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Weekly Words about New Books in
Independent Bookstores
May 21, 2017
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Three New Paperbacks To Consider For Your Summer Reading Lists
The Girls by Emma Cline. This first novel, a coming-of-age story set in Northern California the late 1960s and inspired by Charles Manson and his female followers, turned into one of last summer's big juicy vacation reads. The paperback release has been nicely timed to give
The Girls a shot at a
 nother strong summer run; here's a review from an independent bookseller who nominated the book for the June 2106
Indie Next list:
"Evie Boyd is a lonely 14-year-old adjusting to her parents' recent divorce and an emotional break with her childhood best friend. She encounters a wild and enchanting group of girls and is immediately drawn into their world of reckless abandon. Seduced by their
thrilling, cult-like family hidden in the California hills, Evie finds herself pulled
into events that will lead to unspeakable violence. Cline's captivating prose strips bare the deep desires and vulnerability of teenage Evie as she struggles for acceptance. The Girls is an enthralling and haunting novel that will linger with readers long after the last page.
- Tarah Jennings, Mitzi's Books, Rapid City, SD
Razor Girl by Carl Hiaasen. This entertaining romp features Hiaasen's trademark humor
and whacked-out characters. He has also created a winning female lead who has a unique tak
e on auto accident scams and who becomes more endearing as the plot thickens. Sh
e hooks up with ex-cop Andrew Yancy, whom readers first met in Hiaasen's Bad Monkey, to help investigate the disappearance of a reality TV star and his sleazy agent. Yancy is still doing penance for an incident when he was a sheriff's deputy, and his job as a Key West restaurant health inspector affords the author plenty of comic fodder. But rampant roaches are the least of the laughs; Hiaasen is a master of creating outrageous story lines and hilarious
ly amoral personalities, and Razor Girl features some of his best work. He also does a masterful job of pulling together a complicated series of plots and wrapping up the chaos he has dreamed up.
The Nix by Nathan Hill. In Norwegian folklore, the Nix is a spirit who steals children away from loved ones. Here, Samuel Andresen-Anderson, a college professor and stalled writer, has a Nix of his own: his mother, Faye. She
abandoned her family when he was only 11, and now she's reappeared, ha
ving committed an absurd crime that electrifies the nightly news and inflames a politically divided country. The media paints Faye as a radical hippie with a sordid past, but as far as Samuel knows, his mother was an ordinary girl who married her high-school sweetheart. She enlists Samuel's help, and that triggers a journey through the past as the son seeks to learn more about the mother he never really knew. This sweeping family story is set in 2011, but flashbacks in time, especially to the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, allow Hill to extend through several decades his masterful skewering of pop culture, academia, politics, and more.
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New Story Collection from a Literary Master
Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami.
Any new work by the prolific Japanese
author is welcomed by his fans, and since Murakami's novels and short stories have been translated into more than 50 languages, his fans are everywhere. Although he is rightly considered a  literary writer, his appeal reaches across genres and reading tastes. Several titles, including his most recent, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, have topped both independent bookstore and New York Times bestseller lists.
His latest is a collection of seven short stories, five of which have been published in The New Yorker. The overriding theme here is of men finding themselves alone and seemingly without love,
but that simple thread belies Murakami's wit and the emotional complexity he brings to their lives. These excerpts from a recent review in The Christian Science Monitor
afford a bit more insight:
"A whimsical delight. . . .The seven stories in his fourth story collection present another captivating treasure hunt of familiar Murakami motifs - including cats, jazz, whiskey, certain cigarettes, the moon, baseball, never-named characters, and - of course - the many men without women. . . Murakami always manages to entertain, surprise, and satisfy. . .Sanity might be overrated, but Murakami is surely not."
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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, you can click here to find the
nearest indie bookstore by simply entering your postal code.
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WHY THE COLUMN?
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Hi, I'm Hut Landon, and I work as a bookseller in an independent bookstore in BerkeIey, California.
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 receiving this column,
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