Josh Hanagarne's Blog, page 23
February 19, 2013
25 Writers On The Importance of Libraries
February 15, 2013
My Book Tour Schedule!
Hi all, I’m taking a break from practicing my signature (you can see the latest version over on the right, it’s hopeless) to finally share my tour schedule with you. There might be small changes, but I’ll let you know as they come up.
Everything below, with the exception of the ULA Conference, is open to the public. I hope you’ll come say hi if you’re in the area. There’s also going to be a bunch of media stuff, but I’m not going to put that on the schedule because it probably won’t matter to anyone but me.
I’m also doing some stuff before and after the launch period of May, but details are still materializing. Here’s the national info for now:
Provo, UT - May 2
ULA Conference, luncheon speaker
12 pm
Talk & Signing
Provo City Library Social
5:00-6:30 PM, signing with other local authors
Decatur, GA - May 9
Event format: Talk & Signing
7:15 PM
Georgia Center for the Book
DeKalb County Public Library
215 Sycamore St, Decatur, GA
St. Louis, MO - May 11
Event format: Talk & Signing
St. Charles City-County Library, Spencer Road Branch
427 South Spencer Road, St. Peters, MO
Books sold by Left Bank Books
Salt Lake City, UT - May 16
Event format: Talk & Signing/Author’s Live
7PM
Salt Lake City Public Library
210 East, 400 South, Nancy Tessman Auditorium
Salt Lake City, UT
Seattle, WA – May 20
Event Format: In Conversation with Diane Mapes
7 PM
Seattle Public Central Library
WA Center for the Book
1000 4th Avenue, Seattle, WA
Books sold by Elliot Bay Books Co.
Pleasanton, CA – May 21
Event Format: Conversation and Signing
2 PM
Pleasanton Library
400 Old Bernal, Pleasanton, CA
Books sold by Towne Center Books
San Francisco, CA – May 21
Event Format: In Conversation with Shereen Ash
7 PM
Fairfax Library, 2097 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Fairfax, CA
Book sold by Book Passage
February 13, 2013
The New Donna Tartt Book Is Finally Coming!
Hi gang,
I try not to write posts that say “Hey, this happened, click on this link,” but:
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/12/at_lo...
Donna Tartt’s third novel finally has a publication date. October! I have been waiting for this for a long time, with an impatience that you’ll only understand if you read and loved The Secret History and The Little Friend.
This made my day, and if ever I had a day that needed made, this is it.
February 11, 2013
Essential stories, Twits, and Philip Pullman
Happy day, my son is finally old enough to appreciate Roald Dahl. It might sound silly, but I’ve been waiting for this. When he was six months old I bought him a big paperback set of Dahl’s books at a yard sale in Denver. Every few months I’d read him a couple of lines, and every few months, he’d ignore me. But no more!
What this means is that last night I got to read The Twits out loud. And of course, he gets to step into the worlds that only Dahl could have created. Seriously, if you haven’t read The Twits, please do. You’ll get through it in less than an hour and you’ll smile while you’re reading it, I can almost guarantee it.
I’ve been surprised again at how much I love these books, and by how much I still love children’s books in general. I love them because,while they are hilarious and moving and brilliant, they are also pure story, with little or zero extraneous material. Children’s stories propel you across the pages in the same way that the best fairy tales do. Every sentence moves the plot.
Not only do some novels clutter up their pages with stuff that doesn’t need to be there, there are plenty of novels that barely tell a story at all. I’m not saying this is bad, only that it’s different than in juvenile literature.
Philip Pullman said this a lot better than I can in his Carnegie Medal Acceptance speech. Also, I’m about halfway into his Fairy Tales From The Brothers Grimm and it is fantastic.
Tonight we’ll be starting the Bird Pie section. I can’t wait.
February 6, 2013
Beyond The Possible by Cecil Williams and Janice Mirikitani
Hey all, short review today since I’m still sick and want to go back to sleep. But I really want to encourage you to read Beyond The Possible: 50 Years of Creating Radical Change In A Community Called Glide.
I think you’ll be better for it. I am.
It’s hard for me to read or watch the news and not feel depressed afterward. Stories of real compassion and acceptance don’t make for the sorts of screeching headlines that rack of page views and shares, because they don’t provide the viral-making qualities of sorrow and outrage.
This book is the opposite of most of the news.
Beyond The Possible is a book about the Glide Memorial Church, and so it is a story about compassion and acceptance. I wasn’t very familiar with Glide before this book, although I did know they had a rocking choir.
