Why Dream House Makes a Great Book Club Recommendation

The following is a letter I wrote, talking up Valerie Laken's Dream House in paperback, which I think is a great book for book clubs. Valerie is going to be my special guest at our first book club night on Wednesday, March 24th, at 7 PM. I'm convinced enough that this is a great book club book that I took the liberty of writing a letter promoting it, which I passed on to our great rep Cathy at HarperCollins, to do with as she wished. But why not share my thoughts on a grander canvas...

When I moved to Milwaukee many years ago, my first apartment was a studio in a grand old building called The Blackstone. I’d settled in pretty well, unfazed by the lack of stove or kitchen sink. Laurie Colwin washed her dishes in the bathroom, as chronicled in Home Cooking; why couldn’t I? And for such a small apartment, it had such a nice-sized tub, perfect for relaxing after a long day on my feet, selling books.

I befriended a tenant down the hall, a young woman who did promotion for a local record store, Radio Doctors. One day we were hanging out together, and the conversation turned to the man who lived there before me. “Poor Joe,” my new friend sighed, “What a good guy. He died in the bathtub, you know.”

Well, that’s nothing compared to the premise of Dream House. What if the house you bought turned out to be the scene of a murder? That’s the situation Kate finds herself in when she and Stuart impulsively purchase an old fixer-upper in Ann Arbor.

Needless to say, it puts a bit of a strain on the marriage. And Kate’s already got issues with her own family (coincidentally, they work in construction), and can’t understand why she hasn’t followed their lead and invested in new construction in the suburbs.

The story is told through Kate’s perspective, her husband Stuart, and Jay, one of the other teachers at Kate’s high school, who also has a link to Kate’s house. Oh, and did I mention the story is also Walker’s, the man who just got out of jail for committing the crime?

In many ways, the story reminds me a bit of House of Sand and Fog. Laken does a wonderful job jumping getting the reader to empathize with characters that are strongly at odds. She captures the pressures and stresses of family and relationships, and how that combustible energy can be bottled up in houses.

I’m always looking for great book club books. If you have any sort of program, I’m sure you are too. I’m looking for that sweet spot, the book that appeals to your types that are interested in theme and character, demand great writing, and want a good story as well.

I think Dream House is a book that has all those things. It’s edited by Claire Wachtel, the guiding light behind many wonderful authors like Manette Ansay, Jennifer Haigh and Thrity Umgrigar. Just to switch things up a bit, she also edits Dennis Lehane. You can also see the influence of Charles Baxter, one of Laken’s mentors, in her writing.

Here’s hoping that you pick up Dream House and find yourself recommending it your friends at other book clubs too. And here’s really hoping that some of them come back and thank you afterwards.

Did you ever Try Handselling a Book and Realize You Don't Have any Copies...

So I'm talking to a customer and the perfect book suggestion comes to me. The only problem is, when I get to the shelf, we don't have it. Not just that, we've never had it.

In some cases, I caught these gaffes quickly and it's paid off. We have very nice sales of The Distant Land of My Father, by Bo Caldwell, and I think in 75% of the cases, I put the book in someone's hand. Others I spotted yesterday. And only time will tell if it's worth it to bring these titles in. But now that I'm on the floor quite a bit, I have lots more opportunities than when I was a buyer, and I seem more persuasive than when I was the manager in Mequon many years ago.

The key on these things is, you really have to prove that you can sell the book. "It's your job, not your library" I used to say to eager booksellers who spent way too much time telling me what we were missing, instead of trying to sell what we had. And though as the owner, perhaps I can carry whatever I want, it's been my thought that I should have the same expectations of myself that I have of everyone else, if not higher.

1. The Golden Gate, by Vikram Seth.

First I decided it was perfect for Lucy, the daughter of my friendstomer (friend/customer) Polly. I thought I'd ordered in one for stock too, so I brought it up at the Waukesha County book club presentation I did today. I had already convinced Cyndie (the member who set this up) to read it, but when I checked, I still hadn't been secure enough to bring in a stock copy. We sold about 30 copies of this book, a novel of two friends in 1970's San Francisco that is completely told in sonnets, when I made it my backlist push several years ago. It's a beautiful book, both structurally and emotionally, and whether you love it or hate it you have to agree--you've likely never read anything like it.

2. Village School, by Miss Read.

I hadn't even thought about Miss Read in years, until a certain retired sports hero's wife told me it was her secret passion. I thought, "Hey, I'm working with every Miss Read fan I know", that being Bev and Anne. We brought in several and are hoping it is as successful as another passion we share (well, Bev, me and Amie in this other case), Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking. After seeing a Schwartz store sell two a year if we were lucky, we've sold about 20 this year.

Which brings me to an author I thought was perfect for my Miss Read fan...

3. An Unsuitable Attachment, by Barbara Pym (et al).

I think we're due for another Barbara Pym revival and I'm ready to start it. It's another author that Bev, Anne, and I share (oh, and John E., who also loves Colwin). In this case, the story is about Sophie, the vicar's wife, who takes on the task of matching the eligible Rupert Stonebird to her sister Penelope, only she doesn't figure on competition from new arrival Iantha Broome. The 50's books are different from the 80's books (where there are even some gay characters) but they both share a profound human insight and a marvelous sense of humor. This is the bridge novel, the 7th novel that was somehow rejected by her publisher and led to a very long dry spell.

4. In Sunlight, in a Beautiful Garden, by Kathleen Cambor. My recent post on Mark Gates reminded me what a great book club book that was, and how little I was on the floor to hand-sell it. Best of all, it's still in print and available as a real book, as opposed to print on demand. During our Raymond Carver event, I started to talk up David Leavitt's Martin Bauman (Leavitt's veiled story about his professional relationship with Gordon Lish), only to find it was $21.95 and POD. Now it might be a perfectly nice book, but it's about $7 too high for my customers, and I was a little nervous about the quality to order it in.