Book of the Month–June 2013
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore
By: Robin Sloan
The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon out of his life as a San
Francisco web-design drone, and serendipity, sheer curiosity and the
ability to climb a ladder like a monkey have landed him a new gig
working the night shift at Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. But after
just a few days on the job, Clay begins to realize that this store is
even more curious than the name suggests. There are only a few
customers, but they come in repeatedly and never seem to actually buy
anything, instead “checking out” impossibly obscure volumes from strange
corners of the store, all according to some elaborate, long-standing
arrangement with gnomic Mr. Penumbra. The store must be a front for
something larger, Clay concludes, and soon he has embarked on a complex
analysis of the customers’ behaviour and roped his friends into helping
him figure out just what’s going on. But once they bring their findings
to Mr. Penumbra, they discover the secrets extend far beyond the walls
of the bookstore.
Description from Harper Collins Canada.
Also available as:
Audiobook
eAudiobook
eBook
Talking Book (restricted to Print Disabled patrons)
Acknowledgments and Awards:
2013: Alex Award
2012: Los Angeles Book Prize for First Fiction (finalist)
2012: NPR Best Books of 2012
Book Reviews
New York Times
Slate
About the Author
Robin Sloan grew up in Troy, Michigan. While studying economics at Michigan State University, he founded a literary magazine but later told the New York Times that he did not consider a career in writing because “I always got the sense that it was frivolous, and that maybe writing made-up stories wasn’t the best use of my time”. Instead Sloan worked for technology companies Current and Twitter.
In 2009, one of Sloan’s friends tweeted about a 24-hour bookdrop which he misread as bookshop. Disppointed at the lack of all-day bookstores in real life, Sloan created one for a short story called Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. In 2010, he decided to turn the story into a novel, eventually quitting his job at Twitter to become a full time writer.
Author Interviews
Mother Jones
New York Times
If you liked Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, you may also enjoy:
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• eAudiobook
• eBook
• Talking Book (restricted to Print Disabled patrons)
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• eBook
Transmission by Hari Kunzru
• Large Print
Non-Fiction
The Googlization of Everything: (and Why We Should Worry) by Siva Vaidhyanathan
In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives by Steven Levy
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