David Abrams's Blog, page 39

Front Porch Books: August 2017 edition

The Age of Perpetual Light
by Josh Weil
(Grove/Atlantic)

I look forward to a new Josh Weil book like Donald Trump looks forward to a 2 a.m. Tweet (though my anticipation is decidedly less malicious in intent). From the time I read his debut collection of novellas, The New Valley , to the dazzling dystopian epic novel,  The Great Glass Sea , Weil has bound me in a beautiful spiderweb of words. He burrows deep into his characters and, like the cleverest of spiders, draws me closer and closer to...

There Will Be Boxes: Caitlin Hamilton Summie’s Library

Reader:  Caitlin Hamilton Summie
Location:   Knoxville, TN
Collection size:  Estimated 1,000
The one book I'd run back into a burning building to rescue:  Life in Ancient Rome by F. R. Cowell
Favorite book from childhood:   Are You My Mother? by P. D. Eastman
Guilty pleasure book:  I don't have one!

The question has always been this: can I fit all the books in the house?

The answer has always been: no.

Growing up, my parents purchased sleek wooden bookcases made in Sca...

Trailer Park Tuesday: See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt

There will be blood. Oh yes, buckets and freshets and rivers of blood. Sniff the first pages of Sarah Schmidt’s debut novel See What I Have Done and you’ll catch the unmistakable odor of musky iron, damp earth, old pennies (or, considering the book is about Lizzie Borden, bad pennies). In the first chapter, narrated by Lizzie, Schmidt gives us a gore-streaked description of the axe-work inside the Borden house in Fall River, Massachusetts:

Like a tiny looking-glass inside my mind, I saw all of...

My First Time: Jay Baron Nicorvo

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 Jay Baron Nicorvo, author of The Standard Grand , picked for IndieBound’s Indie Next List, Library Journal’s Spring 2017 Debut Novels Great First Acts, and named “New and Noteworthy” by Poets & Writers. He published a poetry collection, Deadbeat (Four...

Sunday Sentence: Theft by Finding by David Sedaris

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


May 3, 2002
New York
       The dumbest words ever spoken in New York are “I think I’ll wear my new shoes.” I left the hotel yesterday at ten, and when I returned seven hours later, it looked as if I’d jumped into a wood chipper.

Theft by Finding  by David Sedaris

Friday Freebie: Quicksand by Malin Persson Giolitto

Congratulations to Tim Schultz, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie: As Good As Gone by Larry Watson.

This week’s contest is for Malin Persson Giolitto’s Quicksand , named the Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year by the Swedish Crime Writers Academy. I have a new hardcover copy to give away to one lucky reader. Keep scrolling for more information about the book...


A mass shooting has taken place at a prep school in Stockholm’s wealthiest suburb. Eighteen-year-old Maja Norberg is charged for h...

My First Time: Stephen Policoff

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 Stephen Policoff, author of Beautiful Somewhere Else , his debut novel, which won the James Jones First Novel Award, and was published by Carroll & Graf in 2004. His second novel, Come Away , won the Dzanc Mid-Career Author Award, and was published by...

Sunday Sentence: Theft by Finding by David Sedaris

Simply put, the best sentence(s) I’ve read this past week, presented out of context and without commentary.
April 30, 1999
Paris
       This evening a man knocked on the door of our apartment and said, “Hello, I just got out of prison, may I come in?”

Theft by Finding  by David Sedaris

Friday Freebie: As Good As Gone by Larry Watson

Congratulations to Adam Coulter, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie: The Blinds , the new novel by Adam Sternbergh.

This week’s contest is for As Good As Gone by Larry Watson. My love for Larry’s fiction is as big and wide as a Western sky over a windscraped landscape and this book is no exception. Here’s the Minneapolis Star Tribune on As Good As Gone: “Whether Watson is describing the inside of a 1952 Ford Tudor, a homey tree-lined street in Missoula, an afternoon branding a herd of cattle...

My First Time: Jamie Harrison

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 Jamie Harrison, author of the new novel The Widow Nash . Jamie has lived in Montana with her family for almost thirty years. She has worked as a caterer, writer, and as a technical editor for archaeological, botanical, and biological reports. She is the d...