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Emma Straub

What books recently rocked my world:

This year, my favorite new books were Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad, Marisa Silver’s Alone with You, Marcy Dermansky’s Bad Marie, and Emma Donoghue’s ROOM. Equally fabulous books I read this year were Meg Wolitzer’s The Wife and Steven Millhauser’s Martin Dressler. I just started the ARC for Woltizer’s new novel, The Uncoupling, and it’s delightful thus far.

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Best damn events we’ve hosted:

Ever? BookCourt has been open for more than 25 years, so that’s a lot of events. My favorite event in my tenure (I’ve been working at the store for about a year and a half) was probably the final leg of Jonathan Lethem’s Chronic City tour, in which he read the entire novel over the course of nine readings. The last reading was at BookCourt, and he finished at 4 in the morning. (Full disclosure: I left at 1:30am, having been at the store all day.) There were actors and other writers called in to pinch-read, and trivia questions with prizes. It was a wonderful example of how supportive independent bookstores can be, and how grateful authors can be for that support. At the end, Jonathan hugged everybody. It was basically a love-in.
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Most entertaining authors we’ve hosted:

Colson Whitehead, on the paperback leg of his Sag Harbor tour. He should be a comedian. Even though Sag Harbor was very funny, I don’t think he’s written a book yet that fully captures his hilariousness. Really, though, we have so many phenomenal events that it’s hard to choose. I’ll tell you the event I’m really, really excited about, though: Maira Kalman is coming here next month, and I’m going to sit in the front row and giggle at everything she says, whether or not she’s entertaining.

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Strangest question a customer has ever asked:

Customers often ask us to hold their grocery bags for them, but sometimes they go so far as to have us hold onto suitcases, bicycles, dogs, children. I suppose that means we’re trustworthy.
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Why our store kicks ass:

BookCourt is big and gorgeous and well-lit and has lots of corners to get lost in. It keeps expanding! Bigger and bigger and better and better. Pretty soon we’re going to take over the whole block, mark my words.
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What makes our neighborhood and customers awesome:

BookCourt is, I would say, at the epicenter of literary Brooklyn. We have an astonishingly smart clientele, and many of the customers have shopped here since the very beginning. Children and dogs are omnipresent. Two of my favorite actresses come in all the time, and I try to stay calm. No, I won’t tell you who they are.
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I promise you won’t find this at any other store:

We have two sculptural objects, two spaceships made out of books. One is Patchwork Planet, a photo book with an essay about Gowanus by Jonathan Lethem which BookCourt published with Soft Skull, and the other is Cousin Corinne’s Reminder, BookCourt’s literary journal. I would say we are second only to Random House in terms of production. Also, BookCourt has the Straub trifecta! Some of my dad’s (Peter Straub) books, my mother, Susan Straub’s books (Reading with Babies, Toddlers and Twos, co-authored by KJ Dell’Antonia), and my little Fly-Over State, a novella published by FlatmanCrooked. Now that’s range.
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Why I do what I do:

Because I would be doing it anyway, and it’s nicer to get paid for it. I’m a very chatty girl, and it’s fun to talk to people about books all day. This will not come as a surprise to anyone reading this.
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If I weren’t selling books I’d be:

Well, I only sell books a few days a week, and on the other days I write (my first story collection is coming out in February, Other People We Married) and design and screenprint posters with my husband (next week we’re printing posters for the band Broken Social Scene’s tour, as well as our print of all the two-letter Scrabble words). So my days are already crammed, I’m afraid.
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Books that changed my life:

I have always loved to read, loved it more than most other activities. How about books that inspired me recently? George Eliot’s Middlemarch. Lynda Barry’s What It Is. And My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me, edited by Kate Bernheimer.

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Top three authors, living or dead, I’d invite to my dinner party:

If the party were tonight, I would invite Jane Austen, Julie Klam, and Dorothy Parker. Now that would be fun.

.Top three songs on the soundtrack to my life:

One of my other jobs is working for The Magnetic Fields, so let’s just pick three of their songs. How about “You and Me and the Moon,” “Walking My Gargoyle,” and “Papa Was a Rodeo.” If you’ve been to see the band in the last, oh, eight years or so, I probably sold you a t-shirt.
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My last meal request:

I think about this a lot—not my last meal, per se, but my perfect day of eating. If I had one day of eating left, I would have breakfast at the Columbian Cafe in Astoria, Oregon, lunch at Saltie in Brooklyn, New York, and dinner at the Green Goddess, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Now that’s a good day. Though a good burger and fries often does the trick. Or french toast? Oh, god, why am I so much better at answering this question? Let’s just pretend this is being tape-recorded, and the tape suddenly runs out…

For Her

Going Away Shoes
By Jill McCorkle

Eleven short stories, full of longing and laughter, from the “guardian angel of short fiction.”

The Dinner Diaries: Raising Whole Wheat Kids in a White Bread World
By Betsy Block

A humorous, life-changing book on mom’s mission to achieve the ultimate of all makeovers: improving the family meal. Complete with helpful charts, food lists, recipes, tips, and suggested culinary and farm programs for kids.

