Our book club pick for March is Lifespan of a Fact, which is really only kinda sorta a book. It presents an original article on the suicide of a Vegas teen, written by John D'Agata, and the correspondence between him and his factchecker Jim Fingal on what facts were changed, why they were changed, and what does the word "fact" mean anyway? 10% off the month leading up to discussion!
Staff favorite Barry Lyga (Goth Girl Rising, Mangaman) presents his newest novel, I Hunt Killers, in an interview with his editor Alvina Ling. Killers follows teenager Jazz, the son of a serial killer, as he tries to keep himself free from suspicion after several murders happen near his town and local police wonder if he's not following in Dad's footsteps. (Jenn is referring to this book as Dexter Morgan meets Matt from Friday Night Lights, which should give you some idea of how creepifyingly entertaining it is.) Facebook RSVP appreciated.
Tapping her own experiences in Hollywood, local author Janyce Stefan-Cole reveals the dark side of the silver screen in her debut novel Hollywood Boulevard. A lapsed actress, a PI, murder and mystery, celebrity and obsession, all combine to make quite a tale. She’ll present her novel at a launch party complete with refreshments. Facebook RSVP appreciated.
April’s Largehearted Lit, a series that celebrates music, books, and their intersection, features Will Boast and Eleanor Henderson. Boast’s short story collection Power Ballads follows working musicians from arenas to polka-bars, while Henderson’s novel Ten Thousand Saints dives into the heart of the straight-edge scene in 1990s New York. They’ll each be speaking about music’s influence on their writing, and will be joined by a guest musician. Facebook RSVP appreciated.
This month we'll discuss Hav, perhaps the world's only work of speculative fiction travel writing.
Our book group kicks off in April with Hot Stuff, Alice Echols's acclaimed history of disco -- which promises to show new layers to an often-dismissed style of music. 10% off all March!
Author Puck and illustrator Violet will lead an interactive drawing workshop for kids organized around their activity book Doodle New York, which is filled with city landmarks and projects to spark imagination and curiosity. Recommended for ages 5 and up, all ages welcome.
THIS EVENT IS CLOSED! Tickets are no longer available, but you're welcome to come for the open signing at 8:30pm in the store.
Join acclaimed author Eloisa James for a special dinner and book talk. James will be introducing her memoir, Paris In Love, and chatting with attendees, at Le Gamin (108 Franklin St.). Tickets are $45, and include light dinner, drinks, and a copy of the new book. Space is limited, so reserve your spot now!
In 2009, New York Times bestselling author Eloisa James took a leap that many people dream about: she sold her house, took a sabbatical from her job as a Shakespeare professor, and moved her family to Paris. Paris in Love: A Memoir chronicles her joyful year in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
With no classes to teach, no committee meetings to attend, no lawn to mow or cars to park, Eloisa revels in the ordinary pleasures of life—discovering corner museums that tourists overlook, chronicling Frenchwomen’s sartorial triumphs, walking from one end of Paris to another. She copes with her Italian husband’s notions of quality time; her two hilarious children, ages eleven and fifteen, as they navigate schools—not to mention puberty—in a foreign language; and her mother-in-law Marina’s raised eyebrow in the kitchen (even as Marina overfeeds Milo, the family dog).
Novelists Haley Tanner (Vaclav & Lena) and Alexi Zentner (Touch) will be on hand for a joint discussion about setting in fiction and the pros and cons of real places vs. imaginary locales.
In Vaclav & Lena, Tanner shows readers New York (specifically Brighton Beach and Coney Island) from the eyes of two Russian-immigrant children -- a place of wonder and magic as well as confusion and grief. In Zentner's imaginary Sawgamet, real magic and mystery lurk in the woods.
Facebook RVSP encouraged (but not required).
Our May pick, Liberation by Brian Francis Slattery, is one of Jenn's top five favorite post-apocalypse novels of all time. America is an economic disaster, human beings are the preferred form of currency, and a former heist gang may be the best hope that the country has of putting things to rights. 10% off all April!
On May 5th, the core members of the Greenpoint Writers Group will share excerpts from their latest works-in-progress. This event marks the conclusion of a 3-month intensive, in which the writers met weekly to develop all new work. This Spring, readings look to cover a range of genres and disciplines, including historical fiction, film biopic, noir thriller, and more. Beyond the words, words, words, there will be an overkill of free booze, so please do come and start your Cinco de Mayo celebration with your friendly neighborhood writing collective.
Writers include Jessica Glazer, Christianne Hedtke, Jonathan Herzog, Crispin Kott, Nathaniel Kressen, Logan Medland, Danielle Pollack, and Laura Weinert-Kendt.
