Staff book picks
wanted to tell required me to learn how to
write fiction,” she says.
When asked what she’d most like readers to know about this book, Ward says, “I
write about what I know. The book isn’t
autobiographical in any way, but there are
many details that are drawn from my
experience or the experiences of my
friends and family. The setting is based on
my hometown in Mississippi, where I live.
I hope people will come to understand
something about this place;
about how this place is not dissimilar to many towns in the
U.S.; how history reaches into
the present for many of us in
this country, and how pervasive
the issues that my characters
confront are. I hope readers
from similar places will see
themselves, and that those
from different places will feel
empathy for our experiences.”
Sing, Unburied, Sing
(Item ;;;;;;;;, ;/;) is available in most
warehouses. C
I’M NOT too shy to
admit that sometimes
I’m a little late to the
book party. People who
read Salvage the Bones—
or any of Jesmyn Ward’s
other books—know that
her writing is something
special. I didn’t discover
her until I recently read
Sing, Unburied, Sing.
This novel tells the story of
siblings Jojo and Kayla, who
live with their grandparents
and get occasional visits from
their mother, Leonie. When
their white father is released
from prison, Leonie packs the
kids and a friend into the car to
drive across Mississippi to
meet him.
Ward says she’s always been
a reader and made attempts at
writing from middle school on.
She began with poetry, but made a change
in college. “I realized that the stories I
NEW IN THE WAREHOUSE
KEN BURNS is a master
at making documen-taries. The Vietnam
War: An Intimate
History serves as the
companion piece to
his documentary The
Vietnam War, which
premieres on PBS on
September 17.
Burns and his collaborator, Geoffrey C. Ward, have crafted
a book that pulls readers into the chaos
and intensity of combat while explaining
how the U.S. got into Vietnam. It also
tries to understand why the war happened the way it did and to clarify its
complicated legacy.
The Vietnam War (Item #1182222, 9/5) is
available in all Costco warehouses. —LB
Lindsay Bubitz
Assistant Buyer
CO
S
TC
O
P
HO
TO
S
T
U
DI
O
OUR DIGITAL EDITIONS
Click here to watch a trailer for
The Vietnam War. (See page 10
for details.)
*Star Wars Super Packs available in the warehouse only.