Hey hey hey. I'm Rebecca Schinsky, the director
of content for Book Riot. I'm back this week
with another look at what's been in the mailbag
lately so let's dive in to the new book preview.
This looks like fun. Everybody Behaves Badly:
The True Story Behind Hemingway’s Masterpiece
The Sun Also Rises. It's by Lesley M.M. Blume.
It comes out June 7th. It says, in the summer
of 1925, Ernest Hemingway and a clique of
raucous companions travel to Pamplona, Spain
for the town's infamous running of the bulls.
Then over the next six weeks he channeled
that trip's maelstrom of drunken brawls, sexual
rivalry, midnight betrays and midday hangovers
into his groundbreaking novel The Sun Also
Rises. Lesley Blume resurrects that explosive,
reckless landscape of 1920s Paris and Spain
and reveals how Hemmingway helped create his
own legend. I know we have a bunch of literary
history buffs among the Book Riot community.
I know a lot of y'all love Hemmingway. You
are gonna want to look out for this in June.
This one's coming out soon. It's called Half
a Lifelong Romance by Eileen Chang. It's out
March 8th. This is set in Shanghai in the
1930s. It's about a young engineer named Xu
Shijun. He falls in love with one of his colleagues
and so he is determined to resist his family's
efforts to arrange his marriage to his wealthy
cousin. There are dark circumstances though.
A lustful brother-in-law, a treterous sister,
and a family secret force Xu Shijun and his
lover apart. Eileen Chang is known as one
of the giants of Chinese literature. I am
really working on reading more globally this
year. I have not read her yet. In fact this
is the first that I've heard of her and I'm
really looking forward to diving in with this
book. Not a book but a box of stuff. This
is, um, library tonics Barneby Dappers. Oh,
OK cool. These are -- they're basically room
sprays. They're from Dapper Press. If you
attended Book Riot Live back in the fall you
might have met the guys from Dapper Press.
And they were, I think, either testing these
out at their booth or, um, talking to people
about the idea of it. But there are four of
these in here. There's Untamed Woods, Au Distopia,
A Literary Lark, and -- this is my favorite
-- Moldering Cabin. So the idea is you spray
a few spritzes in the air, in your favorite
reading spot. Huh. And then your room smells
like a moldering cabin. Moldering Cabin is,
um, cedar wood and black pepper. This is gonna
get interesting. Au Distopia, I wonder what
that one is. I'll spray it in the other direction.
Oh that smells, that's really, it smells like
a cocktail that I've had. What's in that one?
Oh, Au Distopia has cade and rosemary oils.
It smells like this awesome bourbon cocktail
that had a tree of rosemary coming out of
it recently. So those are really awesome.
Uh. If you wanna get these, you can go to
dapperpress.com/library-tonics to get your
room spray. And then your favorite reading
corner can, you know, smell like moldering
cabins and rosemary. Kind of awesome. OK,
back to books, back to books. This is excellent. How to
Make White People Laugh by Negin Farsad. This comes
out May 24th. Um, Farsad is a writer/director
and star of the hit documentary "The Muslims
are Coming." And this is a memoir in essays
about growing up Iranian-American in a post-9/11
world and the power of comedy to combat racism.
Especially right now with what's going on
in the presidential election. I feel like
we need to have some conversations about combating
racism and smart, funny people doing it are
the ones I'm gonna trust the most. So again,
this is out May 24th. All right, this one
is out next week. If you read it, you're gonna
need plenty of time. It is the 20th anniversary
edition of Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.
This bad boy with deckled edges and French
flaps, it is a pretty book, comes out on February
23rd. I have never Infinite Jest. I am, you
know, a little intimidated by the prospect
of reading that and having to like do footnotes
and have multiple bookmarks in a jillion places.
And honestly, I don't even know what the book
is about. But tons of people love it. There's
a special Tumblr for this. If you've never
read it, this is a pretty edition. If you
love Infinite Jest, you're probably gonna
want the collector's edition. Again, this
is out on February 23rd from Back Bay Books.
And that does it from me. That's this week's
new book and new literary room spray library
tonic preview. If you have thoughts or questions,
leave them in the comments down below. If
you need me, I'm gonna be over in my reading
corner smelling Moldering Cabin. I'll see
you guys next time.
