JE: We talk about friend of the blog James P. Othmer around here quite a bit, as well we should, because for starters, if I’m not mistaken, it was Jimbo who introduced me and the Three Guys in the first place! If you haven’t read The Futurist, JPO’s 2006 debut, or Adland, this years hilarious and penetrating adman memoir, you’re missing out bigtime–Mr. Othmer is a truly funny man, with a wicked sense of the absurd. This spring marks the release of JPO’s eagerly awaited second novel, Holy Water, which we will doubtless be covering here. We asked our friend JPO to participate in our WWFiL series, and here he is:
JPO: After sixth grade, the principal of St. John’s the Evangelist
Continue reading When We Fell In Love – James P. Othmer
JR: I just started reading Swimming Inside the Sun, and I feel bad for not being able to give it a full review. Lately I’ve been trying to do the NYT crossword puzzle while falling down an elevator shaft, which is to say, my life is coming unhinged. There are so many reasons to like David Zweig’s debut, because it sounds like a memoir, but it’s a novel (what a beautiful package to boot). I particularly like the strong opening, detailing a roll in the hay that our hero takes, with a girl he’s only just met. Dan Green’s life is easy for me to relate to, and any man who has lived in New York City, alone, for any period
JC: Usually when readers have something to say to us, they put it in the comments or send us an email. Marc Schuster, however, has a lot to say. He’s the author of The Singular Exploits on Wonder Mom and Party Girl, and the editor of excellent site Small Press Reviews. Here’s an essay he sent about Print On Demand:
DH: John Vorhaus is playing the role of the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come in our new series about when writers fell in love with books. His brilliantly manic suspense novel, California Roll,about grifters who try to out-grift each other, will be covered on Three Guys early next year. I had trashed four galleys in a row after trying to read page 99 of each. When I came to page 99 of California Roll, I knew I had to read the whole thing. I believe that JV wrote this post while sitting in Moscow traffic. He leads the writing team of the Russian version of Married with Children, making the world
Jason Chambers: The Three Guys first came across Roger Smith about a year ago, prior to the release of his first novel Mixed Blood. Read the whole conversation, where we all were in agreement, surprisingly enough, about the merits of his writing and this great book, loving the raw violence of the Capetown setting, and throwing around phrases such as “cinematic”, “great genre writing” and, memorably, “ghetto cozy”. Here’s what RS had to say about the books that hooked him:
Roger Smith: I was reading American crime fiction long before I started shaving, but it was a book by Richard
Jason Rice: Emily St. John Mandel; I ignored her first novel for a long time. Then I saw an advertisement for it in the New York Times Book Review, and someplace else, I just can’t remember where. What was all the fuss about, I thought. Mother of God was I blown away, Last Night In Montreal will chase you around the room at night and follow behind you as you go through your day. Its story is urgent and vital, to the point where you can’t really think about anything else until you finish it. Everyone I’ve recommended this book to has called me on the phone to rave about it. Here
Jess Walter (The Zero, Citizen Vince) is an expansive writer. He has more voice in his little finger than most novelists will ever possess. He can digress, delineate, rant, rave, ponder, speculate, ruminate, fulminate, and bring the story to a screeching halt if it suits his whimsy, and readers will still follow along breathlessly.
Hesh Kestin’s novel, The Iron Will of Shoeshine Cats (Dzanc), has been described as “The Godfather meets The Chosen.” The poignant coming-of-age story of a bookish college student adopted by one of the last of America’s Jewish gangsters, it was hailed by Publisher’s Weekly as “part noir, part comedy, part epic –Kestin’s richly layered characters… are straight out of Dickens; his vivid attention to the details of place, New York, and time, 1963, is like poetic journalism; and his snappy, concise prose and dialogue is on par with Raymond Chandler. Kestin zips through Russell’s sexual trysts, dealings in back rooms of Little Italy restaurants, and encounters with historical events like the JFK assassination with unflagging
Patrick Wensink recently decided there’s only one way to celebrate the release of his book, “Sex Dungeon for Sale!”. And that is by holding a coloring contest.
While the coloring contest sounded like fun, Wensink added a little excitement by offering an autographed stack of his favorite books from 2009 to the winner.
JE: WWFiL is a new series we’re starting here at Three Guys, in which the fellas and I ask some of our favorite writers to guest blog a short essay about a book or books, or maybe an author, that made them fall in love in with reading. We wanted to know who they were, and how the book changed them, and who they’ve become as readers and writers and book people. In the coming months, you’ll be hearing from a dizzying array of writers, all of whom have one thing in common: we’ve covered them here at Three Guys One Book.
When We Fell In Love - Tom Rachman
When We Fell In Love - Elwood Reid
When We Fell In Love - Simon Rich
When We Fell In Love - Eric Puchner
When We Fell In Love - John Dermot Woods
When We Fell In Love - Lorraine Adams
When We Fell In Love - Leslie Jamison
Top 10 Posts