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Author Interviews—Goodreads Exclusives
Audrey Niffenegger
When the storytelling mood strikes, novelist
Audrey Niffenegger picks up a paintbrush. The author of
The Time Traveler's Wife is a trained visual artist and relies on her skills in painting and drawing to keep the ideas flowing. Niffenegger can also add cemetery tour guide to her résumé. While researching her latest work,
Her Fearful Symmetry, Niffenegger became so immersed in the history of Highgate Cemetery, the 170-year-old burial site of luminaries
George Eliot,
Karl Marx, and
Douglas Adams, that she began to guide tours herself!
Her Fearful Symmetry is a ghost story about two American twins who inherit their Aunt Elspeth's London flat next door to Highgate and discover that their dearly departed aunt has never left. Niffenegger describes her strategy for writing characters and reveals her fear that the art of book design may be declining.
Goodreads: When did you become interested in writing about Highgate Cemetery?
Audrey Niffenegger: I was finishing
Time Traveler in 2002, and I had an idea for a story about a man who can't leave his apartment and a girl who visits him. In my mind, this apartment was in a Chicago neighborhood called Uptown, which is a hardscrabble place. There's a large cemetery in the middle of Uptown called Graceland, and so I imagined that they were adjacent to that cemetery. But then I thought, "Is that the best cemetery?" My favorite cemetery that I had ever seen was Highgate, so that immediately propelled the whole scenario into London. I rapidly realized that it was going to require an immense amount of research.
Read the full interview »
Nick Hornby
London native
Nick Hornby charged onto the writing scene in 1992 with a literary memoir about his fanatic love of football (aka soccer). Despite its unlikely subject matter,
Fever Pitch became a bestseller and spawned film adaptations on both sides of the Atlantic. Hornby then completed a hat trick with two additional best-selling books about aimless but charming 30-something men,
High Fidelity and
About a Boy. They also exposed his second great passion: music. Hornby's new book,
Juliet, Naked, takes fandom to a whole new level of crazy. It tells the story of Tucker Crowe, a reclusive ex-rocker—think the J.D. Salinger of the rock world—whose music and subsequent disappearance kept dedicated fans speculating for decades. Hornby talked with Goodreads about his personal definition of art and why he could never cut it as a proper recluse.
Goodreads: Juliet, Naked is receiving a lot of comparisons to
High Fidelity. However, your characters have turned a corner into the problems of middle age. How is this new book different?
Nick Hornby: There were a couple of things that came together. I wanted to write about the way our consumption of music has changed over the last ten years or so, because since
High Fidelity was published, everything has changed. I wanted to write about an artist's relationship with his own work, and how that work means different things to different people. And I wanted to write about how everyone seems to have the feeling in middle age that they have wasted their life, no matter how much they have apparently achieved.
Read the full interview »
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Literature at Every Latitude
Looking for something outside the English-language canon? Great stories know no borders. Each month Goodreads brings you a new recommendation from a different country!
Tokyo, Japan:
35° 41' N
139° 46' E
Supermarket by Satoshi Azuchi
translated by Paul Warham
Now available for the first time in English,
Satoshi Azuchi's semi-autobiographical novel tells the story of Kojima, a banker in 1969 Japan who walks away from his privileged but unfulfilling life to manage a provincial supermarket. An excellent example of the "business novel" popular in Japan,
Supermarket follows Kojima's struggles with dishonest employees, creative accounting, and the price of eggs. Japan adopted the American supermarket concept in the early 1970s, and Azuchi's earnest characters provide a window into this dynamic period in Japan's industrial history. Goodreads Author
Trent Hamm says, "Weaving together the surprisingly interesting world of the supermarket, a big taste of mystery, and a deep cultural insight into a fast-paced novel seems like a huge stretch, but Azuchi pulls it off."
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"In Bed" with Hitchhiker Eoin Colfer
In the beloved science fiction series,
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, poor Arthur Dent can't get a break. He's banished to a disorienting life of galaxy hopping and can never find a good cup of tea. Although author
Douglas Adams died in 2001, now, 30 years after the original, Irish author
Eoin Colfer has stepped in to beleaguer Dent one more time. Colfer is the author of his own droll fantasy, the best-selling
Artemis Fowl series. In celebration of Hitchhiker Book 6,
And Another Thing..., we asked Colfer for his top five science fiction books. Curl up with a bottle of that Old Janx Spirit and your trusty towel, and get started.
