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Laura
I manage receiving, data, and internet resources at Bookworks, and have worked here for two years. I'm a professional violist, having just finished my M.M. at UNM, and I perform with groups like Santa Fe Pro Musica, Opera Southwest, and other artists around Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The number of books I own is growing exponentially the longer I work here, and I've started building a nice collection of current-ish fiction.
FYI: I've just started playing with QTANGO, a great tango orchestra that plays twice a month at the Hotel Andaluz.
Right now, I'm reading Exley, by Brock Clarke, the new David Mitchell, and Zero History, by William Gibson.
Favorite authors in no specific order:
John Irving
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Jose Saramago
Evelyn Waugh
Umberto Eco
Margaret Atwood
Kate Christensen
Joshua Ferris
Laura's recent recommendations listed below:
These will be updated soon! Check out Mary Roach's Packing for Mars, Justin Cronin's The Passage, and Adam Langer's The Thieves of Manhattan.
Tongue (Paperback)
$14.00
ISBN-13: 9781596916517Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Bloomsbury USA, 06/01/2009
Her first novel to be translated from Korean, Tongue is the story of a professional chef's heartbreak and eventual revenge on her ex-boyfriend, who dumped her for a model taking his girlfriend's cooking classes. Quoting from Jessa Crispin's NPR piece, "Although Tongue is filled with cooking techniques and food trivia — and even includes a history of restaurants — it's really about living in the wake of disappointment and about how people's lives are reflected in their eating." Great, creepy read.
Recommended by Laura
The Housekeeper and the Professor (Paperback)
$14.00
ISBN-13: 9780312427801Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Picador, 02/01/2009
I must confess that I purchased this book purely because of its cover - which is absolutely beautiful. There's something about shiny, blue paperbacks that's really appealed to me lately (also McEwan's On Chesil Beach and Ogawa's previous collection The Diving Pool), and this one juxtaposed pink dogwoods with mathematical symbols (what's not to love?). I was definitely pleased to find out that the text was equally memorable. Ogawa tells the tender, simple story of a housekeeper and her son, and the bond they form with a mathematician whose memory only lasts eighty minutes. The novel explores the nature of memory and relationships while describing several basic mathematical concepts in a really beautiful way that presents numbers as elegant things full of more meaning than simply quantity. It is a bit peculiar in its mixing of mathematics and writing, but its themes invite reflection, and like most of my favorite books lately, the details are perfect: a character receives the nickname "Root" because his head resembles a square root symbol - perfect.
Tokyo Fiancee (Paperback)
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9781933372648Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Europa Editions, 12/01/2008
After reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery, I stumbled across this book, a translation by the same woman who translated Barbery's novel. I read two pages quickly, out of curiosity, and promptly fell in love.
Tokyo Fiancee is the memoir of Amelie Nothomb and a brief relationship she had with a Japanese man while teaching French in Japan. It's completely disarming - particularly East-meets-West interludes like her boyfriend's clinical experiment with fondue - and as soon as I finished it, I bought and read two of her other titles.
If you liked The Elegance of the Hedgehog, this is a short, charming follow-up.
War Dances (Hardcover)
$9.98
ISBN-13: 9780802119193Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Grove Press, 10/01/2009
My first ever Sherman Alexie book, a collection of short stories that will be featured at his signing in October 09. Having never read Alexie before, I was struck by both how cleverly constructed his stories are and his ear for the combining of words, phrases, sentences. He's irreverent, and his writing - whether funny or heartbreaking - sparkles (I don't know about that verb, but there it is!). I can't believe I've never read anything of Alexie's before, and I know that this won't the last.
Recommended by Laura
The City of Dreaming Books (Paperback)
$16.95
ISBN-13: 9781590201114Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Overlook Press, 09/01/2008
Welcome to Zamonia, Walter Moers' fantastic land full of dangerous, whimsical, impossible creatures, and cities devoted to nothing but the minutiae of book publishing. Part of a group of novels Moers sets in this world, The City of Dreaming Books is my favorite (others include The 13 1/2 lives of Captain Bluebear and The Miraculous Adventures of Rumo), this book involves a young dinosaurish creature who sets out on a journey to a book whose very foundations (notably the frightening catacombs!) are composed of books, book lovers, and book-dependant (and devouring!) creatures. Soon, the novelist becomes involved with the intrigue and adventure of Bookholm... and the results are a fast-paced, wonderful, hilarious novel. Much like Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, or Neil Gaiman, Moers' novels are incredibly successful examples of well-written, enjoyable adult fantasy-fiction.
Recommended by Laura
Recommended by Laura
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