Friday Reads 9.29.23
It’s Friday, friends, and you know what that means… let’s talk about what we’re reading!
I’m deep into V.E. Schwab’s THE FRAGILE THREADS OF POWER. V will be in Nashville next week, and I’m interviewing her both for A WORD ON WORDS and for her event with Parnassus Books. I’m excited, because A - we haven’t seen one another in person for years, and B - this book is FANTASTIC. I’m enjoying it tremendously. Threads upon threads, all interwoven, past and present colliding, favorite characters revisited and new ones to love (and hate). It’s a lot of fun.
Another recommendation - my dearest Paige Crutcher has a new book out this week, WHAT BECAME OF MAGIC, which arrived while I was on my trip. I can’t wait to dig in!
And for funsies…Breanne Randall’s THE UNFORTUNATE SIDE-EFFECTS OF HEARTBREAK AND MAGIC made the NYT and USAT lists this week. There was a fascinating write-up on about her approach to social media (genuine) and how well it worked. Could you or I replicate this? Probably not. This is lightning in a bottle, the perfect storm of how social media SHOULD work to sell books. Authentic interaction. Debut novelist. Catchy hook. Publisher support. And if the reviews have it right, she’s got the writing chops to back it all up. I’ve enjoyed watching her success story. ⚡️
In another fascinating look into the inner workings of publishing, Kathleen Schmidt over at pulled together a sobering analysis of what KKR’s investment in Simon and Schuster could really mean.
I want to tease you for an upcoming post here on the Edge, too. As requested on my post What If, my friend, screenwriter and author wrote us a piece on log lines. As always, paid subscribers get the craft posts first, so consider subscribing! It should come up in your feeds Tuesday.
And you can watch or listen to my latest A WORD ON WORDS interview with none other than the queen of Italian cooking herself, Lidia Bastianich!
So how about you? What are you reading this weekend?
FYI: These posts are free to read but may contain affiliate links which means we get a small commission that helps keep the kitty in cat food. Thanks for the support!
