The March Pile
The mountain grows. It’s ripe for picking, certainly. At the Norton booth last week I picked up the much-anticipated August and Then Some, by David Prete.…
Read More
Author: Jason Rice
The Drought by Miles Harvey
thelitpub.com I stumbled over this little gem a few days ago, and the nice folks at The Lit Pub were kind enough to send me a PDF of Miles Harvey’s wonderful chapbook, and I’m so glad they did. …
Read More
Inside by Alix Ohlin
Inside by Alix Ohlin Knopf – June 2012 “Wow” is an understatement. Alix Ohlin has been weaving fantastic prose for quite some time.…
Read MoreGive a Book to a Stranger
I used to come across countless mass market books, genre stuff mostly, that was being thrown away. I would grab a stack and at night drive to a nearby neighborhood and put a different book in each mailbox.…
Read More
The Pile, or What I’m Reading Now.
There isn’t a lot that can be done about the mountain of reading material which sits around my reading desk. Well, that’s a lie.…
Read MoreThe Book Thief
What if you sent your first editions to a famous author to get signed, and this author didn’t send them back?…
Read MoreBirds of a Lesser Paradise Video
If you read the blog, you know how much I loved this collection. Full disclosure, the author sent me cookies. (after I reviewed the book) A video for the upcoming Birds of a Lesser Paradise.…
Read More
Shame
Maybe it was a particular incident that caused emotional destruction, incest, rape, a child predator, whatever. In the end, the brother and sister played by Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan in the searing but warmly realistic ‘Shame’, are so clearly ruined that it is hard to imagine a pain they have not endured.…
Read More
Patrick Lane, Flabbergasted by Dan Chaon
From the forthcoming collection Stay Awake. Death hangs around Brandon like a necklace. People die, and that’s what defines this story, but it seems to me that this is more about Brandon’s inability to accept death as a part of life.…
Read More
Interview with Matthew Norman
Matt Norman is the author of the amazing, Domestic Violets, just out from Harper Perennial. I am happy to provide you with our most recent conversation: JR: So you wrote a novel, good for you.…
Read More
The Strange Career of Dr. Raju Gopalarajan by Rajesh Parameswaran
From I Am an Executioner: Stories by Rajesh Parameswaran Knopf, 2012 Gopi isn’t what he wants to be, and life has done nothing to help him. …
Read More
Buzzers by Kevin Moffett
From Further Interpretations Of Real-Life Events: Stories by Kevin Moffett Harper, March 2012 Death arrives, predictably or not to Dora’s father.…
Read More
Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events by Kevin Moffett
From Further Interpretations Of Real-Life Events: Stories by Kevin Moffett Harper, March 2012 Fathers and sons write about each other all the time.…
Read More
The Infamous Bengal Ming by Rajesh Parameswaran
from I Am an Executioner: Love Stories by Rajesh Parameswaran Knopf, 2012 I don’t believe animals can talk, and any writer who writes a story about one that does, is pulling my leg.…
Read More
The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories by Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Just in time to miss the holidays, I have in my hands, The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories, from hitREcord and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.…
Read More
Forks by Alix Ohlin
From Signs & Wonders by Alix Ohlin Knopf 2012 Tom and Stephanie come across Alan who is lying on the sidewalk, passed out, his war-torn leg at an odd angle.…
Read More
Signs and Wonders by Alix Ohlin
I’m running down the street with a beautiful woman, she is everything I think I’ve ever wanted. Pretty but not overly aware of her beauty, but she knows it and takes it for granted.…
Read More
Best of 2011, part 2: Jason Rice
Men Women & Children by Chad Kultgen: I’ve given this book to so many people it would seem like I’m starting a Chad Kultgen cult.…
Read More