Best of 2011 Countdown: #8

Gianna:

The Sense of an Ending
Julian Barnes
Knopf

I hope I don’t sound like too much of an idiot (I want to sound just enough like an idiot), but I absolutely love a well-done, compact novel. It's rare and it's incredibly hard to do. To write a well-developed original story with fully realized characters in fewer than two hundred pages is remarkable, yet Barnes has done just that.   This is a one sitting read, much like On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. I know what you're thinking, why shouldn’t you read such a short novel in one sitting Gianna? Well some don’t lend themselves to it, some you don’t want to, some you can’t, and some blow.

Julian Barnes,
Man Booker Prize winner

Barnes has been nominated several times for the Booker,  and there is something so right about him finally winning it for this book. Liz called this book a masterpiece and while I hate agreeing with her about anything at all…she got this absolutely right. It’s a perfect book.

I won’t go into plot here, we’ve written about this on the blog two or three times, but I will say that Barnes hits major themes here: love, loyalty, life and death. Have I mentioned this is a perfect book? 

Liz:

The Night Circus

Erin Morgenstern

Doubleday

Words like "delightful" and "enthralling" best describe one of the biggest books of 2011.  Erin Morgenstern's first novel involving dueling magicians and the most incredible circus ever placed on paper has proved a sensation, and deservedly so.  I quite simply love this book.  I loved it when I first read it about 11 months ago, and I haven't shut up about it since then.  My booksellers love it.  My friends love it.  I want to visit The Night Circus.

Let's set the mood:

Erin Morgenstern

The Night Circus is so descriptively stunning that if I possessed any artistic talent at all I would have created my own illustrated edition.  The film rights were optioned to Summit Pictures and there's lots of Hollywood chatter and speculation.  And Erin Morgenstern wrote this book during National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), an annual writing challenge to create a novel during the 30 days of November.  This book is charmed.  It's magical.

30 Day Book Challenge: Day 22

Gianna:

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

If my two former co-workers can stop fighting over who will actually send me one of these, this is next on my reading list. Apparently it is some hardship for either of them to look up my address, which is still in the RH database by the way, not to mention my former boss lives 4 miles from my house. Oy. Also…I didn’t ask for this book, this was their idea to send me one. If this doesn’t come my way…I am going to read something by Glenn Beck. Then every evening I will leave Liz and Valerie a voice mail of my favorite passage from that day. Looking forward to reading Night Circus! [I have Gianna's address...I just don't really feel like going to the post office.  It's hot outside. Oh, and Gianna is supposed to make me brownies because her Cubs swept my Astros, so until I see those brownies I might avoid the post office indefinitely.  Bring on the Glenn Beck recitations!]

Liz

What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander

I'm currently reading for the Spring 2012 season and this collection of short stories is next on my list.  I'm a big fan of Nathan Englander's first two books (one story collection, one novel) and I've already read the title story for this new book.  It's outstanding.  Englander manages to balance hilarious and poignant moments in a few pages, and oh how I love his characters.  I am looking forward to finishing the rest of the book.  The rumor is that they're all excellent. 

30 Day Book Challenge: Day 5

Day 5: A Book You Wish You Could Live In

Well this is a challenge.  I read such happy books....

Gianna:

Live From NEW York An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live (Shales &Miller)

Does that really need explaining? I am not really picky about the time, but knowing what we know now, I would prefer not to work with that crazy bitch Victoria Jackson.

Liz:

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Just kidding.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

This book comes out in September, but once you get a chance to read it you'll understand why this is the world I choose.  A circus that doesn't have the creepy elements (clowns), is completely black and white and open open only at night, and has attractions that stretch imaginations?  Two words: cloud maze.  I love this world. 

Le Cirque des Reves

Last week the Random House sales force gathered in Florida for our annual in-person sales conference (pro: no six hour conference calls; con: must wear shoes...and pants).  Want a sneak peek at one of the biggest buzz books slated to come out in the fall?  Here you go.

The Night Circus is the first novel from Erin Morgenstern, a magical, cinematic story of two fated lovers and the most amazing fictional setting since Hogwarts.  In the book, two rival magicians debate magic theory through the duels they stage between students of their schools of study.  When one magician pits his daughter Celia against a rival orphan named Marco, the location for their showdown becomes a mystic circus only open at night.  The rivals create endless mazes, a garden made of ice, a maze of clouds, a tree of granted wishes, all in with a wonderful black-and-white backdrop of tents, circus performers, and charmed guests.  Le Cirque des Reves--The Circus of Dreams--is a fantasy world where attendees (and readers) go to escape and experience the endless possibilities and romance...the mysterious, fantastical, heroic, adventurous, liberating definition of that word, not the mass market rack at the grocery store variety.  The romance of silent movies, the allure of the object behind the curtain, the thrill of the unexpected--I love this book.

This cool book trailer captures the whimsy and charm of the book.  "Keep dreaming in black and white" indeed.