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NEWS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR
LATE JUNE 2014

unabridged interior
Our Featured Titles
THE RULES OF SUMMER
A LION IN PARIS
THE LION AND THE BIRD
THE FARWAY NEARBY
COUNTDOWN
EMPTY MANSIONS
I REMEMBER
THE THING WITH FEATHERS
THE INFATUATIONS
THE CIRCLE
ALL THAT IS SOLID MELTS INTO AIR
A GUIDE TO BEING BORN
ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE
ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE
LOVERS AT THE CHAMELEON CLUB
CAN'T AND WON'T
THE SNOW QUEEN
CAN'T WE TALK ABOUT SOMETHING MORE PLEASANT?
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 Hello and welcome!     
 
Pride Chicago
Celebrate Pride at Unabridged Bookstore. Through the end of the month take 10% off any LGBTQ titles! From John Waters to Janet Mock to Lambda Award winner Chinelo Okparanta we'll help you celebrate pride month in style: with a book! 

We also have something big to share with you: Chicago's first annual Independent Bookstore Day! We've partnered with nine independent bookstores of Chicago to celebrate what makes us all amazing and unique.

Join us Saturday July 12 for raffles, give-aways, a store wide discount, snacks, and books! For more information visit: chicagobookstoreday.com


 
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This month's newest titles are picked, as always, from the fevered minds of the employees at Unabridged. Comments always appreciated. Email the store at
unabridged@unabridgedbookstore.com or call us at 773.883.9119.
GASTON by Kelly S. Dipucchio Illustrated by Christian Robinson
 
gaston
This adorable and sweet book celebrating the diversity among siblings will teach kids to embrace who they are. The retro style illustrations are completely charming!


In hardcover, 16.99; Atheneum Books for Young Readers.   
WE'RE GOING TO THE FARMERS' MARKET by Stefan Page

we're going to the farmers market

Just in time for Summer!

This charming board book is a delight to look at, and will help toddlers learn about different foods, visiting a farmer's market for fresh vegetables and fruit, and cooking delightful meals!


In board book, 7.99; Chronicle Books.
THE GLASS SENTENCE by S.E. Grove
 
glass sentence
What an outstanding debut!

One of the most original and intricate fantasy novels Ianni has read - one where the continents are fractured into different eras, maps are invaluable, and a young girl races through time to save her missing uncle and the world from vanishing.

Sophia is a strong, smart heroine, that learns fast and is fearless without being reckless, picking up a great mix of companions along the way while evading some horrible villains (the gruesome Sandmen, the Veiled Lady, and the chilling, heart-breaking Lachrima....)

Time shifting, cartography, top-notch world building, quests, faceless monsters, and heart-stopping action make this a worthy successor to Philip Pullman's GOLDEN COMPASS! A new classic.

Ianni loved.

In hardcover, 17.99; Viking Children's Books.   
ONCE I WAS COOL by Megan Stielstra

once I was cool

ONCE I WAS COOL is a wonderful collection to pick up if you're feeling disillusioned with reading or writing.  In these essays, Megan Stielstra waxes passionate about the ability of stories & storytelling to challenge our convictions & inform our experiences Chicago-based, Stielstra's essays often involve life-altering chance occurrences staged over a backdrop of familiar haunts.

 

Katharine recommends this emotionally nourishing, funny read.



In paperback, Non-fiction, 15.95; Curbside Splendor Publishing.

MY LUNCHES WITH ORSON by Peter Biskind


my lunches with orson
This almost looks like another throw-away celebrity bio. The kind that gets pumped out every year by some hack, but this book, a collection of recorded conversations between Orson Welles and his friend, Henry Jaglom, in the twilight of Welles' life, is about the furthest thing from throw-away. It is a fascinating look at how celebrity copes with itself. How an artist who is not able to make the art that is his media deals with isolation, and of having his best years behind him. It is of old Hollywood masters grappling with 80's era Hollywood upstarts.
It is about aging but still having a fire burning in your soul. 
 
Stefan loved this thoroughly engrossing read.  
 
