JE: We love the spirit of independence around here, and it gives us great pleasure to cover indie releases that may not have the benefit of 100k print runs, and deep publicity coffers, books that won’t get waterfront placement in the chains, titles you aren’t likely to read about in People Magazine, but you might, with a little luck, and some word of mouth, see on staff picks and book club walls and blogs across America.
So, I hit up every indie editor I know (every one of whom is way cool), and I asked them each to preview a title or three from their upcoming spring list. This is a really exciting, and startlingly diverse list of titles which totally confirms
Continue reading 3G1B Spring Indie Preview
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 JR: In the middle of last year I came upon a great collection of short stories from Steven Amsterdam; Things We Didn’t See Coming. I jumped on it and tried to get the word out early with a series of story reviews. It’s in the stores now, and Mr. Amsterdam is out on an author tour.
You can check his schedule here: www.stevenamsterdam.com and if you’re in NYC on Thursday Night, go down to Three Lives and Company on 10th Street in the West Village to see him read from his book.
Follow the links below to see previous reviews of Things We Didn’t See Coming:
Part I Part II
Part III
Continue reading Steven Amsterdam
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JR: Somehow Paul A. Toth and I became Facebook friends, and I don’t know how. At a very insecure moment I sent him a short story to read, and he gave me some great feedback, insightful and on the mark. Paul is a writer who doesn’t seem to do anything else, in fact, I don’t know if he ever leaves his computer. His novel about the World Trade Center, as I like to think of it, sounded more intriguing the longer I thought about it, and I think it will interest you, so here is the first chapter for your reading pleasure.
1. The Perfumes of All Gardens
This is an airplane novel, written on the fly and out the window. You are busy and
Continue reading Paul A. Toth – Airplane Novel
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 JC – I want to take a moment to remember the fine historian Howard Zinn. I’m certain that many readers of 3G1B have read his work over the years, and The People’s History of the United States, among numerous other fine works, was one of the great readable histories of our country, long before Good Will Hunting gave it the legs to reach the masses.
I had occasion to spend time with Howard once, many years ago. I was just graduated from college, working in a bookstore (what else, right?) in Athens, GA. A customer mentioned that Zinn was coming to speak at the University of Georgia in a couple of weeks, but that no one
Continue reading Howard Zinn 1922-2010
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JR: Recently at The Millions, Josh Ferris talked about Changing My Mind, a collection of essays from Zadie Smith, and I realized the galley was still sitting on my desk. I randomly picked one essay to read, and was I surprised that the essay was written for me. Warning: On Beauty, for my money, is one of the finest books of the last 100 years, not even up for debate.
Sure, it wasn’t really written for me, but for an audience of students at Columbia, as this is a speech she’d once given. She talks about the craft of writing a novel, and she sets down a simple set of rules for writing, at least how she writes.
Continue reading Zadie Smith and Her Craft
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The following story is something I wrote for my first public reading, which took place Friday December 11th at Happy Endings Lounge in New York City. The main character of this story works for a supermarket chain as a district manager, and this is her first visit to one of her stores during the holiday season.
OFFENDER by Jason Rice
Marlo listened to the Super Foods store manager, whose name she wouldn’t be able to remember if he wasn’t wearing a nametag, tell her that this was a good employee, someone who had been with the store for years. Marlo didn’t nod her head; she just focused her eyes on Frank’s. He was treading water and they both knew it.
“It
Continue reading Offender by Jason Rice
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 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.
He had a series of illustrations created based on some of the book’s stories, including a Kindergartener who thinks he’s French, a puddle of ketchup shaped like Elvis and something called, “Chicken Soup for the Kidnapper’s Soul.”
 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.
