Indie Book Buzz: Graywolf Press

Indie Book Buzz is a cool feature here at TNBBC. Over the past couple of weeks, we have been inviting members of the indie publishing houses to share which of their Summer and Fall 2011 releases they are most excited about!

This week's picks comes from Marissa and Erin of Graywolf Press!

Fall 2011

Marissa's Pick:

In Caddis Wood by Mary Rockcastle

The title I’m most looking forward to on Graywolf’s fall list is Mary Rockcastle’s IN CADDIS WOOD. This is Rockcastle’s first book in over 15 years (Graywolf published her much-acclaimed debut novel, RAINY LAKE, in the mid-90s), and I can assure you it was well worth the wait.

The novel is set in Minneapolis and a summerhouse in fictional Caddis Wood, Wisconsin, and follows Hallie and Carl, a much-contented and long-married couple whose bond suddenly begins to unravel in the twilight years of their marriage. First, Carl is struck with debilitating mystery illness. Then, nearly simultaneously, Carl uncovers a secret about Hallie that has him questioning their seemingly-contented devotion to one another and rewriting their shared history.

Moving back and forth between locations and time periods, Rockcastle uses Carl and Hallie’s story to explore the ebbs, flows, and clashes of married life and the ever-competing demands of family and ambition. Did I mention how beautifully, jaw-droppingly well-written it is? The lush, wooded landscape of Caddis Wood itself is the beating heart of this novel, and serves as a silent—but vivid—entity present in nearly every facet of Carl, Hallie, and their daughters’ lives.

Graywolf will publish IN CADDIS WOOD in September, and it will be the perfect novel for you to sink into during the last hazy days of summer.

Erin's Pick:

Child Wonder by Roy Jacobsen

When it comes to books, I’m a sucker for the following things, in no particular order: precocious child narrators, translations, an overwhelming sense of nostalgia, and things that are simultaneously funny ha-ha and funny-sad. Which is to say, Child Wonder by Roy Jacobsen, forthcoming this October, is one of my new favorite novels.

Nine-year-old Finn, the narrator of Child Wonder, is self-conscious, confused, and a bit mouthy—but he’s also charming, whip-smart, and vulnerable. As I read the book I found myself feeling very protective of Finn; he’s the type of character that instantly endears himself to you. When his life is turned upside down upon the arrival of a six-year-old half-sister he didn’t know he had, Finn struggles to find his place in an incomprehensible adult world of loyalty, moral ambiguity, and family secrets.

Roy Jacobsen has written a coming-of-age tale in 1960s Norway that is at once heartbreaking and hilarious, nostalgic and unsentimental, and has created an unforgettable protagonist in Finn. Trust me: Child Wonder belongs at the top of your must-read list for the fall.

About Marissa

Marisa Atkinson is the Marketing and Publicity Associate at Graywolf Press, where she has worked with Belle Boggs, Marie Mutsuki Mockett, Jim Moore, Melanie Rae Thon, and others. She will read any coming-of-age or campus novel you put in front of her. She has never read The Great Gatsby, but promises it’s on her summer reading list. You can follow her on Twitter at @totesmarisa and check out Graywolf on Facebook.

About Erin

Erin Kottke is the publicity director at Graywolf Press, where she has had the honor of working with Per Petterson, Ander Monson, Tiphanie Yanique, Tony Hoagland, and others. Some of her favorite non-Graywolf books are No Great Mischief by Alistair McLeod, Straight Man by Richard Russo, Ordinary Victories by Manu Larcenet, Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes, and The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon, though it pained her to narrow it down to just five and she’s sure she’s leaving out some obvious ones (The Great Gatsby! Mrs. Dalloway! Le Petit Prince! Anything by Jane Austen or Sam Lipsyte or John McPhee!). She lives in Minneapolis with her husband and their three-year old son, Linus. You can find her on Twitter at @eekottke and @graywolfpress.

Can I just tell you how much I adore both of these lovely ladies? They are made of awesome, really and truly!

So what do you think guys? See anything that catches your eye? Which of these books are you most excited to see release? Help TNBBC and Graywolf Press spread the buzz about these books by sharing this post with others!

Ode To Happiness - A Review In Pictures

A surprise was waiting for me when I got home from visiting my brother and his wife in New York today. Ode to Happiness - the highly-anticipated-by-me Keanu Reeves poetry book - was here!

I wasn't expecting this book to arrive for another 2-4 weeks. Apparently Amazon's shipping schedule is not to be trusted! The book itself isn't really a book. More like watercolor paper that is folded in half and sewn together, placed inside a hardcover (cardboard and fabric) sleeve. But I was so excited to see it that I couldn't restrain myself and spent some time unabashedly hugging it.....

... and kissing it...

