BookExpo Exploits

It’s that time of year again—BookExpo America, during which publishers, buyers, and assorted book-fiends from across the country meet at the Javits Center in Manhattan for a few days of bookish ballyhoo. Last year we met Grumpy Cat (“no touching Grumpy Cat, please”); this year he eluded us, but there were plenty of other (non-feline) folks to meet…

Javits Center

Mr. Javits was there, as always, guarding his Crystal Palace. Much like Grumpy Cat, Mr. Javits does not like to be touched; a man who sat in his chair was promptly moved along.

David Mitchell

A ginormous and somber David Mitchell loomed over us all. (If the nightmares don’t stop soon, I shall invoice Random House for the therapy.)

Penguin

In contrast, the Penguin Mobile Bookshop was fairly adorable and non-threatening… but my heart belongs to the Warrington Perambulating Library.

Monster

Inside the main exhibition center, Mr. Chewbacca was sporting this season’s lego tuxedo. (Shameful fact of the day: I have never seen Star Wars and had to goggle-image-search “giant hairy orange and gray lego bloke” in order to identify the subject of this photo.)

Leuchturm

We checked out the latest wares from our favorite journal makers, Leuchtturm1917 (thanks for the tour, Laura)! Their notebooks are beautiful, durable, and ethically made; ask us about them next time you’re in the store.

City Lights

And we also paid a visit to some of our most beloved indie presses, including City Lights, who have a ton of great stuff coming up for y’all. Thousand Times Broken features three never-before-translated texts from the idiosyncratic Henri Michaux… look for it on our shelves in the Spring.

NY Review

Also coming soonish to Malvern Books… classic titles from the New York Review of Books!

Stamm

BEA = ARCS ARCS ARCS! Other Press were well-stocked with proofs of Peter Stamm’s All Days Are Night.

bea-04a

BEA-ing is tiring work, and I really don’t blame this chap for making the most of his “new-fangled, super-comfy and supportive lounge bag.”

Break time

We took a little break ourselves… TOO. MANY. CATALOGS. And complimentary tote bags were in short supply this year; it seems stickers and pens are the swag du jour. Also on offer: a bafflingly aggressive invitation to meet Ms. Bethenny Frankel, who has apparently written a book about a resentful dog. We politely declined this invitation, on the grounds that we are not insane. (Leave it to Page Six to make sense of this peculiar incident.)

Overview

Recaffeinated, we headed back out to the endless blue aisles, in search of future Malvern vendibles… and furious, untouchable cats.

Meet The Malverns #9

June is International Crime Month, and what better way to kick off a celebration of literary lawlessness than with the introduction of a noir-savvy Malvernite? Please make the acquaintance of Becky Garcia, our store manager, staff sorter-outer, and sterling supervisor of all things Malvern. Becky would like to take y’all on a journey down the murky and mysterious streets of hard-boiled Dublin…

Becky

This isn’t Frommer’s Dublin. And I doubt the Irish Tourism Board would recommend trying to reconstruct a walking tour of Dublin Noir’s story locations. But if you like your fiction short with a touch of dark humor and an often brutal twist at the end, these stories are for you. It’s hard to decide who to root for when the protagonist goes bad (as they usually do); so you end up just being along for the wild ride through the darker side of Ireland. Watch it! Don’t let that blood get on your shoe…



Dublin Noir is one of an award-winning series of original noir anthologies from Akashic Books carried at Malvern Books.