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The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen (The Penguin Press, on sale now)

Twelve-year-old genius cartographer T. S. Spivet lives with his family on their ranch just north of Divide, Montana. When late one August afternoon he receives an unexpected phone call from the Smithsonian announcing that he has won the prestigious Baird Award, life as normal—if you consider mapping family dinner table conversation normal—is interrupted. Slipping out before dawn the next morning, T.S. hops a freight train headed east with his sights set on Washington D.C., and the museum’s hallowed halls.

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet defies easy categorization or comparison. With touches of the classic road story and coming-of-age tale, it quickly transcends these to become something all its own. And defying the e-book trend, this is a novel - with T.S.’s notes, diagrams, and illustrations pulling the plot into every corner of the page - that can only unfold on paper. Touching, hilarious, and wholly original, The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet is a delightful and thrilling debut. A major national publicity push kicked off with features in Vanity Fair, New York magazine, and Book Page. The author will be on NPR’s “Book Worm with Michael Silverblatt” and reviews and/or features are assigned in the New York Times Book Review, New York Times, Washington Post Book World, The New Yorker, Time Out New York, New York magazine, Boston Globe, and Denver Post, among others.

Watch The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet book trailer for a glimpse inside the boundary-leaping debut novel.

Read an interview with author Reif Larsen.
 

Black Postcards by Dean Wareham (Penguin, on sale now)

For the last two decades, Dean Wareham’s iconic bands Galaxie 500 and Luna have been adored by a devout cult following and praised by independent music critics. Rolling Stone hailed Luna as “the greatest band you’ve never heard of,” and named their album “Penthouse” one of the essential rock albums of our time. In his critically-acclaimed Black Postcards: A Memoir —now available for the first time in paperback—he finally tells the story of his personal journey through the changing American independent music scene, tracing his life from New Zealand to New York City to Harvard and back to New York, in a voice that is at once blunt, heartbreaking, and wickedly charismatic.

Black Postcards is more than just a memoir; it is the biography of both the musician and the industry that shaped him. From Galaxie 500’s financial difficulties on indie labels in the 80’s to the explosion of the music business in the 90’s and Luna’s brief phase working with a major label, Wareham writes about the highs and lows of an industry in constant flux. Wareham delivers an exclusive perspective on what it’s like to be part of a band, and the exquisite torture of collaborating with a group of people while traveling around the world to play music together. Black Postcards is a bewitching narrative history of independent music told by a brilliant and fearless participant-observer. Wareham’s notes from the road are rich in rewards for anyone who was ever in a band, ever wanted to be in one, or simply loved and lamented the changes in indie music over the past twenty years. Wareham also addresses what it’s like to pretend to be civil as you answer the same question over and over again: “Why aren’t you guys more famous?”

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