Video from Gina Ochsner Reading

On Tuesday night we hosted the wonderful Gina Ochsner, who read from her debut novel, The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight, and entertained us with tales about Russia and Latvia, about learning Russian, and about starting her writing career. Gina has won two Oregon Book Awards and been a finalist for a third. You can read more about Gina and her new book in an earlier blog posting. Here's a short snippet from our full-house evening together.

Shotgun on My Chest Video Clip

Last week, for the first time in the 18-year history of the store, we had the pleasure of being entertained by an author in buckskin! I'm serious! Roger Wendlick, who amassed the world's largest collection of books relating to the Lewis & Clark Expedition and noted historian of all things Lewis & Clark, was here to read from his new memoir, Shotgun on My Chest. Our good friend Charles Seluzicki was here to introduce Roger, and we proceeded to have quite the evening from there! This short video clip can hardly do Roger justice -- might I recommend that you read his book if you missed seeing him? You can read more about Roger on our blog.

Celebrate the Irvington Farmers Market!

This Sunday, May 23, marks the grand opening of the Irvington Farmers Market, in its second year. We're so excited about the return of the market that we've decided to celebrate with a wonderful sale. For that one day only -- Sunday, May 23 -- we're offering a wonderful selection of fiction titles for 25% off. Yes, you heard me right: 25% off. You can buy as many as you want. And it's good stuff too, not dogs. (Not that there's anything wrong with dogs, says the cat person.) Our store hours on Sunday are 12 to 5.

The Irvington Farmers Market is located on NE 16th Avenue between Broadway and Weidler Streets. It will be open every Sunday, 11am to 3pm, through November 7th. This Sunday they will have live music with James Jeffrey West and friends.

So, pick up some fresh fruits and veggies and whatnot at the market, then come down and see us for a smashingly good deal on some great summer reading. What could be better than that?

Gina Ochsner Reads from Debut Novel

When Keizer-based author Gina Ochsner won an NEA grant, she used the money to travel to Russia and Latvia to do research for her novels. One of her favorite activities was people-watching, especially at the post office and at internet cafes. Then, a colleague in the writing program turned her on to the Arctic-Antarctic Museum, where she became intrigued less by the items on display than by the employees tending to them. This experience inspired the museum at the center of her first novel, The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight: the All-Russia All-Cosmopolitan Museum, a place that holds a fantastic and terrible collection of art knockoffs created with the tools at hand, from foam to chewing gum, Popsicle sticks to tomato juice. She has now been to Russia and Latvia four times and is currently working on a novel set in Latvia.

Gina is the author of two previous books, both short story collections and both winners of the H.L. Davis Award for Short Fiction from the Oregon Book Awards. The Necessary Grace to Fall, published by the University of Georgia Press in 2002, was also the winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. People I Want to Be was published by Houghton Mifflin in 2006.

She grew up in Salem and earned a degree in secondary education from George Fox University, followed by graduate degrees from Iowa State University and the University of Oregon. Gina and her husband and four children live in Keizer. Besides teaching and writing, Gina also gives talks at universities, retreats, conferences, schools, and book clubs on various topics relating to writing, the writer's life, cultivating creativity, and the intersection of art and faith.

The Oregonian recently published a wonderful in-depth article about Gina by Jeff Baker. In that article he writes that Gina said writing her first novel was "like pulling a snowball on a skateboard through hell." She also made it clear that she's not about making people feel warm and cozy when they read her books and stories: "I'm not here to make people comfortable. I'm not even writing to make myself comfortable. I make myself really uncomfortable because then I'm hitting on a raw nerve and that's what it should be all about. The worst thing someone could say about my work is 'That was a nice read. I felt so comfortable.' That would be horrible."

Jeff also noted that as a child, Gina dreamed of being a librarian or "working in a bookstore, a job where someone would pay her to read all day." Hmmm. I might have some bad news for her on that score! I can't remember the last time (or ever?) that I read all day at the store. Something to shoot for, I guess.

