Earlier in the week, I posted a blog about The Orphan Master’s Son:
Today is the official release to of what I believe to be one of the best books of the year, The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson. (Yes, I know it is January 10th!) To add to the excitement, Adam Johnson will be at Lemuria for a signing and reading on Friday, January 27th. The Orphan Master’s Son is also our January First Editions Club pick.
Liz Sullivan, one of our Random House reps, posted her own blog the other day about The Orphan. Here’s what she says:
I’m calling it now–The Orphan Master’s Son is the best book of 2012. Sure, we’re only nine days into the new year, but you’re going to have to take my word on this declaration. I haven’t loved a book this much in about five years, and Adam Johnson’s new novel now ranks among my favorite books ever. It really is that spectacular.
The DMZ (above ground) Photo Credit: Adam Johnson
The Orphan Master’s Son is set in North Korea, a location that is so foreign that it itself becomes the dominant player in this story of resilience and adversity. I happened to be finishing OMS on the night that the news announced Kim Jong Il’s death, and the experience of watching the North Korean people mourn their Dear Leader with this book fresh in my mind was a bit uncanny. The book makes clear how the North Korean people are trained from infancy to value the state over self, and the Dear Leader is the state. The wailing mourners make sense in this context; their entire world was unhinged with Kim Jong Il’s death. It’s a fascinating subject and location.
What’s the story, though? Jun Do is, as the title suggests, the son of the orphan master. His mother, vanished, was a singer. Because he grows up among the orphans, though, everyone assumes that he too is an orphan. He is put to work doing the jobs that orphans are given, the lowliest tasks in the country. Eventually Jun Do is trained as a soldier and sent to patrol the pitch black tunnels running under the DMZ and over to South Korea. He learns to fight without seeing. From there, Jun Do is recruited to become a professional kidnapper, stealing unlucky citizens from Japan. He accomplishes his missions, but he also glimpses the world outside of North Korea, where the electricity doesn’t shut off in the evenings, where people are free to talk and play and go where they please. Jun Do, though, returns to his homeland.
North Koreans mourning Kim Jong Il's death
He works as an intelligence officer on a fishing vessel. He travels to Texas as part of a delegation meeting with a Senator. He suffers in a forced labor camp. And Jun Do, the ultimate John Doe character, transforms himself into a completely different person and finds his way into Kim Jong Il’s inner circle.
Adam Johnson
The Orphan Master’s Son is a thriller, an epic adventure story, a cultural critique, a love story, a story of hope and transformation. It is remarkable for its vibrant characters and plot, but it’s also a literary book. This is a book into which you can happily lose yourself for a week, and about which you’ll think for weeks afterward. Adam Johnson has written something brilliant. The Orphan Master’s Son is one of those books where readers band together to share their love. I can’t wait for everyone to read this book . . . -Liz Sullivan
This post originally appeared in Liz & Gianna’s Adventures in Book Land. Go there if you love books. You’ll find reviews on the latest books, their favorite books plus anecdotes from bookstores across the South, Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado.
To close this post, see the photos that Adam Johnson took on his trip to North Korea. Note that he has explanations with each photo and that if you choose the slideshow option you will not be able to see them. See the full set of photos here. -Lisa
My mother needed one more Christmas present for my husband. She had read somewhere of a new book titled Hunt, Gather, Cook by Hank Shaw. She asked me to order a copy and bring it home with me when we traveled there for the holiday weekend.
One week later, I found myself on my 2nd deer hunting trip…of my life. First trip was unsuccessful. This trip concluded with us bringing home some deer meat. I’ll spare you the details of this process. You should thank me.
On our way home, still a little unsure of what I just witnessed, I realized we could put Bradley’s new book to use! Hunt, Gather, Cook has so many great recipes in it. With dear meat in the freezer and this book in our hands, I do believe we have plans this weekend.
Should you hunt, cook game for others, or know someone that hunts, this is the perfect book. It truly is. BUT it is not only a cookbook for meat eaters. In addition to game, Shaw also provides recipes for anything you may gather in the wilderness. Wild greens, fruit/berries, wild plants are just a few other sections that are included.
