Category Archives: Book Reviews

Two-For-One Tuesday

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I hope your holiday Monday was chock-full of good books, strong coffee, and assorted Presidential celebrations. Today we’re helping to banish the post-long-weekend blues with not-one-but-two! splendid recommendations—we’re generous like that.

Recommendation #1: You should come to Malvern Books tonight at 7pm to hear poet Cindy St. John read from her forthcoming collection, I Wrote This Poem. W. Joe is hosting, and will be taking questions from the audience as well as asking a few of his own.

Recommendation #2: If you’re in need of some startlingly smart reading material, Malvern staff member Taylor Jacob Pate would very much like to press into your hands a copy of the brilliant Bluets by Maggie Nelson. Here’s what Taylor has to say…

1. Suppose I were to begin by saying that I had fallen in love with a color…

BluetsBluets by Maggie Nelson is a love story like many love stories; a thrilling ride of magic that can only be described as: blue: derelict: tarp flapping in the wind on a rooftop in a gray sky: a grey sky beaten first purple then blue: a tiny cheap locket: salt tears: trinket after trinket: memory of what never happened: what happened:

In a deft & passionate voice readers experience falling in love with the color blue through a series of numbered sections that jolt the reader from Geothe’s Blue to Joni Mitchell’s to Mallarme’s.

This is the dysfunction talking … this is the deepest blue talking, talking, always talking at you.

The intensity & voracity creates a whirlwind that sucks readers in & tosses them about in a mess of confession, sex, love & rock-n-roll.

Academically speaking this book of {what many consider to be} poems proves the value of research & close reading, though as a love story Maggie Nelson stalks the color blue in its physical form as well as in the abstract & theoretical realms. Happy, sad, crazy, lovely, human, human, human this collection is a gem.

229. I am writing this down in blue ink, so as to remember that all words, not just some, are written in water.

232. Perhaps, in time, I will stop missing you.

A Swashbuckling Read

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Here’s a picture of our winsome bookstore pirate (because bookstore cats are so 2009!) clutching his favorite novella, Terese Svoboda’s Pirate Talk or Mermalade.

Pirate

If you’ve spent much time around pirates, you’ll know that their conversations are feisty and provocative, and this Pirate Talk is no exception. It’s the quirky tale of two unnamed brothers, doltish wannabe pirates, who have assorted madcap misadventures involving mermaids, shipwrecks, and a scene-stealing parrot. It’s a strange and poetic wee book, mixing comedic capers with stunningly beautiful sentences. If you’re keen to get your own non-piratey hands on the work of “a writer of real power and mystery” (Sam Lipsyte said that!) or even if you just want to warm up for this, come by the store and ask for some swashbuckling Svoboda.

Spotlight on New Directions

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You’re already planning to visit Malvern Books tomorrow night for our very first Everything is Bigger poetry reading, right? Well, be sure to come a little early so you can check out our recent New Directions haul!

New Directions was founded in 1936 by Harvard sophomore James Laughlin, who was not having much luck with his own poetry at the time:

“I asked Ezra Pound for ‘career advice’ . . . He had been seeing my poems for months and had ruled them hopeless. He urged me to finish Harvard and then do something useful.” 

Laughlin took Pound’s advice to heart and began publishing anthologies of experimental poetry and prose, featuring early works from writers such as Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, Dylan Thomas, and Denise Levertov. Shortly after the publication of the first anthology, Laughlin decided to add novels, plays, and poetry collections to the New Directions stable (mean ol’ Ezra was an early New Directions poet), and he also began reprinting neglected classics, including the then out-of-print The Great Gatsby. More than seventy-five years later, New Directions is still going strong, publishing about thirty books each year. They continue to relaunch classic titles (often with introductions by well-known contemporary writers), and they’ve added a lot of wonderful work in translation to the mix, making them one of our favorite indie presses.

