrements) $2.50
Absinthe Soap for Hand and Bath An Enchanted Absinthe Sented Soap Fashioned by Green Fairies (Accoutrements) $6.00
Boo Boo Kisses Adhesive Bandages (Accoutrements) $5.00
Cal Q Tek 2000 Calculator Watch (Accoutrements) $15.00
Curry Flavored Kali Mints (Accoutrements) $2.50
Gesundheit Tissues Uber Absorbent (Accoutrements) $1.00
High Rollers Exotic Dancers 4 Magnetic Coasters (Gamma Go) $7.50
Hobo Bubble Gum Cigarettes Campfire Coffee Flavored (Accoutrements) $1.25
Jackalope Tumbleweed Wine Stainless Steel Water Bottle (Accoutrements) $12.00
Lil Devils Trick of the Day (Accoutrements) $10.00
Manly Mustache Mirror Clings (Accoutrements) $3
Rotting Zombie Mirror Clings (Accoutrements) $3
Sunrise in Meatopia 500 Piece Puzzle With Bonus 48 Piece Mystery Puzzle (Accoutrements) $10.00
Yeti BBQ Coffee Mug (Gamma Go) $12.00
Gama Go Stickers Like Peanut Butter Sandwich These Designs are Stickalicious By Tim Biskup (Gamma Go) $5.00

Glossy Periodicals

Artforum Apr 10 $10.00
Dwell May 10 $5.99
Famous Mag #11 Desert and Plants $5.00
Hi Fructose #15 $6.95
Muddy $12
2600 Hacker Quarterly vol 27 #1 $6.25
Bizarre #161 $10.50
Make vol 22 $14.99
Tokion vol 3 #4 $6.99
High Times Jun 10 $5.99
Taps paraMagazine vol 6 #2 $5.95
BlackBook #75 Apr 10 $4.50
Hyphen #20 Spr 10 $4.95
Time Out Chicago Apr 08 10 $2.99
826 Quarterly vol 11 (826 Valencia) $15.00
Iowa Review vol 40 #1 $9.95
Packingtown Review vol 2 2010 $13
Fader #67 Apr May 10 $5.99
Mojo #198 May 10 $9.99
Uncut May 10 $9.99
Wire Apr 10 #314 $10.99
Adbusters #89 May Jun 10 vol 18 #3 Ecopsychology $8.95
Monocle vol 4 #32 Apr 10 $10.00
Pin Up Show $15.00
Skin Art #132 $6.99

Graffiti and Street Art

Belio 030 Back to the Roots Experimental Art and Design (Belio Magazine) $35.00
Calligraffiti the Graphic Art of Niels Shoe Meulman (From Here to Fame) $29.95
DY005 Nicholas Di Genova (Belio Magazine) $29.95
DY008 Saner (Belio Magazine) $29.95
DY009 Gualicho (Belio Magazine) $29.95
Swoon HC (Abrams) $35.00

Graphic Novels

Area 10 By Christos Gage (Vertigo) $19.99
Batman and Robin Batman Reborn Deluxe Edition HC By Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely (DC) $24.99
Beats a Graphic History SC By Harvey Pekar (Hill & Wang) $14.95
Body World HC By Dash Shaw (Pantheon) $27.95
Crossed vol 1 By Garth Ennis & Jacen Burrows (Avatar)$24.99
Emberley Galaxy A Tribute to Ed Emberley $12.00
Funny Not Funny Modest Selection of Comic Art Exhibiting Signs of Black Humor By Ryan Standfest $14.95
Market Day By James Sturm (Drawn & Quarterly)$21.95
Melvin Monster vol 2 John Stanley Library By John Stanley (Drawn & Quarterly) $24.95
Mome vol 18 Spr 10 (Fantagraphics) $14.99
Neptune By Aron Nels Steinke (Tugboat Press & Sparkplug Comic Books)$14.00
Other Lives HC By Peter Bagge (Vertigo) $24.99
Sparky The Life and Art of Charles Schulz By Beverly Gherman (Chronicle Books) $16.99
Teenaged Dope Slaves and Reform School Girls (Pure Imagination) $20.00
Whirlwind Wonderland By Rina Ayuyang (Tugboat Press & Sparkplug Comic Books) $15.00
Wonder Woman Amazon Hero Icon HC By Robert Greenberger (Universe) $35.00
Young Lions By Blaise Larmee $10

perversitythink
(Perversity Think Tank)

Humor

99 Classic Movies For People In a Hurry By Nicotext (Nicotext) $9.95
PS I Hate It Here Kids Letters From Camp By Diane Falanga (Abrams) $12.95
Youre a Horrible Person But I Like You Believer Book of Advice By Sarah Silverman (Vintage) $13.95

Low Brow Art

Another Science Fiction Advertising the Space Race 1957 to 1962 By Megan Prelinger (Blast Books) $29.95
Beautiful Decay Book 3 The Underdogs (Beautiful Decay) $20.00
Jime Litwalk Sketchbook vol 3 Monsters Misfits & Maidens By Jime Litwalk (Presto Art) $30.00
Nymphettes Erotic Elfin Art By Barry Blair (SQ Productions) $14.95
Sailor Jerry Tattoo Flash vol 3 By Jerry Collins Sailor (Hardy Marks Publications) $50.00

Mayhem!

