Totally Killer by Greg Olear

I finished Totally Killer, Greg Olear's debut novel, just in time for the semester to start here so now I won't be distracted from my school work. It was definitely good company for me on my bus rides to and from school in the past few weeks though, so I'm going to miss it.

Part murder mystery, part conspiracy, this book, which will be released Tomorrow (September 29), tells the story of how Taylor Schmidt came to be deceased at the tender age of 23 (Not a spoiler! We learn this in the first pages of the book). The narrator, Todd Lander, does all he can to take us back to New York in 1991, the fateful year of Taylor's death.

From talking about what life was like before the Internet (There was a time before the Internet?!), to Todd's sad attempt to win Taylor's love by making her a mixed tape, this book will take you back to the early 90's the way Bret Easton Ellis takes you back to the early 80's in Less Than Zero. It's funny because I never really think of anything really defining the 90's, not in the way that pop music, fluorescent clothing, and awesome hair defined the 80's, but Olear has really captured what the decade had to offer. I especially liked the talk of the economic downturn at the time and what the "slacker" culture really meant. It really got me thinking.

As for the story, I really liked Taylor Schmidt's character, if only because I felt like I really could relate to her (at least in the beginning of the book). I thought some of the book was predictable, but the ending threw me off, which I liked. I felt like I was really wrapped up in the conspiracy by the end, the same way Todd would have felt if he were a real person. I love that about conspiracy fiction. The author (or, more often, filmmaker) spends so much time building up this world and getting you to really buy into and then BAM! nothing is what it seems and you begin to question everything you've just read. I thought Olear did a great job of that.

This was a good read set in a time period I don't really think much about, even though it was the time when most of my growing up happened, so it was a refreshing read. It's obvious Olear did a lot of research on the 90's (or he has a unhealthy attachment to those years). I thought the book was fun to read and I loved the title's play on words (even if I did have the saying "Totally killer, dude" stuck in my head for days). Definitely a good one to check out if you're looking for a quick, fun read.

New Releases

I just got notified that Sue Monk Kidd has a new book out: Traveling With Pomegranates, A Mother-Daughter Story. I'm bummed that I won't be able to read it until I get back to the states, but I figured some of you out there might be interested. It was released on September 8, so it's in stores now.

Also, fellow The Nervous Breakdown writer, Greg Olear, has a book coming out on October 1. I'll be reviewing the book, Totally Killer, in a few days (just as soon as I finish reading it!). Until then, feel free to check out all of the nice things Amazon has to say about the book.

Oh, and I wanted to mention that I'm sorry if you've had trouble finding my blog as of late. Somehow Istanbul ruined my URL so I've had to switch back to a blogspot address. I'm going through the Interwebs today to try to find all of my links and change the URL. Fun stuff, let me tell you.

Interview with M.J. Rose and a Giveaway!

Today, as part of her TLC Blog Tour, M.J. Rose is here with some more insight to her newest novel, The Memorist, which I reviewed on Tuesday. In this interview we learn more about where Rose came up with the ideas for her novel, some of her own experiences in Vienna and how she came to be so interested in reincarnation. But first, a little about the author:

You may have heard about M.J. Rose through her first adventures in the publishing industry. Rose self-published her first novel, Lip Service, late in 1998 after several traditional publishers turned it down. Editors had loved it, but didn't know how to position it or market it since it didn't fit into any one genre.

Frustrated, but curious and convinced that there was a readership for her work, she set up a web site where readers could download her book for $9.95 and began to seriously market the novel on the Internet.

After selling over 2500 copies (in both electronic and trade paper format) Lip Service became the first e-book and the first self-published novel chosen by the LiteraryGuild/Doubleday Book Club as well as being the first e-book to go on to be published by a mainstream New York publishing house.

Today, she is the international bestselling author of 10 novels; Lip Service, In Fidelity, Flesh Tones, Sheet Music, Lying in Bed, The Halo Effect, The Delilah Complex, The Venus Fix, The Reincarnationist, and The Memorist.

Rose has appeared on The Today Show, Fox News, The Jim Lehrer NewsHour, and features on her have appeared in dozens of magazines and newspapers in the U.S. and abroad, including USAToday, Stern, L'Official, Poets and Writers and Publishers Weekly. And now she's here today:

You noted at the end of The Memorist that you have spent time in Vienna and that the underground ruins really do exist – Did you get a chance to explore some of the abandoned city below the surface?

Yes I did, it’s an amazing thing to see.

What first interested you in reincarnation and binaural beats?

When I was three years old, I told my great grandfather things about his childhood in Russia that there was simply no way I could have known. He became convinced I was a reincarnation of someone in his past. And over time, after more incidents, my mother – a very sane and logical woman -- also came to believe it.

Reincarnation was an idea I grew up with that my mom and I talked about and researched together.

