The Picador Book Room

Here’s what team Picador is reading on this dreary, rainy Friday…

Daniel is reading about all the big ideas in The Unquiet Grave by Cyril Connolly, an English critic and writer. If that isn’t enough to persuade you, Hemingway and Evelyn Waugh were devotees of his work.

Justin is reading Steve Martin’s third novel, An Object of Beauty, about the New York art scene. At one point, during an auction at Sotheby’s, the main character storms out of the room:

Elianna is looking forward to spending this rainy evening finishing Paul Auster’s Winter Journal in preparation for his appearance at LIVE from the NYPL on Monday. She’s also been enjoying the Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, purchased from the New Directions booth at the Brooklyn Book Festival last weekend.

Picador’s managing editor Kolt, in true managing editor fashion, just received a copy of Louise Erdrich’s The Round House and promptly spent 10 minutes waxing poetic about the cover treatment (it is stunning). He’s excited to start reading it this weekend.

Senior Editor David just sent Gabrielle a manuscript to check out over the weekend so that’s what she’ll be reading come 5pm…

…because contrary to popular belief, we do not get to read books all day. Currently, however, I’m reading Cheryl Strayed’s Tiny Beautiful Things, a collection of pieces from her advice column, Dear Sugar, that ran on The Rumpus. It’s not something I would normally read on my own but McNally Jackson picked it for their essay book club and I have to say, it’s pretty great. Strayed is a talented writer and an advice columnist for a new generation.

Lastly, Alaina has been spent the week reading People Who Eat Darkness by Richard Lloyd Parry, the true story of Lucie Blackman, a 21 year old British bar hostess who went missing in Tokyo in the summer of 2000.

I’m not typically a reader of non-fiction or true crime books, but I had my nose in this book every spare minute of the past four days. Parry’s portrayal of both Lucie and her accused murder, Joji Obara, is intensely detailed, in a way that makes you desperate to keep reading. (Note: For some insight into just how creepy this book is, Better Book Titles renamed it “A Great Way to Prove You’re Not Crazy is to Show the Cops Your Dead Frozen Dog for No Reason.”)

I was so impressed with this book that I’ve got another Farrar, Straus & Giroux paperback original packed in my bag for the weekend — Threats by Amelia Gray.