David Abrams's Blog, page 11

Sunday Sentence: No Thanks by e. e. cummings

Simply put, the best sentence(s) I’ve read this past week, presented out of context and without commentary.


          King Christ, this world is all aleak;
          and lifepreservers there are none

from No Thanks by e. e. cummings

Front Porch Books: October 2019 edition

Front Porch Books is a monthly tally of new and forthcoming books—mainly advance review copies (aka “uncorrected proofs” and “galleys”)—I’ve received from publishers. Cover art and opening lines may change before the book is finally released. I should also mention that, in nearly every case, I haven’t had a chance to read these books, but they’re definitely going in the to-be-read pile.



Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’s
by Tiffany Midge
(University of Nebraska Press)

Jacket Copy:  Why...

Sunday Sentence: No Thanks by e. e. cummings

Simply put, the best sentence(s) I’ve read this past week, presented out of context and without commentary.

          little man 
          (in a hurry
          full of an
          important worry)
          halt stop forget relax

          wait

from No Thanks by e. e. cummings

Friday Freebie: Full Throttle by Joe Hill

Congratulations to Jennifer Gladhill, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie contest: The Collector of Leftover Souls by Eliane Brum.

Just in time for Halloween, this week’s giveaway is for Full Throttle by Joe Hill. The new collection of stories opens with a startling sentence (“They rode west from the slaughter, through the painted desert, and did not stop until they were a hundred miles away.”) and just gets better and scarier from there. Library Journal gave it a starred review, saying: “Eve...

My First Time: Nancy Freund Bills

The First Time My Creative Writing Was Affirmed
My undergraduate experiences at Colorado College and then at Montana State University were frustrating. As an English major, there were so many required classes and few opportunities to read or write anything of my own choice. My memory is of reading, reading, reading and then writing essay after essay. By the time I began taking classes at the University of Rochester, I was a wife and mother of a young boy. My husband’s work on his doctorate al...

Front Porch Books: September 2019 edition

Front Porch Books is a monthly tally of new and forthcoming books—mainly advance review copies (aka “uncorrected proofs” and “galleys”)—I’ve received from publishers. Cover art and opening lines may change before the book is finally released. I should also mention that, in nearly every case, I haven’t had a chance to read these books, but they’re definitely going in the to-be-read pile.


Sea Wife
by Amity Gaige
(Knopf)

Jacket Copy:  From the highly acclaimed author of Schroder, a smart,...

Sunday Sentence: The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King

Simply put, the best sentence(s) I’ve read this past week, presented out of context and without commentary.


Rideout returned the smile, exposing teeth that were little more than tiny eroded gravestones.

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King

Friday Freebie: The Collector of Leftover Souls by Eliane Brum

Congratulations to Carl Scott, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie contest: Ordinary Girls by Jacquira Díaz.

This week’s giveaway is for The Collector of Leftover Souls by Eliane Brum. Subtitled “Field Notes on Brazil’s Everyday Insurrections,” the book recently made the National Book Award longlist for Translated Literature (good luck to translator Diane Grosklaus Whitty!). Keep scrolling for more about the book and how to enter the contest....


Eliane Brum is a star journalist in Brazil, know...

Sunday Sentence: Inland by Tea Obreht

Simply put, the best sentence(s) I’ve read this past week, presented out of context and without commentary.

It all went softly enough at first, the little man and the bronc lifting velvet purls of dust.
Inland by Tea Obreht

Friday Freebie: Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Díaz

Congratulations to Barbara Theroux , winner of last week’s Friday Freebie contest: Who Says You’re Dead? by Jacob M. Appel.

This week’s giveaway is for the forthcoming memoir Ordinary Girls by Jacquira Díaz. The book, due for release at the end of October, has already been building buzz and gathering praise. To wit:

“A powerful memoir, heart-wrenching, inspiring, thoroughly engrossing, reminiscent of Mary Karr’s The Liar’s Club, Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and more recently...