For years, I wanted to write a novel about someone like my mother – who was sane and logical – who started out skeptical but came to believe in reincarnation. But I was afraid if I did people would think I was a “woo woo weirdo”.

I tried to start the first book in this series ten years ago after my mother died but I was too close to the subject and missed her too much to be able to explore it objectively. Every once in a while the idea would start to pester me again but I still stayed away from it.

Then a few years ago on the exact anniversary of my mom’s death my niece, who was a toddler at the time, said some very curious things to me about my mother and I – things she really couldn’t have known -- and the pestering became an obsession.

That’s when I sat down and started in earnest to write The Reincarnationist – which was published in September '07 and is out now in paperback and is the first book in the series. But they don’t have to be read in order.

As for binaural beats- I came across them in my research I did in 2005 when I was searching out information for the first novel in this series.

Throughout the book there are quotes from famous people like Carl Jung, Tolstoy, and Goethe regarding reincarnation. Were you surprised to find that so many influential people throughout history believed in reincarnation?

Yes and it was one of the things that really helped make me decide to tackle these books on this complicated and amazing subject.

Are you a fan of Beethoven, or was he just used because of the location and his interest in this type of research?

Here’s a short essay I wrote about the inspiration for this book that explains all that…

Once upon a time, my husband and I went to Vienna on a vacation and fell in love. Not with each other - we'd already done that - but with the city.

Growing up in Manhattan you don't bump in to history on every street corner - mostly you're bumping into other people or great shopping or eating experiences. In New York you have to go out of your way to find eighteenth century history but it’s still alive on every block in Vienna. There’s so much of it you are literally breathing it in. Arts and sciences have flourished here for centuries and whatever your passion you can visit museums, monuments and memorials to art, music, architecture, literature philosophy and psychology.

And visit them we did including making visits to homes of many famous people who’d once lived there and since my husband is a musician the trip turned out to be what I now jokingly call our Beethoven pilgrimage.

There are several of the great composer's residences in the city proper and its environs and we visited every one of them as well as churches, cafes and music halls he frequented. We walked the streets he walked following the routes he took and spent one day wandering the woods he wandered during the summers he spent in Baden, a spa town an hour out of the city.

But it was in the Heligenstadt house that the idea for my novel, The Memorist was born.

The house at Probusgasse 6 is in a neighborhood called Heligenstadt at the bottom of the Kahlemberg, which in Beethoven’s time was outside the city and filled with vineyards that are still growing there. And it was here at the end of the summer of 1802 that the 31-year-old Beethoven wrote the heart-wrenching Testament to his two brothers documenting his anguish at the onset of his terrible deafness.

The upstairs of this small apartment is open to the public and we walked through the ordinary rooms where he lived. Wandering over to the window I looked down at a simple courtyard where there was a single tree growing.

I stared at the gnarled, twisted trunk and the rich healthy verdant green leaves and realized that Beethoven must have once stood there and looked down at that same tree. Suddenly the composer’s ghost was standing there with me looking out the window.

Later I told my husband what I had been thinking and he said: “You’re going to write about that aren’t you?” Until that moment I hadn’t thought about it but after he said it, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

At home I read several biographies about Beethoven and in one discovered the great composer had been fascinated with Eastern philosophy, which includes a strong belief in reincarnation. His own notebooks contain quotes a number of passages from Bhagavad-Gita. As well as a quote from William Jones that was included in his Hymn to Narayena, We know this only, that we nothing know.

And with that piece of information the idea at the heart of my tenth novel revealed itself.

The Memorist is not about Ludwig Van Beethoven although he does play a small part in it. Rather it’s a suspense novel about a woman on a search for her own ghosts but it was Beethoven’s spirit that inspired the book and his everlasting gifts to us are at the heart of the mystery I attempted to unravel.

Is there going to be a third book in this series?

There is and I’m writing it now.

(Looks like Rose is going to leave us in suspense, but rumor has it the third book will have more details about FBI Agent Lucien Glass, who was one of my favorite characters in this book. Yay!)

Was it difficult to keep all of the timelines straight in this book? How did you manage them and the characters from each time period?

It’s a bit tricky to keep it all straight but I write a first draft and then go back and do a timeline outline and then do a second draft fixing all the dates and making it all consistent.

How long did you spend researching the Indus Valley and Viennese history before writing this book?

I have been researching the whole subject of reincarnation for many years and have read over 50 books – I did an additional 3 months of research before I started this book and then while I was writing the first draft kept doing more research.

I’m also curious about the references to Judaism and Kabbalah. Did you have to research this or is it something you have studied throughout your life?

I’m Jewish but knew nothing about the Kabbalah until I stared doing the research for this book.

One of my readers was also wondering about online marketing for books. She asks: What are some of the biggest mistakes inexperienced writers can make on the web while they're promoting their work? Is it possible to rectify them, or do mistakes follow us forever and ever?