In paperback, non-fiction, 16.00; Picador USA.   
LAWRENCE IN ARABIA by Scott Anderson


lawrence in arabia
The lure of the Middle East - whether to conquer, explore, or exploit - has exerted its pull on the west for 1000 years. LAWRENCE IN ARABIA is thrilling history, the intertwined paths of four men - Curt Prufer, Aaron Aaronsohn, William Yale, and most of all the large than life, T.E. Lawrence - and the "great game" to control the Middle East during WWI. This is a detailed and engrossing narrative, offering up the sweeping grandeur, intrigue, and tragedy of the war in the desert, featuring T.E. Lawrence, the Arab revolt, Zionism, and the colonialist and imperialist machinations that gave way to remapping of the modern Middle East, where the folly of the past created the problems of the present.

Ed loved and highly recommends!  
 
In paperback, non-fiction, 17.95; Anchor Books.   
ONE SUMMER: AMERICA, 1927 by Bill Bryson


one summer
There are two kinds of readers: those who love Bill Bryson and those who haven't read him yet. This time the travel/science writer-cum-historian-cum-memoirist turns his amused attentions to one exhilarating, nutty summer, when Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic, Babe Ruth broke all records, and President Coolidge proved a master of the nap.

Every page bursts with fascinating trivia of a bustling nation hitting its stride. Colorful, rollicking, and sweet this is quintessential Bryson.

Ianni loved!  
 
In paperback, non-fiction, 14.95; Anchor Books.   
THE SEA INSIDE by Philip Hoare


the sea inside

The scope of this rhapsodic book is as wide as it is deep!  Hoares' colorful & captivating prose carries the reader with its current through the follies of cetaceans and corvids, the (many) foibles of man and the evolution of the human race's artistic relationship with nature.    

 

Part travelogue, part history, & part environmental writing, this engrossing study of the vibrant waters around and inside us will make you rethink how you see our past & present aquatic neighbors.

 

Mandy loved!

 
In hardcover, non-fiction, 27.99; Melville House Publishing.   
THE HISTORIES by Herodotus Translated by Tom Holland

the histories
 
 

OUTSTANDING!   

 

This is NOT my high school Herodotus!  I've been a long-term fan of his historical fiction, but

Tom Holland's new, clear, lucid & accessible translation is nothing short of remarkable!

 

 

As another reviewer aptly said: "Unquestionably the BEST English translation of Herodotus to have appeared in the past half-century... I am in awe of Tom Holland's achievement and have no doubt it will bear rich fruit in bringing Herodotus to public attention."   

 

If you've ever wanted to delve into the HISTORIES, this is an excellent time!

 

Ianni loved! 

 

In hardcover, non-fiction, 40.00; Viking Books.
ATHENS by James H.S. McGregor

athens
    
 

Continuing his excellent "From the Ground Up" series after Rome and Paris, McGregor, a professor of comparative literature, visits Europe's oldest capital & birthplace of Western thought & democracy.   

 

Using a chronological approach, he masterfully blends the genres of travel guide, urban history & art history to trace the evolution of Athens from its archaic origins, to the glorious classical heritage, to its Byzantine & Ottoman period and maturing into a sprawling modern metropolis.  

 

Peppered with crisp illustrations that compliment the elegant prose & sharp observations, this is highly recommended for the erudite traveler.

 
 Ianni recommends.

In hardcover, non-fiction, 29.95; Belknap Press.
INSEL by Mina Loy


  insel      
Poet, playwright, actress, artist & novelist Mina Loy is the unsung enigma of the modernist movement.  
 

 

INSEL, her delightfully acrobatic roman a clef, explores her fascination with a disintegrating surrealist painter who is as diaphanous as the 1930's Paris avant-garde scene he admonishes.  Loy's astral prose fearlessly combines metaphysical, biological & literary vocabularies to embark on some truly adventurous frolics through metaphor.  Bonus: Man Ray cameo!  

 

Mandy adored this exceptionally poetic novel! 



In paperback, fiction, 15.00; Melville House Publishing.  
LONGBOURN by Jo Baker



  longbourn      
In a market over-saturated by Jane Austen homages this vivid re-imaging of Pride and Prejudice stands out as one of the finest!

Baker stages the action below the stairs where the servants of the Bennet estate manage their own set of dramas, aspirations and heartache rivaling those upstairs. She meticulously describes the drudgery and daily grind of the service class in that era, takes a few liberties with some characters (making Mary and Mr. Collins more sympathetic while Wickham even more sinister) and also offers a keener insight into the horrors of the Napoleonic Wars.

