David Abrams's Blog, page 143

Trailer Park Tuesday: Fobbit

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



For nearly two years, I've told you about promotional trailers for other authors' books....and now it's time for me to cue the spotlight, step to the center of the stage, clear my throat for the microphone, and announce: "Ladies and gentlemen.... Fobbit , the trailer!"  Yes, that's right, I finally got my act together and made a book trailer for my novel which debuted over...

My Year of Books: Best First Lines of 2013

If, as Ursula K. LeGuin has said, "First sentences are doors to worlds," then I turned a lot of great doorknobs this year.  My favorite lines are those which pack a lot of information and pack a hefty linguistic punch, but don't send me packing.  The best first sentences keep me in the book, demand I read the next sentence and the next one after that, and so on until--five hours later, I look up from the page and realize the house is burning down around my ears.

Here, in no particula...

My Year of Books: By the Numbers

"Well, hello!  Come in, come in.  Stamp the snow off your boots and step inside.  Cold out there today, isn't it?....I suppose you're here to see the library, aren't you?....Here, let me take your coat.  I'll just toss it over here for now.  You don't mind if the cats use it as a temporary bed, do you?....Would you like a drink?  I've got some chilled wine--or maybe you'd rather have three fingers of whiskey in a tumbler?....What's that?  A gin and tonic?  Sure,...

My First Time: Anne Clinard Barnhill

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 Anne Clinard Barnhill, author of At the Mercy of the Queen: a Novel of Anne Boleyn . Barnhill has been writing professionally for almost twenty-five years, publishing articles and short stories in various magazines and anthologies. Her new novel, Queen El...

Sunday Sentence: The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries edited by Otto Penzler

Simply put, the best sentence(s) I've read this past week, presented out of context and without commentary.  (In the holiday spirit of generosity, I'm breaking the rules and giving you three different sentences this week--all found in The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries , edited by Otto Penzler.  You're welcome.)


"My name is Sherlock Holmes.  It is my business to know what other people don't know."

From "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" by Arthur Conan Doyle


Miss Ypson had not...

Front Porch Books: December 2013 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 the...

Friday Freebie: American Dream Machine by Matthew Specktor and The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner

Congratulations to Michael Cooper, winner of last week's Friday Freebie: N0S4A2 by Joe Hill.

This week's book giveaway is another double-book delight: American Dream Machine by Matthew Specktor and The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner.  Both of these novels have been popping up on year-end "Best Of" lists and while I haven't had the chance to read them, I'm pretty sure they'd be among my top reading choices of the year.  One lucky reader will win hardcover editions of both books (Bonu...

Stories Within Stories: S. by Doug Dorst and J. J. Abrams

S.
by Doug Dorst and J. J. Abrams
Review by James Bennett

I am a book guy, for lack of a better term. When I bought my new house, the first major project I started on was remodeling the basement, with built in bookshelves on which to stack my collected tomes. I have nothing against e-readers, in fact I own both a Nook and a Kindle (I prefer the Kindle Fire, quite a useful device) but still when I decided to take the leap and read Ulysses I went with an old hardback version (a U.S. first edition...

The Big Christmas Read

It happens every year, as predictable as bad drivers after the season's first snow, dust on ornaments brought up from the basement, and tears wrung by Rankin-Bass animated specials: I feel compelled to set aside time for a Christmas-themed book.

Beautiful, but blechBy this point in the calendar, my reading schedule is in a state of Panicked Scramble as I frantically try to finish books I've already started so they can be included in the tally for that year's reading logs (see 2012's "My Year i...

Trailer Park Tuesday: Man Alive! by Mary Kay Zuravleff

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



A quarter.  A parking meter.  A bolt of lightning.  A changed life.  That's the premise of Mary Kay Zuravleff's third novel, Man Alive! .  While feeding money into a parking meter, pediatric psychologist Dr. Owen Lerner is struck by, as they say, a bolt out of the blue.  He survives the jolt of heavenly electricity but he's a changed man.  Now...