I teach an online marketing class once a year that is of great help to writers starting out or those already out. It will be taught in Jan 2009 - more at this link.

And the biggest mistake is to spend your entire marketing budget on a website. The second biggest is to think you don’t need to do anything - that your publisher will do it all. At Authorbuzz.com we help authors do affordable marketing - and since we work with all the major publishers - authors can feel confident about working with us.

Also, do you have any easy tips for authors starting out who have decided to self-publish?

I’m sorry, I don’t. And unless it’s very niche marketed non-fiction I don’t recommend self-publishing at all. I think it’s a big mistake to self-publish fiction. I’ve written a lot about that online and you can read about why here.

On your Website you mention that The Secret Garden was the first book to get you thinking about writing. Are there other books that have influenced you along the way? And what are you currently into reading? Some favorites?

I hate to do these lists because I always leave too many books out. Here are some of my favorite authors: Paul Auster, Anne Rice, Robert Goddard, Michael Connelly, Arthur Phillips, Lisa Tucker, Douglas Clegg, Ruth Rendell, Sophie Kinsella, Alice Hoffman, Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child, Steve Berry, Jeffery Deaver… and I’ve been influenced by: John O’Hara, Ayn Rand, Daphne DuMaurier, and John Gardner.

I’m reading Buddha by Deepak Chopra right now.

M.J. Rose, is the international bestselling author of 10 novels; Lip Service, In Fidelity, Flesh Tones, Sheet Music, Lying in Bed, The Halo Effect, The Delilah Complex, The Venus Fix, The Reincarnationist, and The Memorist. Rose is also the co-author with Angela Adair Hoy of How to Publish and Promote Online, and with Doug Clegg of Buzz Your Book. She is a founding member and board member of International Thriller Writers and the founder of the first marketing company for authors: AuthorBuzz.com. She runs two popular blogs; Buzz, Balls & Hype and Backstory.


And now for the giveaway! MIRA Books has been kind enough to send me extra copies to give away to FIVE lucky readers! Two winners will each receive a paperback copy of The Reincarnationist. Two winners will receive The Memorist. And the Grand Prize winner will receive both books in the series.* So here's how to enter:

1. For one entry you can leave a comment below answering the question: If you were a historian/archaeologist/anthropologist, what place and time would you most like to learn more about?

2. For an extra entry you can post about this giveaway on your blog OR if you don't have a blog you can send an e-mail about the giveaway to five friends. Leave a comment here letting me know you did this.

Also, feel free to leave comments about the interview and the book itself. I'd love to hear what you all think about the themes in this book.

Thanks so much for reading! And be sure to leave your comment by 11:59 p.m. on November 23. I'll be drawing winners on November 24.

*Sorry to do this to you international readers, but I'm super poor right now so this giveaway is only open to the U.S. and Canada.

Also, check out some of the other upcoming TLC Tours for more chances to win The Memorist:

Monday, November 17th: Booking Mama

Tuesday, November 18th: Books I Done Read

Wednesday, November 19th: Diary of an Eccentric

Thursday, November 20th: MommyPie

Monday, November 24th: Bloggin’ ‘Bout Books

Friday, November 28th: Frequency of Silence

Check out TLC tours for the entire list.

Book Club Announcements: New Release and Read Wicked for FREE

So, thanks to The Book Pirate, I learned that our book of the month has a new sequel being released today so if you've already read Wicked and Son of a Witch, you really have no excuses not to participate this month. Actually, I should say especially if you've read these books because I know you won't be able to resist getting the next in the series if you've already read the others. I started reading Wicked on Friday night and then shirked all of my real responsibilities in order to continue reading. I'm almost finished but have been forced to put it down because I have so many upcoming deadlines (I bribe myself by saying if I get one assigment completed I can read one chapter before starting the next). This is Harry Potter for me all over again.

Erm, sorry to go off on a tangent. I just wanted to point you all toward A Lion Among Men, the latest release by Gregory Maguire. I also wanted to let you know that if you're super poor like me and you somehow can't find someone to borrow this book from you can read Wicked for free by going here.

The Front Porch Prophet by Raymond L. Atkins

The Front Porch Prophet is a debut novel by Raymond L. Atkins about a fictional small town in Georgia. The story is told through its main character, A.J. Longstreet, and opens with the tale of how he came to know Eugene Purdue, his childhood best friend who is now dying of cancer. Eugene and A.J. had a tumultuous relationship in recent years, nearly ending their friendship after a drunken argument three years ago. But A.J. runs into Eugene's ex-wife and is told Eugene wants to see him up at the cabin, which is really just a jumble of pieces (including an old school bus Eugene and A.J. stole in their wild high school days). Not one to hold a grudge, A.J. decides to go and while there finds out about Eugene's cancer (and Eugene's expectation that A.J. will help him die before the pain gets too bad).

