Sep 01 2010
Update!
I just know you’re wondering what our most popular books are. New list here.
Archive for the 'Bestsellers' Category
Jun 24 2010
Kill. Mock. Repeat.
My favorite part of our database, Visual Anthology, is that you can type in partial keywords and it finds the book. (Every once in awhile she shuts down on us but in general I couldn’t have designed a better database myself. I mean I couldn’t have designed a database myself. She’s as helpful as Rosie [...]
Jun 15 2010
Matterhorn
Before I’d read a word of it and well before it was published this spring, I knew that Karl Marlantes’s debut novel, Matterhorn (Atlantic Monthly Press, $24.95), was the recipient of some major publishing industry push. The hype machine had been well oiled for this one. But sometimes hype surprises; sometimes it’s completely warranted. I’m not going [...]
May 07 2010
Bolañew
The post title’s a stretch but great news, Roberto Bolaño fans! New material was found by the recently deceased Chilean sci-fi/war/realist novelist (??). I’m not sure what genre he is, but I like him. Some really cool customers told me about this and I think I found the Guardian article from 2009. It promises some new [...]
Apr 26 2010
Total War
What can one say or write — coherently, meaningfully — about war? Combat itself will only ever be understood truly by those who have experienced it; the rest of us are in the dark, making more or less educated guesses about something totally beyond the scope of any normal human undertaking. But, war always fascinates [...]
Apr 15 2010
Stalk Home
We’ve noticed here at Subterranean that Scandinavian mystery writers have a huge following. The couple Maj Sjöwall and Per Fredrik Wahlöö started this trend in the 1960′s with their Martin Beck detective novel series. A great short article in the Economist follows Nordic mystery writers from Sjöwall and Wahlöö’s day to Stieg Larsson’s Millenium Series [...]
Apr 06 2010
Michael Cox’s Ripping Yarn
Every once in a blue moon I get the hankering for something uncomplicated and fast-moving. A good pageturner. This winter, during January’s long sunless stretch, I picked up Michael Cox’s The Meaning of Night (W.W. Norton, $14.95). I liked the jacket design, I like nearly everything the publisher releases, and it was English. Very English. [...]
Mar 25 2010
‘All Praise to . . .’
‘Tell that Arnold Bennett that all his rules about plot only apply to novels that are copies of other novels.’ I probably think about Roberto Bolaño’s books everyday but I can’t really think of anything positive or concrete to say about him. I guess that’s where the extensive quoting is going to come into play. [...]
Mar 12 2010
Immigrant Song?
Imagining what it is like to be someone other than oneself is at the core of our humanity. It is the essence of compassion, and it is the beginning of morality.—Ian McEwan Two recent works of fiction, 2007′s The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengetsu and 2008′s Netherland by Joseph O’Neill, are about [...]
Jan 23 2010
Need a Planner, You Say?
It took me a long time to join the planner bandwagon, but dang am I fully on that horse now. Watch the panic ensue, should I not be able to find my Moleskine. We have a few styles in stock this year, although the pickin’s are gettin’ slim. Pocket Daily (a page per day) [...]