Neuromancer by
William Gibson
"When I read this book I realized that sci-fi could be literature. There are no boundaries that we cannot explore or indeed break through. Gibson brought and continues to bring science fiction to the mainstream market. Everybody loves him. Also a helluva storyteller."
Hyperion by
Dan Simmons
"Not a fun read, in fact brimming with unspeakable horror, but genius all the same. Brilliantly written and compelling. By the time you have finished this book, you will know the pilgrims better than you know your own family."
The War of the Worlds by
H.G. Wells
"One of the originals and best. A dark tale of alien invasion with a truly unexpected ending. The father of modern sci-fi and a must-read for anyone who calls themselves a fan of the genre."
1984 by
George Orwell
"First and foremost not a comedy. I read this in college and was depressed for weeks and could not bring myself to trust anyone with a tie. A small, dark, beautiful book without the traditional hero and happy ending structure. Politically prescient and not just for sci-fi fans."
The Postman by
David Brin
"A harsh voyage across post-apocalyptic America that somehow manages to sustain a thread of hope."
The Never-Ending Book Quiz
Think you have a mind like a steel trap? Play the
The Never-Ending Book Quiz and see how you stack up against your friends!
Featured Trivia Question
Who was such a close friend to Charles Dickens that he was called "the Dickensian ampersand"?
Movers & Shakers
October brings you all sorts of fantastical characters: beasts in
Dave Eggers's
The Wild Things, vampires and werewolves in
Charlaine Harris's
A Touch of Dead, and wizards in
Terry Pratchett's
Unseen Academicals. If you're looking for more realistic fare, try
What the Dog Saw, a collection of essays by
Malcolm Gladwell, or
Manhood for Amateurs, a memoir by novelist
Michael Chabon. Here are some other noteworthy titles that have been racing up our most popular charts this month.
The Child Thief by
Brom
Visual artist Brom twists the classic Peter Pan story into a mature illustrated novel thick with mythology and violence. Peter appeals to broken and abused children, promising them a magical world, but instead recruits them to join his band of "Devils."
Bob says, "If Tim Burton, Wes Craven, and Marilyn Manson got together, this is the story they would tell. Be forewarned: There will be no 'clap if you believe in fairies,' and there is a larger body count than a teen slasher flick."
Half Broke Horses by
Jeannette Walls
The author of best-selling memoir
The Glass Castle dives back into her family history with a profile of her grandmother, Lily Casey Smith. This plucky frontier woman rode 500 miles across the country on her pony to start a new life as a teacher, rancher, and mother.
Carol says, "This story made me appreciate the tenacity and courage of many people who braved war, discrimination, the Depression, floods, droughts, and ignorance in their quest to build their lives and settle [the United States]."
The Children's Book by
A.S. Byatt
The author of
Possession returns with a novel that follows the interconnected lives of five families from the turn of the century to World War I. At the center, matriarch Olive Wellwood injects magic into the lives of her seven children by giving each of them a fairy book.
Jen says, "Byatt, so unapologetically erudite, gives us a labyrinthine novel that is both devastating and whimsical. In my humble opinion, she has created nothing less than an Edwardian epic."
The Financial Lives of the Poets by
Jess Walter
Walter's wry prose captures the familiar plight of Matt Prior, an average Joe whose bright idea—a Web site that blends poetry and financial advice—never takes off. As financial ruin looms and his wife flirts with an old flame on Facebook, Matt resorts to desperate measures.
Karen says, "Walters takes shots at everyone and everything in this dazzling satire, making it akin to a
Catch-22 for the 21st century."
The Adderall Diaries: A Memoir of Moods, Masochism, and Murderby
Stephen Elliott
Ostensibly about the
Hans Reiser murder case that transfixed Silicon Valley in 2007, Elliot's true crime book morphs into a memoir as the writer takes a drug-addled trip through his tortured memories of his father. Goodreads Author
Janet Fitch says, "How can such clear and compassionate humanity come out of someone so haunted and actively self-destructive? The mystery of the human spirit is writ large in this beautiful, strange memoir."
