David Abrams's Blog, page 166

Sunday Sentence: Woke Up Lonely by Fiona Maazel

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


Olgo was so clammy by the time they rolled into Blackstone, his skin was made of eel.

Woke Up Lonely by Fiona Maazel

Friday Freebie: Bristol House by Beverly Swerling

Congratulations to Leah Welch, winner of last week's Friday Freebie: Red Moon by Benjamin Percy.

This week's book giveaway is Bristol House , the new novel by Beverly Swerling (author of the "City" series: City of Promise: A Novel of New York's Gilded Age , City of God: A Novel of Passion and Wonder in Old New York , City of Glory: A Novel of War and Desire in Old Manhattan , and City of Dreams: A Novel of Nieuw Amsterdam and Early Manhattan ).  Here's how the publisher describes Bristol House...

Soup and Salad: Visiting Tolstoy's estate with hungover honeymooners, Owen King wrestles with titles, Leigh Newman fights fear, Being a better literary citizen, A book club directory

On today's menu:

1.  Literary pilgrim Stephen Phelan takes us on a tour of a few writers' homes , including those which once belonged to the Brontes, George Orwell, J. G. Ballard, and this memorable day at Leo Tolstoy's country estate near Tula, Russia:

      It's a gloomy, windy Sunday when I visit, and a long, muddy walk from the main road and through the sodden grounds to the mansion house itself. Inside, I tag along with a couple of hungover Scottish newlyweds--...

Front Porch Books: April 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 t...

My First Time: Shawn Vestal

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 Shawn Vestal, author of the just-released short story collection, Godforsaken Idaho .  Vogue had this to say about the book: "[It] lies somewhere between the classically chiseled narratives of Richard Ford's Rock Springs, the satiristic imagina...

Sunday Sentence: Woke Up Lonely by Fiona Maazel

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


She settled under a lamp whose glow helped define the cut of her face.  Very narrow.  Unnaturally so.  A face between cymbals after the clap.

Woke Up Lonely by Fiona Maazel

Hypnotized by Wordcraft: National Treasures by Charles McLeod

Charles McLeod's short story collection National Treasures (so quietly released last fall by a tiny whisper of a small press, Outpost 19 ) has the kind of prose that could easily fill an entire year's worth of The Quivering Pen's Sunday Sentence series.  It was all I could do to limit myself to just two .

But now that I have the space of an entire review in which to stretch myself, I'll unload a few more on you.

The air in Orleans is sewn tight with mist.

Our landlord is a large, creamy man...

Friday Freebie: Red Moon by Benjamin Percy

Congratulations to Mari Cheney, winner of last week's Friday Freebie multi-book contest: Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots by Jessica Soffer, Me Before You by Jojo Moyes, and There Once Lived a Girl Who Seduced Her Sister's Husband, and He Hanged Himself: Love Stories by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya.

This week's giveaway is Red Moon by Benjamin Percy, due to be released by Grand Central Publishing in early May.  I try not to play favorites among the Friday Freebies I offer to you, but I've gotta...

World Book Night 2013: My Short Marathon-Reading Adventure

Being an account of the narrator's World Book Night adventure in the Old West mining city of Butte, Montana, specifically at the Butte-Silver Bow Public Library, with occasional pauses for breath and sips of water while reading Glaciers by Alexis Smith and tossing copies of aforementioned book to passersby like a rock star flinging a sweat-mopped T-shirt into a concert crowd; with able assistance by Regan deVictoria, champion co-Giver and all-round A-Number-One librarian.

I was all ready fo...

Trailer Park Tuesday: Special World Book Night Edition: Glaciers by Alexis M. Smith--plus books by Jesmyn Ward, John Grisham, Lisa Scottoline, Hillary Jordan and Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Welcome to Trailer Park Tuesday , a showcase of new book trailers and, in a few cases, previews of book-related movies.  In the best cases, a book trailer can be a perfect marriage between text and video.



Okay, I'll admit it.  I'm obsessed with Glaciers , the debut novel by Alexis M. Smith published last year by Tin House Books.  By now you're probably sick of hearing me talk about how great the book is (hopefully, I've worn down enough of you that you've gone out and b...