While the premise of this book may sound a little heavy, Atkins is able to add some levity to the situation and give us a well-rounded view of A.J.'s life and friendship with Eugene. We also learn about many secrets in their past and we meet a whole cast of lovable Southern characters. I would recommend this book solely for its ability to poke fun at Southern living while also endearing us to such a life.

As the book moves forward we watch Eugene's quick deterioration due to his illness and we see his life go full circle. We're introduced to Johnny Mack, Termite, Brickhead, Wormy and Hoghead - some of the colorfully named characters in the book (with colorful lives as well). Atkins is a natural storyteller, making the scenes unfold with wonderful descriptions and well placed humor.

I'm not certain this would be a book for everyone, but I quite enjoyed reading it. It has been awhile since I've read a book that so fully captured my attention that I wasn't able to put it down until the end. For that alone, I give this book my star of approval. And I'm looking forward to Atkins' next book, which is due out next year.

Read another review of this book at:
Literarily
Book Zombie

September Selection: House & Home by Kathleen McCleary

This month I've chosen House & Home by Kathleen McCleary for our book club selection. This is a book you'll be hearing a lot about this month in the book blogging community because McCleary is doing a blog tour, which started yesterday at the Hooked on Houses blog. There you can read an interview with Kathleen McCleary and watch a trailer for the book. The best part is that McCleary will be stopping here at my blog as well! She'll be here to talk to you all on September 24, which will hopefully have given you enough time to have read some of the book and leave some questions of your own for the author.

Here is a description of the book from its inside cover:

Ellen Flanagan has two precious girls to raise, a cozy neighborhood coffee shop to run, terrific friends, and a sexy husband. She adores her house, a yellow Cape Cod filled with quirky antiques, beloved nooks and dents, and a million memories. But now, at forty-four, she's about to lose it all.

After eighteen roller-coaster years of marriage, Ellen's husband, Sam--who's charismatic, spontaneous, and utterly irresponsible--has disappointed her in more ways than she can live with, and they're getting divorced. Her daughters are miserable about losing their daddy. Worst of all, the house that Ellen loves with all her heart must now be sold.

Ellen's life is further complicated by a lovely and unexpected relationship with the husband of the shrewish, social-climbing woman who has purchased the house. Add to that the confusion over how she really feels about her almost-ex-husband, and you have the makings of a delicious novel about what matters most in the end . . .

Set in the gorgeous surroundings of Portland, Oregon, Kathleen McCleary's funny, poignant, curl-up-and-read debut strikes a deep emotional chord and explores the very notion of what makes a house a home.

As always, we will be discussing the book on the last day of the month, September 30 this month. For more information about the book feel free to visit McCleary's Web site.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

I've read a couple of Sedaris' books and I think When You Are Engulfed In Flames is now one of my favorites (previously, it was Naked). As always, it's a collection of essays about the author's life, but this time I finally got why he selected these specific stories in this order. In some of his other books I haven't understood how the different stories were connected, but in this one it somehow made sense. Perhaps this was because I read them in a more spaced out period. Most of his books I read straight through, but this one really took me about a month. I would read one essay and then come back to the book a few days later. That's the one plus to reading essay-style books: You don't have to worry about losing the momentum of the story if you put it down for a few days.

While I had read a number of poor reviews of this book and I think that may have been part of the reason it took me so long to get through it, I personally enjoyed the book. I envy Sedaris his ability to find humor in everyday interactions with people. I particularly liked the last section of the book when he described his stay in Japan. His accounts of the Japanese people were not cliche and I felt he was able to really give a glimpse of what life would be like there.

Toward the end he describes a scene that unfolds one day when he's riding the train with his boyfriend, Hugh. A Japanese couple is riding with their young child, who insists on standing up to look out the window. The mother removes the child's shoes and places a towel on the seat where the child will stand. The child proceeds to leave handprints and smears all over the window as it looks at the scenery. But rather than leaving the window all smeared up at the end of the ride, the mother cleans the window before leaving, puts the child's shoes back on and folds up the towel. It's this respect for other people that I think Sedaris conveyed well in his stories about Japan.

And, of course, I'm always a sucker for his stories about Paris and Normandy. I love that Sedaris doesn't sugarcoat his experiences in France the way many authors do. He acknowledges the Parisians' disdain toward him and his accented French. His realistic stories of living in Paris give readers a taste of what it would be like to be an expat. And I love that Hugh is often in these stories. He's one of my favorite characters to show up in Sedaris' books.

If you're a Sedaris fan, you've likely already read this book. If you haven't picked up one of his books before I'd suggest this one or Naked. I enjoyed them both.

