Don't miss out on this special Labor Day surprise. The internationally revered Kennedy shares with us her comedic repertoire. “Her stand-up is startlingly good. She works the audience and makes the most of her cleverness with words, her knack for seeing things freshly. She has a great riff about people scraping moss off each other every morning in Scotland, but the audience seems most to enjoy the material about pubic hair." - The Guardian
She's assertive, well-timed, and she will be at McNally Jackson Books for one night only.
News of Note
Staff Picks
Hard Rain Falling
Written by Brook
By Don Carpenter (NYRB, $16.95)
When most writers attempt to write a great American classic they rarely utilize the power and punch of terse sentences (see Hemmingway) or sizzling awareness in their characters (see Baldwin) as Carpenter does in this one. As the main character exists and reasons his way to the whys and hows, you feel his journey could have been anyone's or perhaps that anyone's could have eerily been his--even his African-American friend who had his own life to figure out and saved his in the process.
Just So Stories
Written by David
By Rudyard Kipling (Penguin, $7.00)
There are so many books I should have read as a child but didn't. As it turns out this has mostly been a good thing. For instance, if I had already read (or had had read to me) Just So Stories, for example, I probably wouldn't have felt compelled to make up for lost time and pick it up as an adult. And I still wouldn't know how the camel got his hump, or the leopard his spots, or anything at all about the beginning of the armadillos. What a fantastic book! Whether you loved it as a child and haven't read it since, or just plain never read it, now's the time. Children and adults alike will find plenty to be entertained by here.
Speak, Memory
Written by David
By Vladimir Nabokov (Vintage, $14.95)
If you're at all receptive to a recommendation of an autobiography by Vladimir Nabokov you're probably already well aware of his linguistic virtuosity. If you’re not, and you're curious, I'll forgo the few sentences of praise that I'd normally include here, and just leave you with Speak, Memory's opening paragraph.
When most writers attempt to write a great American classic they rarely utilize the power and punch of terse sentences (see Hemmingway) or sizzling awareness in their characters (see Baldwin) as Carpenter does in this one. As the main character exists and reasons his way to the whys and hows, you feel his journey could have been anyone's or perhaps that anyone's could have eerily been his--even his African-American friend who had his own life to figure out and saved his in the process.
There are so many books I should have read as a child but didn't. As it turns out this has mostly been a good thing. For instance, if I had already read (or had had read to me) Just So Stories, for example, I probably wouldn't have felt compelled to make up for lost time and pick it up as an adult. And I still wouldn't know how the camel got his hump, or the leopard his spots, or anything at all about the beginning of the armadillos. What a fantastic book! Whether you loved it as a child and haven't read it since, or just plain never read it, now's the time. Children and adults alike will find plenty to be entertained by here.
If you're at all receptive to a recommendation of an autobiography by Vladimir Nabokov you're probably already well aware of his linguistic virtuosity. If you’re not, and you're curious, I'll forgo the few sentences of praise that I'd normally include here, and just leave you with Speak, Memory's opening paragraph.