Pengin Classics Designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith

Well, these sold fast (mostly to staff)! Penguin Classics with beautiful cloth covers designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith.

While we re-stock, check out this interview with the designer over at DesignSponge Online.

Book of the Day

Empty the Sun by Joseph Mattson w/soundtrack by Six Organs of Admittance

Joseph Mattson writes like a guitar player with nineteen fingers--everywhere at once, stinging, dark and beautiful. EMPTY THE SUN will take you to some strange places, but the trip is amazing. Mattson has written a truly inventive and vivid novel. ---- Jerry Stahl
&
Several passages induced the shiver of aesthetic blissin my spine that Nabokov famously described as the indicator of good and true writing. The whole thing is by turns hilarioius and hilariously sad, artfully pin-holed with melancholy (my favorite drink)...
---- James Greer

find out more or purchase Empty the Sun HERE

Book of the Day

Bande a Part - New York Underground 60's - 80's

Remarkable photographs and even more important, an incredible document on the Music scene that took place in NYC during the late 60's/70's and early 80's.

Some of the photographs have been seen before, but a lot is new to me - and it's great to get all these images in one volume. Also in my humble opinion this was the last great American music movement that still has an affect on contemporary culture. Amazing personalities (Richard Hell, Johnny Thunders, Eno, Bowie, Lou, Cale, Warhol, etc) all in one book.

Great photography by Lee Childers, Billy Name, Anton Perich, Maripol, Roberta Bayley, Danny Fields and Gerard Malanga among others. -Tosh

click HERE to purchase Bande a Part

Walton Ford - Pancha Tantra

If John Audubon and the Marques de Sade were to somehow have a baby and then raised that baby on a steady diet of National Geographic and Stephen King, this weird kid would make paintings depicting the beautiful brutality of nature and his name would be Walton Ford. Here is a snarling tiger whose tail is being gnawed on by wasps, a thousand passenger pigeons whose weight has snapped off a massive tree limb, a family of orangutans that has commandeered a human's dinner table. Replete with penciled "field notes" (observations, quotations literary and scientific), incredibly detail, rich in color and anatomical correctness, Ford's paintings reveal that animal nature will always trump man-made morality.



(Click here to purchase Panch Tantra)

This is M Sasek

Have you seen these books? They are the best.
Mr. Sasek was born in Prague, traveled the world, and spent the late 50's and early 60's writing and illustrating a most interesting series for children: 'This is...'
With delightful mid century illustrations and a hilarious wit, he introduces children to all of the major cities in the world.
We have them all, so please stop by and visit a few cities yourself.

Happy Birthday Skylight!

Yesterday marked the 13th birthday of our indie cousin in Los Feliz, Skylight Books. Mazal Tov! Welcome to your adolescence. You'll experience some changes for sure... hair in weird places, compulsions to read and re-read Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin. But don't worry, it's all part of growing up and being a bookstore. Here's to 13 more and then some!

Happy birthday and happy reading from all of us Soupers!

Book of the Day

Ad Hoc at Home
by Thomas Keller

I admit it. I've had a crush on Thomas Keller since he was a struggling chef in Los Angeles 20 years ago. I've never really been a good enough home

chef to dazzle my dinner guests with his three previous culinary standouts

-- "French Laundry", "Bouchon" or "Under Pressure" So I've been waitingin our cookbook corner since I started at Book Soup in June for "Ad Hoc

At Home" to arrive and, sigh, I wasn't disappointed. I've fallen in love with Keller all over again. This book is for the home cook who wants a little challenge in the kitchen with a big result.

The Menu:
Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Asparagus and Tomato Bacon Stew

Blueberry Cobbler

My Mother and 5-year old niece had a tug-of-war over the last chicken leg and the cobbler was great for breakfast.

-Amy

"This collection is what legions of Keller fans have been waiting for, a book that allows them to replicate the merest glimmer of his culinary genius in their own homes," raves Publishers Weekly.

(Click here to purchase a copy of Ad Hoc at Home)

Amy made Kellor's chocolate chip cookies for us and we were blown away. Us being blown away:

ps - This is the best looking cook book I've ever seen. It's an art object as much as a cook book.

Book of the DAY

THE DEATH OF BUNNY MUNRO
by Nick Cave

***SIGNED***

Nick Cave's second novel "The Death of Bunny Munro" is really something.
One, it's a tight piece of work that is extremely moving about a middle-aged widow who is a traveling door-to-door cosmetic salesman who has a passion for...pussy. Not really women, but just the old in-and-out and then to the next female customer.

The main character Bunny is a man totally out-of-control with his life and surroundings. And Cave captures the down spiral in nice strokes on the page. The main drift (and it is sort of a drift in a Situationist sense) is a road trip to sell his wares with his very disturbed son. And Pop is even worse. With grief over his wife's suicide, Bunny goes on a road to the entrance of Hell. In many ways it sort of reminds me of "The Road," except that this is a better book and Bunny makes all the total disaster.

Nick Cave is one extremely talented guy, and I am hoping that there will be more novels in the near future.
-Tosh

Click Here to buy a SIGNED copy and/or watch Cave read from the book!

Ammo Offers

As we draw closer to the dreaded Christmas rush, you may want to start thinking of gift ideas.....
That's where Ammo comes in. They have taken a few amazing books that were previously published in large format and now offer them in a smaller format and a more agreeable price.

Charley Harper is one of my favorite mid century artists. Grab your copy of this one for $50, instead of $200...


GONZO is a collection of photographs taken of and by our own Hunter S Thompson. The new smaller edition features everything that was in the original publication, with the addition of a biography written by Ben Corbett. It is only $20.

These are both fantastic books, perfect for that certain someone....you can buy them for me, if you'd like.

Peter Hook's "The Hacienda"

The Hacienda: How Not to Run a Club by Peter Hook


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I am going through a British pop star memoir thing at the moment, and I couldn't resist Joy Division/New Order's bass player Peter Hook's book on his (well co-owned by all of New Order) The Hacienda. It's interesting that he didn't write a proper memoir of life with Ian Curtis, etc. But perhaps he feels that there is already too much literature on that subject matter. So, instead he focuses on the legendary Manchester music club The Hacienda.

As a business venture it was a total disaster. Peter Hook was too drugged out, too drunk, or too busy making music with New Order to really suss it out. This book in a way is his self-discovery of the horrible mess that is called The Hacienda.

At first it was sort of an artist/collective vision from Factory Records paid fully by New Order's income. When E hit the fans, it came a paradise. But with paradise comes violence and criminals. And in the end, all the music-loving fans disappear and were totally taken over by tough gangsters.

And this is the most interesting part of the book, is Hook's slight admiration and fear of these men (and sometimes women). Like all the other British pop music memoirs, this is also a book about how the British sees themselves. But how groovy can turn into horror within a very short period of time.

Peter Hook is a great bass player, and maybe a fantastic DJ, but his character is not as strong as others in his world with respect to his book. Various gangsters, Tony Wilson, the New Order manager - all of them have a strong individual - eccentric- even streak in their make-up. Hook is pretty normal compared to his pals and enemies. Hook is totally likeable, but at the least in his writing, he doesn't show much character - for instance like Jah Wobble in his memoir.

But in the end of the day, it is an important document for those who are interested in Manchester pop culture - but it's not the best book in the field. Tony Wilson's "24 Hour Party People is a much better book.

View all my reviews >>


Raw footage of New Year's Eve 1991 at The Hacienda