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Critically acclaimed author Matthew Pearl reopens one of literary history’s greatest mysteries in his most enthralling novel yet, The Last Dickens—a story centered around the lost ending of Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel and the perilous quest to uncover his final mystery.
Two Million Readers on Goodreads!
Crack open the champagne, because Goodreads passed the 2 million mark this month with no signs of slowing! More and more of your friends are sharing books and finding new reading fodder. Thank you for making Goodreads so great! We pledge to continue improving the site for you—here are two of our newest features.
Goodreads on the Go:
Our New Mobile Site
Get your Goodreads fix anytime, anywhere. Whether you are browsing in a bookstore, waiting for a bus, or sneaking off to a coffee break, use our mobile site to search for books, peruse your "wishlist" shelf, update your status, and more!
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Author Interviews—Goodreads Exclusives
Joyce Carol Oates
Mike Tyson and Sylvia Plath have perhaps one thing in common:
Joyce Carol Oates. Despite humble beginnings in a one-room schoolhouse in rural New York, Oates is one of the most prolific and acclaimed authors working today, with essays that canvas topics such as Tyson's boxing and Plath's poetry, and novels that relate the stories of hardy survivors and working-class characters. A three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and oft-rumored favorite for the Nobel Prize, Oates has won over critics and readers alike with bestsellers such as
We Were the Mulvaneys and
The Falls. Her new work,
Dear Husband, is a collection of short stories centered on the theme of families. Oates shared with Goodreads some reflections on her career that now spans 50 years.
Goodreads: You have earned a place among the great American writers of the last century. Do you feel that your writing is distinctly American?
Joyce Carol Oates: I consider myself a thoroughly American writer in the tradition of the great psychological realists—
Melville,
Hawthorne,
Henry James—who nonetheless delve into the mythic and emblematic. Some of my "gothic" fiction is akin to
Edgar Allan Poe, who wrote of the nightmare side of America while steadfastly refusing to acknowledge anything remotely historical, timely, or local in his fiction.
Stendhal said famously of the novel that it is a kind of "mirror moving along a roadway"—this is true for my writing, but only partly true—I am obviously as much interested in the inner, unfathomable life of the individual as in his or her social identity.
Read the full interview »
Arthur Phillips
Trivia buff and novelist
Arthur Phillips claims that he likes to "bum" around, but winning
Jeopardy! five times and authoring four novels must involve some effort and focus. His writerly curiosity has inspired very diverse stories:
Prague, about young Western expatriates living, ironically, in Budapest in 1989;
The Egyptologist, about a 1920s explorer searching for an ancient king's tomb; and
Angelica, a ghost story set in Victorian London. Educated at Harvard and Berklee College of Music, Phillips is a jazz musician turned writer whose new book,
The Song Is You, is steeped in music and the seductive world of musicians. Phillips talked with Goodreads about the book's soundtrack (
listen here) and his uncanny ability to predict the weather.
Goodreads: Your main character, Julian, is a music addict who calls the iPod the "greatest of all human inventions" and uses music to access memories and emotions. How did your background as a musician shape the story?
Arthur Phillips: I was a musician for a while—jazz and a couple of small pop/rock moments—and that experience certainly helped me describe the atmosphere and attitudes of people up on stage, but I really feel like this is a book by a fan, more than by a musician. I have always been a music fiend, from when I was—I don't know...seven?—and my brother let me listen to his Beatles
Blue album. I remember the first time I saw a Walkman and how significant an advance that seemed to me! I don't think I've ever gone three days in a row for the last 25 years without putting on my headphones. So all of that informs this novel.
Read the full interview »
Literature at Every Latitude
Looking for something outside the Western canon? Great stories know no borders. Each month Goodreads brings you a new recommendation from a different country!
