David Abrams's Blog, page 5
March 6, 2020
Friday Freebie: Four Books from Algonquin Young Readers
Congratulations to John Smith, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie contest: two new releases by Ander Monson: I Will Take the Answer (essays) and The Gnome Stories .
This week’s contest is for four new(ish) books from the good folks at Algonquin Young Readers : Tigers, Not Daughters by Samantha Mabry, The Dark Lord Clementine by Sarah Jean Horwitz, Naked Mole Rat Saves the World by Karen Rivers, and Cub by Cynthia L. Copeland. I have new copies of each book to put in the hands of one...
March 1, 2020
Sunday Sentence: The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn
Simply put, the best sentence(s) I’ve read this past week, presented out of context and without commentary.
The sun gleamed chilly silver.
The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn
February 28, 2020
Friday Freebie: I Will Take the Answer and The Gnome Stories by Ander Monson
Congratulations to Amanda Symes, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie contest: Cancer, I’ll Give You One Year by Jennifer Spiegel.
This week’s contest is for two new releases by Ander Monson from Graywolf Press: I Will Take the Answer (essays) and The Gnome Stories . I have a new paperback copy of each to put in the hands of one lucky reader. Will it be you? Keep scrolling for more information on the novel and how to enter the contest...
The idea of connection permeates I Will Take the...
February 23, 2020
Sunday Sentence: So We Can Glow by Leesa Cross-Smith
Simply put, the best sentence(s) I’ve read this past week, presented out of context and without commentary.
Reminded him of that morning after church when her hair was baptism-wet. How she sat at the kitchen table, born again, drowning in the sunlight.
"Knock Out the Heart Lights So We Can Glow" from
So We Can Glow by Leesa Cross-Smith
February 21, 2020
Friday Freebie: Cancer, I’ll Give You One Year by Jennifer Spiegel
Congratulations to Sylvia Danforth, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie contest: The Bramble and the Rose by Tom Bouman.
This week’s contest is for a book I am especially pleased to be giving away to one lucky reader: Cancer, I’ll Give You One Year by Jennifer Spiegel ( Love Slave ). I had the privilege of reading an early copy of Jennifer’s witty (and sobering) account of surviving cancer, told in a “real-time” journal format. Here’s what I said by way of a blurb for the cover of the book:
On...
February 20, 2020
Fresh Ink: February 2020 edition
Fresh Ink is a monthly tally of new and forthcoming books—mainly advance review copies (aka “uncorrected proofs” and “galleys”)—I’ve received from publishers. Cover art and opening lines may change before the book is finally released. I should also mention that, in nearly every case, I haven’t had a chance to read these books, but they’re definitely going in the to-be-read pile.
Where You’re All Going
by Joan Frank
(Sarabande Books)
Jacket Copy: In her quartet of novellas, Joan...
February 16, 2020
Sunday Sentence: So We Can Glow by Leesa Cross-Smith
Simply put, the best sentence(s) I’ve read this past week, presented out of context and without commentary.
Leigh closed her eyes and pictured every flower every bush every vine every tree every root every green or brown or white or yellow or red or pink or purple or orange thing snapping and whipping loose and wrapping itself around her, around both of them, suffocating them as they gave their ghosts to the petal-scents and thorns.
"A Tennis Court" from So We Can Glow by Leesa Cross-Smith
February 14, 2020
Friday Freebie: The Bramble and the Rose by Tom Bouman
Congratulations to Carl Scott, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie contest: Little Constructions by Anna Burns.
This week’s contest is for The Bramble and the Rose by Tom Bouman. This is Book Number 3 in the Henry Farrell series, of which Craig Johnson (Longmire) advises: “You would be hard-pressed to find a finer new series than Tom Bouman’s Henry Farrell novels because of the complexity of the plots or the richness of the characters, but what it really comes down to is just damn good...
February 9, 2020
Sunday Sentence: Edison by Edmund Morris
Simply put, the best sentence(s) I’ve read this past week, presented out of context and without commentary.
I wasn’t interested in making money so much as in being the first to invent something society needed.
Thomas A. Edison, as quoted in Edison by Edmund Morris
February 7, 2020
Friday Freebie: Little Constructions by Anna Burns
Congratulations to Susan LaBelle, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie contest: Pax Americana by Kurt Baumeister.
This week’s contest is for Little Constructions by Anna Burns. I have a trade paperback copy of the book to put in the hands of one lucky reader. Here are a few words of praise for the novel: “Burns’ raucous, exacting modernist crime novel . . . skewers men’s incomprehension of women.” (Publishers Weekly)
Keep scrolling for more information on the book and how to enter the...
