David Abrams's Blog, page 86
August 4, 2015
Trailer Park Tuesday: Room by Emma Donoghue
Welcome to Trailer Park Tuesday, a showcase of new book trailers and, in a few cases, previews of book-related movies.
I had a crush on when I first saw her in
The United States of Tara
, the off-beat Three Faces of Eve comedy starring Toni Colette as the titular multi-personalitied Tara. Then I flirted with Brie Larson in her all-too-brief appearance in
Greenberg
, and I fell head-over-heels for her performance in
Short Term 12
as the supervisor of a residential treatment facility f...
August 3, 2015
My First Time: Thrity Umrigar
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 Thrity Umrigar, the bestselling author of a memoir and six novels, including The Space Between Us , The World We Found and The Story Hour . She is the recipient of the Nieman Fellowship to Harvard, a finalist for the PEN/Beyond Margins award and winn...
August 2, 2015
Sunday Sentence: The Perfect Son by Barbara Claypole White
Simply put, the best sentence(s) I’ve read this past week, presented out of context and without commentary.
I want my tombstone to read “She Lived Out Loud.”
The Perfect Son by Barbara Claypole White
July 31, 2015
Friday Freebie: Among the Ten Thousand Things by Julia Pierpont
Congratulations to Lisa Murray and Rhonda Lomazow, winners of last week's Friday Freebie, The Bees by Laline Paull.
This week's book giveaway is Among the Ten Thousand Things by Julia Pierpont. Read on for more information about the book the New York Times Book Review called "a luscious, smart summer novel."
For fans of Jennifer Egan, Jonathan Franzen, Lorrie Moore, and Curtis Sittenfeld, Among the Ten Thousand Things is a dazzling first novel, a portrait of an American family on the cusp of...
July 30, 2015
Book Radar: Neal Stephenson, Kris D’Agostino, Sebastian Junger
Book Radar rounds up some of the latest publishing deals which have caught my eye, gathered from reports at Publishers Marketplace, Galley Cat, office water-coolers and other places where hands are shaken and promises are made. As with anything in the fickle publishing industry, dates and titles are subject to change.
From Publishers Lunch, news of the following book deals...
New York Times bestselling author (including the most recent
Seveneves
) Neal Stephenson’s Fall, pitched as a high-...
July 28, 2015
Trailer Park Tuesday: The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler
Welcome to Trailer Park Tuesday, a showcase of new book trailers and, in a few cases, previews of book-related movies.
The trailer for Erika Swyler's debut novel,
The Book of Speculation
, is beautiful but initially puzzling: an animated oil painting shows, in rapid succession, a book opening, a hand dealing some cards, a girl falling into the ocean and presumably drowning (only to resurface), a house on a cliff crumbling into the sea, and a horseshoe crab washing up on shore. What looks like s...
July 27, 2015
My First Time: Benjamin Johncock
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 Benjamin Johncock, author of The Last Pilot , a novel which People magazine says “transports readers to a time of Scotch-soaked bars, Walter Cronkite on the news, and astronauts as superheroes...Ingeniously plotted, deftly written, and engrossing.”...
July 26, 2015
Sunday Sentence: The Stand by Stephen King
Simply put, the best sentence(s) I’ve read this past week, presented out of context and without commentary.
He was a hard, puritanical fellow with a face that looked as if it had been carved by licks of a hatchet.
The Stand: Complete and Uncut Version by Stephen King
July 24, 2015
Friday Freebie: The Bees by Laline Paull
Congratulations to Erin Golsen, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie: The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar.
This week’s book giveaway is The Bees by Laline Paull. I have two copies of the novel to giveaway--a hardcover version and the recently-released paperback--so I'll be picking the names of two lucky readers next week. Read on for more information about the book...
The Handmaid’s Tale meets The Hunger Games in this brilliantly imagined debut set in an ancient culture where only the queen may...
July 23, 2015
Writer at Work: Braver Deeds
The latest issue of The Provo Canyon Review has an excerpt from the novel I’m working on (the current title is Braver Deeds--from a poem by Stephen Crane--though in the past I’ve called it Crossing Baghdad, FOB Sorrow, A Walk in the Sun, and That Stupid Novel I Can’t Seem to Finish).
“The Wedding Party” in The Provo Canyon Review stitches together three different portions of the book which tells the story of a squad of soldiers making their way on foot across Baghdad in order to attend the mem...