During the 60s, Glide had an almost totally white, conservative congregation.
It would change drastically over the next few decades, welcoming everyone into their church. As the flap copy puts it,
“Rev. Williams and Janice Mirikitani welcomed the underground characters, criminals, prostitutes, drug dealers, and everyone into the church. They offered joy to all of us.”
This is a book about people who’s lives changed for the better because of Pastor Cecil Williams and his wife, Janice Mirikitani. It’s about racism, gay rights, and true acceptance.
I hate that this feels like a rarity to me me, but this is a book about good people trying to do good things.
It made me smile, laugh, and almost brought me to tears a couple of times. And I’ll read it again, which is the highest compliment I can give to a book. I believe that these are people worth emulating, and spending time in their company was a joy.
And now ends the somewhat-rambling, codeine-cough-syrup influenced review. I have a lot more to say about this book, but I don’t trust myself to say anything well right now.
Happy Wednesday.
February 5, 2013
There’s Going To Be A Book Tour
Hi all,
I can’t announce specific cities quite yet, but I did find out that I’m going to be doing a book tour in May. It’s going to be busy.
If I’m passing through your town, I hope that you’ll come say hi.
I’m sick again, so I’m not going to write much today, but if you’re looking for something to read, I recently read a book called Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me: A Graphic Memoir by Ellen Forney. It was the best graphic memoir I’ve read since Persepolis.
Cough cough cough. Pray for me, if that’s your thing. I’m sick of being sick.
February 4, 2013
The World's Strongest Librarian and Barnes and Noble Discover Series
When I worked at BN, I looked at the Discover display almost every day. It is beyond surreal to think that I'll be on it now.
Odd but great.
January 30, 2013
Visiting Hours by Jennifer Anne Moses
Whenever possible, I want a book to take me into a world I can’t visit on my own, and to help me get inside the minds of people I might not be familiar with. I want to learn, I want to laugh, and if possible, I want to feel sad when the last page is done.
Happily, this is exactly what I got from Visiting Hours, the third book by Jennifer Anne Moses.
Visiting Hours takes place inside of a Baton Rouge hospice for AIDS patients. This won’t be a comparison everyone will agree with (and I hope it doesn’t annoy the author), but the hospice frequently reminded me of both the rehab center and the Enfield Tennis Academy from Infinite Jest. Both in the detail, the dialogue, the humor, and the pervasive air of a book that manages to be deeply sad while constantly funny. Maybe that won’t make sense to anyone but me.
What I enjoyed the most about the book was the dialogue. Jennifer Moses has an amazing ear and it’s obvious that she’s spent a lot of time in Louisiana listening to the way people talk. If you read A Confederacy of Dunces and noticed just how specific Toole was when writing dialect, you’ll recognize another gifted mimic here.
It makes the characters real. They are alive while you’re reading the book. I’ve said before that by the end of Don Quixote, Lonesome Dove, and Gone Girl, just to pick three, you know the pairs of characters as well as it is possible to know anyone fictional. I’m adding Visiting Hours to that list.
Visiting Hours is unflinching where it needs to be unflinching, compassionate on every page, and really, really funny, which is never a bad thing. It is a book about people with hard jobs caring for people who have hard lives. But it’s a read that I couldn’t put down. I read it in one sitting, which I don’t have the time to do very often. I didn’t have much of a choice because it was that good.
I really like it when I can tell the author had fun writing the book. More than once during Visiting Hours I thought, “I bet she’s really cool.”
Read it!
Guess Who’s In The Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Program?
Can you guess? Can you?
This morning I found out that The World’s Strongest Librarian was chosen by Barnes and Noble to be part of their Discover Great New Writers Program. If you’ve ever been in a BN, the Discover books are generally right up front next to the bestselling non-fiction and fiction displays. It is a prime spot, one which my slobbering self almost certainly does not deserve, but they voted me in, so I’m not going to argue.
Every quarter, there are about a dozen Discover books from debut authors. Barnes and Noble promotes them heavily. The whole thing is freaking me out a little bit, but is very exciting. I’ve been smiling all morning. I obviously don’t do it enough because my face aches.
Can’t wait to see what’s next. As always, thank you for your support!
Josh
January 28, 2013
Great Review of The World’s Strongest Librarian in Publisher’s Weekly
More advance press for the book. Publisher’s Weekly just posted a great review of The World’s Strongest Librarian, which you can read here.
This might get corrected, but they’re currently saying I’m only 6’4″, when I’m actually a regal 6’7″. Go see now so you can tell your children you witnessed the error!
Josh