Buenos Aires,
Argentina:
34° 35' S
58° 29' W
Ghosts by César Aira
Aira's surreal, experimental body of work has earned great acclaim in Argentina and among Spanish readers, including the admiration of
Roberto Bolaño, but so far only four of his books have been translated into English, notably
An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter and
How I Became a Nun. Fortunately,
Ghosts is now available to non-Spanish speakers. In this idiosyncratic novel, a family of squatters in Buenos Aires lives on the construction site of a luxury high-rise and interacts with the other tenants—various ghosts. Goodreads member
Green Apple Books says, "It is the story of the strangeness of family, of poverty, of growing up. A disquieting work and one of the most anticipated novels of 2009." And
Rachel calls it, "Genius, and vicious."
Sponsored Giveaway—1,000 Chances to Win an Emily Giffin Book
Over the next few weeks, 1,000 copies of Emily Giffin's bestselling books will be given away on Goodreads in celebration of the paperback release of
Love the One You're With, on sale April 21st!
Click here and enter to win a copy of
Something Borrowed, Emily's phenomenal debut novel, and be sure to check back next week to enter another Emily Giffin giveaway.
To receive a sneak preview of
Heart of the Matter, Emily Giffin's next novel, releasing in 2010, sign up
here!
Movers & Shakers
Goodreads can tell you what's hot! These books have been racing up our most popular charts this month.
Light Boxes by
Shane Jones (Goodreads author!)
In this topsy-turvy surrealist novel, the bitterly cold month of February refuses to leave a small town, so a balloonist named Thaddeus steps in to organize a revolt against the wayward month, hoping one day to see spring flowers again.
Rauan calls it "a make believe-world in the style of Calvino." And
Claudia says, "
Light Boxes delights in the landscape of childhood fantasies and literature; there are balloons, kites, teacups, parchment letters, secret passages, and ghosts. Jones has an intuitive feel for mixing the everyday with the sublime."
The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education by
Craig M. Mullaney
West Point grad, Army Ranger, and Rhodes Scholar Mullaney painstakingly learned how to become an excellent solider, but all those years of meticulous preparation fall away in combat. An unflinching memoir of one soldier's metamorphosis from boy to man.
Wes dubs it "a true coming-of-age story, and the prose flows along so nicely it's easy to forget that it all really happened." And
Todd says, "I don't throw around the 5-star rating lightly, but Mullaney has earned it. Regardless of your politics, history, or religion, this should be considered required reading."
Lowboy by
John Wray
A 16-year-old paranoid schizophrenic named Will believes he can save the world from global warming. How? He must lose his virginity within 24 hours. Unbeknownst to his mother, Will hops on the New York subway to find a special girl.
Elliot says, "Will's illness is a lens through which we view love—the obsessive, end-of-the-world-is-nigh kind of love that is typical of adolescence. This is a thrilling page-turner and a lyrical, well-researched evocation of schizophrenia, yes, but it's also a gut-wrenching love story that feels totally universal. I mean, aren't we all kind of crazy when we're sixteen?"
Outcasts United by
Warren St. John
This uplifting nonfiction work follows a poky town in Georgia as it transforms into a multicultural hotspot, thanks to several refugee resettlement programs. When a charismatic woman from Jordan named Luma Mufleh founds the Fugees, a youth soccer team, the kids from Somalia, Bosnia, and Afghanistan enlighten and inspire.
Eleanor says, "Mufleh and her Fugees have found a way to build relationships between and around every possible cultural difference: politics, religion, and race." And
Marie says, "Your eyes and your heart will be opened."
Little Bee by
Chris Cleave
"Shhhh," readers warn, this book's appeal lies in its plot twists. When two very different women (a teenage Nigerian emigrant and a London magazine editor) meet through violent circumstances on a Nigerian beach, their fates begin to intersect in surprising ways.
Megan says, "Deep questions and weighty issues served up in clever, flowing, page-turning prose, and one of the most believable narrative voices I have ever encountered in my lifetime of reading." And
Jackie says, "There is horror and hope in this novel...governments at their very worst and human beings at their very best."
We Have a Winner: Our First-Ever Status Update Writing Contest
Goodreads writers have pioneered a brand-new writing medium! Using only status updates, with 140 characters per post, scores of members sent in captivating, narrative tales. Thanks to all the writers who submitted stories and all the readers who voted—and congratulations to our winner
Amanda! Read
her story below (and don't forget to check out
the four runners-up)!
