SHERMAN ALEXIE started it. In a bookstore-specific twist on Small Business Saturday, he challenged his fellow authors to spend the day working in their local indie bookstores. Portland writers took up the challenge; this Saturday, November 30, they'll descend on bookstores to sign books, talk to customers, and hand-sell their favorite titles. Here's a peek at participating authors, and some of the titles they recommend.
"You haven't read anything quite like Mira Corpora, the debut novel by Jeff Jackson. It is entirely, precisely itself, as the best art is. I finished the last chapter in a tub long gone cold because I couldn't stop reading, and it felt right to reach the last page naked and pruned and shivering. A swift little miracle of a book."—Cari Luna, author of The Revolution of Every Day; working at Broadway Books
"The book that, more than any other, made me want to write is James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Like a lot of masterpieces, it's uncategorizable. Agee's intent was to do a mere article on 1930s Alabama sharecroppers. What he wound up with was a breathtaking, massively idiosyncratic, soul-stirring meditation on the mysteries of human existence.—William Todd Schultz, author of Torment Saint: The Life of Elliott Smith, working at Powell's on Burnside, 1-3 pm
"Amy Leach's Things That Are takes jellyfish, fainting goats, and imperturbable caterpillars as just a few of its many inspirations. In a series of essays that progress from the tiniest earth dwellers to the most far-flung celestial bodies, Leach rekindles a vital communion with the wild world, dormant for far too long. It is a book of wonder, one the reader cannot help but leave with their perceptions both expanded and confounded in delightful ways."—Peter Rock, author of My Abandonment; working at Powell's Books on Hawthorne, 3-5 pm
"The book I keep forcing on people this year is Book Two of My Struggle, by Karl Ove Knausgaard. Imagine if Proust were Norwegian, had a sense of humor, and actually went out and did stuff as an adult, like get married and have children. Knausgaard takes the microscope to his recent past; it's a thrilling and frightening thing to witness."—Michael Heald, author of Goodbye to the Nervous Apprehension; working at Reading Frenzy, 1-3 pm
"I recommend Breakfast: A History, by Heather Arndt Anderson. It tells the history of breakfast, the world's holiest institution, yet still manages to be funny. It's both scholarly and full of great quotes from old dudes condemning waffles or referring to eggs as death orbs and stuff like that."—Mark Russell, author of God Is Disappointed in You; working at Reading Frenzy, 11 am-1 pm; Powell's City of Books, 2-4 pm
"I used to review novels for Publishers Weekly, and one that still stands out is 2009's I Am Not Sidney Poitier, by Percival Everett. The dialogue spoken by a media mogul character who happens to be named Ted Turner is flat-out hysterical, just like everything else in this charming and biting satire."—Richard Melo, author of Happy Talk; working at Broadway Books; Powell's City of Books, 2-4 pm
"This summer was my Rolling Stones summer—I couldn't get enough of their music. I also followed their lead and burned the candle on both ends. Life by Keith Richards was my wildcard friend while the days were long. In it he says of songwriting: 'In a way you want to stretch yourself into other people's hearts... tightening the heartstrings as much as possible without bringing on a heart attack.' Fuck yes."—Liz Crain, co-author of Toro Bravo; working at Powell's City of Books, noon-2 pm
"Ballad by Blexbolex is a fairy tale that starts in the real world and gradually becomes more surreal. Sparse text and fairy-tale elements invert through repetition as the story develops into something interpretive, complex, and magical. The illustrations are gorgeous; modern, textural, and hyper-evocative. I can't stop looking at it."—Amy Martin, author of Symphony City; working at Reading Frenzy, 3-5 pm
"I'll admit it: I have a crush on Meg Rosoff. She writes stories that make my heart sing. Picture Me Gone is the poignant portrayal of Mila, a girl who uses her super-fab skills of observation to find her father's missing best friend. She's also named after a dog."—Kari Luna, author of The Theory of Everything; working at Green Bean Books, 3-4 pm
"Macabre artist Gris Grimly transforms Mary Shelley's classic into a visual triumph. The plot of Frankenstein may seem tame or dull to modern readers, but Grimly's superb artwork brings real horror and passion to this skillful adaptation. It will inspire a new generation to shudder at the name 'Frankenstein.'"—Chris Bolton, author of Smash: Trial by Fire; working at Powell's City of Books, noon-2 pm
"In Of Walking in Rain, the latest installment of Matt Love's ongoing romance with all things Oregon, he calls rain 'the juice,' and he makes you want to drink it right out of the air. Fanciful, relentless, mystical, comic, big-hearted, combative, and never boring, this is a gloriously obsessive collection of journal entries and essays."—Stevan Allred, author of A Simplified Map of the Real World; working at Powell's City of Books, 10 am-noon
"George Saunders' Tenth of December is a collection of short stories exploring some familiar Saundersian territory—suburban dystopias, odd theme parks, and well-meaning outsiders struggling to achieve some semblance of belonging—with an ever-expanding sense of empathy and the absurd."—Chris Santella, author of Fifty Places to Ski and Snowboard Before You Die; working at Powell's on Hawthorne, noon-2 pm
"Two novels I read recently and loved are A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra and Frances and Bernard by Carlene Bauer. Marra's novel, set in contemporary Chechnya, is reminiscent of Tarkovsky's films; Bauer's is an epistolary novel set in the 1950s based on a potential relationship between Flannery O'Connor and Robert Lowell."—Amanda Coplin, author of The Orchardist; working at Powell's on Hawthorne, 1-3 pm
"Novel: Old School by Tobias Wolff. It's a perfect, jewel-like novel. Short stories: The Lone Pilgrim by Laurie Colwin. Because they sneak up on you. Poetry: The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara. Because he's Frank O'Hara. Essays: The Professor and Other Writings by Terry Castle, because Castle just makes for great company."—Whitney Otto, author of Eight Girls Taking Pictures; working at Broadway Books; Powell's City of Books, 2-4 pm
"In Don't Kiss Me, Lindsay Hunter relishes in her characters' grossest utterances with sentences that are broken-glass sharp. Her stories are reminiscent of William S. Burroughs or the unhinged fictions of Lidia Yuknavitch, but this is Lindsay Hunter creating her own mad territories. She makes me feel lit up and a little scared."—Kevin Sampsell, author of This Is Between Us; working at Broadway Books
