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     |  Hijuelos grew up in a small apartment in a rough, ethnically diverse Morningside Heights neighborhood. After falling ill following a trip to Cuba to visit his mother’s family, Oscar finds himself for a year in a children’s convalescence hospital, separated from his family, his native language Spanish, and ultimately his heritage that creates a lifelong crack in his identity. Continue reading Thoughts Without Cigarettes Giveaway  Have you checked in with your soul lately? If you haven’t then that’s the problem. It’s siren song is always calling out to you. Homer was wrong. You shouldn’t stop up your ears. Your ship won’t flounder, it will reach Ithaca. Maybe you wouldn’t know Cormac McCarthy from your postman.You must have greatly appreciated it when Oprah gave you permission to read him. There was the added advantage that you got to bear witness while Oprah talked to CM. Continue reading You Have My Permission To Read Anything You Want  Friend of the blog, JPO’s enormously fun satire is one of my recommendations for paperback reading this summer. Here’s what I said last year: “The smug wink-and-nod cynicism and their unraveling is reminiscent of Revolutionary Road, but, you know, really funny, including an excrutiating, more than you want to know account of vasectomies.” JE reviewed it too, and put it on his Manly Books of the Year list. Continue reading Notable New Releases 6/14/2011  The Tiger’s Wife is an exceptional book and Téa Obreht is a truly exciting new talent. Obreht’s powers of observation and her understanding of the world are remarkable. By skilfully spinning a series of magical tales she has managed to bring the tragedy of chronic Balkan conflict thumping into our front rooms with a bittersweet vivacity. Continue reading Tea Obreht Wins Orange Prize  Nothing can compare to the stunning vitality of Patrick Bateman. He is a man that is actually living his life, and doing exactly what he wants. Is it depraved? Sick? Sure. Is it an atrocity? Of course not. Misogynistic, and misanthropic? In spades. BEE delivered a wildly magnetic character that left readers speechless, and salivating with envy. Continue reading American Psycho turns 20  I was once told as a bookseller that I wasn’t allowed to write a negative review of a book. Let’s leave aside that I probably wouldn’t want to write about a book that I didn’t like. Or that I could like some aspects of a book but not others. That’s called a nuanced review for those philistines who don’t get it that opinions can be qualified. There are no philistines in publishing. Say that three times. Continue reading Can We Dare Admit That Some Books Are Better Than Others?  Did you know that two writers won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1975? Robert Stone’s Dog Soldiers was one; The Hair of Harold Roux was the other, all but forgotten. I wonder what modern award winners will stand strong 30 years from now. Continue reading Notable New Releases 6/6/2011  Rockstar Games has partnered with Mulholland Books to publish a collection of short fiction expanding the world of the newest groundbreaking achievement in storytelling: the interactive crime thriller L.A. Noire. Continue reading LA Noire: The Collected Stories  H.D., Ezra, TS and Yeats…these were great innovators, fearless, who gave us early charters on 20th century literature. So if you’re quaking with fear about what’s going to become of us booksellers in the 21st century, you could do much worse than catching the Savage Beauty show at the Met. And leave with the book as a reminder of what you’ve seen. Continue reading Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty  “I became a fan of Daniel Orozco when I first read the story ‘Orientation’ back in the 1990s. I’ve been waiting eagerly for this collection ever since, and I’m so grateful to have it in my hands at last. Orozco is a vital American writer, and this book is cause for celebration.” —Dan Chaon Continue reading Notable New Releases 5/24/2011  What will happen to the actual book? I am not talking about writers, just the idea of a book. Are independents resurging like everyone is saying? Since the chains have collapsed, and Barnes & Noble is convinced that their Nook is the future, then what happens to the midlist reader? Where do they get real books? Continue reading BEA, Hopes, Dreams, and the Future  “Long after the other 75 novels of suspense you’ve read this year merge in your memory, you’ll vividly recall this novel. Franklin has written not just a thriller of the first order, but a very fine novel, indeed.” -Richard Russo Continue reading Notable New Releases 5/17/2011  The ball is still rolling on Patrick DeWitt’s novel The Sisters Brothers, featured here multiple times over the last few months. Here’s the video, in case you still haven’t been convinced. Continue reading The Sisters Brother Video  KD is a friend of the blog and and the author of a couple of great novels (especially Ghostfires – wow). This is his memoir about new fatherhood and learning to cook for his daughter. Check out the piece he wrote for the When We Fell In Love Series. Continue reading Notable New Releases 5/10/2011  2) Super Sad True Love Story Gary Shteyngart I was thinking about Shteyngart’s most recent novel the other day, in comparison with another future-set satire, James Boice’s The Good and the Ghastly. There’s a review in there somewhere, about the relative strength of the plots beneath the satires. Continue reading Notable New Releases 5/3/2011 | |||
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