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Our bookseller delved into John Safran's eye-opening book on the big tobacco and e-cigarette industry, as well as this year’s most popular new edition-Sally Rooney (Sally Rooney). ), where are you—and two fascinating novels closer to home.

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Spring is here, and I really believe that nature has staged a world-class performance in Adelaide. Of course, we do not have a monopoly on the golden thorns or bare branches that burst out with pink and white flowers. But our golden blue sky is a local specialty.

What does this have to do with books or bookstores? Well, at Imprints, we have just completed the equivalent of a spring cleaning-inventory-to make room for the new book of the year beginning in September. Just like the weekend after the first big winter in the garden, all the movements of squatting and stretching to take care of the shelf destroyed my hibernating muscles. Fortunately, although I have been recovering, I have a lot of books to read.

Of course, this year’s biggest book is Sally Rooney’s "The Beautiful World, Where Are You (Faber)". You may have read this novel, from "Vogue" to "New York Times" to Twitter. , There is a lot of out there about whether the hype deserves to have been hosted. Here, I want to tell you that as an excellent bookseller, it is available in paperback and hardback versions (the latter comes with Rooney short stories), and for a limited time, you can sell it for US$27.99 (original price US$34.95) The price of buying a hardcover.

Rooney's second novel "Ordinary People" took the world by storm, spawning the equally popular streaming media series. Within the framework of a rigid literary romantic comedy, while exploring mental health and family dysfunction, she uses a forensic approach to excavate the role's insecurities surrounding class, family and social success or other aspects. Crossing the serious ground with a seemingly light touch, that kind-well done-feels very simple.

"A Beautiful World, Where Are You" is the return of Rooney's first two novels-beautiful young people talk fiercely and seriously about love, friendship, the end of the world, and Marxism, while navigating their attraction and obstacles to each other. Way-and something new. Alice and Irene are good friends in their early 30s. They communicate mainly through long emails, switching between personal and luxurious world conditions.

Alice is a jaw-dropping famous novelist. She hates her reputation and moved to an Irish town by the sea (after a mental breakdown), where she met and dated Felix, a warehouse worker She didn't have much impression. Eileen, the editor of a literary magazine, who returned to Dublin, reconnected with her childhood friend and left-wing Catholic political adviser Simon, but was unwilling to turn their true connection into a romantic relationship.

In this new novel, Rooney adopts an omniscient third-person narrative style, keeping a distance from her characters, mainly observing them from the outside, like a stranger, rather than as she did in the first two They are so strongly integrated into the novel. The novel is most active in the last third, when the characters gather in the same house, their energetic crackling and spitting, and the dialogue—in my opinion Rooney’s greatest force—takes over. .

Although the bookstore conversation is now dominated by Rooney-and a very pleasant opinion deal is speaking-there are other great books to discuss, too.

A work I like very much may attract fans of Rooney’s dysfunctional young women because of its wit and high attention to material conditions. It is a strange autobiographical short novel by the young New Zealand writer Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle. Nostalgia ruined my life (Giramundo). The narrator is unemployed, bored, depressed, and chronically ill, and her dating life is terrible. However, somehow, this book is one of the most interesting books I have read in a long time. An example: "My father is going to remarry... He asked me what I was doing recently. I didn't say anything because I was very frustrated and anxious. He said, "Oh, yes, I am thinking about renovating the house because there is no traffic. '."

During the inventory, I briefly followed a colleague around the store and read his excerpt aloud. (Sorry, Ben.) In bed that night, I was reading aloud part of the content to my husband with chamomile tea. He smiled uncertainly and said, "This is really strange." This book is casually scary. This self-conscious and indifferent way of publishing is not suitable for everyone, but I still highly recommend it. For me, humor is not only a coping mechanism, but also to raise awareness and use it cleverly. I will read anything written by this author next.

Another weird and great book I have been imposing on my husband because it needs to be talked about is Puff Piece: How Philip Morris Lights Up an Electronic Cigarette (and Burns English) by John Safran (Penguin) ). Safran first became famous as a documentary producer, and people often compare him with Louis Theroux and Jon Ronson—including me. I have heard him and Ronson talk publicly about this comparison, and all three of them admitted that their common interest in investigating strange worlds and conspiracies produced echoes, real and imagined, using dull observational humor, tenacious perseverance and They themselves did not threaten (and thereby disarm) the interviewer.

Ronson, one of my favorite writers, is actually the closest comparison on the page. Both authors build their books around a combination of discovery (central thrust) and comedy digressions, which are often more meaningful than on the surface, pushing the story forward or adding another perspective. In Safran’s case, these digressions often feature the iconic social justice activist priest Father Bob or his local rabbi.

In Puff Piece, Safran Group set out to investigate how Philip Morris continued to control and evade cigarette supervision through manipulation, lobbying, shell companies and organizations, and clever Orwellian language twists and turns. Did you know that Philip Morris is a major player in the e-cigarette market? But unlike vaping (which has its own controversy), the company's IQOS is equipped with HeatSticks, which are small cylindrical objects filled with tobacco and nicotine that look exactly like cigarettes. Moreover, just like cigarettes, tar is produced. This is the main cause of lung cancer. However, with this product, Philip Morris is now vigorously rebranding himself as anti-smoking (heating rods do not produce smoke, they produce steam).

This is a real eye-opener to the industry, the parallel universe of e-cigarettes (and how they are connected through lobbying), and one of Safran’s core concerns-how the public is distracted. Safran is angry that the "new code of ethics" means that the zeitgeist is more concerned with identity-based language than the company's use of language to evade regulations designed to prevent them from poisoning us. Although I do not always agree with his specific arguments on this topic, I do think that the broader view is worth exploring. Maybe it’s because, like Safran, I’m a Gen X follower of Naomi Klein’s No Logo-but now, I not only own three pairs of Nike sneakers, but I also tend to shrug my shoulders, thinking that all big companies are bad. Rather than considering how we ask for change. I appreciate being forced to pay attention.

Another new book that draws on the idealism of past generations is In Moonland (Scribe), which is the stunning second novel by Melbourne writer Miles Allinson and his 2015 debut "Fever of Animals" has won or shortlisted multiple awards. A part of a novel that spans three generations and is multi-perspective, "Moonland" is a meditation on family, emotional inheritance, memory and belief. It's also about the power of our stories to tell ourselves who we are and where we come from: how they are, instead of reflecting objective facts, they shape, frame, and release us. Although its thought and structure are complex, Alinson's prose reads as easily as a knife through hot butter, sometimes echoing the crisp, bitter fragility of Helen Garner. She calls this book "the joy of reading."

As a father, Joe is in trouble. He is obsessed with finding the truth about the life and death of his charming, sometimes violent but caring father Vincent (the latter is either suicide or an extremely reckless accident)-and at the same time The more alienated his wife and young daughter. In the late 1970s, in the months before he met Joe’s mother, Vincent’s strong and disturbing experience of becoming a member of a cult in India (a real-life cult led by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh) was forever Changed Vincent, where members were urged to release their "complete selves", whatever that was. In the near future when the environment is collapsing and technology continues to advance, hope and idealism are in short supply, and we meet Joe’s daughter Sylvie, who is now an adult.

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The mosaic effect of the interactive story and the time frame is very good, and the connection and contradiction are further tracked by rewarding (but not requiring) re-reading. This is also a complex, meticulous and charming exploration of masculinity through father-son and gentle male friendship.

Although Alinson's narrator is cynical and disillusioned, the novel is compassionate and cherishes the flawed human nature of the characters. When Vincent’s biggest character in this novel approached the cult, his thoughts “hovered in a general sense of inadequacy and anger, which was everywhere. It was as if he was hovering on the edge of his own life, waiting for the real The beginning. So maybe this is it, he thought, this place of practice. The real thing."

Jo Case is a bookseller of Hindley Street Imprints Booksellers and an associate publisher of Wakefield Press.

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