Bookstore / Roundup
Bookseller Recommendations: September
This week marks two years since we opened Milkweed Books, our independent bookstore in the Open Book building. Here are this month’s recommendations, in which four real people suggest good books we think you might like, too!
Authors
Excerpt: The Final Voicemails by Max Ritvo
Max Ritvo was a prodigiously gifted poet; toward the end of his life, he was also volcanically productive. Nothing he wrote was without flashes of brilliance, but many of these late poems would surely have been revised or jettisoned; it was slow work to sift out the very best. This he asked me to do—it seemed to me an essential labor lest the weaker poems dilute the stronger. What follows, obviously, reflects my judgment. Nothing has been revised; Elizabeth Metzger, Max’s designated literary executor, suggested one minute cut. Cancer was Max’s tragedy; it was also, as he was canny enough to see, his opportunity. Poets who die at twenty-five do not commonly leave bodies of work so urgent, so daring, so supple, so desperately alive.
Louise Glück
Louise Glück is one of America’s most honored contemporary poets. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Glück is a former Poet Laureate of the United States and the author of a dozen widely acclaimed books. Gluck’s most recent collection, Faithful and Virtuous Night, won the National Book Award for Poetry. Other recent books are A Village Life, which was shortlisted for the International Griffin Poetry Prize, and Averno, which was nominated for the National Book Award, won the L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award, and was listed by The New York Times Book Review as one of the 100 Notable Books of the Year.
San José, CA
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Analicia Sotelo at the San José Museum of Art
The Center for Literary Arts at San José State University is proud to present Analicia Sotelo (Virgin): A Poetry Reading at the San José Museum of Art.
Telford, PA
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David Keplinger at the Indian Valley Public Library
David Keplinger will read from his newest collection of poetry, Another City, and share an excerpt from his upcoming young adult novel based loosely on his childhood in the Indian Valley.
Missoula, MT
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Montana Book Festival Presents Hearth
The Montana Book Festival is proud of present Hearth: A Global Conversation on Community, Identity, and Place with visiting panelists and contributors to the collection, Gretel Ehrlich, Debra Earling and Christopher Merrill.
Richmond, KY
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Amy & Dave Freeman at Eastern Kentucky University
A Year in the Wilderness duo Amy & Dave Freeman will be featured in Eastern Kentucky University’s Annual Bruce MacLaren Distinguished Lecture and Keynote Address for Celebration of Science Week.
Chicago, IL
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Sarah Ruhl at Unabridged Bookstore
Unabridged Bookstore will host Sarah Ruhl (Letters from Max) in conversation with director Jessica Thebus with a Q&A and booksigning to follow the discussion.
Cincinnati, OH
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Sarah Ruhl at Joseph-Beth Booksellers
Playwright and author Sarah Ruhl will read passages from her newest collection, Letters from Max: A Book of Friendship at the Cincinnati location of Joseph-Beth Booksellers.