How to use this Page

Author and artist Miranda July’s new book came out this fall. The First Bad Man is July’s first novel (She has previously published a short story collection, a screenplay, and a book based on an art project about love).

The novel “tells the story of Cheryl, a vulnerable, uptight woman in her early forties who lives alone, with a perpetual lump in her throat, unable to cry.” In an interview with The Believer, July revealed that the similarities she shares with the book’s main character. Check it out:

Well, it’s funny: when my husband read this book—which he only just did fairly recently, after it was done—he was like, “Oh, well, this is just you, this total insanity.” Not the whole character of Cheryl, but the part about cleaning the house, thinking of yourself as your own servant so that you’re not cleaning the house. I appear to be really into cleaning, but actually I hate it so much that I have to disassociate—it can’t really be me doing it.

An online store selling objects from the new book launched last December.

Q: I finished school two years ago (with a degree in literature) and was suffering from the worst reading burnout I've ever had in my life. I simply forgot how to read for entertainment. I recently broke up with Netflix and feel that I'm ready to jump back in to reading for me again. I [...]

We’ve collected the books debuting on Indiebound’s Indie Bestseller List for the week ending January 18, 2015–a sneak peek at the books everybody will be talking about next month.

(Debuted at #3 in Hardcover Fiction) The First Bad Man by Miranda July: “When Cheryl’s bosses ask if their twenty-one-year-old daughter, Clee, can move into her house for a little while, Cheryl’s eccentrically ordered world explodes. And yet it is Clee—the selfish, cruel blond bombshell—who bullies Cheryl into reality and, unexpectedly, provides her the love of a lifetime.” (January 2015)

(Debuted at #1 in Children’s Interest) Looking for Alaska (Special 10th Anniversary Edition) by John Green: “Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words—and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called \"The Great Perhaps.\" Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young, who will pull Miles inter her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.” (January 2015)

(Debuted at #13 in Children’s Illustrated) Paddington written by Michael Bond & illustrated by R.W. Alley: “Nearly fifty years ago, a small bear from Darkest Peru set out on an adventure of a lifetime. With nothing but a suitcase, several jars of marmalade, and a label around his neck that read, “Please Look After This Bear,” he stowed away on a ship headed for faraway England. When the little bear arrived at London’s busy Paddington Station, he was discovered by Mr. and Mrs. Brown. As luck would have it, the Browns were just the sort of people to welcome a lost bear into their family.” (June 2007)

In the legend, Scheherazade told her king 1,000 stories; today, she would have 1,001 ways to tell them. James Atlas, writing in the New York Times, listens as we move from books to e-books to \"no-books,\" and he is happy to celebrate the long tradition of \"non-text-based\" literature (read oral literature or podcast) making a comeback. Other authors arrive in print, and come bearing gifts beyond the book itself.

Atlas cites thriller writer Jeffery Deaver, whose new audio drama for Audible, “The Starling Project,” is narrated by Alfred Molina and features 29 actors in more than 80 speaking roles, created with \"state-of-the-art sound and music design.\" It’s a dramatic audiobook, and there is no plan for a follow-on text-based book, print or e-book.

Chicago-based writer Shannon Cason shares his memories on a podcast called \"Homemade Stories.\" Called a \"storyteller’s storyteller\" by public radio’s Glynn Washington, Cason includes sound effects in his storytelling…barking dogs, a bouncing basketball…to bring us to his neighborhood and into his tale.

Utilizing print, and transforming the experience of her work by adding an art project/performance art/marketing piece, Miranda July is selling 50 items on her website that were created to be handled as if they fell directly out of the pages of her debut novel, The First Bad Man. There’s bubble-gum-flavored popcorn, a broken vase, a pink hairbrush, a secret in an envelope. In the New York Times, Alexandra Alter said, \"By allowing fans and readers to own items that previously existed only in her imagination and on the page, Ms. July is attempting to blur the line between fiction and reality, a boundary that she’s constantly puncturing through her performance art and writing.\"

Miranda July told the Times:

\"Often, these marketing-type projects are just a millimeter away from my actual work. I like people feeling like they could almost be that person in the story, crossing this line that’s not supposed to be permeable.\"

Cheryl is our obsessively depraved narrator who winds up taking in her boss’s verbally abusive grown daughter, Clee. An utterly explosive relationship develops between the unlikely pair, resulting in a comically bizarre, heartrending, and wholly unexpected outcome in this brave new work by Miranda July. Books mentioned in this post The First Bad Man Miranda [...]

