New Books In, September 2016

This month was another great book month, from new subscription services to book signings to books I've been waiting for! Malaprop's, the best independent bookstore in my area (in Asheville, NC), has started offering the Homeward Bound Paperback Originals subscription service. They select one title a month, something that started out in paperback, in creative non-fiction or fiction. I'm hoping they might include poetry too from time to time, but the fun is in not knowing what will come! My first month was Cole's "Known and Strange Things," a book I would have read because I read everything by that author. The most recent is the Helm, a book I had not heard anything about! So that's working out well.

The Aitkenhead was the September pick for Book of the Month, the Chayut is the October pick for my book club, and I picked up the Brosh from another book clubber (we recycle our books on one another.)

Ron Rash did a reading/signing at M. Judson Books on Main Street in Greenville, SC, and I went and had the book signed. He had just returned from a long weekend at the Decatur Book Festival (in Georgia) and ended up having to cancel some of his dates due to a back injury. So it felt like good timing. I've encountered Rash before at various author and book events in the state, because he is pretty local. For some reason, the bookstore only has chairs for tiny people, so it was a well-attended but super uncomfortable event. I hope they can buy some normal chairs for events. (I'm not kidding, apart from the cafe chairs they pulled out these kindergarten sized chairs that are a good idea for zero adults I know. I'm not sure what the thinking is.)

Random House sent me the Picoult unrequested, and it looks interesting.

Last but certainly not least, I'd had the Bradley pre-ordered since February and now it is mine!