There are a few perks of this books that should not be forgotten. One is the beautiful black and white photos taken by Holly Heyser that are sparingly added in. The black and white photos are so pure-which seems fitting for this book. Fish and not hunt? Hunt, Gather Cook also includes some information and recipes for seafood.
Fire, a restaurant in Cleveland, Ohio recently hosted an evening with Hank Shaw. A few things on the menu?
Local greens, wild parsnips, apples, paprika syrup walnuts and maple ginger vinaigrette
Cattail pasta, curly dock, miller farm braised short rib ad quick pickled perslane
Venison, spiced bush berry rub, duck potatoes, sauteed spinach and nettles
Hank Shaw’s introduction ends like this: “Eating wild food is not only a rejection of industrial agriculture and the food manufacturing establishment, it is also a celebration of something truly magical: a meal you cannot buy in a store at any price. And what’s more: You brought it home, all by yourself.”
And with that, Bradley and I will enjoy a meal we brought home with our own hands!
Today is the official release to of what I believe to be one of the best books of the year, The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson. (Yes, I know it is January 10th!) To add to the excitement, Adam Johnson will be at Lemuria for a signing and reading on Friday, January 27th. The Orphan Master’s Son is also our January First Editions Club pick.
The Orphan Master’s Son takes place in one of the most isolated countries on Earth, North Korea. Adam Johnson began studying North Korea during the George W. Bush Iraq War era when he became interested in the art of political propaganda. The national narrative constructed by Kim Jong Il and his administration led to many questions for Johnson which he detailed in an interview with Richard Powers: “What did it mean when people became characters in the story of a corrupt state? What happened to their own identities and motivations? Under what circumstances would a person risk sharing a personal thought?”
When asked about what North Koreans think about all of the propaganda, Adam Johnson could only comment on his suspicion as he was not allowed to actually speak to any of the North Korean citizens: “My suspicion is that people in North Korea know that everything is a lie, but that they have no idea what the truth is.” (see full interview with Electric Literature)
All of these questions and research led to a published short story but with Johnson understanding the need to travel to North Korea if he were going to expand his story. The opportunity came and Johnson describes the situation:
“I toured four cities on my visit and was monitored by three minders, one of whom video-taped much of what was said, for the purposes of a ‘tourist DVD.’ There was also a director who appeared on occasion to mind the minders . . . Upon arriving I was struck by the quiet of Pyongyang–there were no planes in the sky, no cars on the road, no cell phone conversations, almost no conversations at all, just thousands of people, all dressed similarly, walking briskly from one task to another. I saw no advertisements, no graffiti, no litter, no bicycles, no stoplights, no hint of leisure. This was a land without fashion, irony, magazines, music, pets, art, or spontaneity of any kind. The streets were empty, the buildings dark, the escalators eerily still.” (Interview with Richard Powers)
On top of a real world that we will find unbelievable, Johnson tells us the fictional story of Pak Jun Do, the son of an orphan master in Pyongyang. Since his mother, a beauty of voice and appearance, was stolen to Pyongyang, his father felt that being an orphan master would allow him to hold tight to his son. Jun Do finds himself to be just another orphan among orphans, often blamed when anything goes wrong. Finally, as the famine comes and progresses to an unimaginable point, Jun Do’s father stops a “crow”, a Soviet military truck, to take the remaining twelve boys from the orphanage.
At the age of fourteen Jun Do leaves his father to be trained as a tunnel soldier in the art of zero-light combat. Because of his skills for working in complete darkness, he is eventually recruited to pluck Japanese right off their coastline at night. As the reader learns more and more about Pak Jun Do, it is clear that he can do whatever he sets his mind to, even in the awful circumstances of North Korea. At what seems opportunity and necessity, Jun Do finds a way to assume the military and personal life of Commander Ga, a top general to Kim Jong Il. From here, the cast of characters expands and deepens from American diplomats to the recently departed Kim Jong Il.