Everything Is Going to Kill Everybody Terrifyingly Real Ways the World Wants You By Robert Brockway (Three Rivers Press) $14.00
Zombie Combat Manual a Guide to Fightnig the Living Dead By Roger Ma (Berkeley Books) $14.00

Minicomics

Clutch #21 Invincible Summer #16 Split By Clutch McBastard & Nicole Georges $2.00
Feedback #6 By John Isaacson $2.00
Phase 7 #014 By Alec Longstreth $4.00
Phase 7 #015 By Alec Longstreth $3.00
Pop Art Show By Trevor Wayne $8.00
Pyromania #5 By John Isaacson $3.00
Roots To Fruits By APAK $4.00

Video Discs

Mellodrama The Mellotron Movie DVD (Bazillion Points Books) $24.95
Wholphin #10 (McSweeney’s) $19.95

Muckraking, Memoirs & Miscellany

Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself A Road Trip With David Foster Wallace By David Lipsky (Broadway) $16.99
Cardboard Gods An All American Tale Told Through Baseball Cards By Josh Wilker (Seven Footer Press) $24.95
City Kid A Writers Memoir of Ghetto Life and Post Soul Success By Nelson George (Plume) $14.00
Fix Is In Showbiz Manipulations of the NFL MLB NBA NHL and NASCAR By Brian Tuohy (Feral House) $16.95

Music Books

Arcana IV Musicians on Music By John Zor (Hips Road) $34.95
How to Wreck a Nice Beach Vocoder from World War II to Hip Hop Machine Speaks By Dave Tompkins (Melville House Publishing) $35.00
Rock And Roll Will Save Your Life HC By Steve Almond (Random House) $23.00
Swedish Death Metal By Daniel Ekeroth (Bazillion Points Boks) $34.95

Comic Books!

Blaster Al Ackermans Tales of the Ling Master Barnes $3.00
Hate Annual #8 Bagge Peter (Fantagraphics) $4.95
Rabid Rabbit #11 Tall Tales and Magnanimous Myths By C M Butzer and Ben Trinh $5.00

Outer Limits

Great Airship of 1897 By J Allen Danelek (Adventures Unlimited Press) $16.95
Solomon Islands Mysteries Accounts of Giants and UFOs By Marius Boirayon (Adventures Unlimited Press) $16.95

Poetry

Adulthoods By Bambi $10.00
Dodging Traffic By J Bradley $12.00

Politics

Anarchism and Its Aspirations By Cindy Milstein (AK Press) $12.00
Capitalisms World Disorder Working Class Politics at the Millennium By Jack Barnes (Pathfinder) $25.00
Che Guevara a Revolutionary Life Revised Edition By Jon Lee Anderson (Grove Press) $20.00
Common Ground in a Liquid City Essays in Defense of an Urban Future By Hern (AK Press) $17.95
Crisis In The Global Economy Financial Markets Social Struggles By Andrea Fumagalli (Semiotext(e)) $17.95
Propaganda Inc Selling Americas Culture To The World By Nancy Snow (Seven Stories) $11.95
Thousand Machines By Gerald Raunig (Semiotext(e)) $12.95

Sex Guides & Culture

Perversity Think Tank By Supervert $15.00
Pornapocalipse vol 1 By Rachel Gontijo Araujo $10.00
Worst Laid Plans When Bad Sex Happens to Good People By Alexandra Lydon (Abrams) $14.95

Sexy Art Books

Shunga Japanese Erotic Art (PIE Books) $35.00
Vanessa Del Rio Fifty Years of Slightly Slutty Behavior (Taschen) $59.99

Zines!

Aristocratic Hands #13 By Gregory Walker $2.00
Aristocratic Hands #14 By Gregory Walker $2.00
Blow Jobs In The Afterlife By David Moscovich $1.00
Box of Chocolates By Leslie Perrine $5.00
How To Stay Alive In the Metaphorical Woods $2.00
Lets All Find Awesome Jobs Actual Information By Kevin Fanning $3.00
No Better Than Apples #6 Piecemeal By Kate Larson $2.00
Or Let It Sink #3 $1.00
Reality Mom vol 7 #2 By Corbin Lewars $3.00
RIP by Steve Katz $1.00
This Is the End Journeys Toward Armageddon By Aaron Cynic $2.00
Tragic Genius of Dan Gleason By Dan Gleason $2.00
Volkerlchau By Melanie Bonajo $10.00
Welcome to Bend Population 80995 By Laura Walker $5.00

nobetterthan6
(No Better Than Apples)