July Events at WORD

Mark your calendar before you head out to celebrate the holiday weekend, we’ve got some great events on tap for next month! Here’s a quick rundown:

We’ll celebrate independence post-4th with an Indie Press Night featuring two authors from Seven Stories Press, plus readings with authors from other indie presses during July, including Akashic and Ig. We’ll cheer on our basketball league with a mid-season Sunday brunch event, and get all hot and bothered – botanically, speaking – with a night devoted to wicked and magical plants! Our next YA NOT? literary salon is scheduled for the end of the month too! Finally, we’ll host a reception and book-making event to celebrate Hit Factorie’s summer art installation in our front window. (Have you seen our window yet?)

Oh, and just a reminder that David Hajdu, author of The Ten-Cent Plague, will join our book club group this week – on Wednesday, July 1 at 7:30 pm. More info on our book club page. Here are details about the July lineup:

Thursday, July 9, 7:30 pm: Indie Press Night with Seven Stories Press: Douglas Martin, author of new novel Once You Go Back and Lee Stringer, author of the memoir Sleepaway School. Phong Bui, publisher of The Brooklyn Rail will moderate.

Sunday, July 12, noon: Basketball, Brunch & Books:
Come out and watch our basketball team and/or join us in the store afterwards for a brunch reading with Dave Reidy, author of the new short story collection, Captive Audience. Dave will read his short story “Postgame,” and goodies will be served!

Sunday, July 19, 6:30 pm: Derek McCormack will read from his new book, The Show That Smells and Rakesh Satyal will read from his coming-of-age debut novel Blue Boy. Moderated by Akashic.

Tuesday, July 21, 7:30 pm: Hot and Wicked Botanical Book Night! Two plant goddesses read from and discuss their new books: Margot Berwin, author of Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire; and Amy Stewart author of, Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln’s Mother and other Botanical Atrocities. Algonquin editor Andra Miller, will moderate.

Thursday, July 23, 7 pm: G Train Salon Reception for Hit Factorie Installation!
More info here!

Thursday, July 30, 7:30 pm: YA NOT? A literary salon for not-so-young adults – A reading and conversation with Sheba Karim, author of Skunk Girl. She will be interviewed by Abeer Hoque.

We hope to see you at the store for some of these fantastic programs coming up next month. See our events page for full details on all of these events.

A love letter to the WORD basketball league

Finish out your week with a smile—read this delightful missive from Katherine Arathoon, member of The Elements of Style!

“When I first agreed to join a dodgeball team (don’t worry, it’s just a quick tangent), I thought I was signing up for kickball. ‘Sure, that sounds like fun,’ I said, forking over a hefty enrollment fee, and forgot about it. It was only 2 days before our first game that I remembered that dodgeball is actually two teams actively trying to pelt each other in the face with hard rubber balls. In an instant I was transported back to those terror-filled sessions in my elementary school days, and I called my roommate, Sanam, in a panic, shrieking, “I’ve just remembered what dodgeball is! I don’t want to play any more!” Accustomed to my histrionics, Sanam calmly informed me it was too late to get my fee back and I was damned well going to play. So play I did, and it turned out it was actually pretty fun. Teams were more evenly matched, now that everyone’s pituitary glands have for the most part leveled off, and there was beer after every game. Can’t argue with that!

“So, when the Mediabistro blurb popped up recommending Literary Basketball, I was intrigued. Sure, I’d hated basketball in high school gym, but if a girl like me can learn to tolerate dodgeball, she can do anything. Plus, the challenge of answering ‘literary questions’ in order to qualify was irresistible. I answered the questions, a handful of friends joined in as well, and one short introduction meeting later I was on the white team.

“The name picking began. We were team White, so early options included The Eebees, The Mocha Dicks, Charlotte’s Web of Domination, Great White Taupe, The Invisible Jam, and Midnight’s Children But With Basketball. However, several clear winners emerged from the fray, and after pushing Comma Sutra out of the way with deft aplomb, The Elements Of Style reigned supreme as our name of choice. The Strunks became unofficial team nickname, and ‘Sucks to your ass-mar!’ is our (as yet still unused in battle) team slogan.

