September 2012 Newsletter

Hi Goodreads Member,

Here's our monthly newsletter from Goodreads—giving you the latest and greatest in our quest to connect people through reading!

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS

Michael Chabon

Humming with jazz and soul, an indie used-vinyl record store faces its fate in Telegraph Avenue, the latest novel from the Pulitzer winner and Berkeley resident.

Zadie Smith

The acclaimed author of White Teeth again taps into London's pell-mell rhythm in her new tragi-comic novel, NW, told in the city's multicultural vernacular.

Junot Díaz

The geek hero who gave us The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao returns with a new collection of linked stories, This Is How You Lose Her.

Salman Rushdie

Join the celebrated writer for a live chat on September 19 about his new memoir, Joseph Anton, which details his years spent in hiding from a fatwa death sentence.

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Elle & Blair Fowler

The sisters and YouTube stars will answer your questions on September 20 in a live chat about beauty, fashion, and their new young adult novel, Beneath the Glitter.

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Ned Vizzini

On October 6, join the young adult novelist for a live chat about The Other Normals, his new fantasy in which a socially awkward teen must become a heroic warrior.

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HEY, GOOD LOOKIN'

Walker Evans: American Photographs View gallery

GOOD MINDS SUGGEST

Naomi Wolf's Favorite Books About Gender

The writer-activist shares her top five books in honor of her newest about female sexuality and identity, Vagina: A New Biography.

Irvine Welsh's Favorite Books About Addiction

The Trainspotting author revives his gang of Edinburgh heroin junkies in a new book, Skagboys, and offers five recs about addicts.

Louise Fili's Favorite Books About Typography

The art of lettering takes shape in these selections from this graphic designer with a new retrospective, Elegantissima.

Emma Straub

A callow young actress transforms into an alluring screen siren in the debut novel, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures, set during Hollywood's lavish golden age.

Estate manager Caren Gray usually hosts weddings and school tours at Louisiana plantation Belle Vie. When she discovers the body of a young migrant worker on the grounds, she doesn't trust local police to solve the case.

My Berlin Kitchen

by Luisa Weiss

Food blogger Weiss pairs recipes with life events in this culinary memoir: a childhood split between parents in Berlin and Boston, recovering from heartbreak in New York, and making a home in Berlin with a new love.

The White Forest

by Adam McOmber

In this gothic mystery set in Victorian England, a sheltered woman gifted with second sight searches for a missing friend—a man obsessed with her abilities and entangled with a dangerous London occult leader.

The Black Count

by Tom Reiss

Novelist Alexandre Dumas modeled The Count of Monte Cristo after his father, whose daring exploits are captured in this new biography. Son of a slave, the senior Dumas rose to become one of Napoleon's highest generals.

The People of Forever Are Not Afraid

by Shani Boianjiu

Three schoolgirls transition from small-town civilian life to compulsory military service in the Israel Defense Forces. The trio narrate days of target practice and guard duty while witnessing horrors in this literary coming of age.

Stormdancer

by Jay Kristoff (Goodreads Author)

The ironfisted Shōgun rules a polluted island nation in this Japanese-flavored young adult steampunk adventure. Young telepath Yukiko must catch the legendary thunder tiger—part-eagle, part-tiger—or face certain death.

Sprint for Shakespeare

Be not afraid of greatness! For as little as £20 (just under $32), you can help digitize a page of the Bodleian Library's edition of William Shakespeare's First Folio.

GOODREADS POETRY CONTEST

Want your words to reach 8 million people? Goodreads and the ¡POETRY! group have partnered to host an ongoing poetry contest. Join the ¡POETRY! group to vote each month to pick a winner from among the finalists. You can also submit a poem for consideration. Here is our September winner!

Overflow

by Mary Stone Dockery (Goodreads Author)

You tell her you are done with this farm,
with the old tractors rusting in the timber,
the flood lines etched on the tin shed.
You remember how each flood
crept to the steps of the porch
as the levy tore—
the floating picnic table,
tying the boat to the flag pole.

The way houses become islands
is routine for you.

You can no longer count
the number of buoys anchored
near your garage door.

She speaks of the lives of trees,
braced in their early years
with tarnished rods, how slowly
they seem to grow, how suddenly
they shade what was once
open space.

When you look at her hands,
you think of water receding,
all the cracked mud.
These acres are concrete slabs,
the river but bristles on a broom,
sweeping away all the seeds.

When you look at her hands,
you think of piles of things after,
in buckets and truck beds,
the way everyone stopped to look.