A BOOKSHELF ODYSSEY: CLIFFORD THOMPSON'S

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A BOOKSHELF ODYSSEY: CLIFFORD THOMPSON'S

Acclaimed author Clifford Thompson writes about jazz, film, literature and American identity, and he received a Whiting Writers' Award for nonfiction in 2013 for his book Love for Sale and Other Essays (Autumn House Press). 

He lives on a pretty, tree-lined street in Brooklyn in a building that went up in the 1920s and while he has books everywhere, the majority of them live in four tall brown wood shelves placed against the wall in his living room.

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A BOOKSHELF ODYSSEY: BRYAN CALVERT'S

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A BOOKSHELF ODYSSEY: BRYAN CALVERT'S

Bryan Calvert is a chef and the co-founder of James restaurant in Brooklyn, New York. With James, which he opened in 2008, Calvert was an early pioneer of the type of seasonally-focused, locally-sourced produce that has come to define the Brooklyn food scene.

We recently caught up with Calvert to talk about cookbooks, homemade furniture, and the literary classics to which he turns when he’s not ensconced in historical detective work.

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A BOOKSHELF ODYSSEY: ALICE ADAMS'

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A BOOKSHELF ODYSSEY: ALICE ADAMS'

We first met English author Alice Adams in real life, at a cocktail party in downtown Manhattan, where she had come to celebrate her forthcoming debut novel, Invincible Summer. We met her for the second time in space, on Skype, in mid-April.

Adams' bookshelves are located in "the snug" of her North London home, beside a large window. What is a "snug?" we query. "Oh, is that too English?" she replies, then sources a dictionary translation: "Snug 2  (snŭg). n. Chiefly British. A very small private room in a pub."

"Though obviously it’s not in a pub," she adds. "It’s a smallish room off the living room."

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A BOOKSHELF ODYSSEY: SARAH GERARD'S

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A BOOKSHELF ODYSSEY: SARAH GERARD'S

Sarah Gerard is an author to whom you should be paying attention. In February her hypnotic debut novel, Binary Star, was named an LA Times Book Award finalist after high praise from the likes of the New York Times, NPR and others.  

The novel is a semi-autobiographical tale that traces the dysfunctional, co-dependent relationship of an anorexic woman and her alcoholic boyfriend.

Gerard is currently working on her next book, a series of essays about Florida called Sunshine State. We paid her a visit at her Brooklyn home to talk books, writing and elephants.

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