“It was during this discussion that our noble team captain, Mark, came up with the brilliant plan of creating team t-shirts and using punctuation symbols instead of numbers on the back. There was a furious scramble to claim interrobang, and a question arose that remains unanswered to this day: does a dollar sign count as a punctuation mark? (In the end, cool factor won out over questionable verisimilitude on that particular issue.)

“So now we were named and marked, and ready for action. By this point I’d had enough fun and nerdiness that I scarcely cared about the looming first game. Sanam–now $anam–explained the basic rules to me on subway ride over, and I figured I was prepared enough.

“Two things I hadn’t anticipated:

“1) Basketball requires a lot of running. Like, a LOT of running. Fortunately we had a good showing of teammates that first game, because there was a steady rotation of subbing-out-before-my-heart-explodes. Some of us were a little hung over from the previous night’s adventures; some of us were just woefully out of shape. Safe to say, by game’s end most of us looked like teammate Mike in this picture.

“2) Despite the dramatic amounts of running, basketball is a lot of fun. Who knew? Much to my surprise, I was enjoying myself. And I was occasionally good at defense, which, for a total beginner, was very pleasing indeed.

“Most of all, my teammates proved to be just as awesome on-court as off; encouraging, hilarious, and in some instances enthusiastically clad in short-shorts. From ampersand to ellipses, from asterisk to exclamation point, I couldn’t ask for a better group. Week after week we have thundered up and down the court with great dexterity, generally taking a triumphant second-place in every game we play, and once even winning!

“(Here are two pictures of me with a few of my most magnificent Strunks, wearing the badass t-shirts that Ben made.)

“So, many, many thanks to WORD for organizing such a lovely literary league that has attracted such perspicacious people; I know where I’ll be doing my Christmas book shopping this year. And the basketball experience as a whole has reminded me not just to try out new things, but to re-visit old things as well. After all, if I find I now like dodgeball and love basketball, who knows: maybe it’s time to take another stab at Trigonometry?

Yours truly,
The Em Dash
(Katherine Arathoon)”

The WORD Interview with Jancee Dunn

Our latest WORD Interview is with Jancee Dunn, whose new book Why Is My Mother Getting a Tattoo? And Other Questions I Wish I Never Had to Ask hits bookshelves this week! We’ll be hosting a launch party with Jancee this Tuesday night, June 23 at 7:30 pm. Jancee will read from her new book and then have a short Q&A with her editor Jill Schwartzmann, followed by a booksigning. We’ll have wine and fake tattoos too! On to the interview:

1) Do you have a favorite WORD?

‘Treat.’ Who would say no to ‘would you like a treat?’ Or maybe ‘toppings.’

2) What WORDS do you live by?

The late philanthropist and What’s My Line contestant Kitty Carlisle Hart used to look in the mirror every day and say ‘I forgive you.’ Which is sort of campy but also great.

3) What was the last book you read?

Angelica by Arthur Phillips

4) Any idea what you’ll read next?

Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys

5) What is the last book you bought someone as a gift?

Just yesterday I sent The Bat-Poet, by Randall Jarrell, to my sister.

6) What are you working on now – anything you can tell share about your next project(s)?

Ha. Right now it’s all about the book. That way I can avoid thinking about what the next book should be.

7) Do you have a favorite spot in Greenpoint that you can tell us about?

Basia’s for the soup.

In which WORD becomes Yente

TROUBLE & The WORD Interview with Kate Christensen

Ok folks, here’s the WORD from us today: We are having an awesome event this Thursday night – you should come. Seriously. No excuses.

Here’s the scoop on what we’re calling our night of Sangria, Sorbet & TROUBLE!

