David Abrams's Blog, page 68

Friday Freebie: Liar by Rob Roberge, Unslut by Emily Lindin, Mesa of Sorrows by James F. Brooks, Empire of Deception by Dean Jobb, Lives in Ruins by Marilyn Johnson, and Fight Like a Girl by Laura Barcella

Congratulations to Lisa Murray, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie contest: The Miracle Girl by Andrew Roe.

This week’s book giveaway is a grab-bag of recent non-fiction titles: Liar: A Memoir by Rob Roberge, UnSlut: A Diary and a Memoir by Emily Lindin, Mesa of Sorrows: A History of the Awat'ovi Massacre by James F. Brooks, Empire of Deception: The Incredible Story of a Master Swindler Who Seduced a City and Captivated the Nation by Dean Jobb, Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seducti...

Front Porch Books: March 2016 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, independent bookstores, 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....

Trailer Park Tuesday: Bottomland by Michelle Hoover

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



Michelle Hoover’s second novel, Bottomland , gets a dreamy, artsy trailer to showcase its equally dreamy and artistic prose. The vivid, impressionistic animation is done by Laura Harrison, who deserves great credit for creating a moody trailer set against pieces of the novel. Hoover, author of the critically-acclaimed The Quickening (2010), narrates excerpts from Bottomland, to...

My First Time: Beth Kissileff

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 Beth Kissileff, editor of the new anthology Reading Genesis: Beginnings —the first of a series (Reading Exodus is in the works). She holds a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Pennsylvania and has taught English literature, writing, Hebr...

Sunday Sentence: The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

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


Spade lighted his cigarette and laughed his mouth empty of smoke.

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

Jigsaw Lives: Chris Ware Builds Stories

My bags were packed. Into my suitcase, I’d neatly arranged the folded flags of shirts, squares of underwear, my shaving kit, my slippers, a corkscrew for an emergency bottle of wine, and a clump of white socks which, with their balled cuffs and trailing streamers of feet, looked like sperm swimming upstream. I was ready for a week-long business trip during which I’d work hard for eight hours of the day then retreat to the bland sterility of a hotel room where I’d eat a lonely salad, call my w...

Friday Freebie: The Miracle Girl by Andrew Roe

Congratulations to Jane Rainey, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie contest: Spill Simmer Falter Wither by Sara Baume.

This week’s giveaway is The Miracle Girl by Andrew Roe, now out in paperback. I was delighted to have Andrew on the blog earlier this week as he told us about his “first time.” And now I’m even more pleased to offer up his novel, which has been hailed by The New York Times Book Review as “[An] assured debut . . . Overfamiliarity has diluted the significance of the word ‘mira...

My First Time: Andrew Roe

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 Andrew Roe, author of the novel The Miracle Girl , which is now out in paperback from Algonquin Books. It was recently named a finalist for a Los Angeles Times Book Award (the Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction). Andrew’s fiction has appeared in Tin H...

Sunday Sentence: The Darkening Trapeze by Larry Levis

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


The only surviving son of Jesus Christ was Karl Marx.
You can tell by the last letter of his name,
Which has the shape & frail balance of an overturned cross

On a windswept hillside.

“Elegy With a Darkening Trapeze Inside It”
from The Darkening Trapeze: Last Poems by Larry Levis

Friday Freebie: Spill Simmer Falter Wither by Sara Baume

Congratulations to Carl Scott, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie contest: The Opposite of Everyone by Joshilyn Jackson.

This week’s giveaway is Spill Simmer Falter Wither by Sara Baume. Mary Costello, author of Academy Street, had this to say about Baume’s debut novel: “Powerful, heartbreaking, told with great control. The writing is superb....I had an image of all language standing to attention, eager to serve this writer.” I had more to say about Spill Simmer Falter Wither earlier here a...