After the mini-lovefest ended, I sat myself down to take a peek inside and see just what kind of poet Keanu is. Would it be heady, intellectual stuff? Playful, sexy stuff? Abstract, impressionable stuff? I crack the cover page and....
...Heyyyy! Wait a minute. Wait. Just. One. Minute. Here. Is this it? Is this really it? REALLY? You're kidding. You are kidding me.. right? This can't really be it. I don't believe it.

While there is nothing wrong with drawing a hot sorrow bath... this is not what I was expecting. Not by a long shot! I was imagining gorgeous paintings and heady, intellectual, heartbreaking poems. POEMS. As in multiple poems. As in lots of words on lots of pages. But the more I turn the page, the more I see it is just like that first page. Each displaying one big bleeding childish watercolor with 5 - 7 words beneath it...

I admit I let my frustration and high expectations get the best of me for just a moment. I wanted to inflict pain on Ode to Happiness. I am not proud of this, but I bit him. I wanted to tear the stitching from his pages and send him fluttering across the floor so that, instead, he would become an Ode to My Unhappiness...

..But then the violence slowly left me and I realized that it wasn't Keanu's fault, or the poor little poetry book's fault. It was my own fault for getting so worked up about it in the first place. I took the book's blurb too seriously, I created unreasonable expectations. Expectations that the book and it's author could never truly live up to. So I can't really blame them, you know.

And I can give the friggen thing 5 stars for working a fucking amazing blurb out of so little actual content and getting me to fork over 36 bucks based on the fact that I'm a sucker:

"*Ode to Happiness is a grown-up's picture book, a charming reminder not to take oneself too seriously. With drawings by painter Alexandra Grant, text by actor Keanu Reeves, and in collaboration with mutual friend Janey Bergam, this facsimile artists' book is about making the best of a bad situation. In the tradition of a classic "hurtin' song", Reeves' text externalizes a melancholy internal monologue and subtly pokes fun at it. Grant's images, delicately realised in sombre inky washes, reflect the dark and light, the pathos and humour of the text. Neither entirely earnest nor wholly ironic, Ode to Happiness is both a meditation and a gentle tease about how we cope with life's sorrows."

Gentle Tease... Ha!

*blurb credit goes to Goodreads

Indie Spotlight: Ryan W. Bradley

Author Ryan W. Bradley jokingly calls himself a "blue collar renaissance man". He's pumped gas, changed oil, worked in a mechanic's shop, painted houses, done construction in the Arctic Circle, and has just started a job as a shipping and receiving coordinator for a university bookstore. Oh yeah, and he runs the very impressive, very indie Artistically Declined Press, which was featured here on Indie Spotlight back in June.

Here's what he had to say on how these experiences have shaped him:

"I've learned to not take myself or the writing world too seriously. I've been writing since I had a string of injuries in high school that kept me away from my passion for sports. Originally I'm from Alaska, and my love for my home state plays a big role in my writing.

During my MFA I was encouraged to write about the people I worked with and it really opened up a lot for me in terms of my writing. So, most of my energy over the last couple years has been compiling an Alaska-themed story collection called GLACIERS & OTHER STORIES, which I've been shopping around. Some of my non-Alaska stories were collected recently in the aforementioned PRIZE WINNERS. "

Ryan has had mild success with poetry, specifically his chapbook called AQUARIUM which came out last summer from Thunderclap Press. He has another titled MILE ZERO coming out this fall from Maverick Duck Press and a mini chapbook called LOVE & ROD McKUEN coming at some point from Mondo Bummer.

"I have two full-length poetry collections that I've been shopping around as well. And if that weren't enough, next year my debut novel, CODE FOR FAILURE will arrive from Black Coffee Press. I also have three experimental novellas that just sit on my hard drive. Occasionally I find a place to try submitting one to, but for the most part I don't really know what to do with them.

Beyond all the writing, I do freelance book design. I work regularly with Thunderclap Press, and have done covers for a number of other small presses and writers. It's really something I'm always looking for opportunities with, because I feel like it's an area where I can provide a unique and complimentary vision for a writer's work. I guess all these roles in my life start to weave together at some point."

Working a full time job, writing poetry and novels, running a small independent press, AND creating cover designs... he truly is a renaissance man. To check out his artwork, visit his website Aesthetically Declined Design.

And now, Ryan and TNBBC have a little present for you:

Comment here for your chance to win a personalized signed copy

of his short story collection Prize Winners.

Tell us how you would like to book to be personalized.

Ryan can be as clean or saucy as you like. He's even agreed to draw a cartoon !

Contest ends Saturday July 16th.

And is open INTERNATIONALLY

Good luck!

Indie Book Buzz: Quirk Books

Indie Book Buzz is a new feature here at TNBBC. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be inviting members of the indie publishing houses to share which of their Summer and Fall 2011 releases they are most excited about!

