David Abrams's Blog, page 84

Sunday Sentence: War of the Encyclopaedists by Christopher Robinson and Gavin Kovite

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



As he’d gotten older, Grandpa Frank had become increasingly sentimental and direct; talking to him was like being interrogated by a Hallmark card.

War of the Encyclopaedists by Christopher Robinson and Gavin Kovite

Friday Freebie: Hotel Living by Ioannis Pappos

Congratulations to Ashley Sowa, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie contest: Undermajordomo Minor by Patrick deWitt.

This week's book giveaway is Hotel Living by Ioannis Pappos. Michael Cunningham had this to say about the book: “Ioannis Pappos’s Hotel Living could be The Great Gatsby, reincarnated in a contemporary hell beyond even F. Scott Fitzgerald’s imagination. It’s harrowing. It’s smart and sexy; it’s funny and tragic. It is, in short, a great and terrible beauty of a book.” Read on f...

Trailer Park Tuesday: World Gone Water Jaime Clarke

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



Jaime Clarke, co-owner of Newtonville Books and author of Vernon Downs , has come out with a prequel to his debut novel. World Gone Water expands the character of Charlie Martens, first introduced in Vernon Downs, a young man grappling with how to navigate the world. For the trailer to promote World Gone Water, Clarke enlisted the help of some author friends--and by “some,” I m...

My First Time: Lenore Myka

Dennis P. Callahan 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 Lenore Myka, author of King of the Gypsies , a story collection forthcoming from BkMk Press. Raised outside of Buffalo, New York, Lenore describes her upbringing as Polish-American Catholic, and says of her outlook on life, “I am h...

Sunday Sentence: Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson

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

(This week, I’m going to break with tradition and present not just one sentence, but an entire paragraph from Smith Henderson’s debut novel, Fourth of July Creek, in which he describes the fictional town of Tenmile, Montana.)


He liked the Sunrise Cafe for its coffee and smoky ambience and the way his arms stuck to the cool plastic tablecloths in summer and how the windows steamed, beaded...

Friday Freebie: Undermajordomo Minor by Patrick deWitt

Congratulations to Jerri Bell, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie contest: Above the Waterfall and Something Rich and Strange: Selected Stories by Ron Rash and Darkness the Color of Snow by Thomas Cobb.

This week’s book giveaway is Undermajordomo Minor by Patrick deWitt. A thousand fans of The Sisters Brothers just stood up in unison, like meerkats, sniffing the wind. Yes, it’s true: the Man Booker Prize shortlister is back with a new book and one lucky reader will be enjoying it a couple o...

Matthew Neill Null’s Library: The Condominium of Oblivion

Reader:  Matthew Neill Null
Location:  Provincetown, Massachusetts
Collection Size:  I’m afraid to count. There’s no ideal number—it will be too many or too few.
The one book I'd run back into a burning building to rescue:  There’s no particular book I’d rescue, since the replaceability of books is one of my favorite features of these weird little objects. That said, I do have a 1940 first edition of W. E. R. Byrne’s West Virginia history/travelogue Tale of the Elk . Byrne,...

Trailer Park Tuesday: Married Sex by Jesse Kornbluth

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




I have Married Sex . The book by Jesse Kornbluth, that is. But I also have married sex. The act. I love married sex (the act) and I’m pretty sure I’ll like Married Sex (the book) because I’ve been a fan/follower of Kornbluth’s cultural blog, Head Butler , for a number of years. Whether he’s talking about pepper mills or Emmylou Harris , the guy knows his stuff. He can come butle...

Sunday Sentence: The Dead Lands by Benjamin Percy

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



They rode through forests that had burned down to blackened lances and others electric with the yellow-and-red music of fall. They rode across glinting fields of obsidian that looked as though the night froze and fell and shattered.

The Dead Lands by Benjamin Percy

Friday Freebie: Above the Waterfall and Something Rich and Strange by Ron Rash and Darkness the Color of Snow by Thomas Cobb

Congratulations to Barbara Aiello, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie: The Sweetheart Deal by Polly Dugan.

This week’s book giveaway is the triple crown of Above the Waterfall and Something Rich and Strange: Selected Stories by Ron Rash and Darkness the Color of Snow by Thomas Cobb. Read on for more information about the novels and the short story collection.

In Above the Waterfall, a poetic and haunting tale set in contemporary Appalachia, New York Times bestselling author Ron Rash illumin...