Hush, Hush by
Becca Fitzpatrick (Goodreads Author)
In this young adult novel, Nora falls for the quintessential bad boy, a fallen angel (literally) named Patch. As she slowly learns his secrets, Nora finds herself in mortal danger, caught in a game of deadly revenge.
Pirate calls Patch "the most maddening, evil, infuriatingly conceited character I've ever come across. But that didn't stop me (or Nora) from finding him quite alluring. His unpredictability kept me turning the pages."
"In Bed" with a Vampire—Dacre Stoker
From ghastly Nosferatu to sexy Edward Cullen, no vampire is free from the influence and mythology of
Dracula.
Bram Stoker's original Transylvanian prince, conceived in 1897, was a bloodthirsty and sinister aristocrat who met his end at the point of a knife—not, as many assume, the point of a stake. Perhaps he may rise again to hunt those who hunted him? Now, more than 100 years later, Stoker's great grand-nephew,
Dacre Stoker, and Dracula historian
Ian Holt have drawn upon Stoker's original notes to write
Dracula: The Un-Dead. This eagerly anticipated book is the first Dracula story authorized by the Stoker family since the 1930s. As an homage to his great grand-uncle, Dacre shares with Goodreads his favorite vampire books—aside from the original
Dracula, of course!
Salem's Lot by
Stephen King
"The modern horror master is one of my all-time favorites. This book modernizes the genre as a realistic horror story with modern-day vampires in small town Maine—very eerie indeed."
Interview With the Vampire by
Anne Rice
"I like the way her vampire characters wrestle with heavy moral and philosophical dilemmas. This book started the very popular Vampire Chronicles
and stands out as one of my favorites."
Goodreads Poetry Contest!
Want your words to reach 2.5 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 October winner!
Lynette's War
by Chella Courington
My cousin Lynette says she's tired from cleaning
East Main houses of rich bitches. They don't even shit
like us, got toilet seats that float to the bowl,
never make a sound, & she hands me the baby
over the front seat. Days off Merry Maids
we like to drive her '97 Trans Am to Atlanta—
kd lang over eight speakers.
I'm tired too, tired of being the babysitter.
Leah grabbing my earrings, covers me in crumbs.
She bites off the heads of animal crackers.
Only eats heads.
Don't know why I hang with her.
She's like the girl who cut my hair at Cinderella's
saying I had the ugliest strands she'd ever seen.
I kept going back for more till Lynette blurted
you don't need to pay for that kind of shit.
But Lynette says outright
she's sexy & I'm not. We both know it.
Junior high she called me a mutant. "Boobs
like raisins on a fifteen-year old's wrong."
Mama took me to the doctor & he shook his head.
At least Lynette is a good mother.
When the kid has fever, Lynette won't go
to work. "I'd rather lose my job
than leave a sick baby at daycare."
Guess that's why I hang with her.
She might call me names, but let somebody else do it,
she'd scratch their eyes out. At the Sonic,
some boy from Crossville leaned in the window,
"drop the fat chick & let's go driving."
She clawed his left cheek & screeched away,
tray still on the car, cokes & fries flying.
"Son of a bitch thinks he can dump on you and have
a good time with me. Stupid bastard."
I thought Lynette would always be the one to leave.
Good looking. Smart. She never let anybody
walk on her, or me, though she did
what Cochran girls do after getting their
driver's license. She got knocked up.
Wouldn't tell a soul who the father was.
We all thought it was Sonny Cruz.
He went to Iraq in August & emailed Lynette every day.
Like they were junk, she'd hit delete.
He started writing letters she stacked on her dresser—
unopened. "Keeping in touch with soldiers
is talking to the dead." Sonny could come back,
I say. Lots of boys make it. Lynette turned away,
"he might, but he won't be the Sonny I knew."
After homecoming she carries his letters out to the grill.
They catch on the third match.
Every last word.
Read more poetry »
With love,
Jessica, Elizabeth, and the Goodreads Team
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