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Weekly Words about New Books in
Independent Bookstores
January 31, 2016
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Diverting Relationships - Two Takes on Modern Families
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The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie. Just in time for Valentine's Day comes an entertaining modern love story featuring a charming young
 translator (of Norwegian) and her neurosurgeon fiance who find their imminent wedding plans on the verge of collapse. You have to expect something a little different from an author whose heroine is named after Thorstein Veblen, the early 20th-century economist who coined the phrase "conspicuous consumption," and McKenzie certainly delivers.
The Portable Verblan is an Indie Next pick for February, and here's one independent bookseller's review:
"This story of an engaged couple trying to navigate crazy family dynamics, betrayal, and professional dilemmas on their way to getting married is one of the funniest, most unique novels I've ever read. If you simply list the story's elements - a hippy commune, a combat field-medicine controversy, screaming snails, a devious pharmaceutical exec, a long-dead social theorist, the world's greatest hypochondriac, and a main character who believes a squirrel is following her around California trying to tell her something - you would think that there is just no way it could all come together, but it absolutely does, and ingeniously so. A terrific book!"
- Rico Lange, Bookshop Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA
Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson. Mimi Banning is a one-hit wonder, an author who wrote a hugely successful novel and then became something of a recluse living in Bel Air. But when she loses her fortune in a po
 nzi scheme, she contacts her New York publisher and offers to write a new book to bail herself out of debt. The deal is done, and the publishing house sends out a young overseer to make sure Mimi gets the job done. But when Alice Whitley arrives at the Banning mansion, she's put to work right away as a full-time companion to Frank, the writer's eccentric 9-year-old - a boy with the wit of Noel Coward, the wardrobe of a 1930s movie star, and very little in common with his fellow fourth-graders. Alice soon becomes consumed with uncovering the identity of the boy's father while, at the same time, monitoring Mimi's behind-closed-doors progress. Johnson's debut effort is enhanced by her depiction of Frank, the quirky boy genius at the centerpiece of this strange but endearing family.
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Exposing the Koch Brothers' Web of Influence
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Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer. An immediate must-read when it hit independent bookstore shelves, this powerful, meticulously reported history chronicles how a network of exceedingly wealthy people with extreme libertarian views bankrolled a systematic, step-by-step plan to
 fundamentally alter the American political system. The network has brought together some of the richest people on the planet, all with the core belief that taxes are a form of tyranny and that government oversight of business is an assault on freedom. But these beliefs also advance their personal and corporate interests: Many of their companies have run afoul of federal pollution, worker safety, securities, and tax laws.
It will surprise no one that the 'stars' of the book are Charles and David Koch, the right-wing billionaire brothers schooled in a political philosophy that asserts the only role of government is to provide security and to enforce property rights. Their efforts to influence and control politics to their benefit are meticulously examined and exposed here, backed by Mayer's five years of research.
Dark Money is also eminently readable, which should be no surprise. Mayer is a longtime correspondent for
The New Yorker and the author of three other books.
The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals, published in 2008, won several awards and was a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
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WHERE TO FIND
AN INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE
Many of you already have a favorite local bookstore, but for those of you without such a relationship,
this link
will take you to a list of Northern California
indie bookstores
by region.
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COMMENTS, FEEDBACK
I always love hearing from folks, so please feel free to let me know what you're reading, make a comment, or ask a question.
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anytime.
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WHO'S HUT?
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Hi, I'm Hut Landon. I previously owned a local independent bookstore and was head of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA) in San Francisco for many years. Now semi-retired, I work part-time as an independent bookseller.
My goal with this newsletter is to keep readers up to date about new books hitting the shelves, share what indie booksellers are recommending in their stores, and pass on occasional news about the book world.
I'm not into long, wordy reviews or literary criticism; I'd like HUT'S PLACE to be a quick, fun read for book buyers. If you have any friends who you think might like
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