David Abrams's Blog, page 132

Trailer Park Tuesday: Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia

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




It's pure coincidence that, just before I play the trailer for Kate Racculia's new novel Bellweather Rhapsody , I'm listening to the soundtrack for The Grand Budapest Hotel .  Alexandre Desplat's jaunty, jingling score for the new Wes Anderson movie seems to be a good fit for Bellweather Rhapsody, which is also set in a hotel and features hijinks both deadly and gleeful.  The...

My First Time: Abby Frucht

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 novelist and short-story writer Abby Frucht.  Her new collection of stories, The Bell at the End of a Rope , is available from Narrative Library .  Her first collection, Fruit of the Month (University of Iowa Press), won the Iowa Short Fict...

Sunday Sentence: Bangalore by Kerry James Evans

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


This poem is not for anyone who reads poems.

"Operation Noble Eagle" from Bangalore by Kerry James Evans

Friday Freebie: Stay Up With Me by Tom Barbash, Train Shots by Vanessa Blakeslee, and Songs for the Deaf by John Henry Fleming

Congratulations to Emma Cazabonne, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie: I Always Loved You by Robin Oliveira.

This week’s book giveaway is a special contest in honor of National Short Story Month.  One lucky winner will receive a paperback copy of three new collections of short fiction: Stay Up With Me by Tom Barbash, Train Shots by Vanessa Blakeslee, and Songs for the Deaf by John Henry Fleming.  Here’s a little more about the books from the publishers’ jacket copy:

The stories in T...

My First Time: Julia Fierro

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 Julia Fierro, founder of the Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop , a creative home to more than 2,500 writers since 2002.  Her novel, Cutting Teeth (now out from St. Martin’s Press), was included in Library Journal’s “Spring 2014 Best De...

Sunday Sentence: Thunderstruck and Other Stories by Elizabeth McCracken

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

(NOTE: This week, for the first time in Sunday Sentence history, I'm going to break my own rules and share not just one sentence, but an entire bouquet of them.  As I'm going through Thunderstruck on my Kindle, I'm constantly pausing to highlight favorite lines, thinking each one is the best...until I go another couple of paragraphs and find another favorite...and then an even bette...

Friday Freebie: I Always Loved You by Robin Oliveira

Congratulations to Rhonda Lomazow, winner of last week's Friday Freebies: The Promise by Ann Weisgarber and The Fountain of St. James Court by Sena Jeter Naslund.

This week's book giveaway is a hardback edition of the new novel by Robin Oliveira, I Always Loved You .  Oliveira, the New York Times bestselling author of My Name Is Mary Sutter , has written a fascinating novel about Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas’s great romance.  Here's how the publisher describes the book:

The young...

My Library: Helen Benedict's Reading Experiment

Reader:  Helen Benedict
Location:  Medusa, New York, and New York City.
Collection size:  No idea.  Masses.
The one book I'd run back into a burning building to rescue:  Middlemarch by George Eliot.
Favorite book from childhood:   Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.
Guilty pleasure book:  Not much guilt here, but Persuasion by Jane Austen.


I’ve been conducting an eccentric experiment these past few months, reading three books at once in three different formats: a real b...

My First Time: Bernie Brown

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 Bernie Brown, a retiree from Raleigh, North Carolina with an M.A. in English.  Writing is her primary activity, but she also enjoys reading, sewing, watching movies, and traveling.  Her stories have appeared in several small circulation p...

Sunday Sentence: Pacific Walkers by Nance Van Winckel

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


          The women laugh
          the water's laugh, forgetting me
          each time the fox steps down
          and sips at the ripples
          with his fine red mouth.

From "When the River Comes Toward Me" in Pacific Walkers
by Nance Van Winckel