Word’s pick: “Maestra” by L.S. Hilton
This compelling novel is like “Fifty Shades of Grey” meets “American Psycho,” with the added allure of a classic Ian Fleming jaunt across Europe. For main character Judith, her first murder is an accident, the cover-up less so, and corporate espionage, selling forged paintings, and dealing with Italian gangsters just gets easier from there. Come to the book for the compelling discussion of Renaissance painter Artemisia Gentileschi, but stay for the anonymous orgies.
— Ashanti White-Wallace, Word [126 Franklin St. at Milton Street in Greenpoint, (718) 383–0096, www.wordbrooklyn.com].
Greenlight Bookstore’s pick: “From a Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate” by Nathaniel Mackey
A poetic jazz fantasia in prose, N’s ongoing correspondence with the enigmatic Angel of Dust turns the epistolary novel on its ear — and then turns the ear inside out. Through musical shifts within the ever-evolving Mystic Horn Society, readers are treated to a musicological, linguistic, and philosophical examination of the purpose of art. This dialogue between invisible entities is an ongoing epic for the spirit tongues of the ages.
— Jarrod Annis, Greenlight Bookstore [686 Fulton St. between S. Elliott Place and S. Portland Avenue in Fort Greene, (718) 246–0200, www.greenlightbookstore.com].
Community Bookstore’s pick: “Watch and Ward” by Henry James
Why read this early, disowned novel by an author best known for his much later work? Frankly, it is an oddity, and an oddly good one at that — a story about a wealthy bachelor who raises an orphan in hopes of making her his wife. Many of James’s later preoccupations — propriety, class, Americans versus Europeans — are all here in utero, touched on quickly, as if the author doesn’t quite want to spoil anything. James’s sentences sprawl, sure, but they show off a self-conscious desire for a style he has yet to find. It is a spot of immaturity for a comically mature novelist.
— Hal Hlavinka, Community Bookstore [43 Seventh Ave. between Carroll Street and Garfield Place in Park Slope, (718) 783–3075, www.communitybookstore.net].