Reminders and a new book

Yesterday I began reading The Front Porch Prophet by Raymond L. Atkins. Although normally I wait to finish a book before I begin raving about it, I thought I'd mention it here because I'm really liking it. The book is a debut novel and was released on July 1 of this year. I'm not too far into the book, but I can already tell that Mr. Atkins has that wonderful storytelling gene. The book is also based in the South, which I love. I don't have too much experience with the South personally, but I love books based there. There's something about southern life that feels really homey to me.

From the inside cover:

What do a trigger-happy bootlegger with pancreatic cancer, an alcoholic helicopter pilot who is afraid to fly, and a dead guy with his feet in a camp stove have in common?

What are the similarities between a fire department that cannot put out fires, a policeman who has a historic cabin fall on him from out of the sky, and an entire family dedicated to a variety of deceased authors?

Where can you find a war hero named Termite with a long knife stuck in his liver, a cook named Hoghead who makes the world’s worst coffee, and a supervisor named Pillsbury who nearly gets hung by his employees?

Sequoyah, Georgia is the answer to all three questions. They arise from the relationship between A. J. Longstreet and his best friend since childhood, Eugene Purdue. After a parting of ways due to Eugene’s inability to accept the constraints of adulthood, he reenters A.J.’s life with terminal cancer and the dilemma of executing a mercy killing when the time arrives.

Take this gripping journey to Sequoyah, Georgia and witness A.J.’s battle with mortality, euthanasia, and his adventure back to the past and people who made him what he is - and helps him make the decision that will alter his life forever.

And here's a little about Raymond L. Atkins (this makes my heart smile too):

Raymond L. Atkins resides in Rome, Georgia, with his wife. They live in a 110-year-old house that they have restored themselves, and they have four grown children who drop by from time to time. Raymond has had a variety of occupations during the past thirty-five years, but now that the children are grown, he is pursuing his lifelong ambition of being a novelist and writer.

His hobbies include reading, travel, and working on the house. His stories have been published in Christmas Stories from Georgia, The Lavendar Mountain Anthology, The Blood and Fire Review, and The Old Red Kimono.

Anyway, if you haven't heard of this book, you can check it out on Amazon. Or hop on over to Raymond L. Atkins' Web site. The book was also reviewed by Shana over at Literarily. And read the prologue to the book here (This is what hooked me).


Also, I have a little bit of housecleaning to do. First, there are only five days left to enter for a chance to win a signed paperback copy of Matrimony by Joshua Henkin. To enter go here and leave a comment.

And I wanted to remind you all that we'll be discussing Persepolis at the end of this month. If you've already read the book, please leave a comment linking to your review so I can include it in my review on Aug. 31.

July Selection and Interview with Jonathan Evison

As I mentioned a few weeks back, this month we'll be reading All About Lulu by Jonathan Evison. All About Lulu is a debut novel put out by Soft Skull Press, an independent publishing house in New York. The book follows the life of a boy who's mother dies of cancer when he is 7 years old. His father remarries and Will falls in love with his stepsister, Lulu. I haven't read the book yet, but it has gotten some great reviews and I'm really looking forward to it. I've been reading Evison's blogs on myspace and The Nervous Breakdown for some time and if his book is anywhere near as funny as his other writing, I'm sure I'll enjoy it.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Jonathan Evison, I thought I'd give you a little introduction by way of a short e-mail interview with him:

Let's start with a few questions about you. First, what's your favorite beverage?

Unquestionably, beer. Not even close.

What are some of the job titles you've had in the past?

Syndicated talk radio host, rotten tomato sorter, road-kill-butcher-and captive-bear-feeder.

Captive-bear-feeder?

. . . for awhile I was volunteering at a wildlife refuge in Merlin, Oregon, which I totally loved because I got to be around all the animals; cougars and wolves and bears and foxes and owls and eagles and otters and beavers . . . the downside was, I got a lot of the dirty work – cleaning cages, etc. People would bring fresh roadkill in, and one of my jobs was to hack it to pieces with a machete and feed it to the bears, a job which I had neither the stomach nor the heart for, but undertook for the pleasure of the bears . . .

Tell me something about All About Lulu that I won't read in the
press.

My wife wrote it. You’ll never read that in the press. Joking, of course. James Frey wrote it.

What have readers liked most from All About Lulu?

Will’s voice, I suppose. Or the characters. People really seem to like getting to know Gerard and Eugene and the twins.

What has been the most surprising part about the publishing process for you?

How civilized and generally nice people in the publishing industry are, compared to say, film and radio. Also, how ass-backward most publishing models are. Could there be a connection here? I’m not sure. I don’t think so.

Why did you choose to query Soft Skull publishing? What was it that attracted you to a smaller publishing house?