Hugo/Nebula Award winner Paolo Bacigalupi (The Drowned Cities) and Hugo/Nebula nominee N.K. Jemisin (The Killing Moon) will be in conversation with fellow sci-fi writer K. Tempest Bradford on their new books, world-building, the writing life, and more.
Bacigalupi is the author of The Windup Girl and Shipbreaker, both of which are perennial staff picks at WORD. Jemisin is a recent discovery of ours but no less beloved -- The Killing Moon, first in her new Dreamblood duo, has been the topic of effusive and adoring emails between several staffers.
Facebook RSVP encouraged, but not required.
One night only: Internet friends IRL! Three fiction writers who all first met in the virtual world now all know each other in the actual world, and prove it by reading together in a real brick-and-mortar bookstore. Mark Doten is a Greenpoint local. Justin Taylor is a Bushwick ex-pat now clinging to the fringe of Park Slope. Gregory Howard is visiting from Bangor, Maine.
Facebook RSVP encouraged, but not required.
NPR’s Brooke Gladstone and artist Josh Neufeld will dish on the state of modern media, the process of creating The Influencing Machine and more with a multimedia presentation, Q&A, and signing.
In The Influencing Machine, NPR 's Brooke Gladstone guides us through two millennia of media history, debunking the notion that The Media is an external force beyond our control and equipping us to be savvy consumers and shapers of the news. They burst onto the page in vivid comics, thanks to the artistry of Josh Neufeld.
Facebook RSVP encouraged, but not required.
Our favorite lifestyle guinea pig AJ Jacobs will be in conversation with fellow improvement-junkie Gretchen Rubin in honor of his newest book, Drop Dead Healthy. What does it take to become the healthiest person on earth, and how happy does it make you in the long run? Jacobs will also read from the book, and both authors will take questions and sign.
Facebook RSVP encourage, but not required.
Our year of Brits continues! (Hughes is technically Welsh, but don't tell anyone.) Set against the unstable world of Europe between World Wars as well as the unstable impulses of a man who thinks he's been wronged.
Geoff Dyer has a particular talent at writing about music, film, and literature. In May, we'll look at his book But Beautiful, a collection of impressionistic portraits of jazz musicians. 10% off leading up to the discussion!
Brian Francis Slattery presents his new novel Lost Everything, in a launch party extravaganza accompanied by Dr. Caterwaul's Cadre of Clairvoyant Claptraps. The band will perform alongside Slattery as he, well, “reads” isn’t really the right word but it’ll do in a pinch. Jenn raves: “Lost Everything is a moving and timely meditation on war, a testament to the devotion of a father for his son, and a journey bursting with both terror and laughter.”
If you were lucky enough to see his performance last time he was at WORD, you know that it's a must-see experience. There's nothing quite like witnessing an author accompany himself with a banjo as he reads from a book. And if you weren't there, we cannot recommend highly enough that you come out for this!
Facebook RSVP encouraged, but not required.
TICKETS FOR THIS EVENT ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE ONLINE. There will be a limited number available at the door, first come first served!
In the culminating event of his tour, David Rees will be joined by fellow funnymen John Hodgman and Jonathan Coulton. The evening will include a pencil sharpening tutorial, a Q&A and signing, and much much more.
Please note: This event will take place at Public Assembly, and is 21 and up only! Doors will open at 6:30pm, and the show will start at 7pm SHARP. There is no physical ticket; please bring your ID to check in and receive your book. Each ticket includes admission and a copy of How to Sharpen Pencils; extra books, including John Hodgman's, will also be available for purchase.
From Scotland to the Amazon, lacrosse to basketball, John Fox explores our relationship with that most playful of objects, the ball. In a reading and discussion sponsored by WORD’s nerdy basketball league, he’ll present his findings, entertain us with anecdotes about related topics such as beheadings and steroids, take questions, and sign copies of The Ball.
From Mexican jungles to the small-town gridirons of Ohio, from medieval villages and royal courts to modern soccer pitches and baseball parks, The Ball explores the little-known origins of our favorite sports across the centuries, and traces how a simple invention like the ball has come to stake an unrivaled claim on our passions, our money, and our lives. Equal parts history and travelogue, The Ball removes us from the scandals and commercialism of today's sports world to uncover the true reasons we play ball, helping us reclaim our universal connection to the games we love.
Facebook RSVP encouraged, but not required.
May’s Largehearted Lit, a series celebrating music, books, and their intersection, features Dylan Hicks and Thad Ziolkowski. Hicks, whose novel Boarded Windows captures the music and mood of America’s boomer counterculture, will speak and perform a few songs. Ziolkowski will also read and discuss music’s influence on his novel Wichita, the latest addition to Europa Editions’ new line, Tonga Books.
