Hi Everyone-

Hope you all had a good week and survived our mini-blizzard. I went to the National Gallery to see the Cezanne in Provence show, which was fantastic, and very crowded, which was heartening to see. And I should mention - we're featuring the fantastic catalogue for the show as a Buyer's Choice at 20% off. I've looked at it and the reproductions are great.

At any rate, I went to the show on Friday - well before the snow started - and managed to fall flat on my face on the steps of the National Gallery. Trust me: it was spectacular. Just shows that I don't need an ice storm to wind up on the ground. I also watched a few great videos: Crash, which I hadn't yet seen, Tony Takitani, a Japanese film based on a Haruki Murakami story, the always enjoyable The Awful Truth, with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne (and the dog that played Asta in the Thin Man movies!), and the entertainingly bizarre You and Me and Everyone We Know. I also rewatched my favorite movie of 2005: Junebug, an ambiguous family drama with so much going on that I could talk about it for days. You can get a lot of viewing done with a snowstorm and a turned ankle!

So we're in the dog days of winter, and I thought I'd take this opportunity to point out that this is anything but a slow season for books. Let me just mention a small handful of perfectly brilliant Buyer's Choices we have at the moment.

Ready for a travelogue with political overtones? French political writer Bernard-Henri Levy recreates de Toqueville's famed trip across America in American Vertigo. Mr. Levy dropped by, so we have signed stock!

How about a great biography of Mozart, in celebration of his birthday? Try the comprehensive and compelling new work Mozart: His Life and Work by Julian Rushton.

Or perhaps the conclusion of a majestic trilogy of American history? There's always Taylor Branch's long-awaited At Canaan's Edge, his brilliant narrative of the Civil Rights era.

Maybe a masterpiece of Russian literature? The darlings of Russian translation, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhnsky, have not yet tackled War and Peace, but never fear, Anthony Briggs has a new translation, and it's every bit as lively as the work of the husband-wife team.

Or maybe some first fiction? Dara Horn's first novel, The World to Come, which deals with the life and work of Mark Chagall, has been receiving extremely positive and enthusiastic reviews; it's well worth your time.

So there's no room for winter blues as far as reading goes! The early part of the year is an incredibly important publishing season, and these are just a few examples. As always, we've picked out some of the best of what's available with our carefully selected Buyer's Choice list, so come in (or shop our website) and check them out.

Best till next week,

-Joe Murphy
Head Book Buyer

Hi Everyone-

Hope you've all had a good week. Before I go into the book I want to talk about for this week, I'd like to pass on an anonymous (and perhaps unintended) recommendation. I was at the gym last week and saw a woman on what I can personally attest is an absolutely torturous piece of cardio equipment with a huge grin on her face looking as though she hadn't a care in the world--and totally absorbed in what she was reading. I managed to catch a glance and saw it was The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig. We now have it in paperback, and I can't say I've yet had a good look at it, but testimonials that authentic don't come along every day. It's clearly worth investigating.

As for what I'm working on: We have a wonderful forthcoming Buyer's Choice called (deep breath) Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood's Golden Age at the American Film Institute. It's edited by George Stevens, Jr., son of the director, and it features interviews with thirty-two, well, great filmmakers of every stripe: directors, producers, cinematographers, cameramen, and screenwriters. It features everything from great silent and sound director Raoul Walsh explaining his involvement with perhaps Hollywood's most famous and morbid practical joke (I won't elaborate here; read the book): "There was a lot of laughing water around in those days"; to the brilliant Howard Hawks explaining that he taught new actress Lauren Bacall how to be insolent in the movies by sending her out to insult people on the street (she started with Clark Gable!). If you're not already a fan, trust me: moviegoing lore of the golden age reads like Greek mythology. It's almost too good to be true. And in case you're worried about being limited to American filmmakers, the book winds up with interviews with overseas greats Jean Renoir (my personal favorite), Fellini, Bergman, and Satyajit Ray. It really is a treasure trove, and I'm looking forward to continuing to work my way through it. It should be hitting our stores next week, so keep an eye out and support two local institutions at once: Olsson's and the AFI!

Talk to you again next week,

Joe Murphy

Hi Everyone-

Please pardon me for taking a week off last week. We're at the height of new book buying season and I'm up to my eyeballs in catalogues. There are a lot of great books coming this summer, but let me use this space to talk about something more current: Ross King's new book The Judgment of Paris.

Last week I mentioned how much I loved Jed Perl's New Art City, an intriguing study of the enormous promise and creativity that circulated through the Manhattan art world of the 1950's and 60's. Well, this book is also about an artistic revolution in the 60's: the 1860's.

Just as de Kooning, Pollock, and Rothko shocked the art world of their time, so did Edouard Manet cause a sensation in 1863 as his painting Le Bain (later retitled Dejeuner sur l'herbe) scandalized Paris at the first Salon des Refuses (an exhibit of paintings rejected by the official biannual Salon). King, who was also responsible for the longtime Olsson's favorite Brunelleschi's Dome, wonderfully contrasts the avant-garde firebrand Manet with the very talented, detail-oriented popular favorite Ernest Meissonier. Despite considering himself a progressive painter, Meissonier, at the time of the 1863 Salon, was about to face the slow-starting but ultimately unstoppable challenge to his greatness brought about by the rise of Impressionism. I'm about a third of the way through the book, but I'm finding it an irresistable portrait (if you will) of these two great artists and of France in the 1860's. It's incredibly entertaining. We're also featuring it as a Buyer's Choice at 20% off. So come in and give it a try. I know the weather hasn't exactly been consistently cold, but it's still the perfect sort of book with which to settle in at this time of year.

Have a Great Week!

-Joe Murphy
Head Book Buyer