Acclaimed author and WORD friend Kate Christensen will be here to read from her new novel TROUBLE, a vibrant story of female friendship and midlife sexual awakening that takes place in NYC and Mexico City — a great summer read! Bonus special guest, literary diva Maud Newton, will join Kate for a discussion about the book. And the very best part? You can listen to the reading and conversation while sipping sangria and sampling a variety of snacks from local vendors – salsa & chips, sangria sorbet and Mexican chocolate cookies. (Local businesses working with us include Dandelion Wine, The Brooklyn Salsa Company & Wine Cellar Sorbets; plus we’re making the cookies from a recipe in Sarah Magid’s new book Organic & Chic – that we had an event for last week)

You can RSVP for the event on our Facebook page.  Please do! We hope to see you this Thursday, June 18th - refreshments start at 7:30, reading & conversation begin at 8:00 with book signing to follow. It’s going to be fabulous, we hope you can join us.

Until then, learn a bit more about Kate in this short WORD Interview we did with her. She shares info about her next novel, which just happens to take place in a building located right here in Greenpoint.

1) Do you have a favorite WORD?

An ever-shifting tide of them. This morning’s pet word is LAPIDARY.

2) What WORDS do you live by?

“Let nothing human be foreign to me.”

3) What was the last book you read?

I’m in the middle of G.K. Chesterton’s THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY.

4) Any idea what you’ll read next?

DON QUIXOTE

5) What is the last book you bought someone as a gift?

I bought Julie Klam’s PLEASE EXCUSE MY DAUGHTER for my sister.

6) What are you working on now – anything you can tell share about your next project?

My next novel is called THE ASTRAL — yes, that Astral, the huge red ghetto castle on India Street. It’s about a 57-year-old male poet whose wife of 30 years has booted him out of their Astral apartment for writing love sonnets to imaginary women (she doesn’t buy the imaginary part). Their son is in a mind-control cult and is about to marry the female leader; Harry tries to rescue him in order to win his wife back, but of course nothing goes as planned…

7) We know you live in the neighborhood, do you have a favorite spot in Greenpoint that you can tell us about?

Besides WORD? I love McGolrick Park. It feels like a beautiful old Eastern European park tucked into North Brooklyn.

Wish you were here

Wow, if you didn’t make it to Sarah Magid’s event for her cookbook Organic and Chic, you missed out in a big way! The basement was packed and for the first time in WORD history, we sold every copy of the book in the store. We suspect the delicious mini-cupcakes and other goodies had something to do with it, but the main attraction was the incredible book, which you just have to see to believe. We’re out of stock for the next couple days, but you can bet we’ll have it here again soon for you to check out.

Here’s a few photos of the treats Sarah brought:

Thanks, Sarah! And thanks to everyone who made it out to make this event such an incredible success!

The WORD Interview with Sarah Magid

Tomorrow at WORD we’ll be hosting a tasting and book signing with Greenpoint’s own custom cake baker Sarah Magid. We’ll be serving up refreshments and sweets featured in Sarah’s new cookbook: Organic & Chic: Cakes, Cookies and Other Sweets That Taste as Good as They Look. Be sure to stop by and have a taste – Thursday night at 7:30 pm. And check out our window, which currently features some of Sarah’s cake creations. Learn more about Sarah in the short interview she did with us:

1) Do you have a favorite WORD?

Schmutz

2) What WORDS do you live by?

Life short live full eat sweets kiss sleeping children cocktails dance party

3) What was the last book you read?

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

4) Do you have a favorite cookbook? Share one or several if you like…

Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros, Way of Cooking by Julia Child, every book by Maida Heatter, Sunday Suppers at Lucques by Suzanne Goin

5) Do you have a favorite recipe from your new book?

Goldies are my all time favorite.

6) What are you working on now – anything you can tell us about your next project(s)?

I am working on some new ideas for a book, as well as some fun organic candy projects.

7) Do you have a favorite spot in Greenpoint?

