New Feature: The Handsell
It's been tough to find blogging time around here lately. With meetings both business and social, I feel like I'm only home to eat and sleep (and debrief with the ALP). So I'm instituting a new little feature that I hope will be interesting -- and importantly, that I can almost do in my sleep.
It's called The Handsell, and it's basically the bookseller's job distilled. Not quite a review, this is more like the 30-second version of my experience reading the book, pitched toward the kind of reader I think might enjoy it. It's what we do when a customer asks for a recommendation, and what we do when writing staff picks for displays. I think it's perfectly suited to the blog format. So, you'll be seeing more of them around here, in between longer and more in-depth posts. I've got a serious backlog of books I've read this year, so it will be a while before I catch up to my current reads. Hope you find these interesting -- maybe you'll find your next read here.
The Handsell #1
(read January 2008)
THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY
by Michael Chabon
I can't believe it took me so long to get to the book that Chabon won the Pulitzer for – I've loved everything of his I've ever read, including his jacket blurbs. This has the added benefit of being about the near-mythical Golden Age of Comics, which in Chabon's hands links to the issues of the 1940s as well as the thrills of superheroes and mystery solving. And it's rich with character, language, wit, and great set pieces that I went back to read again. A huge and wonderful novel, especially for those with a taste for adventure and no objection to pop culture as a literary subject.
It's called The Handsell, and it's basically the bookseller's job distilled. Not quite a review, this is more like the 30-second version of my experience reading the book, pitched toward the kind of reader I think might enjoy it. It's what we do when a customer asks for a recommendation, and what we do when writing staff picks for displays. I think it's perfectly suited to the blog format. So, you'll be seeing more of them around here, in between longer and more in-depth posts. I've got a serious backlog of books I've read this year, so it will be a while before I catch up to my current reads. Hope you find these interesting -- maybe you'll find your next read here.
The Handsell #1
(read January 2008)
THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAYby Michael Chabon
I can't believe it took me so long to get to the book that Chabon won the Pulitzer for – I've loved everything of his I've ever read, including his jacket blurbs. This has the added benefit of being about the near-mythical Golden Age of Comics, which in Chabon's hands links to the issues of the 1940s as well as the thrills of superheroes and mystery solving. And it's rich with character, language, wit, and great set pieces that I went back to read again. A huge and wonderful novel, especially for those with a taste for adventure and no objection to pop culture as a literary subject.
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