Two words: Richard Nash. One of the great editors working today. Richard not only has excellent taste, he’s got guts, heart, and he’s a madman— the dude e-mails me at two in the morning, sleeping baby in his arms, typing with one arm. The biggest advantage to Soft Skull, and other great indie presses, like Dzanc, or Hawthorne, or Greywolf, is that they actually concentrate on building readerships for their authors, putting all their intellectual resources and energy behind them, instead of trying to catch lightening in a bottle, like many of the corporate houses.

I've been reading your stuff on myspace for awhile now, and I was just wondering if you plan to publish a book of essays in the future (your Sketches of People I Hardly Remember)? I know you've got some other books waiting in the wings, what do you think will likely be the next thing we see from you?

Probably the next thing you’ll see from me is the big shaggy beast of a book I just finished called “West of Here,” which is either a six-hundred page world-beater, or just a very eccentric novel by a guy who should maybe watch his reefer intake on the next draft. But I do have two earlier novels that I haven’t physically burried, as well as the aforementioned “Sketches of People I Hardly Remember; A History of the World As I Found It,” all of which I would like to see go to press eventually. Or not. Who knows?

Why do you bury your books?

I don't bury all of them . . . I just bury the bad ones, which in my case meant the first three novels I wrote . . . and when I say bury, Imean literally dig a hole, salt the earth, the whole nine yards . . . I also dispose of all my rejection notices, although burning is my preferred method for this . . .confidence is indispensable to the writer if he or she is to make the right decisions . . . I don't like to have any reminders around of past failures . . .

Also, there seems to be a general buzz surrounding All About Lulu, how did the book get recognized so quickly?

A combination of things, luck being one of them. The right publisher. The right readers. The fact that Lulu is a trade paper original (which has really helped in terms of getting enthusiastic booksellers on board). And also, the book just sorta’ feels like the right book at the right time, kinda’ thing. I think a lot of people can relate to the family stuff. It’s good for group discussion, methinks. And of course, I’ve been very fortunate to have amazing advocacy and support all around me.

How do you feel about all of this (the book, the film, the recognition)?

Like a very grateful man. Incredibly grateful-- often of late, wistfully so. Like I was already lucky to have been dragging my bumper all over town all those years with no dental insurance, just because I had writing as a way of life, but now I can devote even more time to it, and make a living (sort of).

Lastly, where can readers go if they want a taste of your work?

Just about any bookstore, or Amazon, or whatever. Oh, you mean free work? Ha! There’s some personal essays archived at the nervousbreakdown.com— Brad Listi’s thriving literary co-op, which, as you know, is an excellent venue for dozens of great writers.

OK then, thanks so much Jonathan and I hope you make it out to Sacramento.

My pleasure, thanks to you, Becca! I also hope to get my ‘Sac on’, as it were . . .

Jonathan Evison likes rabbits. His work had appeared in Orchid, Knock, Opium, Quick Fiction, and other journals. All about Lulu is his first novel.

P.S. Check out Powell's Books for another interview with Evison.

What does a book blogger love more than anything?

Today I received my first two review copies of books! I can't even begin to tell you how super excited I am about this. There really isn't anything a book blogger loves more than free books. The only bad news is, now I have even more reading to do, and I should probably get it done sooner than later, considering the two books are coming out soon.

In case you're wondering, the two books are first, He Loves Me, He loves Me Not by Trish Ryan. I won this book from her blog, which you can read here. The book will be released for sale on April 30. I'll certainly try my best to get the review done by then. I think I'll take it with me on my plane ride to Utah. That should make the time pass quickly. Oh, and here's a short description of the book from Publisher's Weekly: "Ryan’s winsome memoir and writing debut traces her desperate search for a man — specifically a husband — and for a spirituality that works for her… Ryan is eminently likeable and vulnerable, and her sharp writing will appeal to faithful and irreverent readers alike."

The second book I received is Why the Wind Blows: A History of Weather and Global Warming by Matthys Levy. I think the title does a pretty good job of describing what this book is about. One thing I already like about the book is the graphs and pictures I saw as I was flipping through the book. Too often I get these nonfiction books with tons of scientific references that go WAY over my head without any graphics for me to reference and help me better understand what the heck they're talking about. I'm definitely looking forward to this one.

Oh, and the best news of all is I might finally do my first author interviews as a book blogger! I'm so excited that this is all really starting to come together ... Now if I could just get more people interested in my online book club I'd be totally stoked (Ahem!).

Roald Dahl's Granddaughter Releases First Novel

My first ever love affair with an author happened in 4th grade when I read Matilda by Roald Dahl. I had always loved reading prior to this, but Roald Dahl's imaginitive tales set me over the top. I devoured each and every one of his books within weeks of discovering him. His books are also the only books I can ever remember reading time and time again. Most books get read once and set on the shelf never to be looked through again (this is why I'm such a firm believer in the library, but that's for another blog).

