Give Me Some Money So I Can Open My Dream Bookstore

As many of you know, I live in bookish Madison, Wisconsin. You really can’t go anywhere without tripping over books or running into authors, booksellers, reviewers, book sales, book talks, or libraries. And to add to this wonderfulness is the fact that Madison boasts some fantastic indie bookstores (see my Literary Tourism post).

There’s just one problem. Since I moved here nearly 11 years ago, at least two pretty great indie bookstores have closed. Those that are still going, though, boast a strong, diverse inventory and knowledgeable staff. They all offer drool-worthy first editions, leather-bound collections, and every genre and topic under the sun.

In Translation: March Fiction

It’s March, so I’m thinking SPRING SPRING SPRING. And what better way to welcome that lovely (though allergy-filled) season than with some fantastic novels in translation?! This month we’re featuring works from Ireland, Argentina, and Russia. Enjoy, and let us know in the comments which translated books you’ve been reading!

The Dirty Dust: Cré na Cille by Máirtín Ó Cadhain, translated by Alan Titley (Yale University Press, 328 pages, March 24)

From Yale University Press comes the first-ever English translation of “the most important prose work in modern Irish.” A deeply satirical novel, The Dirty Dust is reminiscent of Edgar Lee Masters’s Spoon River Anthology, in that Cadhain’s characters are all already dead, yet they speak to us about their lives and the lives of their fellow townspeople. Written entirely in dialogue form, The Dirty Dust imagines a world in which the dead continue to take an interest in the living and one another.

Random Recommendation Guest Post: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

This recommendation comes from Karena Fagan. You can follow her on Tumblr and on twitter @KarenaFagan.

The Night Circus (2011) by Erin Morgenstern

"The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway: a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them both, this is a game in which only one can be left standing. Despite the high stakes, Celia and Marco soon tumble headfirst into love, setting off a domino effect of dangerous consequences, and leaving the lives of everyone, from the performers to the patrons, hanging in the balance."

From the TBR Shelf #40: Thunderstruck by Erik Larson

Thunderstruck (2006) by Erik Larson

I was blown away by the brilliance of Larson's The Devil in the White City when I listened to it about a year and a half ago, so I knew that Thunderstruck was going to be great, too. Here, Larson tells two fascinating stories that converge at the mother of all low-speed chases (by ship). On the one hand, we learn about Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) and how his uprbinging and education led him to experiments in wireless technology, something that many other scientists and researchers were interested in at the turn of the twentieth century. On the other hand, we learn about the strange, tragic life of Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen (1862-1910), a practicioner of homeopathic medicine and later employee at various patent medicine companies.