12:08 PM - Drizzly, dewy, drab morning. Afternoon.
12:09 PM - She sits, silent, staring out the window at the drab and the drizzle. She longs...
12:09 PM - For what? She almost knows, but only almost. The answer is elusive, like most answers are. It teases her.
12:10 PM - Plants sweet, seductive kisses on her neck.
12:10 PM - Her ear.
12:11 PM - Then vanishes.
12:11 PM - This day is not unlike any other day. It is breakfast, coffee, laundry, the internet, the cable bill, cat food.
12:12 PM - But it is also nagging.
Read more»
"In Bed" with Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
House of Light by
Mary Oliver
"Oliver has an amazing eye for detail and an equally amazing talent for imagery. Whatever her eye lights on, she observes aslant, with compassion and without sentimentality. These are meditative poems. If you let them go deep into you, they will change how you see the world. Two of my favorites in the collection: 'The Black Snake' and 'The Lilies Break Open Over the Dark Water.' (I wish I'd come up with this title!)"
The Country Without a Post Office by
Agha Shahid Ali
"Moving poems (actually, one long poem in many parts) about unrest, political uprisings, and ensuing deaths in the part of India that Shahid came from—Kashmir, which used to be considered the most beautiful part of the country. The poem traces the history of Kashmir as well as paints scenes of devastation, loss, and longing that reverberated within me long after I finished the book."
What Work Is by
Philip Levine
"I've loved Levine's poetry ever since I was a teaching assistant for him when he was a visiting writer at the University of California at Berkeley. He is a major reason why I became a writer. All his collections are worth reading, but I like this one particularly because it celebrates the working man (and woman) of America—in their simplicity and their complexity, in their hardships, their heartbreaks, and their hard-won triumphs. This book won a National Book Award."
Selected Odes of
Pablo Neruda
"Impassioned and inventive, Nobel Prize winner Neruda is a poet who stays on your mind. His intense love poems created a bit of a scandal when Twenty Love Poems was published, but in this book he writes out of a different kind of love: love for the ordinary objects of this world, objects we so often take for granted: an artichoke, onions, soap, his own socks. His language is luminous; his imagination quirky; his poetic vision penetrates deep into the essence of things."
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by
T.S. Eliot
"And finally, just for fun, T.S. Eliot's whimsical cat poems exhibit a new, playful side of the esteemed author of 'The Waste Land.' Whether you are a cat lover or not, you'll be charmed. Eliot's portraits of felines are so amusing and yet so accurate, with their catchy rhymes and foot-tapping rhythm, it reminded me once again why I had loved poetry as a child."
First Reads—win prerelease books from Goodreads!
Be the first to read new books! Goodreads has tons of prerelease books and reading-themed goodies available for our members. All you have to do is sign up and cross your fingers!
View all prerelease books on First Reads »
Goodreads Poetry Contest!
Want your words to reach two million people? Goodreads and the
¡ POETRY ! group have partnered to host an ongoing poetry contest. Each month the winning poem will appear in our newsletter. Join the
¡ POETRY ! group to vote each month to pick a winner from among the finalists. You can also
submit a poem for consideration. Here is our April winner!
How to Hear Tortillas
by Christine Poreba
Set them softly in a sink,
wet like ground
where the wheat grew.
Do not fold or fill.
Let rest a while
beside a door
the color of midnight
with a scene
of desert or tunnel,
el patio
scripted in an arc
above a mariachi,
painted hatless
and barefoot
with a guitar slung
on his back
as he crosses the surface
that stands
between
two places. Here,
the tortillas
will begin to curl
a little
at their edges;
baste lightly
with oiled leaves
and set uncovered
until a well forms
in their centers.
Listen, then,
for a prickled sound
of hidden cacti
calling the singer home.
Read more poetry »
With love,
Jessica, Elizabeth, and the Goodreads Team
Which author was also a famous mathematician?
