David Abrams's Blog, page 151

Sunday Sentence: At the Bottom of Everything by Ben Dolnick

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



Raymond was British; he looked to be about eighty, and he seemed to have dressed for a safari weeks or month ago and then not bothered to change.  Stray feathers of white hair flapped from the sides of his head; his glasses made his eyes look like things preserved in jars.

At the Bottom of Everything by Ben Dolnick

My Library: Bill Roorbach Culls the Collection

Reader: Bill Roorbach
Location: Western Maine
Collection size: 3,000 books
The one book I'd run back into a burning house to rescue: I would not run into a burning building for a book.  The whiskey maybe.  And if my first edition of The Great Gatsby were next it, maybe I'd grab that.
Favorite book from childhood: The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Guilty pleasure book:  Candy by Terry Southern

I cleaned out my studio, everything including desk, shelves, chairs, bedroll (I'm...

Friday Freebie: After Her by Joyce Maynard

Congratulations to Yvonne Jefferson, winner of last week's Friday Freebie: The Residue Years by Mitchell S. Jackson.  Three cheers also go out to Laurie Pitts who won the contest for the Fobbit audiobook.

This week's book giveaway is After Her , the new novel by Joyce Maynard (author of Labor Day and The Good Daughters ).  On a personal note, After Her went to the highest elevations on my To-Be-Read mountain o' books (aka Mt. NeverRest) from the minute I read the opening lines of...

William Lychack Recommends: The Lost World of the Kalahari by Laurens van der Post

When a book plucks a chord inside you--the metal harp string humming and going blurry as it vibrates--and you connect with the words on a visceral and/or intellectual level, then there comes a moment when you can't keep that book bottled up inside any longer.  You burst out of the house at a run, or pop your head over the cubicle divider, or dial your daughter's phone number, and blurt out, "Listen, I just read the best book!"  And then, for the next five minutes to an hour, you bad...

The Legacy of the Ampersand: & Sons by David Gilbert

& Sons
by David Gilbert
Reviewed by Henry Gonshak

David Gilbert’s  & Sons is a big, ambitious, at times hilarious novel about the life of the writer, relations between siblings, and between fathers and sons, the financial and intellectual aristocracy of contemporary New York City, and the themes of aging and death, given an added, quasi-sci-fi twist by the inclusion of a subplot about the possibilities of cloning.  Gilbert is a middle-aged, New York writer who’s authored one pre...

Trailer Park Tuesday: The Big Crowd by Kevin Baker

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




Kevin Baker is one of the best novelists around today who can take dry facts from history textbooks and turn them into highly-readable, entertaining fiction.  His so-called "City of Fire trilogy" ( Paradise Alley , Dreamland and Striver's Row ) brought early 20th-century New York City to blazing life.  Now he moves forward a couple of decades and burrows a little deeper...

Words After War essay contest & Win a Fobbit audiobook

What's the story behind this picture?  What does it say to you?  How does it make you feel?  Capture your thoughts in an essay up to 500 words and you could win a tuition-paid seat in a workshop I'll be teaching at Marlboro College when I come to Brattleboro, Vermont for the town's annual literary festival .  The workshop is about finding a sense of "place" in stories--whether that's a street in Brooklyn or a lonely mountaintop.

The new literary organization Words After War ...

My First Time: Claudia Zuluaga

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 Claudia Zuluaga, author of Fort Starlight , a novel which has just been published by Engine Books .  Here's what Elizabeth Stuckey-French (author of The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady ) had to say about Fort Starlight: “Claudia Zuluaga knows the...

Sunday Sentence: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

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


Scully was appallingly gregarious--so outgoing she was practically incoming.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

Cracks in a Family's Foundation: The Round House by Louise Erdrich

The Round House
by Louise Erdrich
Reviewed by Lara Smith

Louise Erdrich and I run hot and cold.  Having never met me, she doesn’t realize this.  But it’s true.

My first experience with her was with my book club (The Book Babes) in 2007 when we read The Master Butchers Singing Club .  It was stunning.  It was full of nuggets, rich and hearty, that when consumed warmed your belly.

Our songs travel the earth.  We sing to one another.  Not a single note is ever lost and...