Last Bite: A Novel of Culinary Romance
By Nancy Verde Barr

Casey Costello, an executive chef at morning television show, is too busy for men…that is until she’s unexpectedly whisked off her feet by the adorable Danny O’Shea, a rising chef from Ireland who seems like he may be more trouble than he’s worth.

For Him

Hard Work: A Life On and Off the Court
By Roy Williams with Tim Crothers

An inspiring memoir from the head coach of the UNC Tar Heels Men’s Basketball team.

Boone: A Biography
By Robert Morgan

This rich, authoritative biography offers a wholly new perspective on a man who has been an American icon for more than two hundred years.

Far Bright Star: A Novel
By Robert Olmstead

Napoleon Childs, an aging cavalryman,  leads an expedition of inexperienced soldiers into the mountains of Mexico to hunt down Pancho Villa and bring him to justice.

For the Gardener

Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
By Amy Stewart

An A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend.

A Rose by Any Name: The Little-Known Lore and Deep-Rooted History of Rose Names
By Douglas Brenner and Stephen Scanniello

With full-color art throughout, this eclectic little volume is a marvelous miscellany starring what is arguably the world’s most popular flower.

The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden
By William Alexander

Part humor tale and part garden memoir, The $64 Tomato follows Bill Alexander on his journey from organic idealist to pragmatic food producer, and from eager backyard gardener to tired gentleman farmer–taking time along the way to reflect on ecology, nature, and the meaning of it all.

For the Foodie

The Feasting Season
By Nancy Coons

Meg Parker is a harried mom in a lackluster marriage until she lands a dream assignment: to write a guidebook about French history. Follow her adventures as lamb daube, paella and rosé, bull steak and anchioade, Brebis and strawberries awaken her senses.

Southern Belly: The Ultimate Food Lover’s Companion to the South
By John T. Edge

Spark a delicious road-trip with this guide to savory, Southern restaurants!

Seasoned in the South: Recipes from Crook’s Corner and from Home
By Bill Smith

Structured around the seasons and the freshest seasonal foods, this cookbook offers up marvelously uncomplicated recipes— Tomato and Watermelon Salad, Fried Green Tomatoes with Sweet Corn and Lemon Beurre Blanc, Pork Roast with Artichoke Stuffing, and his signature dish, Honeysuckle Sorbet—the new bistro food of the South.

For the 20-Something

Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records, the Indie Label That Got Big and Stayed Small
By John Cook with Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance

The exuberant story–in words and pictures–of a much-loved indie record label that, despite the odds, has become a major success story.

Hemingway & Bailey’s Bartending Guide to Great American Writers
Illustrated by Edward Hemingway; Text by Mark Bailey

The perfect blend of classic cocktail recipes, literary history, and tales of the good old days of extravagant Martini lunches and delicious excess.

Rock On: An Office Power Ballad
By Dan Kennedy

Kennedy chronicles his misadventures at a major record label. Whether he’s directing a gangsta rapper’s commercial or battling his punk roots to create an ad campaign celebrating the love songs of Phil Collins, Kennedy’s in way over his head in this power-ballad to office life and rock and roll.

For the Travel Enthusiast

A  Thousand Days in Tuscany: A Bittersweet Adventure
By Marlena de Blasi

In search of the rhythms of country living, Marlena and her husband move to a barely renovated former stable in Tuscany with no phone, no central heating, and something resembling a playhouse kitchen. They dwell among two hundred villagers, ancient olive groves, and hot Etruscan springs. Together, they discover the soul of Tuscany and explore all the land has to offer.

Very Washington DC: A Celebration of the History and Culture of  America’s Capital City
By Diana Hollingsworth Gessler

A travel guide with character, this fact-filled keepsake offers all the history, beauty, charm, and culture of our nation’s capital city. Also included are an index of sites and a useful appendix of addresses, Web sites, Metro stops, and phone numbers.

New Orleans, Mon Amour: Twenty Years of Writings from the City
By Andrei Codrescu

New Orleans has been author Andrei Codrescu’s hometown for over twenty years. This collection of essays is an epic love song , a clear-eyed elegy, a cultural celebration, and a thank-you note to New Orleans in its Golden Age.

For the Pet Lover

My Therapist’s Dog: Lessons in Unconditional Love
By Diana Wells

An intriguing exploration into the rewards of relationships–both the canine and human varieties–begins when the author agrees to dog-sit for her therapist. What follows is an exploration of our canine connection: what we name our dogs, how we breed them, how we’ve explored the wilderness with them, the kinds of literature we write about them, why we love them, and, most important, what we can learn from them.

First Dogs: American Presidents and Their Best Friends
By Roy Rowan and Brooke Janis

A lighthearted romp through American history, packed with drawings and paintings from early America, plus photographs, starting with Abraham Lincoln’s Fido all the way to Obama’s Bo.

Enslaved by Ducks
By Bob Tarte

Bob gets more than he bargains for when he marries Linda and moves to rural Michigan: there’s Binky, a belligerent rabbit who craves high voltage wires; Ollie, a tyrannical parakeet who brutally attacks the Tartes; and Stanely Sue, the gender-bending parrot; and more. This hilarious account gives us the other side of animal ownership: the complicated logistics of blending species under one roof, the intricate routines that evolve before you realize it, and ultimately, the distinct and insistent personalities of every animal inside—and outside—the house.

-christina