Book Passage Heads to Telegraph Avenue

Book Passage may be across the bay, but we feel like we’re smack dab in the middle of Telegraph Avenue these days. That’s because Pulitzer winner (and Book Passage favorite) Michael Chabon’s newest novel, Telegraph Avenue, hit our shelves this month.

To celebrate its publication, Mr. Chabon and his wife, author Ayelet Waldman, have offered to match any donations made to the Scholarmatch website through Thursday, September 25. Simply enter the code “BROKELAND2012” when making a donation. By donating you will not only be helping students achieve their dreams of going to college, you’ll also be entered to win a one-of-a-kind Telegraph Avenue 8-Track mixed tape and player. Click here to learn more and submit your donation.

And if that’s not enough musical inspiration for a book about a record store, Book Passage is also jamming to the incredible Telegraph Avenue Spotify playlist. Featuring tracks like “Trespasser” by Bad Medicine and “No Thing On Me” by Curtis Mayfield, this collection of tunes is the soundtrack of choice for reading your new copy of Telegraph Avenue. You can access the playlist by clicking here or listening to the tracks embedded below (please note: you open the playlist externally, you must have Spotify, which can be downloaded for free here).

Finally, Mr. Chabon may make his home in Berkeley, but we asked him to brave the bridge and give us a taste of Telegraph Avenue here in Corte Madera. Mr. Chabon will read, answer questions and sign books at our Corte Madera location on Monday, September 24. To learn more about reserving a seat for this event, click here. To request a signed copy of Telegraph Avenue, buy a copy from Book Passage and be sure to note your autograph preference in the comments field.

And remember, books are like vinyl: they never die.

The 2012 Notes & Words Essay Contest

Notes & Words is looking for the next great memoirist. We’re calling for short personal essays about the challenges of caring for a child (age 18 or younger), including medical issues (e.g., an accident, illness or diagnosis) or emotional crises (e.g., a death, divorce, breakdown) or one of any one of the more common parenting dramas (e.g., academic, social, athletic, epicurean).  We welcome both humorous and serious essays of up to 800 words.
The first prize winner will have one-on-one phone consultations with:

• A senior editor at Random House/Ballantine
• A top literary agent at ICM
• The Executive Editor of O Magazine

and introductions to:

• Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize winner
• Anne Lamott, New York Times bestselling author
• John Hodgman, The Daily Show and HBO’s Bored to Death
• Kelly Corrigan, New York Times bestselling author

Finalists will receive two tickets to Notes & Words performance and after-party on April 28, 2012 at The Fox Theater in Oakland.
Click here for a list of Frequently Asked Questions
Click here for the Official Contest Rules

Read more about Notes & Words
 

Musings from the Buyer: March-April 2010

by Sheryl Cotleur

Literary journals have caught my eye lately because, for a couple of them, the quality and freshness has been extraordinary.  McSweeney’s literary journal is a quarterly started in 1998 and edited by Dave Eggers. This is just one branch of the McSweeney’s publishing ventures. Each of the volumes is exceptionally and uniquely designed as well, so you also get a beautiful package. They outdid—and perhaps even surprised—themselves with Issue #33, which hit the streets December 8th, and is called Panorama. This journal was published in newspaper format to honor that beleaguered form of the written word and looks like a high quality edition of a Sunday NY Times.  Its appearance caused a frenzy—all the local independent bookstores selling so many copies that McSweeney’s had to go back to press right away based on demand, and the fact that they had no stock left to send out of state. No wonder as this journal is chock full of good writing. With 218 contributors, 96 pages on books, 10 sections such as News, long form journalism, Arts, Poetry, Sports, Comics, Food, Opinion & Analysis, the breadth and depth of coverage is not to be believed. There’s Michael Chabon on girl groups, Andrew Sean Greer on NASCAR, Stephen King on baseball and countless others known and unknown. Even the comics are produced by leading edge graphic artists. All this for $16.95. It is the most exciting, creatively packaged singular edition of a literary journal I’ve ever seen—and endlessly fascinating.

I have also become more and more impressed with GRANTA, which is quite venerable as literary journals go. It was founded in 1889 by Cambridge students but saw a rebirth into its more current manifestation after 1979. The last few issues have emerged under the helm of new editor John Freeman.  Each issue of GRANTA usually follows a theme; the current issue #109 being Work, issue #108 was Chicago. They advertise themselves as publishing a distinctive mix of fiction, personal history, reportage, inquiring journalism & documentary photography. The authors who’ve found brief lives there on the page are a veritable who’s who of literary lights, alas too numerous to name. I used to think of myself as someone who dabbles at reading this sort of book, but the last 3 issues of GRANTA have caught me up and kept me going from beginning to end each time. Good writing is good writing, and now I’m on a kick to get more people to investigate the surprising, engaging and powerful work therein.  It seems to me that these literary journals are fertile ground for a kind of freedom in writing that does not always extend itself through longer works. At the very least they provide a playful literary landscape for writers, as though they’ve been given a shovel left on a beach and told to go build castles.

Even here in Marin we have the newish West Marin Review created by and supported by a collective of lively folks in West Marin. Full of writing and the arts inspired by the extraordinary landscape of West Marin they’ve published writers both local and as far flung as Central America and Europe.  I cannot possibly name and honor all the hundreds of worthy literary journals on the scene now, but if these examples serve any purpose, it is to encourage greater attention to this form of writing. You will be astonished, moved and engaged by what you find.

--Book Passage Buyer, Sheryl Cotleur