David Abrams's Blog, page 118

Soup and Salad: Lin Enger's Closet, Hangovers & Fake-Reads, Experimental Novels, The Reel Catch-22, 50 Favorite Covers of 2013, Secret Bookcase Doors, Do Women Write Better Than Men?, The Care-and-Feeding Guide for Your Dictionary, Breathtaking Book Sculpt

On today's menu:


1.  At Amazon's Omnivoracious blog , Lin Enger describes the writing process for his latest novel, The High Divide  (which is high in my TBR pile):

Not exactly by choice, I wrote most of this novel in a four-by-five closet, standing up. Sitting for any length of time wrecks my lower back, and so I resorted to using for my desk the top of a four-drawer file cabinet I kept in the closet of my study. Why didn’t I move the cabinet into the study itself? Because the isolatio...

Soup and Salad: Lin Enger's Closet, Hangovers & Fake-Reads, Experimental Novels, The Reel Catch-22, 50 Favorite Covers of 2013, Secret Bookcase Doors, Do Women Write Better Than Men?, The Care-and-Feeding Guide for Your Dictionary, Breathtaking Book Sculpt

On today's menu:


1.  At Amazon's Omnivoracious blog , Lin Enger describes the writing process for his latest novel, The High Divide  (which is high in my TBR pile):

Not exactly by choice, I wrote most of this novel in a four-by-five closet, standing up. Sitting for any length of time wrecks my lower back, and so I resorted to using for my desk the top of a four-drawer file cabinet I kept in the closet of my study. Why didn’t I move the cabinet into the study itself? Because the isolatio...

Soup and Salad: Lin Enger's Closet, Hangovers & Fake-Reads, Experimental Novels, The Reel Catch-22, 50 Favorite Covers of 2013, Secret Bookcase Doors, Do Women Write Better Than Men?, The Care-and-Feeding Guide for Your Dictionary, Breathtaking Book Sculpt

On today's menu:


1.  At Amazon's Omnivoracious blog , Lin Enger describes the writing process for his latest novel, The High Divide  (which is high in my TBR pile):

Not exactly by choice, I wrote most of this novel in a four-by-five closet, standing up. Sitting for any length of time wrecks my lower back, and so I resorted to using for my desk the top of a four-drawer file cabinet I kept in the closet of my study. Why didn’t I move the cabinet into the study itself? Because the isolatio...

Friday Freebie: My Life as a Foreign Country by Brian Turner

Congratulations to Jane Rainey, winner of last week's Friday Freebie: The Witch's Boy by Kelly Barnhill and Somebody Up There Hates You by Hollis Seamon.

This week's book giveaway is extra-special.  Brian Turner's new memoir, My Life as a Foreign Country , is simply one of the best books I've read this year.  Here's my mini-review which was posted earlier at Book Riot :

Near the end of this gut-honest memoir about his time in Iraq, Brian Turner writes: “America, vast and laid out from...

My Library: Heather Corbally Bryant's Family Shelf

Heidi Lynn PhotographyReader:  Heather Corbally Bryant
Location:  1925 Craftsman Bungalow outside Boston
Collection size:  650 (and steadily growing).
The one book I'd run back into a burning building to rescue:  The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (a signed first-edition would be best)
Favorite book from childhood:   Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
Guilty pleasure book:   Diana, Princess of Wales by Martin Gitlin



So I just did the math: since I began graduate sch...

Trailer Park Tuesday: This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper

Welcome to Trailer Park Tuesday, a showcase of new book trailers and, in a few cases, previews of book-related movies.




For the past three months I've driven along Harrison Avenue here in Butte, Montana and scowled at the marquee for Carmike Cinema in the Butte Plaza Mall.  Even though I'm a die-hard movie fanatic, nothing I've seen advertised on that marquee has even so much as raised a blip on my pulse.  This has certainly been a lackluster blockbuster summer, hasn't it?  In fa...

My First Time: John Warner

My First Time is a regular feature in which writers talk about virgin experiences in their writing and publishing careers, ranging from their first rejection to the moment of holding their first published book in their hands.  Today’s guest is John Warner, the author of, most recently, the story collection Tough Day for the Army , which I previously blogged about here .  Roxane Gay praised the book by saying, “John Warner is an uncanny writer, bringing both heart and humor to his stor...

Sunday Sentence: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Simply put, the best sentence(s) I’ve read this past week, presented out of context and without commentary.  Note: I'm breaking my own no-commentary rule this week.  The Sympathizer won't be released until next Spring, but I urge you to pre-order it once it becomes available.  The novel begins in 1975 just as Saigon is about to fall.  As Viet Thanh Nguyen describes it at his website: "Black comedy, historical novel, and literary thriller, The Sympathizer follows a nameless...

Front Porch Books: September 2014 edition

Front Porch Books is a monthly tally of books--mainly advance review copies (aka "uncorrected proofs" and "galleys")--I've received from publishers, but also sprinkled with packages from Book Mooch, Amazon and other sources.  Because my dear friends, Mr. FedEx and Mrs. UPS, leave them with a doorbell-and-dash method of delivery, I call them my Front Porch Books.  In this digital age, ARCs are also beamed to the doorstep of my Kindle via NetGalley and Edelweiss.  Note: most of t...

Friday Freebie: The Witch's Boy by Kelly Barnhill and Somebody Up There Hates You by Hollis Seamon

Congratulations to Josh Mahler and Deborah Henry, winners of last week's Friday Freebie giveaway.  Josh and Deb will soon be enjoying Emily St. John's backlist:  Last Night in Montreal , The Singer's Gun and The Lola Quartet .

Up for grabs in this week's contest, I've got two novels from Algonquin Books: The Witch's Boy by Kelly Barnhill and Somebody Up There Hates You by Hollis Seamon.  I suppose they could be classified as "Young Adult," but really these books are for readers bot...