Here’s a peek at some of our new-to-us New Directions titles:

New Directions 1

  • The Selected Stories of Siegfried Lenz – Translated by Breon Mitchell, this is a stunning collection of stories from one of Germany’s most renowned writers.
  • Ground Work – American poet Robert Duncan’s two masterworks in one volume.
  • The Lion Bridge – A comprehensive overview of Michael Palmer’s hauntingly beautiful poetry.

New Directions 2

  • The Melancholy of Resistance – A surreal and powerful novel by contemporary Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai, translated by George Szirtes.
  • It – The magnum opus of Danish poet Inger Christensen, It is considered a classic of modern European poetry.
  • The Selected Poems of Li Po – Translated by David Hinton, this is a masterful collection from the eighth-century Tang Dynasty poet.

New Directions 3

  • Antigonick – Anne Carson’s new translation of Sophokle’s Antigone, featuring stunning illustrations by Bianca Stone.
  • Labyrinths – A genre-bending collection of short stories by Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Donald Yates and James Irby.
  • New Collected Poems of George Oppen – This extensive paperback edition includes a CD of the poet reading from each of his poetry collections.

Introducing Andromeda

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Our AndromedaIf you’ve made a New Year’s resolution to read more poetry (and I certainly hope you have), may I recommend you kick-start your new poetic regime by picking up a copy of Our Andromeda, Brenda Shaughnessy’s most recent collection. Our Andromeda was chosen by the New York Times as one of the “100 Notable Books of 2013” and was shortlisted for both the 2013 International Griffin Poetry Prize and the PEN/Open Book Award. It also featured on NPR’s list of “5 Books of Poetry to Get You Through the Summer,” but don’t let that put you off.

Poet Joy Katz describes Our Andromeda as “three-quarters cool thinkiness and one-quarter passion that’s all released at the end,” and that’s pretty apt: the first part of the collection consists of more formal, reserved ruminations on birth and motherhood, illness, and the frailty of the human body (though humor, puns, and allusion also abound)—and then comes the collection’s final, eponymous poem, a twenty-two-page letter to Shaughnessy’s son Cal, who suffered a brain injury at birth that has left him blind and without speech. It’s a raw, primal poem that addresses the anger and grief Shaughnessy feels in the aftermath of this traumatic birth. Some of her fury is directed at the people who have failed her—incompetent doctors, unsympathetic friends (“stay-at-home moms who had once / been talented but were now pretending / they were not in order ‘to raise a family’ / and to slide into inanity”)—but much of it is directed at the author herself:

Cal. I can blame just about anyone for what
happened to you, but ultimately it was my job
to get you into this world safely. And I failed.

The Andromeda of the title is an imagined world, a place where we get to do things over:

When we get to Andromeda, Cal,
you’ll have the babyhood you deserved,
all the groping at light sockets

and putting sand in your mouth
and learning to say Mama and I want
and sprinting down the yard

as if to show me how you were leaving
me for the newest outpost of Cal.

Shaughnessy oscillates between this imagined world and reality, between acceptance and regret, and she is never afraid to confront the torment of the “what-ifs.” The two sections of the book work beautifully together, with the first part’s Plath-like chilly brilliance—all language play and internal rhyme—balancing the latter section’s more impassioned tone. And if, like me, “soppy books about motherhood” are on your UGH list, don’t worry, you have nothing to fear from Our Andromeda; Shaughnessy’s brilliance, rage, and humor keep the collection from straying into motherhood-is-magical! territory (“Stop belonging to me so much, face-head,” she writes). Here are a couple more excerpts from the out-of-this-world Our Andromeda:

from Liquid Flesh

I’m a mother now.
I run to the bathroom, run
to the kitchen, run to the crib

and I’m not even running.
These places just scare up as needed,
the wires that move my hands

to the sink, to the baby,
to the breast are electrical.
I’m in shock.

One must be in shock to say so,
as if one’s own state is assessable,
like a car accident or Minnesota taxes.

A total disaster, this sack of liquid
flesh which yowls and leaks
and I’m talking about me

not the baby. Me, this puddle
of a middle, this utilized vessel,
cracked hull, divine

design. It’s how it works. It’s how
we all got here. Deform
following the function . . .

