The Postmortal by Drew Magary
The Postmortal by Drew Magary Penguin Trade Paper Original It isn’t possible to write a post apocolyptic/dystopian novel these days and not be compared to the landslide of books that inhabit that genre. …
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Author: Three Guys One Book
The Next Right Thing by Dan Barden
Because the elevation rises sharply from the shore of Laguna Beach, in Orange County, California, there aren’t that many roads leading in or out of the affluent community of about 20K people.…
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When We Fell In Love – Tyler McMahon
JE: Having grown up in punk bands in early 80s Seattle, and later being intimately involved in the sound and the scene that would be dubbed grunge in the early 90s, I was excited about six months ago when I received Tyler Mcmahon’s How the Mistakes were Made from St.…
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When We Fell In Love – Joan Leegant
Joan Leegant’s Wherever You Go is making the blog rounds now. It’s the story about Israel, Zionism, extremism, faith and family, and the things people are saying about it are very impressive.…
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Attraction by David Long
One of the most important books in my life turned out to be William Empson’s Seven Types of Ambiguity. It convinced me that language was essentially ambiguous and therefore multivalent.…
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Monstress by Lysley Tenorio
From Monstress: Stories By Lysley Tenorio The title of this great first story comes from a hack Hollywood filmmaker who has convinced a beautiful girl from Manila to star in his horror picture.…
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When We Fell In Love – Larry Watson
JE: High atop my reading list is Larry Watson’s American Boy, just released from the superlative Milkweed Editions. American Boy came highly recommended from my pal Benjamin Percy, who had this to say: “There are a handful of writers I push on everyone I meet, and Larry Watson is one of them.…
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We Wanted To Be Writers by Eric Olsen and Glenn Schaeffer
I’m a bit of a star fucker when it comes to writing colonies, and I have to say that this place, the Iowa Writers Workshop, is the wet dream of any wanna-be writer.…
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When We Fell In Love – Anna David
Anna David is the author of the novels Party Girl and Bought, and the editor of the anthology Reality Matters. Falling for Me, her memoir about following the advice in Helen Gurley Brown’s 1962 book Sex and the Single Girl, releases today.…
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Oubliette by David Long
David Long’s story “Oubliette” appears in the current issue of the New Yorker. His prose style is so lucid, so devoid of vernacular cant and style that screams style that’s it’s a pleasure to read.…
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Three Weeks in December by Audrey Schulman
Schulman read over 70 books as a background to distill into Three Weeks in December. There’s a fine selected bibliography at the end of the book.…
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The Bathtub Spy by Tom Rachman
After stumbling on this story I immediately emailed Tom Rachman and demanded to know if this was the start to his next novel.…
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A Tasty October
Fall is blockbuster season, but if you’re looking for proof that there’s much more to celebrate in October than eagerly awaited releases by Messrs.…
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Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner: Writers and Their Borrowings
I’ve been thinking about how to write fictionally about real events, people, and history. A fellow writer suggested I read Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner. …
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Saving Face by Megan Mayhew Bergman
From Birds of A Lesser Paradise: Stories by Megan Mayhew Bergman Scribner – March 2012 This story was sent through the dryer on high heat.…
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On Murakami’s 1Q84 part 3
DH: 1Q84 has an improv quality that I think not all readers will give it credit for. Oh I know, all novels are a riff of words by their authors.…
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Yesterday’s Whales by Megan Mayhew Bergman
From Birds of A Lesser Paradise: Stories by Megan Mayhew Bergman Scribner – March 2012 “When someone’s ideal is the absence of all human life, romance is kind of a joke.”…
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What JE’s Reading
JE: Now that I’ve got a draft of my latest novel behind me, and I’ve promised my agent and editor (a little begrudgingly) to take a rest on blurbing for a season, I’ve finally had a chance to start catching up on my TBR list—that is, my other TBR list, the one composed of books I’m under absolutely no obligation to read as a blurber, blogger, reviewer, or friend.…
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When We Fell In Love – Christopher Bollen
Christopher Bollen and his novel, Lightning People completely skipped over me, I’m not taking it personally. The book is great so far, I’m only 100 pages in.…
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On Murakami’s 1Q84 part 2
DH: What 1Q84 is ultimately about is what you will be holding in your hands as you read it. It’s a celebration of the craft of storytelling.…
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When We Fell In Love – Lenore Zion
If you’ve spent any time around The Nervous Breakdown over the years, you’ve probably run into Lenore Zion’s writing. She’s wickedly funny and smart, often scathingly so.…
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Birds of a Lesser Paradise by Megan Mayhew Bergman
From Birds of A Lesser Paradise: Stories by Megan Mayhew Bergman Scribner – March 2012 This story certainly spreads out from where the first two seem to be rooted, and grows casually into a full gallop.There…
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When We Fell In Love – Eric Olsen
Eric Olsen is the co-author with Glenn Schaeffer of We Wanted to Be Writers: Life, Love, and Literature at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop (Skyhorse Pub, 2011), wherein the two alumni of the program offer a rollicking and insightful blend of interviews, commentary, advice, gossip, anecdotes, analyses, history, and asides with more than 20 graduates and teachers at the now legendary Iowa Writers’ Workshop between 1974 and 1978. …
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The Cow That Milked Herself by Megan Mayhew Bergman
From Birds of A Lesser Paradise: Stories by Megan Mayhew Bergman Scribner – March 2012 In the second story, we get a doctor who is treating two types of animals at his veterinarian’s office – different sick pets, and his wife. …
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