Two New Books Coming My Way

Last night I won a Twitter contest held by Lance Reynald, which got me a free copy of his new book Pop Salvation, which will be released June 23 (Tuesday!). I was hoping to see Reynald on his book tour as well, but it looks like he only has two stops, so winning his book was a good consolation prize. If you haven't heard of Pop Salvation, here's a little blurb about it from the HarperCollins website:

Caleb Watson is not like the other children at his Washington, D.C., private school. Having skipped a grade—and being younger and smaller than the rest of the boys—he finds that his Southern accent and sensitive, reserved nature set him even further apart. Caleb simply does not belong.

But on a field trip to the art museum, Caleb discovers his hero—his icon—when he is exposed to the art of Andy Warhol. In the beauty of the things that don't fit, in the art and philosophy of Pop plus the glorious camp of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and its creatures of the night, Caleb will find sanctuary, transforming himself and the eccentric friends he meets along the way into his own little version of Warhol's Factory.

I love the idea of finding yourself through art. I can't wait to read it.

Also, I have been given the opportunity to receive an advanced copy of Greg Olear's book, Totally Killer, which will be coming out on October 1. The only descriptions of the book I have to offer are this quote from Jonathan Evison, author of All About Lulu: "Olear has created a veritable almanac of the '90s. TOTALLY KILLER is, well, totally killer. You'll laugh. You'll cringe. You'll weep. You may even find yourself humming Whitney Houston." And this one-sentence description from GoodReads: "Conspiracy theory and pop culture collide in 1991 New York in this dazzling and dark debut from Greg Olear."

Olear is one funny guy though so I expect that his book will rock my socks (and hopefully yours!). I'll be sure to post more information when the book arrives. And, of course, a review will be coming. I plan to take Totally Killer with me on the road to Istanbul and share it with you all closer to the release date, along with an interview with Mr. Olear. Super exciting.

I'm really excited to be getting more debut novels to review. I really want to start reading more books by lesser-known authors. I guess I feel like the biggies get enough attention from the "real" media. I don't know, what do you think?