But what about me? I whisper
secretly and to think,
around these parts used to be

the joyful place of sex,
what is now this intimate
terror and squalor.

My eyes burned out at three a.m. and again
at six and eleven. This is why the clock
is drowning, as I said earlier.

I’m trying to explain it.
I repeat myself, or haven’t I already?
Tiny self, along with a tiny self.

* * *

From Artless

No poetry. Plain. No
fresh, special recipe
to bless.

All I’ve ever made
with these hands
and life, less

substance, more rind.
Mostly rim and trim,
meatless

but making much smoke
in the old smokehouse,
no less.

Fatted from the day,
overripe and even
toxic at eve. Nonetheless,

in the end, if you must
know, if I must bend,
waistless,

to that excruciation.
No marvel, no harvest
left me speechless,

yet I find myself
somehow with heart,
aloneless.

With heart,
fighting fire with fire,
fightless.

Wishing You A Very Merry Malvern!

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The Yule is nearly upon us, and we wanted to take this festive opportunity to wish you all a Merry Malvern (that’s just like a Merry Christmas, but with the tasty bonus of a stocking full of awesome small press literature). We hope the holidays are as kind to you as you all have been to us—we’ve been so touched by the support we’ve received from you lovely people since we opened back in October. It’s been a thrilling first few months, and we’re tremendously excited to continue this batty bookstore adventure with you in 2014. (P.S. We already have some excellent events lined up for you in the new year!)

Stark HouseAnd if you’re looking for last-minute Christmas gifts, Malvern’s got you covered. If you’ve already perused our handy gift guide and are looking for a lil’ something extra, well, nothing says “Happy Holidays, Aunt Edith!” like classic ’50’s pulp fiction. We recently received a ton of fantastic titles from Stark House Press, including Pure Sweet Hell / Catch a Fallen Starlet by Douglas Sanderson and One is a Lonely Number by Bruce Elliott + Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliott Chaze. Yep, bookstore bargain alert: each volume gives you two supremely thrilling thrillers for the price of one! (Also worth noting: Wade Miller’s magnificently titled Kitten With a Whip is arriving soon.) If you want some idea of the plots, let’s just say there are sensational Hollywood murders, escaped convicts, armored car heists, destructive criminal lovers, and naughty drug misadventures in coastal Spain. Excellent holiday reading material for when you’re stuffed with chocs and ’nog and can barely move a muscle.

If you want to come get your gift on (or perhaps make a few sneaky purchases for yourself), we’re open till 8pm today and from 11am – 5pm on Christmas Eve. Do stop by and say hello—we’d love to wish you a very Merry Malvern in person!

New Titles: Festive Edition

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You’re coming to Malvern to do your holiday shopping, right? Jolly good! And because we love to spoil y’all rotten, we’ve made sure to stock our shelves extra-full with a ton of brilliant new books (some new new, and some new-to-us). We’ve already featured a couple of titles in our gift guide and on our home page, but here are a few more pressie ideas for all the beloved bookworms in your life…

New Books

From Exact Change, a press specializing in experimental literature, with an emphasis on Surrealism (fun fact: if, like me, you’re a Galaxie 500 fan, you may be interested to learn that Exact Change was founded by band members Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang):

New Books

From New Directions, an indie press founded in 1936 by poet James Laughlin and still going strong more than seventy-five years later:

  • The Hare – fiction by César Aira, translated by Nick Caistor
  • The Gorgeous Nothings – facsimile edition of Emily Dickinson’s manuscripts
  • The Old Child – stories by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Susan Bernofsky
  • Bartleby & Co. – fiction by Enrique Vila-Matas, translated by Jonathan Dunne
  • Dublinesque – fiction by Enrique Vila-Matas, translated by Anne McLean

New Books

From Typecast Publishing, a Louisville press whose stated mission is “producing works of literature with purpose and care” (i.e. their books are very stylish and beautifully made—perfect as gifts!):

New Books

And from assorted awesome small presses: