Idlewild Books
Each month I pick a theme, and my friend David Del Vecchio selects 5 books that are somehow related to that theme.
David's shop, Idlewild Books, is ingeniously creative. Organized by country rather than by author, the bookstore features fiction and non-fiction from all parts of the world, including new and classic works in translation, travel guides, language-learning books, and maps.
SEPTEMBER: THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT
As kids everywhere return to school, we present five stories involving children. Houshun Takami’s pulp classic Battle Royale follows a group of ninth-grade students who are taken to a small isolated island with a map, food, and various weapons, Tom Shachtman’s Rumspringa is a celebrated look at a little known Amish coming-of-age ritual, Richard Hughes’s high sea adventure, A High Wind in Jamaica, thrusts a group of children upon the mercy of a bedraggled crew of pirates, Dezso Kosztolányi’s Skylark shares the story of two young parents rediscovering their lives when their daughter goes off for a few days, and Jeffrey Eugenides’s The Virgin Suicides provides insight into adolescent love, disquiet, and death
Click on the individual titles below to read detailed descriptions. For more information on these or any other books contact Idlewild Books at orders@idlewildbooks.com or visit Idlewild at 12 West 19th street, NYC.