As with her first two books, Gina's third book and first novel is already off to great acclaim, including being a finalist for an Oregon Book Award for the Ken Kesey Award for Fiction, making the long list for the 2009 Orange Prize for Fiction (subsequently won by Marilynne Robinson's Home -- pretty good company for a debut novel), and a review in The New York Times Book Review.

The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight is a book of magical realism set in the post-Soviet landscape. The novel tells the stories of Mircha, a ghost who won't go away, and his still-living wife, Azade; Olga, a disillusioned translator/censor for a military newspaper; Yuri, an army veteran who always wears an aviator's helmet; and Tanya, who works at the previously mentioned museum and who always carries a notebook in which she records her observations and dreams.

Colum McCann, author of the National Book Award winning Let the Great World Spin, called Gina's book a magical debut novel from an author who "manages...to capture our sundry human moments and make raw and unforgettable music of them." And Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, who wrote the wonderful book Ms. Hempel Chronicles, said "Ochsner's novel is enchanting, at once playful and poignant. With her marvelously light touch, she takes the rubble of post-Soviet Russia and turns it into gold."

We hope you can join us tonight at 7 pm to hear Gina read from her debut novel, The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

We Love Europa Editions

In 2005, a distinctive and immediately successful literary publisher was born. Europa Editions, whose corporate office is in Union Square in New York, was founded by Sandro Ferri and Sandra Ozzola Ferri, who are the owner-publishers of Rome-based Edizioni E/O, one of Europe’s most prestigious independent publishing houses. Sandro and Sandra were joined by veteran publisher Kent Carroll, formerly editor-in-chief at Grove Press. This team of three has created a distinguished list of mostly modern European fiction in translation. They also publish English authors. It helps that they have impeccable taste, unmatched connections, and the ability to hire the best translators in the business.

The physical format of each book is the same: all are trade paperbacks printed on creamy paper with French folds on the front and back covers. So these wonderful books are easy to spot on any shelf, and a treasure to hold in the hand.

Many are familiar with Europa’s biggest success to date: Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog. But we invite you to consider the other titles on their list. We carry virtually all of them, as we have learned that this is a publisher that we can truly trust to consistently deliver well-written, modern, literary fiction. The list spans many genres: general fiction, mystery, humor, and more. We especially like Jane Gardam’s two novels, Old Filth and The Man with the Wooden Hat, two novels about British attorney Sir Edward Feathers. Another English author published by Europa that we have loved for years is James Hamilton-Paterson, whose faux-travel memoirs (Cooking with Fernet Branca, Amazing Disgrace, and Rancid Pansies) are hysterically funny send-ups of the current rage for travel writing about Italy. And if you think you’ve run through every single Italian mystery series, we ask you to consider Massimo Carlotto, who was been called “the reigning king of Mediterranean noir” by one critic. His titles include The Goodbye Kiss, Death’s Dark Abyss, Poisonville, and The Fugitive.

Come in and have a look at these marvelous and affordable gems.

Video from David Oates Reading

After some minor technical difficulties, we've finally managed to post (I hope!) a brief video clip from our evening with wonderful David Oates, reading from his new collection of essays, What We Love Will Save Us. It was a great night and a full house. If you weren't able to join us, this clip will give you a taste of what you missed. You can read more about David and his new book in a previous blog posting. Be sure to check out our other event videos at our YouTube channel.

Video of Poets Biespiel and Kuipers

What a pleasure it was to host two wonderful poets in one night last month: David Biespiel and Keetje Kuipers. David read from his most recent book, The Book of Men and Women, published by the University of Washington Press, along with some pieces from his newest work in progress. Keetje read from her debut book of poems, Beautiful in the Mouth, published by BOA editions. You can read more about David and Keetje on our blog.

Below is a snippet of the good times from that evening. You can view more videos from events at Broadway Books at our YouTube channel.