As part of The Colorado Sun’s literature section — SunLit — we’re featuring staff picks from book stores across the state. >> Click here for more SunLit
This week’s bookstore: Old Firehouse Books, 232 Walnut St., Fort Collins
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From the publisher: An Atlantis-like city from Celtic legend is the setting of this mythical graphic novel fantasy from National Book Award winner M. T. Anderson and artist Jo Rioux. Ys, city of wealth and wonder, has a history of dark secrets. Queen Malgven used magic to raise the great walls that keep Ys safe from the tumultuous sea.
But after the queen’s inexplicable death, her daughters drift apart. Rozenn, the heir to the throne, spends her time on the moors communing with wild animals, while Dahut, the youngest, enjoys the splendors of royal life and is eager to take part in palace intrigue. M. T. Anderson and Jo Rioux reimagine this classic Breton folktale of love, loss, and rebirth, revealing the secrets that lie beneath the surface.
From Zane, bookseller: Finally, the graphic novel based on an ancient Breton folktale that you’ve been looking for. This is one book that I would encourage you to judge by its cover, because the art is every bit as good as the writing, and not a style you’ll find in many other graphic novels. A warm, soft art style for a very tragic story. Most excellent. This book was made to be read by candlelight during a mild but consistent rainstorm.
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From the publisher: This book is a terrifying new thriller from bestseller Catherynne M. Valente, for fans of “Gone Girl” and “Spinning Silver.” Sophia was made for him. Her perfect husband. She can feel it in her bones. He is perfect. Their home together in Arcadia Gardens is perfect. Everything is perfect. It’s just that he’s away so much. So often. He works so hard. She misses him. And he misses her. He says he does, so it must be true. He is the perfect husband and everything is perfect.
But sometimes Sophia wonders about things. Strange things. Dark things. The look on her husband’s face when he comes back from a long business trip. The questions he will not answer. The locked basement she is never allowed to enter. And whenever she asks the neighbors, they can’t quite meet her gaze….But everything is perfect. Isn’t it?
From Revati, community events manager: Sophia is happily married to the perfect husband so why does she keep having strange thoughts? Why can she never go into the basement? This novella is an amazing mysterious thriller that I loved! This quick read is sure to stay with you. Valente is a great writer and I cannot wait to read more of her books!
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From the publisher: Widely known as an original and graceful writer, Roger Angell has developed a devoted following through his essays in the New Yorker. Now, in “Let Me Finish,” a deeply personal, fresh form of autobiography, he takes an unsentimental look at his early days as a boy growing up in Prohibition-era New York with a remarkable father; a mother, Katharine White, who was a founding editor of the New Yorker; and a famous stepfather, the writer E. B. White.
Intimate, funny, and moving portraits form the book’s centerpiece as Angell remembers his surprising relatives, his early attraction to baseball in the time of Ruth and Gehrig and DiMaggio, and his vivid colleagues during a long career as a New Yorker writer and editor. Infused with pleasure and sadness, Angell’s disarming memoir also evokes an attachment to life’s better moments.
From Kelvin, bookseller: Angell, who recently died at 101, was associated primarily with The New Yorker magazine, where he encouraged, mentored, and edited writers such as Ann Beattie and John Updike, just two in a long list but personal favorites of mine. Angell contributed his own elegantly written essays, many delineating the finer and unique aspects of baseball, a sport he grew to appreciate and love through writing about it. This collection, closer to memoir, more broadly highlights and celebrates all aspects of Angell’s long and unique life.
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