I love Champion coffee, I wrote many parts of the book there. I love walking down Kent Street, with all the beautiful buildings, and any glimpse of the waterfront that I can see. I love sitting on the stoop with my wonderful neighbors.

Guilty pleasures

We’ve been inspired by Kate Christensen’s recent entry on NPR’s My Guilty Pleasure series. She loves Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels (One for the Money, etc.)

So we’ve been thinking about our favorite guilty pleasures (Maeve Binchy, Charlaine Harris, and The Clique series) and we want to know what your favorite guilty pleasures are! Tell us in comments, please, we want to make sure we’re stocking all your favorites.

(Want to meet Kate in person to bond over your mutual love of Evanovich? Make sure you come to her event on June 18 at 7:30 for her new book, Trouble!)

The WORD Interview with Emily Mandel

We’re very excited to be hosting the launch party for Emily St. John Mandel’s debut novel, Last Night in Montreal, a story of “…love, amnesia, compulsive travel, the depths and the limits of family bonds, and the nature of obsession.” Emily will be at the store tomorrow, Tuesday, June 2 at 7:30 pm for a reading and signing. We caught up with her for a quick Q&A before the event:

1) Do you have a favorite WORD?

I fall in love with words in serial fashion, but I think my latest favorite word is susurration. It’s one of those fantastic words that you just don’t get to use very often.

2) What WORDS do you live by?

There’s a line I like from Anne Michaels’ debut novel, Fugitive Pieces: “Find a way to make beauty necessary; find a way to make necessity beautiful.”

3) What was the last book you read?

Wake Up, Sir! by Jonathan Ames. (Purchased, incidentally, at WORD.)

4) Any idea what you’ll read next?

I think the next book I read will be Jonathan Lethem’s Motherless Brooklyn.  I loved The Fortress of Solitude, but aside from short stories in the New Yorker I haven’t read his other work.

5) What is the last book you bought someone as a gift?

Tales from Outer Suburbia, by Shaun Tan.

6) Where did you buy it?

At BookCourt, a lovely independent bookstore on Court Street in Carroll Gardens.

7) What are you working on now – anything you can tell share about your next project(s)?

I’m very happy to report that I recently sold my second novel to Unbridled Books — The Singer’s Gun will come out sometime in 2010. I’m working on one last round of revisions. I’ve also started writing the third novel, but only barely.

8) Do you have a favorite spot in Greenpoint?

Yes. WORD. And I swear I’m not just saying that because you’re hosting my book launch.

(We’re blushing…thanks Emily!)

June Events at WORD

I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June?”
- Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)

A new month is almost upon us, full of possibilities…and endless pages to read! There are plenty of options to choose from for your reading pleasures. We’ve got a few new recommendations up on our staff picks page, a new book club selection and some great events on tap for the coming weeks.

Our June schedule features a humorous memoir by a Cobble Hill writer, new novels by two Brooklyn-based female writers (an acclaimed award-winning author and a fantastic debut novelist), an incredibly chic cookbook from a Greenpoint baker and an event that celebrates an artfully designed poster book you can use to decorate! Here’s a snapshot, but be sure to check out our events page to get the full scoop.

Tuesday, June 2, 7:30 pm:
Reading & signing with Emily St. John Mandel, Last Night in Montreal

Thursday, June 11, 7:30 pm:
Tasting & signing with Sarah Magid, Organic & Chic: Cakes, Cookies and Other Sweets that Taste as Good as They Look

Saturday, June 13, 4 pm: Part of the Northside Festival!
Andrio Abero & Joey Parlett, Brooklyn designers featured in Gig Posters: Volume 1: Rock Show Art of the 21st Century

Thursday, June 18, 7:30 pm:
Sorbet, sangria and Trouble! Reading & signing with Kate Christensen

Tuesday, June 23, 7:30 pm:
Reading & signing with Jancee Dunn, Why is My Mother Getting a Tattoo? And Other Questions I Wish I Never Had to Ask