The Picador Book Room

Our new book by Anna Stothard, The Pink Hotel, reminds us that we have another book to add to our stellar Bad Mommies Mother’s Day collection. Issues with your mother got you down? Shopping for a Mother’s Day gift filling you with dread? Think you got it bad? Check out these moms and remember, yours is probably wonderful!

1. The Pink Hotel by Anna Stothard: Our nameless narrator has just walked off with a suitcase of her mother’s belongings. Abandoned by Lily years ago, the narrator has come a long way to learn about her mom, and the stolen suitcase—stuffed with clothes, letters, and photographs—contains not only a history of her mother’s love life, but perhaps also the key to her own identity. As she tracks down her mother’s former husbands, boyfriends, and acquaintances, a risky reenactment of her life begins to unfold. 

2. Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman: When Hassman gives us this line: “My name is Rory Dawn Hendrix, feebleminded daughter of a feebleminded daughter, herself the product of feebleminded stock,” only five pages into the book, it’s a subtle clue that this will not be a tale of a heartwarming mother-daughter relationship. Calling Rory Dawn’s mother absent would be a kind way to put it, as her alcoholism takes control of both her own life and Rory’s.

3. The Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn: The best thing that you can say about the mother in St. Aubyn’s series is that at least she isn’t as bad as the father. 

4. Every Day is Mother’s Day by Hilary Mantel: We’ll assume you’ve read Wolf Hall and that Bring Up The Bodies is currently on your nightstand but for something completely different from one of your favorite writers, may we suggest Mantel’s first novel, a dark domestic comedy about a half-wit daughter barricaded with her mother in their once-respectable home. Described as “Stephen King meets Muriel Spark,” this book is a great read, though it may be a demonstration of the worst mother/daughter relationship imaginable.

5. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen: This National Book Award Winner is a darkly comic study of a “typical” American family. Matriarch Enid watches her family fall apart: her husband is losing his sanity to Parkinson’s; her eldest son is crushed by clinical depression; her daughter has destroyed her marriage; and her youngest son has lost his seemingly secure job and moved to Eastern Europe. Desperate for a sliver of joy, Enid sets out to bring the family together for Christmas, a seemingly futile endeavor. Hopefully your mom has slightly less dysfunctional family holidays to look forward to.

6. Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs: At a young age, Burroughs was given over by his mother to be raised by her unorthodox therapist, resulting in a less-than-normal childhood. In a home where the friendly neighborhood pedophile lived in a shed behind the house and electroshock therapy was a gripping form of entertainment, this book might be appropriate for Mother’s Day accompanied with a note reading, “Thank you for not doing this to me.”

7. Smut by Alan Bennett: While the mother in Bennett’s second novella, The Shielding of Mrs. Forbes, may not be quite on the level of some of Picador’s other Bad Moms, it cannot be denied that her relationship with son Graham is not ideal. We don’t want to give too much away, but we’ll just say that it’s never a good thing when you and your mother have the same love interest.

powerhousearena:

Shout out to everyone who attended last night’s paperback launch for THIS IS HOW, by master confessional Augusten Burroughs. It was a super fun time, thanks largely to our rocking audience, who had the hutzpah to ask the author such questions as: How do you deal with feelings of vulnerability? And: Will you smoke a joint with us?  

Also, this events coordinator would like to say that Augusten Burroughs was hands-down more deeply invested in our store photo than any other author to date—offering suggestions about where to stand for optimal lighting, and telling me to relax. Pretty much the nicest guy ever. 

P.S. No, Augusten Burroughs will not smoke a joint with you. Pot makes him paranoid. 

Such a great night! 

Meet Augusten Burroughs at a bookstore near you!

If you’re fat and fail every diet, if you lose your job, if you always end up alone, if you can’t get over the past, if you believe life has a grudge against you, if you’re lost in life. If you have ever wondered, how am I supposed to survive this? Augusten Burroughs will tell you- This is How: Surviving What You Think You Can’t .

4/23      Brooklyn, NY                  Powerhouse Arena (7pm)

4/24      Portsmouth, NH              Riverrun Bookstore (7pm) SOLD OUT!