Facebook RSVP encouraged, but not required.
Local author and staff favorite Emily St. John Mandel presents her third novel, The Lola Quartet, with a launch party and reading, with an opening musical performance by guitarist Tzvi Skolnik!
In The Lola Quartet, mistakes made years in Gavin Sasaki's past come back to haunt him as mistakes made in his career send him back to his hometown. An intense piece of literary noir, the plot spans jazz, Django Reinhardt, economic collapse, friendship and love, Florida's exotic wildlife problem, fedoras, and the unreliability of memory.
Facebook RSVP encouraged, but not required.
The Wodehouse Book Group will be reading A Bounty of Blandings in May, June and July -- one month per story! The book is 10% off during its discussion months.
WORD welcomes back staff favorite and local author Lev Grossman for the paperback launch of The Magician King, sequel to The Magicians. The Magician King brings us the further adventures of Quentin and Julia, spanning Fillory and Earth, and was the best sequel bar none that we read last year. Grossman will be in conversation with Tor.com staff writer Ryan Britt about fandom, the writing process, the relative attractiveness of naiads vs dryads, and more.
Lev Grossman is a senior writer and book critic for Time magazine. He is also the author of the international bestselling novel Codex, the creator of the Time blog Techland, and a graduate of Harvard and Yale. Ryan Britt's writing has been published with Good Magazine, Nerve.com, Opium Magazine, and Soon Quarterly, as well as the Hugo-Award winning Clarkesworld Magazine. He is the staff writer for the popular science fiction and fantasy blog Tor.com.
Facebook RSVP encouraged, but not required.
Authors Andrew Blackwell (Visit Sunny Chernobyl), James Higdon (The Cornbread Mafia) and Lizzie Stark (Leaving Mundania) will combine forces for a joint reading and discussion on everything from LARPing to radioactive waste to recreational drug use.
For most of us, traveling means visiting the most beautiful places on Earth—Paris, the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon. It’s rare to book a plane ticket to visit the lifeless moonscape of Canada’s oil sand strip mines, or to seek out the Chinese city of Linfen, legendary as the most polluted in the world. But in Visit Sunny Chernobyl, Andrew Blackwell embraces a different kind of travel, taking a jaunt through the most gruesomely polluted places on Earth. From the hidden bars and convenience stores of a radioactive wilderness to the sacred but reeking waters of India, Visit Sunny Chernobyl fuses immersive first-person reporting with satire and analysis, making the case that it’s time to start appreciating our planet as it is—not as we wish it would be.
In the summer of 1987, Johnny Boone set out to grow and harvest one of the greatest outdoor marijuana crops in modem times. In doing so, he set into motion a series of events that defined him and his associates as the largest homegrown marijuana syndicate in American history, also known as the Cornbread Maña. In Cornbread Mafia author James Higdon--whose relationship with Johnny Boone, currently a federal fugitive, made him the first journalist subpoenaed under the Obama administration--takes readers back to the 19705 and ’80s and the clash between federal and local law enforcement and a band of Kentucky farmers with moonshine and pride in their bloodlines.
Exposing a subculture often dismissed as “geeky” by mainstream America, Leaving Mundania is the story of live action role-playing (LARP). A hybrid of games—such as Dungeons & Dragons, historical reenactment, fandom, and good old-fashioned pretend—LARP is thriving, and this book explores its multifaceted communities and related phenomena, including the Society for Creative Anachronism, a medieval reenactment group that boasts more than 32,000 members. Author Lizzie Stark looks at the hobby from a variety of angles, from its history in the pageantry of Tudor England to its present use as a training tool for the US military.
Facebook RSVP encouraged, but not required.
In this interactive class you'll learn about both methods of pickling, fresh and fermented pickling. Participants will learn how to pickle small amounts of extra produce without pulling out the canner pot.
In addition to understading common safety concerns with food preservation, you'll learn the basics of fermentation (brining) as a form of food preservation. Lacto-fermented foods provide numerous health benefits using lactobacillus bacteria to preserve food as opposed to vinegar. We'll discuss how fermentation works, why it's safe and how to try a small-scale fermented pickling project at home.
Every attendee should come with questions, as Kate will make sure there is time to troubleshoot their own projects. Registration also includes a copy of The Hip Girl's Guide to Homemaking.
We've declared this the Summer of Indie Presses, starting with June! Our next pick is Everything Happens Today by local author Jesse Browner, published by the fabulous Europa Editions. 10% off the month leading up to discussion.