Fool – By Christopher Moore
AM/PM – By
Continue reading Sex Dungeon Coloring Celebration
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JE: As I’ve mentioned before (see interviews with Chris Cleave and Andre Dubus Jr.), friend of the blog and creator of Author Magazine, Bill Kenower, shoots an excellent series of author interviews at Third Place Books in Seattle. Bill’s a novelist himself, and I think he does a great job getting other writers to open up on camera, which is a real talent. I should point out that not only is Bill providing us all with great content, but he’s building himself a hell of a platform, and an amazing network. Think of the potential blurbers he’ll be able to approach when his next book is ready. Every young writer needs to be paving these inroads if he/she wants to grow a successful career–trust me, it’s cold out there. And the best
Continue reading Jane Smiley Interview on Author Magazine
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We spend a lot of time around here trying to develop schemes and strategies to save the book biz. The best way I can think of to keep the book industry healthy in the short-term, anyway, is to go out and fork out some cash at your local indie bookstore. Tomorrow is National Bookstore Day. Yes, I know e-books are the wave of the future, but we all love brick and mortar! Spend some cash, people! Here are just a few recommendations from each of the four Three Guys, just in case you’re at a loss on what to read next:
JE:
Dan Chaon’s Await Your Reply: JC and I will
Continue reading Tomorrow is National Bookstore Day
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Two Dollar Radio is fast becoming one of my favorite indie presses. I love their brand, I’m digging their editorial voice (they recently picked up Rudolph Wurlitzer’s backlist), and I love love love that TDR is a family joint. I sort of see them as the new Soft Skull. But different.
Joshua Mohr’s debut, “Some Things That Meant the World to Me,” is a gritty debut worth getting excited about. You may have seen the coverage of this in Poets & Writers this spring—and BTW, thanks P&W for always including an indie when you do your seasonal coverage! STTMTWTM (okay, this is not a book which lends itself well to acronyms) is
Continue reading Some Things That Meant The World to Me
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I’ve talked a number of times here on the blog about Hesh Kestin’s fantastic The Iron Will of Shoeshine Cats, from one of my favorite indie presses, Dzanc. I read the ARC for Cats at least six months ago, and the book is still fresh in my mind, which in itself makes this novel plug-worthy now that launch time is upon us. Haven’t read any good fiction lately? Go out and buy “The Iron Will of Shoeshine Cats,” and don’t blame me when you don’t get anything done for two days.
This unlikely tale of Jewish mobsters avoids all the clichés of the genre. The story is thoroughly engaging and masterfully
Continue reading The Best Book I’ve Read This Year Is Out!
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 My father introduced me to the work of Craig Nova, and I’ve never stopped thanking him for the tip. I started with Incandesence, which I pass around to all my friends, and to be honest the copy I have is pretty worn out. Mr. Nova’s books have been a huge influence on me, and the foundation of my collection of contemporary American first editions that I’ve been building up since the early 1990′s.
Somewhere along the way I invited Mr. Nova to read in Manhattan at a bookstore I was working at and I finally go to meet him. This was around the release of his novel The Universal Donor. Since then we’ve
Continue reading Craig Nova Blogs
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I wanted to send this to Hudson corporate or whatever, but I figure it’s more likely to find the right eyes here than in a mail room somewhere.
Dear Hudson,
Okay, so maybe it’s no coincidence I’m in love with your airport stores, after all, you did pick /All About Lulu /for your Best of 2008 (only indie title selected!), and you gave my girl some excellent face time in the world’s best book market—the only market, in fact, that actually /creates/ readers. But truthfully, long before any of that happened, I was impressed with your stores. You pack a pretty damn eclectic selection into a small space (not the newsstands, mind you, but the booksellers). Soft Skull in airports? Dzanc? Fucking Borges?
Continue reading A Love Letter to Hudson
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Since we received so much feedback about our interview with super indie-publicist Lauren Cerand last month (if you haven’t read it, do yourself a favor), I’m taking it upon myself to inform emerging and mid-career writers alike eager to learn the art of kicking ass in publicity and connecting with readerships, about this web seminar LC is running September 22.
This is a great opportunity to take the pebbles from LC’s hand, without busting the bank. And you can do it in your pajamas. And no, I don’t get a commission, I just don’t wanna’ see my fellow writers starve in their ivory towers. Educate yourself, people! And poke around the SheWrites site while you’re
Continue reading Educate Yourself, People!
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- When We Fell In Love – Deborah Willis
- How to Live by Sarah Bakewell, revisited
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When We Fell In Love: David Zweig
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