4/25      Portland, ME                  Portland Public Library (7pm)

4/26      Chicago, IL                     Unabridged Bookstore (6:30pm)

4/28      Portland, OR                  Powell’s at  Burnside (2pm)

4/29      Albuquerque, NM            University of New Mexico (7pm)

4/30      Tulsa, OK                        All Souls Church / Book Smart Tulsa (7pm)

5/1        Austin, TX                       Book People (7pm)

5/2        Houston, TX                    Brazos Bookstore (7pm)

5/3        New Orleans, LA             Octavia Books  (6pm)

5/4        Fort Lauderdale, FL        Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale (4pm)

5/6        Miami, FL                         Books and Books (8pm)

5/7        Nashville, TN                   Nashville Public Library (6:15pm)                                                      Salon@615 Series with Parnassus Books

Praise for This is How

“All of the wisdom [Burroughs] dispenses in his new book — delivered with the dark, acidic humor we’ve come to expect — is certainly well-earned….Though the book offers no quick fixes — and refreshingly so — Burroughs provides a hefty cache of raw material for self-betterment….the author is a memorable guide on the road from darkness to light.”—The Boston Globe

“Most sections straddle the line between supportive empowerment and tough love and are written with the author’s characteristic dark humor, which consistently entertains and, as the pages turn, earnestly educates.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Hilarious and searingly straight forward…Burroughs turns the self-help genre upside-down.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Issues with your mother got you down? Shopping for a Mother’s Day gift filling you with dread? Think you got it bad? Check out these moms and remember, yours is probably wonderful!

1. Every Day is Mother’s Day by Hilary Mantel: We’ll assume you’ve read Wolf Hall and that Bring Up The Bodies is currently on your nightstand but for something completely different from one of your favorite writers, may we suggest Mantel’s first novel, a dark domestic comedy about a half-wit daughter barricaded with her mother in their once-respectable home. Described as “Stephen King meets Muriel Spark,” this book is a great read, though it may be a demonstration of the worst mother/daughter relationship imaginable.

2. Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman: When Hassman gives us this line: “My name is Rory Dawn Hendrix, feebleminded daughter of a feebleminded daughter, herself the product of feebleminded stock,” only five pages into the book, it’s a subtle clue that this will not be a tale of a heartwarming mother-daughter relationship. Calling Rory Dawn’s mother absent would be a kind way to put it, as her alcoholism takes control of both her own life and Rory’s.

3. The Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn: The best thing that you can say about the mother in St. Aubyn’s series is that at least she isn’t as bad as the father. 

4. Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs: At a young age, Burroughs was given over by his mother to be raised by her unorthodox therapist, resulting in a less-than-normal childhood. In a home where the friendly neighborhood pedophile lived in a shed behind the house and electroshock therapy was a gripping form of entertainment, this book might be appropriate for Mother’s Day accompanied with a note reading, “Thank you for not doing this to me.”

5. Smut, by Alan Bennett: While the mother in Bennett’s second novella, The Shielding of Mrs. Forbes, may not be quite on the level of some of Picador’s other Bad Moms, it cannot be denied that her relationship with son Graham is not ideal. We don’t want to give too much away, but we’ll just say that it’s never a good thing when you and your mother have the same love interest.

6. The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen: This National Book Award Winner is a darkly comic study of a “typical” American family. Matriarch Enid watches her family fall apart: her husband is losing his sanity to Parkinson’s; her eldest son is crushed by clinical depression; her daughter has destroyed her marriage; and her youngest son has lost his seemingly secure job and moved to Eastern Europe. Desperate for a sliver of joy, Enid sets out to bring the family together for Christmas, a seemingly futile endeavor. Hopefully your mom has slightly less dysfunctional family holidays to look forward to.

The Best Reading Group Guide, EVER.

Sometimes we ask our authors to help write the reading group guides for their books.  But when you ask Augusten Burroughs….

Well…

Augusten’s questions cover what we REALLY want to talk about at book club:  plastic surgery, hair styles, inappropriate sexual relationships with TV stars, and of course, Mary Tyler Moore.

His new book, This Is How, hits stores May 8th from St. Martin’s Press.