“Citizens! The time to be excited about Adam Johnson’s forthcoming novel is approaching. Remember to keep the beautiful spirit of unity in your heart and steel yourself for this day! Remember to remind your neighbor! Say to your neighbor, what are you supposed to remember to remind me about today? He should say to you: THE ORPHAN MASTER’S SON!” (The Outlet, The Blog of Electric Literature)
Back in early November, John Jeremiah Sullivan stopped by the store to sign and read from his recently published Pulphead: Essays. I had received an email from my mother earlier that day saying please snag her a copy to be signed at the event because she had worked with Mr. Sullivan at the Oxford American when the magazine was still actually based out of Oxford, Mississippi. As I thumbed through the essays before the event, I knew I would be buying two copies of the book – one for my mom and one for myself.
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Mr. Sullivan covers a range of topics, including his time living with an elderly southern author at the University of the South, coverage of a Christian Rock festival and time spent at a shelter on the Gulf Coast immediately following Hurricane Katrina – all of which are thoroughly researched and well-written, making them very much worth reading.
This recent review of Pulphead, which appeared in The New Yorker in December compares Mr. Sullivan to Tom Wolfe or David Foster Wallace, noting that “he is kinder than the former, and less neurotic than the latter.”
So, if you are a fan of the essay, or maybe just want to read some well-researched, insightful writing on various topics, give Pulphead: Essays a try.
The Extra 2% — Moneyball comparisons are unfair; this is a different book, and a very good one.
Three and Out — I don’t know why picking through the ugly details of the last 3 years of Michigan football is so enjoyable, but it is. The Affair — I don’t read a lot of mysteries or thrillers, but there are a handful of authors on my “must-read” list. Lee Child is one…
The Drop — …and Michael Connelly is another. Ready Player One — I’m cheating a little here; I actually read this book after the New Year, but it came out in 2011 so I’m counting it. Somehow both a sci-fi thriller and a 1980′s pop culture extravaganza, and it all works. Must-read if you’re a child of the 80′s. What It Is Like to Go to War — I think it is the best and most important book of the year. I wasn’t sure how Karl Marlantes could possibly follow up his epic Vietnam war novel “Matterhorn”…my concern was unnecessary.
Agent 6 is the conclusion to Tom Rob Smith’s trilogy about Leo Demidov, my favorite officer of the KGB. I have been waiting tirelessly for this book to come out having readChild 44 (2008) andThe Secret Speech (2009) and absolutely loving them both. I am actually very sad that we will not be hearing anything more from Leo but Smith does a fantastic job of wrapping the series up and not leaving us with any questions.
At the beginning of Agent 6 we are taken back in time to 1950 where we learn how Leo and his wife, Raisa met and learn about Jesse Austin, an American singer and member of the Communist party and his role in Leo and Raisa getting together. We soon are back where The Secret Speech left off and Leo has left the secret police and is concentrating on his family. Raisa, Zoya and Elena are about to travel to New York City for the “Peace Tour”, which both countries are hoping will ease relations between the two. Leo is not allowed to travel with them and is immediately suspicious of the real reason behind the trip and why his wife and daughters were invited. Of course, something happens on the trip and Leo’s reaction to this tragedy is to enact revenge on the person at fault.
I am stopping there because anymore and I will spoil the thrill of the story! I will say that I am glad that this is my first read of 2012 and I hope that the rest can live up to Agent 6!
It took me nearly two months to finish The Stranger’s Child by Alan Hollinghurst. Although I read several books while “reading” The Stranger’s Child, and was a little tied down with work (Christmas season in the retail business? Sheesh!), it was the tediousness of the book that kept pushing me away. When asked to describe it, my most frequently used words were “dry”, “British”, and “incredibly dry and British.” Frankly, my words could have been harsher. After Christmas ended, I decided it was time to finish this jerk-of-a-book so I could finally return to reading the books that had been stacking up without the guilt of denying an ending to the one I had started. Then something astonishing happened.