So today when I read that Sophie Dahl, Roald Dahl's granddaughter has just released her first novel, I nearly peed my pants with excitement. Granted, she's not the master himself, but having something new from the Dahl family makes my heart smile in a big way. It brings back all those days of reading when I was a kid, and the excitement of having a new book to read. I'm not sure how much I'll love her book, but I still plan to read it in the near future. I have to give her a try at least.

So, from Amazon, this is the description of Playing With the Grown-ups:

"The full-length debut by the granddaughter of Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal centers on a dreamy, romantic English woman who hasn't quite escaped the thrall of her fabulous mother, Marina. When Kitty, now married, pregnant, and living cozily in New York City with her financier husband, receives the call that her mother has been hospitalized after a breakdown, Kitty flashes back to her magical youth, revolving around her Swedish grandparents' Never-Neverland of a country home, Hay House, shared by her mother and aunts.

"When Marina's guru insists Marina move to New York City to pursue her painting, Kitty eventually joins her on Park Avenue, and her mixed-up adolescence begins. Wearing her mother's clothes, flirting with her handsome boyfriends and swept into parties where her mother chops the cocaine, Kitty comes through a number of charming yet troubling moments, as well as foreshadowings of Marina's future breakdown. There's plenty of texture to Kitty's remembrances, but the result reads more like a fictional memoir than fully plotted novel."

Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella

I finally got around to reading Sophie Kinsella's newest book, Remember Me? It's not that I didn't want to read it, but that I knew it would only take me a few hours and I have a huge stack (17 and counting) of books from the library that I need to finish before their due dates. I was planning on saving this for my upcoming plane ride to Utah, but decided to read it last week when I was getting burnt out on all this nonfiction I've been reading lately (reviews to come).

In Remember Me? Alex Smart finds herself in the hospital with a concussion and begins trying to piece together how she got there. All she can remember from the night before is that she had been out drinking with the girls on a rainy night and she slipped and fell on the wet pavement. But when she goes to look in the mirror, she sees that she's somehow lost a good amount of weight and her teeth are amazingly straight and shiny. And why does she have a Louis Vuitton bag next to her nightstand? She can't afford that!

When people begin to visit her, she doesn't recognize them and they look older than she expects. Finally someone tells her that it's 2007 not 2004. The slip and fall incident happened three years ago. But she doesn't remember the last three years, which includes her meeting her now-husband. The tale that ensues is hilarious as always and not nearly as cliche as I had previously thought.

Sophie Kinsella has a way of telling stories that makes me fall in love with her characters and manages to put me in their shoes (even though I know I'll never be able to afford the lifestyle of many of her characters). However, having read all of Kinsella's books, I'm beginning to see a pattern. She spends the first 2/3 of the book making us fall in love with the main character and all of her witty mishaps. We also watch as they nearly destroy their lives, then in the last few chapters the main character thinks of something brilliant that saves her crumbling career, or that of her husband or friends. As I was reading this book I realized it had become formulaic and it made me sad because I do so love Sophie Kinsella. I still recommend this book because it's a fun and easy read, but if you've read all of Kinsella's other work be aware that you'll be reading it saying to yourself, "OK, now what's she going to think of to save everyone's job? Because I know that's coming next."

If you've never read Kinsella, I highly suggest Can you keep a secret? and Confessions of a shopaholic.

How'd You Score That Gig?

I've been wanting to run away from real life for as long as I can remember, but this desire finally took a front seat in February 2007 when I quit my full-time newspaper job to become a freelance journalist. I loved writing, I just hated that I was forced to sit in a stuffy office all day to be allowed to write. So I took a huge pay cut (at first) and jumped into the great unknown. Even now, a year later I'm barely scraping by. But I'm much happier. I get outdoors more often. I'm not completely tired and stressed about deadlines every single day. And I can pick and choose my jobs. It's not ideal from my parents' perspective, but they've learned to keep that to themselves.

As it turns out, there are a number of 20 and 30-somethings out there with college degrees who seem like aimless floaters to their parents because they are following their dreams and spending their time doing something they love without the constraints of being stuck under the tyrannical work system they were meant to have joined. Today, in The Buffalo News, I read about a new book coming out, "How'd You Score That Gig," by Alexandre Levit, and I gotta say I'm a bit scared to pick it up. If I get this book, it will only encourage me on the path I've been taking. Not that I mind that path, but man would I love to have some extra cash one of these days. It's the same as me reading travel essays – do I really need more encouragement?!

But here we are. The book has been written and will be released April 15 and I will read it. It's inevitable.

About the book: "How'd You Score That Gig" is filled with some of the most coveted jobs of my generation - graphic designer, travel writer, interior designer, entrepreneur – and how to get those jobs. There is a personality test included for those of us who want to do all of these jobs, but can't decide on which one to pursue, and there are also more than 60 interviews with recent college grads who successfully broke into these fields.