This week's picks comes from Eric Smith,

Social Media & Marketing Coordinator at Quirk Books.

Out Now!

BROETRY

Broetry is a hilarious debut from a new author, Brian McGackin, and I’m so SO excited to be working on this title. With poems titled Final Final Fantasy, O Captain! My Captain America!, and When Patrick Stewart Rules the World the book is chock full of references to video games, movies, and television shows I know and love. His poems speak to guys, the everyman… dudes like me. It’s a ton of fun; people are going to love it.

As a special bonus for your readers, here’s one of his broems that you won’t find in the book. A haiku. 

Airport Dating Service

They should sit single
guys next to hot single girls.
Maybe charge extra.

Broetry hits stores July 5th.

Fall 2011

BEDBUGS

Are there bedbugs attacking Susan Wendt in her supposedly perfect brownstone, or are they just a product of her delusional, paranoid mind? Bedbugs is like the lovechild of books like The Amityville Horror and Rosemary’s Baby … just with terrible little bloodsucking bugs thrown into the mix.

Sigh. Okay, The Next Best Book Blog. I’ll be honest with you.

I was a fanboy of the author, Ben Winters, before I even started working at Quirk. When I met him at BEA this year, it took everything in me not to scream like a 14-year-old girl at a Justin Bieber concert. Other folks were psyched to meet the New York Times bestselling author too. We gave away over 100 ARCs of Bedbugs during his signing.

The book comes out September 6th, in time for the Halloween season.

CRAFTING WITH CAT HAIR

When it comes to this title, people either coo and exclaim “aw!” or wince and say “gross!” I’ve really seen no in between reactions. And that’s okay.

Originally released in Japan, Crafting with Cat Hair is exactly what it sounds like. A craft book details ways you can craft with your cat… using your cat. It’s a zany title that we’re really excited about, and we’ve actually had people mailing us their cat hair. So seriously, if you have any extra sitting around, send us a bag.

About Eric

Eric Smith is the Social Media & Marketing Coordinator at Quirk Books. He is hopelessly addicted to good books, bad movies, writing (especially blogging), Nerf guns, and video games. You can find him on Twitter at @ericsmithrocks and @quirkbooks. What else what else… oh! His chinchilla’s name is Mittens.

Ok, who (besides me) thinks that Crafting With Cat Hair is a little..uhm.. awkward? Hahah! I love that Quirk books is Quirk-y enough to publish something like that! I am also very sad to hear that I missed arc's of Bedbugs at BEA11 this year. I am highly anticipating that one!

And how cool of Eric to share a broem with us that doesn't exist anywhere within the pages of the Broety book? You rock, Eric!

So what do you think guys? See anything that catches your eye? Which of these books are you most excited to see release? Help TNBBC and Quirk Books spread the buzz about these books by sharing this post with others!

Review: alt.punk

Read 7/3/11 - 7/4/11

5 Stars -Highly Recommended / The Next Best Book

Pgs: 202

I gotta tell ya, it's nice to have author friends. What's even nicer is having author friends who have similar literary tastes to you. Wanna know what's even nicer than that? Having author friends who have awesome taste in literature (who like what you like) who introduce you to new awesome literature!

I may never have read Lavinia Ludlow's alt.punk if it wasn't for longtime TNBBC buddy Ben Tanzer mentioning the author's name on a post I wrote back in March illustrating the top 10 authors who deserve more recognition. An anonymous account commented on how surprised they were that I named only male authors, and to be honest, until I had created that list, I hadn't noticed just how few female authors I had actually read.

Looking at it, my female to male ratio was really embarrassing. Just to give you an idea - out of 52 books on a random bookshelf, containing books I have already read, only 2 were written by females. (Since my lack of exposure to female authors was brought to my attention, I have made an attempt to level out the reading field - currently, of the last 20 books I have read, 6 of them were written by females.)

And before I take this review and turn it into a blog post where I compare and contrast gender in literature and rationalize my obvious-to-everyone-but-me preference for male authors, let me just say that I didn't chose to review alt.punk solely on the fact that it was penned by a female. It may have been brought to my attention because it was penned by a female, but that is not why I decided to review it.

I decided to review it based on the jacket copy, which described it's protagonist as a "middle-class hypochondriac" who hates "her boyfriend, her family, and her life", and refers to the book as a novel that "explores the ragged edge of art, society, and sanity...". It sounded edgy, angsty, and right up my alley. And I suddenly had to have it.

The novel begins with our germ-and-pubic-hair-hating protagonist delivering a less-than-enthusiastic blowjob to her boyfriend. As she performs the act with eyes squeezed shut so tightly they go numb, wishing she could glue them together to avoid them randomly popping open, she fights the urge to dry heave as she thinks things like "This is where he pees" and "maybe I am gay because it's not natural to hate it this much".

