George Saunders, actual genius

Yes, but when will he win the Super-Genius grant?

Patrick Somerville

Tonight University Book Store will be hosting a reading by Patrick Somerville, Chicago writer and teacher. His new book of short stories is called Trouble, and gosh it's good.

The stories are by turns very funny and very sad. What follows is a passage from "Trouble and the Shadowy Death Blow," a story about food science, fatherhood, and depraved indifference to human life:

The evening before the trip I tried to play catch with Eric in the backyard but he insisted on wearing his glove on his head.

"Put the glove on right and field this grounder," I said to him.

Eric is at heart a good boy with a sharp wit. There was a time, even that night, out in the yard, under the stars—Wisconsin can be a wonderful place—when I believed he would grow into a good man. Perhaps a strong man.

I don't believe it anymore. He plays at life with too much of his heart. He'll be eaten alive when he leaves the house. The world's all locusts, and people like Eric are corn. Strike one.

He's thirteen and doesn't know how to tie his shoes properly. Strike two.

But strike three. Strike three is the real trouble. His cheeseman dad is a murderer.

Good stuff! Stop by the U District store at 7pm, and catch the reading.

Further Readings: Darfur and Genocide

Last Saturday, a rally was held in New York to raise awareness of the conflict and genocide in Darfur, a western region of the Sudan. I am, like I assume many of you are, only aware of this tragic current event in the most cursory of ways, so I asked one of our booksellers to create a list of books that might illuminate. Here it is:

Famine That Kills: Darfur, Sudan, Alex De Waal

War In Darfur And The Search For Peace, Alex De Waal

Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide, Gerard Prunier

A Problem From Hell: America And The Age Of Genocide, Samantha Power

Why Not Kill Them All?: The Logic And Prevention Of Mass Political Murder, Daniel Chirot

Final Solutions: Mass Killing And Genocide In The Twentieth Century, Benjamin Valentino

The Specter Of Genocide: Mass Murder In Historical Perspective, Robert Gellatly

This is by no means an exhaustive list. Know any others? Drop us a comment.

Staff Favorites

MortalEngines, originally uploaded by ubs_blogger.

Staff Favorites

Lost and Found won our 2006 Ubie Award, which our Children's staff gives to its favorite picture book and young adult novel.

Here's what they said about Lost and Found:

"When a sad-looking penguin appears on a young boy’s doorstep, he sets out to help it find its way back home to the South Pole. This sweet story of friendship with its perfectly matched watercolor illustrations put this book on the fast track to our hearts."

Here's the winner in the Young Adult Novel category:

"Our young adult novel winner is The Scarecrow and His Servant by Philip Pullman. This rollicking tale of chivalry, quick-wittedness and limb replacement features a turnip-headed scarecrow and his faithful servant boy, Jack."

Bumbershoot is a total blur

This is the Digital Photography section of University Book Store. Soon, I will request a transfer to this section and become the official shelver in the Digital Photography section.

"Why, Shelver, do you want to transfer to the Digital Photography section?" you may ask.

Because, dear readers, I went to Bumbershoot. I went to Bumbershoot and took this photo:



All right, so here it is. This is our tent at Bumbershoot. This is our author signing table. This photo was taken as 1)Laila Lalami and 2)Gary Shteyngart were signing copies of their books.

And that's when 3) George Saunders and 4) Mary Gaitskill came strolling up to get their books signed.

Laila was heard to yell, "Oh my God! It's George Saunders!"

I grabbed my camera. And took a photo. Blurry. Another. Blurry.

Above you see the third and best attempt to take a photo of four really important contemporary writers standing right next to one another.

One can only assume it was the shear force of literary power—some sort of radiating literary aura—that doomed this photo.

Or, I am a lousy photographer. In case the second is the reason, I hope to soon be transfered to the Digital Photography section. Perhaps spending some time with those books will help.

Advice to a Young Blogger

Here's the advice I got from Gerry Canavan at Backwards City Review. If you don't know his blog and journal, find out. It's half superheroes, half literary heroes. One of my favorites.

"There will be days on the blog, and not only in the beginning, when it seems like you are simply talking to yourself. (You will be.) Keep going. Or don't. Honestly, no one will notice either way."

It's just that kind of infectious optimism that got me into the book blogging game, Gerry! Thanks!

Seriously, though. Check out Backwards City Review. In their first four issues they've published up and coming fiction writers like Cory Doctorow, Chris Bachelder, and Roy Kesey. And they've featured work by poets like Tony Tost, Sarah Manguso, and Joyelle McSweeney*.

(Lest I be accused of not being forthright, I'll mention that yours truly had a story published in issue #3 of Backwards City Review. I'd suggest the blog and journal anyway, though. I was reading them both long before I had a piece accepted by them.)

*McSweeney will be reading at University Book Store on October 20 at 7pm.

The Zero

Janet Maslin at the New York Times has some nice stuff to say about The Zero by Spokane's own Jess Walter.

Walter will be reading at our Tacoma store Thursday, October 5, at 6pm.