Scribner, an imprint at Simon & Schuster, has launched a new digital publication called Scribner Magazine.

Here’s more from the press release: “Inspired by the publisher’s celebrated sister publication Scribner’s Magazine (1887-1939), but reimagined for the 21st century reader, Scribner Magazine will feature original writing and interactive media, along with written and audio book excerpts, photo galleries, author-curated music playlists, bookseller reviews, and articles that offer a glimpse inside the world of publishing. Scribner Magazine also integrates Scribner’s popular Twitter feed, and the site highlights current Scribner book news and author events, so consumers can stay informed about their favorite writers.”

The first issue features a diverse range of content such as rare photographs from the publication of Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises: The Hemingway Library Edition, an audio recording of the “Something That Needs Nothing” short story written and read by Miranda July, and pieces from several high profile contributors. Novelist Anthony Doerr wrote an essay about the writing process for All The Light We Cannot See, actor James Franco reveals how he became a writer in an essay, and Betsy Burton, a bookseller from The King’s English Bookshop, penned a review of Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Oyster, the eBook subscription service that has been referred to as "the Netflix of eBooks," now has 500,000 eBooks in its lending library. New titles include: How Music Works by David Byrne, Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver, Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon, The Cider House Rules by John Irving and It Chooses You by Miranda July. This is huge growth for the company's catalog which counted only about 100,000 titles a few months back. The company raised $14 million in funding back in January and has since been expanding its publisher partnerships. The service launched kids books in February. The service allows users access to its entire collection of books for a $9.95 a month subscription fee.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

This round of Required Reading is dedicated to the place we at Powell's Books call home: the great Pacific Northwest. Whether you're from the area or you simply appreciate the region for its beauty, history, temperament, or legendary bookstore, these titles will give you a more nuanced understanding of this peculiar corner of the U.S. [...]

This round of Required Reading is dedicated to the place we at Powell's Books call home: the great Pacific Northwest. Whether you're from the area or you simply appreciate the region for its beauty, history, temperament, or legendary bookstore, these titles will give you a more nuanced understanding of this peculiar corner of the U.S. [...]

Stephen King’s longtime editor Nan Graham has been promoted to publisher and senior VP of Simon & Schuster’s Scribner imprint.

Graham has spent 18 years at the imprint, working with authors that included Don DeLillo, Miranda July, Frank McCourt, Annie Proulx, and Colm Toibin. Scribner Publishing Group president Susan Moldow had this statement in the release:

“As if Nan hadn’t amply proven how deserved this promotion is by her firm hand in shaping the list and staff and insuring the growth of the Scribner imprint over the last eighteen years, her performance of late surely demonstrates that she continues to exercise her singular editorial instincts, abilities, and leadership qualities at the highest levels.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The revisions on Violet Raines Almost Got Struck By Lightning have been accepted and the manuscript is now in copyediting! How exciting! Other bloggers have recently posted about seeing their cover art for the first time. I can't wait to see mine. It'll be interesting to view another person's interpretation, or what they feel best represents the book. Things are moving along!

In other news, my van would not start today. I feel well-versed in certain mechanical problems such as alternators, CV boots, and brake pads. I don't know how to fix them, but I know what they sound like, thanks to the cars I owned during my singlehood. When I called my husband and described the problem, he said alternator, which was exactly what I had diagnosed. Ha!

I plan to shop over the Internet today. I haven't started my shopping yet, can you believe it? Decorating, yes; shopping, no. Don't tell anyone, but I don't like going to the mall. Aack! There! I've said it! I hate shopping. And even over the Internet, it can take hours trying to review similar products and get customer reviews (since you aren't actually handling the item). But such is my assignment today.

The other big news is that my little mommy is in town! I have loaded up on one dollar bills and quarters so we can hit the garage sales this Friday. (She leaves Friday night.) No one beats my mom at a garage sale; click here to read about the master at work.