“People are like stained glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.”— Elizabeth Kubler Ross
Thanks-Giving Square :: Dallas, Texas
Literally speaking, we're back to the subject of books today on Ventipop. The Good Press :: Wrapped Up in Words (our wine and legs literally adorned with stories), Beautiful Books (a list of them) and The Glow (a new song by Matt Pond PA). It's a mellow kind of day. Warm your hands around a mug and get your read on. And may your Patronus not be a stoat. Cheers.
This song is dedicated to the early, dark evenings of a 1980's Ohio and my family that lived there. (Matt Pond PA is one of the great unknown bands. Their new album Winter Lives came out last Friday and is fantastic. Get to know them.)
- Publisher's Weekly recommends new books out this week by Haruki Murakami, David Morrell, Trevor Noah and Robbie Robertson.
- The New York Times says these are the 12 Books To Read in Your 20s.
- Michael Chabon, Zadie Smith, Jason Diamond and Fanny Howe headline Flavorwire's 10-Must Read Books of November.
- Speaking of Michael Chabon, one of my favorite American writers, his new book Moonglow is out this week. Buzzfeed dives deep into his life, his motivations and his home life in this terrific deep interview. And read an excerpt from Moonglow here.
- I was extremely disappointed to find out my Patronus was a stoat. It sounds horrible. Stoat. I was even more aggravated when I read a stoat is a short-tailed weasel. Hopefully, your Patronus is something a little more regal and magical over at Pottermore.com.
- The Bookmark Light is a gift you should buy everyone:
Only an illiterate Grinch would not like this gift.
Ninety-Nine Stories Of God by Joy Williams is exactly what the title says it is; a collection of very short-stories about the supreme being in wonderfully twisted situations from the mind of Williams herself. It's already a featured read on many 2016 Top Ten Lists. It's so fun and simultaneously thought-provoking; not to be missed.
“Wry and playful, except for when densely allusive and willfully obtuse, Ninety-Nine Stories of God is a treasure trove of bafflements and tiny masterpieces.”— The New York Times
“Quietly splendid. . . . I believe in art, and Ninety-Nine Stories of God feels like prayer to me.”— Boston Globe
“I would follow the trail of Joy Williams’s words―always beautiful, compelling, and so wise―anywhere they led.”— Chuck Palahniuk, author of CHOKE and FIGHT CLUB
- Enjoy a fascinating, incredible, long read over at the Guardian. "The Spy Who Couldn’t Spell: How The Biggest Heist in the History of US Espionage Was Foiled".
- 10 Beautifully Written Books features these passages:
“I keep thinking about this river somewhere, with the water moving really fast. And these two people in the water, trying to hold onto each other, holding on as hard as they can, but in the end it’s just too much. The current’s too strong. They’ve got to let go, drift apart.” ~ Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
“History was like an old house at night. With all the lamps lit. And ancestor whispering inside. To understand history, we have to go inside and listen to what they’re saying. And to look at the books and the pictures on the wall. And smell the smells. But we can’t go in, because we’ve been locked out. And when we try and listen, all we hear is a whispering. And we cannot understand the whispering, because our minds have been invaded by a war. A war that we have won and lost. The very worst sort of war. A war that captures dreams and re-dreams them. A war that has made us adore our conquerors and despise ourselves.” ~ The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
- Hardcore comic book fans probably already know about ComicList.com where all comic book release dates are conveniently listed by publisher. And over at FreshComics.com, release dates are listed with covers and a brief synopsis of each new edition.
- If you need to know when the next book in a series is going to be released, head over to Fictfact's Book Release Calendar.
- If you're into Romance Novels, check out this page which breaks down romance novels into very specific sub-categories. Apparently, "Priest Heroes" and "Nurse/Doctor Heroines" are things.
- There's also XOXO After Dark which teases itself as "a community site offering the best in romance, urban fantasy and women’s fiction".
- My hope would be I could finish the book before I was too drunk to understand the ending: Pairing Wine & Literature, Italian Book Bottles wrapped in short stories.
- Here are Omnivoracious' selections for best Historical Books of November.
- A match made in heaven: Nick Offerman reads Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer.
- Mary Poppins to The Secret Garden to Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven...adorn your legs in the classic texts of your favorite books with a pair of Literary Tights.
...The Last Drop
One Good Thing. The Washington Post is offering free subscriptions to students, military and government employees. Here's the step-by-step process sign-up process.
The Good Press :: Wrapped Up In Words, Beautiful Books and The Glow ~ fin.
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