See, it's like crack for people like me. Seeing other people being successful in these kinds of careers only makes me believe even more that I too can be one of those people. And so I'll go on putting off my, hopefully not inevitable, return to the "real" world ...

Authors paying out-of-pocket for book tours

It used to be almost expected that a new author would go on tour with his or her book as a way to get the word out and promote the book. Publishing houses often paid for this considering they were getting the major money out of the deal, but it seems like today more and more authors are looking for creative ways to promote their books without having to go on tour.

Part of the reason is that if you aren't already famous, your publishing house won't pony up the cash for you to go on tour. For them it's a matter of making money on their return, and, although it pains me to say it, they're right. I've been to quite a few book signings and the lesser known authors definitely are lacking in crowds. Little to no crowd equals small sales at the end of the signing.

Some authors are doing internet tours. Others phone in to book club meetings or create a blog to raise awareness about their book and their goings-on. But there are those who still want a real connection with their audience (and there are those of us who crave those opportunities), such as Michael Steers and Stanley Trollip, who write under the pen name of Michael Stanley and will be taking an international book tour using money from their own pockets.

On April 1, the two authors released their first book, A Carrion Death, but if their book tour does well, they may indeed be seen more often. And maybe their next book tour will be paid for by their publishers. I'm not a huge fan of murder mystery or detective novels, but I think I might just buy this one to show my support. To learn more about the tour or the book, visit the authors' Web site here.

Sophie Kinsella's New Book Out Today!

I have been waiting for this day ever since about September, when I heard Sophie Kinsella was coming out with a new book. Granted, the story line is a bit played out when it comes to romantic comedies - the story of a girl who loses her memory and realizes her forgotten life isn't worth remembering - but I'm sure Kinsella has added her usual humor to make this another best seller for her. Even though the book is out today, I have to wait a couple more weeks to buy it because it's not available in Europe yet.

Although I'm not usually a huge fan of Chick Lit - in fact, Kinsella is the only Chick Lit author I've read and liked - I've found a book blog that focuses only on girly books. So, if this is a genre that interests you, or if you want something girly without it being a steamy romance novel, check out the Candy Covered Books blog.

Sunday Cravings

First up this week we have Natalie Angier's The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science. Not exactly a new book, but new to me. It came out in May 2007, but I didn't discover it until I stumbled across an old The New York Times review of the book. I am always looking for books that can explain science to me in easy terms. I like science, but sometimes it's a little much for my brain to handle. Last year I thought I'd finally found the perfect book, when I picked up The History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, but I was wrong. Bryson's book was still a little too snoozerific for me, so I'm going to try this one and see if it's any better.


Second on my list for this week is Kara Zuaro's Indie-rock cookbook, I Like Food, Food Tastes Good. Although not really a book to read per se, this book sounds really interesting to me. Zuaro compiled on-the-road recipes from touring bands to put together this book. One such recipe is for a veggies sausage and peanut butter sandwich, submitted by Death Cab For Cutie. Read more about the book and its contents here.




Lastly, I offer you Beautiful Children from first-time author Charles Bock. This has been hyped up big time in The New York Times, but is getting mixed reviews on Amazon, where people either love it or hate it. There seems to be no middle ground for this book depicting Sin City in all its seediness. No, it's not the Sin City of tourists, it's the Las Vegas most people would like to think doesn't really exist. The book centers around a 12-year-old boy who goes missing. It's told from the perspecitves of his distraught parents, himself and the people he meets along the way. Bock, the son of pawn shop owners, grew up in Las Vegas and is intimately familiar with the unflashy part of the city. I think it might be interesting to see Las Vegas from an inhabitant's standpoint, rather that a visitor's (my usual viewpoint there). I think it's worth checking out. I just hope it's not as bad as some people are saying.

Author News: David Sedaris, Kanye West

A couple of little tidbits for you today.

First, David Sedaris has renamed his new book yet again. It is now expected to be called When You Are Engulfed In Flames, but Publisher's Weekly reports that the title is likely to change again. What isn't expected to change is the release date, which is scheduled for June 3, followed by a 29-day book tour of 29 cities. You can check if your town is on the list here. I'm super excited about this, as I've loved the two Sedaris books I've read. The only disappointment is that I still haven't gotten to Dress Your Family In Cordouroy and Denim, and he's already got another book to add to the list! Yikes!

Second, I saw that Kanye West is going to be releasing a book and I had to wonder: Is anyone going to actually buy this book to read it? I think it's interesting that now if you're famous, no matter what you're famous for, you have to have a book about you. Really? Are you that interesting? I doubt it. Oh, and he also is going to have his own search engine called searchwithkanyewest.com. How hilarious is that? Sorry Kanye, but I don't think you'll be beating out Google anytime soon, especially with a name as uncatchy as that.