A must for Austen fans but also anyone who likes a good historical novel will be absorbed in this compelling love story.

Ianni loved!


In paperback, fiction, 15.95; Vintage Books.  
ANCILLARY JUSTICE by Ann Leckie

ancillary justice
 

What feels like the philosophical next-step after THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS, combined with the political intrigue of RED MARS
, Ann Leckie has created something contemporary, relevant, and amazing.

Not just another space opera, Leckie delves into the complex machinations of our relationships to gender, to artificial intelligence, and to each other. Add in a thrilling edge-of-your-seat plot and this novel deserves all of the awards it receives. But it also deserves your attention.

Stefan loved and highly recommends! 

 

In paperback, fiction, 15.00; Orbit Books.
 
TRANSATLANTIC by Colum McCann

transatlantic
    
Like Jim Shepard, Colum McCann mines historical moments of distinction for deeper meaning, but these are not stand-alone stories. Each chapter is linked together through time and place to form a complex picture of society's bondage to war, slavery, family, and nation-states. McCann is doing no less than illuminating the present Western condition. this is what a novel can be: taut and empathetic while spreading out into corners of recognition the deeper you dig.
 

McCann has once again demonstrated why he is a must read.

Ed and Stefan loved and highly recommend!

 

In paperback, fiction, 16.00; Random House Trade.
 
DISSIDENT GARDENS by Jonathan Lethem



dissident gardens
Ed loved DISSIDENT GARDENS!

DISSIDENT GARDENS is the story of Rose Zimmer - immigrant, Jewish, communist - and other characters in her orbit; it is Lethem's ambitious journey through the decades of the 20th century, an epic story of the American epoch, where the personal is the political. The novel (rich in gorgeous prose) is brilliantly constructed, weaving across time and among characters, through a whole tableau of utopian dreams, flawed idealism, and tragic injustices.

I think it is a great novel, certainly Jonathan Lethem's bid for the Great American Novel.

Ed loved and highly recommends.


In paperback, fiction, 15.95; Vintage Books.     
SHOTGUN LOVESONGS by Nickolas Butler

shotgun lovesongs
    

 

This fetching debut novel, which follows thirty-somethings Henry, Lee, Kip, Ronnie & Beth, high school friends from small town Wisconsin, sparkles in every wayA quintessentially Midwestern novel, a love letter to the open, lonely American heartland.  Butler makes terrific use of his five narrators (one of whom is an indie folkster turned rock star loosely based on the author's friend BON IVER) to explore unrequited romance, the corrosive power of long-held secrets & the dissolution & rebirth of friendships.  I was deeply moved by this deceptively simple & timeless story.  

 

 Ianni declares this a MUST READ!


 

In hardcover, fiction, 25.99; Thomas Dunne Books.
 
BITTERSWEET by Miranda Beverely-Whittemore

bittersweet
    
 

In this stay-up-all-night page-turner, a scholarship student at a New England college spends the summer at her WASPy roomate's wealthy & pedigreed family's compound & uncovers some seriously twisted secrets. (Some are so absurdly over-the-top that they're operatic, even laughable, but that's part of the FUN- think ABC's Revenge when it was good, only more scandalous). I seriously stayed up until 4 amone morning to finish this.  With books like BITTERSWEET to stuff in beach bags, it's beginning to feel a lot like summer.  

 

 

Ianni LOVED.


In hardcover, fiction, 25.00; Crown Publishing.
 
CAN'T WE TALK ABOUT SOMETHING MORE PLEASANT? by Roz Chast

can't we talk about something more
    
 

CAN'T WE TALK ABOUT SOMETHING MORE PLEASANT? is a memoir of gradual loss and gradual reconciliation. In it, new Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast recounts the events marking the years of her parents' decline. Chast's signature brand of humor laces these pages, but it's the bald honesty with which she treats her lukewarm relationships with her mother )and the attendant feelings of ambivalence for bearing responsibility for her mother's care) that makes this memoir so unusual and so brave.  

 

Relateable, funny, and quietly devastating Katharine recommends.  


In hardcover, non-fiction, 28.00; Bloomsbury Publishing.