It is extremely rare for me to leave a book unfinished once I have started it. Occasionally this is something I find rueful (i.e. Infinite Jest), but for the most part I would rather have an ending that I hate than hating a book that I haven’t finished. The Stranger’s Child was not a book that I hated, but I might had I not finished it. It is not as if the ending is necessarily even the payoff, but it helps the reader understand that the book is not as much based around the importance of a plot as it is around a group of ideas: sexuality, aging, memory, and fact. When the stage was finally set, and the point was made, the book was done and I was happy.
With that said, I had less difficulty dealing with the book as an American than I did as a heterosexual. In her review for The Guardian, Emma Brockes wrote, “in different hands [The Stranger's Child] might be called ‘Gay Men and the Women Who Marry Them’.” I like to think of myself as an understanding person, and it is not something that really even necessarily bothers me, but it simply creates a plot that is less relatable to me. I suppose it wasn’t the plot that I focused on in the end anyway.
Here’s a video for the British band Yuck. They are signed to the slightly local Fat Possum Records. Much like The Stranger’s Child, Yuck’s self titled album has landed on many best-of 2011 lists.
I didn’t add it to the list on my previous post here because I wasn’t finished with 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I finished it over New Year’s weekend and I’d like to add it to that list. Perhaps to the top of it.
I keep a list of what books I read each year. Some years I read an insane amount of books, others my list is a bit shorter. This was a year where I didn’t get through as many as years past. I just looked at my reading list for 2011. I have several books I just loved. Here is a list of those titles.
1. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (See Pat’s blog here)
I sold The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin to one of my customers (who is actually a friend’s mom) and a week later she walked in the bookstore with the book in her hand. Oh no!!! She didn’t like it was racing through my thoughts and I immediately started to apologize. She stopped me and said “I loved it and have brought it for you to read next!” So that evening I went home book in hand. I started it over the weekend and by Wednesday and I was finished!
Cora Cash is a New York Debutante and probably the richest heiress in the country. Cora has been groomed for this moment since she was a young girl and her mother has very big plans for her. The morning after Cora’s ‘coming out’ the Cash’s yacht will be steaming through across the Atlantic to introduce Miss Cora Cash to the society of England and hopefully be married within the year. Mrs. Cash realizes that being wealthy is fine but as an American a “title” is out of the question but her daughter could marry into one. Cora though wants to marry for love and has plans of her own. Cora meets a Duke and they quickly fall in love and are married but she soon learns that these old world aristocrats are a tight circle and she has much to learn if she wants to be accepted and survive in their world.
If you are a fan of Edith Wharton and Jane Austen novels or Downton Abbey on Masterpiece Theater then you will certainly enjoy The American Heiress.
Earlier in the week, I posted a blog about The Orphan Master’s Son:
What’s the story, though? Jun Do is, as the title suggests, the son of the orphan master. His mother, vanished, was a singer. Because he grows up among the orphans, though, everyone assumes that he too is an orphan. He is put to work doing the jobs that orphans are given, the lowliest tasks in the country. Eventually Jun Do is trained as a soldier and sent to patrol the pitch black tunnels running under the DMZ and over to South Korea. He learns to fight without seeing. From there, Jun Do is recruited to become a professional kidnapper, stealing unlucky citizens from Japan. He accomplishes his missions, but he also glimpses the world outside of North Korea, where the electricity doesn’t shut off in the evenings, where people are free to talk and play and go where they please. Jun Do, though, returns to his homeland.
This post originally appeared in Liz & Gianna’s Adventures in Book Land. Go there if you love books. You’ll find reviews on the latest books, their favorite books plus anecdotes from bookstores across the South, Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado.
Mr. Sullivan covers a range of topics, including his time living with an elderly southern author at the University of the South, coverage of a Christian Rock festival and time spent at a shelter on the Gulf Coast immediately following Hurricane Katrina – all of which are thoroughly researched and well-written, making them very much worth reading.
