25 years ago this end of Newbury Street was not the commercial powerhouose it is now (how much did Virgin pay to take over the lease from Tower?). Instead it was filled with art galleries and small trade shops. 339 Newbury Street was a head shop ("What's a head shop, mummy?") before Avenue Victor Hugo Bookshop moved in. The beautiful brick floor was covered in a black lino or rubber matting which had to be laboriously scraped off. Vincent McCaffrey and a band of plucky volunteers and co-workers turned it into a bright and open book shop, leased out parts of the upstairs and used other parts to produce the science fiction magazine, Galileo.
Since then the shop has seen many changes, two cats (Tygg, RIP. Blue Bart, see the shop window, yes, he is very much alive. Ask the mice.), many staff, a collection of hardy vehicles almost broken under the strain of moving all those books from houses to the shop, and always under the eye of the cheerily iconoclastic owner, Vince.
Email us, come on in, tell us a story - but excuse if if we have to serve another customer right in the middle of it ­ and help celebrate 25 years of an independent institution. Boston, a town known for its book shops. Until someone gives us a nice big barn in New Hampshire, Avenue Victor Hugo is here to stay.

Labor Day

 
Recommendations

Our very own At The Margin writer Floyd Kemske has two exciting endeavors going on. His latest novel, Labor Day is just out from Catbird Press and we have the first chapter of it here. Secondly, Floyd is putting a second new novel online, Coolidge College, on his own website. It will be available soon for free downloading as a PDF and it even has a dustjacket! Bookmark his website and download that book, it's not often you get the good stuff for free. New England writer Kit Reed has a new novel, @Expectations which considers the internet, identity, and who and what we might be. And Duncan breaks into hardcover with a wonderful collection of stories from Golden Gryphon Press, Beluthahatchie and Other Stories. Similar in size to last year's 4 Stories by Kelly Link, Small Beer Press has a new chapbook out by Canadian writer Dora Knez. Five Forbidden Things is a collection of five short stories and three poems. Knez is a great short story writer and this little book (64 pages) showcases her gross-genre style, range of writing and subject and deftness of touch. One of my favorite authors, James Sallis, has a new collection of essays, Gently into the Land of the Meateaters out now. Sallis is having a banner year with no less than ten books planned to appear this year - some original and some reprints (poetry, short stories, biography and fiction). If you like mysteries and haven't read his Lew Griffin series then you have something to look forward to. It starts with The Long-Legged Fly and just keeps getting deeper, richer, and better.

Steven King is getting a lot of attention for his new book, On Writing, and deservedly so, says one of your readers. There are many laugh-out-loud moments, worth picking up. On kids chapter books, the immensely long-awaited third book in Philip Pullman's His Dark materials trilogy is here, and it's a good one. The Amber Spyglass is a thick, thoughtful book which will satisfy kids and adults alike. Pullman promised this book over a year ago, but the extra time was worth it. Also, Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl looks like a great one. I only got to read the first 30 pages or so before it was dragged away from me, but I'm looking forward to reading more. A good story of not fitting in, but more than that makes it sound. New in trade paperback: Jonathan Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn, the break out novel of the year. People are still telling me how much they enjoyed this, I'm still recommending it. An independent book shop hand sold bestseller. Lastly, something I keep forgetting to mention, Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle. Smith is remembered by most as the writer of 101 Dalmations and it's sequel, but in its time I Capture the Castle was as, if not more, popular. It is a lovely story of a girl and her swains, her father, a writer who cannot write, her brother who quietly grows up while she hardly notices and her beautiful, self-effacing stepmother. It has been in and out of print over the last 40 years, and St. Martin's has it in print now basically because J.K. Rowling declared it one of her favorite childhood books. (That we all might have such power!)

I Capture the Castle

The Book of Prefaces

Another beautiful book, but very different, is George Saunders and Lane Smith's The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip. This is a strange and enjoyable book, neither fish nor fowl, but very good. It will work for both kids and adults. It's great that two such well made trade books are available, take advantage.

TVPGoF!

 
Women and Avenue Victor Hugo
by Anonymous

Many people have worked at AVH over the years and naturally a lot of them have been women. Of course, they've been smart, college graduates, doctoral candidates, and the like.
Not surprisingly many of them have been writers: poets and journalists, short stories and true romances, novelists and essayists; among them have been prize winners and best sellers (who've kindly mentioned AVH in interviews).
Others, book lovers but more career minded, have gone on to work at other book places, stores, publishers, magazines, even to starting their own stores. One ex-employee has had successful bookshops in 3 different cities, moving whenever she got tired of one place or another.
Working with them has been interesting and at one point profitable. Some years ago the evening shift was mostly female, and during quiet moments (this was during a time when we actually had quiet moments), the ladies would hang around the front counter and chat. The repartee was witty, the zingers sharp, and the one liners lightning fast. It behooved a simple male to keep his head down...and take notes.
You see at that time a local paper ran and paid for anecdotes of city life, many of which, thanks to the circle above, involved life in the Avenue Victor Hugo. A few that linger in mind was the time a customer on being asked to check his backpack at the front counter, huffed "How do I know I can trust you with this?" Came the ice cold reply, "What have you got in it worth starting a life of crime for?" On another occasion a customer was seeking a work by Thomas Paine. After a fruitless search, and lamenting the lost opportunity for a sale, someone sighed "Well, no Paine, no gain."
People move on and so have those employees. Many to more glamorous spots like Hollywood, Wall Street, and Washington, D.C. There are new women here now, also smart, but drat, that newspaper column isn't running anymore.

Travel and Magazines

Fancy a trip to Texas? That's where this year's World Fantasy Convention is this year, in sunny Corpus Christi - the biggest city on the east coast, the sixth biggest port in the US. Why go? To meet the writers, the readers, the occasional fan! (Although this is not really a dress-up convention). Guests of honor at the convention are K.W. Jeter and John Crowley. Crowley's newest book, Daemonomania is just out in hardcover. It is the third in a sequence although I believe it will also stand alone. If you aren't up for that there is a good chance we will have copies of his award winning novel Little, Big which is not to be missed.

New issues of a couple of our favorite literary magazines, Century and Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet (LCRW). This issue of LCRW has stories from Jeffrey Ford (I recommend his novel Physiognomy, or his stories on SciFiction as an introduction), Ellen Klages, John Trey and a James Sallis story out of print for something like 30 (thirty!) years. Yes, it is worth it. Meanwhile Century should be flying off the shelves as it has a new story by local and critical fave Kelly Link, Richard Butner, the wonderful Carol Emshwiller - have you read Ledoyt or Carmen Dog yet? - and more. Pick them both up and enjoy that commute!