This month, Daley offers three bold and incisive books that confront the ominous portents of hurricane season in the Gulf South, family, and the whole big, messy project of America in equal measure.
During our Kickstarter campaign, one of the promises we made was to support emerging writers—those with just a debut or second book to their name. Emerging writers often struggle to reach readers in the marketplace because it favors guaranteed sales from proven authors, so we pledged to read, stock, and celebrate their books in part by devoting an entire section of Milkweed Books to their work. Our front display (the first thing you see when you walk in the door!) is dedicated to these important books, but that’s not the only place you can find them. Shelf talkers noting “Debut Author!” punctuate…
The next Milkweed Books Subscription pick is here! Read on for more about Edward McPherson’s The History of the Future, plus other books that explore American myths and misdeeds, boomtowns and Doom Towns.
In precise sentences and assured prose, all three of these writers have crafted singular works of personal nonfiction.
My reading of novels is often framed by a theme, be it an idea or location or era. Lately, that theme is novels that contain both sadness and humor.
Like all of us at Milkweed Books, I like to read across genres, but I have a soft spot for books that are themselves cross-genre, and particularly those that mess up the lines delineating what is and isn’t fiction. The following selections are a few such titles I’ve loved. One I received at a party, one I bought on a whim at another independent bookstore (shout-out to Subtext Books, my neighborhood store), and another I read after seeing it in the social media feeds of a few other trusted bookstores and booksellers. I wouldn’t normally include two books from the same press, but The Gift comes out in early May and I want everyone to read it right away, so Coffee House gets two this time.
This month I picked three books I eyed for a while before finally picking up—ones I knew I would want to devote an entire, uninterrupted afternoon to read. Daley and I sometimes joke about how we aren’t sure whether we like books or whether we are just so haunted by them we can’t let them go. These are three I definitely enjoyed while reading but, more importantly, they are books that have been lodged in my brain for weeks, ones I find myself wanting to return to and talk about and share.
“Masterpiece” is a label I am quite wary to use on contemporary literature, but Lincoln in the Bardo has won me over so completely that I’m afraid I can’t avoid it. In fact, I didn’t even want to write this post. Colson Whitehead has already reviewed the book masterfully and George Saunders certainly doesn’t need our help in boosting sales for his eighth book of fiction—even though this is his first novel. But: there are books we read and enjoy for their prose or creativity in storytelling; books we enjoy while reading and then forget fairly quickly. This, for me, is no such book.
We are excited to take a risk at Milkweed Books on stocking great literary writing and engaging new audiences in inventive ways. Here’s a look at all we have in store, and how you can get involved.
A couple months ago, we announced plans to open Milkweed Books—a new nonprofit, independent bookstore with big ambitions. At Milkweed Books, we’ll be selling our books alongside others published by our fellow independent and nonprofit presses, who, like us, are working to bring groundbreaking literary art to the marketplace.