Within the first few pages, Ludlow paints an extremely awkward and uncomfortable picture of what it is like to live life as Hazel - a woman who is tortured by the very thought of unclean, unsanitary, unbleached objects coming into contact with her. She scrubs her walls with disinfectant, pours herself bleach baths, and repeatedly visits her doctor convinced that she's contacted every single illness or virus she's ever heard of.

No wonder sex is such a disgusting concept to her. It's a breeding ground for disease! All that sharing of saliva and bodily fluids... yuck!

As if suffering through all of this wasn't enough, she is also tormented by her family's constant nitpicking over her weight. Tipping the scales at a mere 115 pounds, Hazel is the heaviest female in her family, a fact that she is reminded of almost daily. She refuses to eat in front of them for fear of being called "fat" and binges on cases of diet soda, handfuls of chocolate, and bags of chips within the uncontaminated walls of her apartment.

It doesn't help that her boyfriend Kree is a jobless mooch, leaving her the responsibility of "bringing home the bacon"(another concept she despises since she doesn't eat meat). She hates her job as Manager of Safeway, gets no respect from her subordinates, and secretly wishes she could punch every single customer who complains directly in the throat.

Of course, one can only handle the stress and pressure of living like this for so long. One stray pubic hair floating in the kitchen sink is all it takes to break her. In a suffocating moment of fury, she kicks her boyfriend out of the house and soon finds herself hanging out with the lead singer of a punk rock band.

Desperate for a change, and incredibly drawn to this unclean, slobbering, drug and alcohol addicted frontman, Hazel makes the incredibly difficult decision to leave her extremely controlled life behind and tour with the band across North America.

We watch as Hazel slowly evolves from a severe hypochondriac/germaphobe to a prescription drug addicted groupie who finds herself bathing in gas station bathrooms, wearing the same dirty clothes days in a row, and cleaning up the vomit and blood that nightly find their way out of her lover.

Ludlow reveals the imperfections and ugly truths of life on the road with a punk rock band, while endearing us to this emotionally stilted and sarcastic woman. It's sort of like a "coming of age" story, although that isn't quite the right term, since our leading lady is in her early thirties. So perhaps it's more of a raw and ragged look at a woman suffering from a quarter-life crisis?

Either way, it's edgy, it's full of sex and drugs and rock and roll, and it's impressive as hell for a first novel. It caught my attention from the very first line, and held onto it so tightly that I plowed through the novel in an entire day. I couldn't bear to be away from it - the only times I put the book down were to eat, pee, and feed the animals.

Though I'm not a neat and clean freak, and I've never traveled on the road with a band before, there were so many aspects of this novel that I could relate to. The griminess of the road paralleled my weekend camping trips - the initial shock of having to "go" in the woods, stinking like campfire and dirt, picking bugs off of your clothes and knots out of your hair. The stress of attempting to keep a clean house when you live with someone who can't put their own laundry away, or wipe up the pee they've dribbled all over the toilet seat...I get it. I really do.

Ok, I'm going to end this review before it becomes a book of it's own in need of a review....

Do me a favor, go out there and get yourself a copy of this. It's Catcher in the Rye in it's thirties. It's the female version of Banned for Life. It's everything you want a book written by a female about a female to be. It's the anti-chick-lit of independent literature. And it's waiting be read by you!

Review: Black Hole Blues

Read 6/24/11 - 7/3/11

3 Stars - Recommended to readers familiar with genre and author

Pgs: 203

Ever wonder what happened to Kenny Rogers? I have the answer... he has become the arch-enemy of J. Claude Caruthers - country music's biggest star, the man who is one name away from writing a country song for every woman's name on earth.

As Claude struggles with insomnia and the pressure of finding a word that rhymes with "Zygmut", his estranged astrophysicist twin brother Lloyd attempts to recreate the Big Bang and accidently opens a black hole that slowly reeks havoc on the world.

These events - plus the search for Claude's stolen guitar, his chef's desire to create the world's tastiest club sandwich, and the strange letters Lloyd has been receiving from his missing sister - propel the Caruther brothers to reunite under the most complicated of circumstances.

Black Hole Blues is a great example of literature that does not take itself too seriously. It's fun and revengeful, and even gives it's inanimate objects an opportunity to become part of the narrative:

• Claude's guitar "Rusty" laments over the inhuman treatment his captors inflict upon him, locking him inside his guitar case, while reminiscing about the good and bad times he has experienced in his owners hands.
• Claude's tour bus recounts Claude's multiple bouts of depression.
• An uneaten club sandwich mopes over the fact that Claude left her to rot under his bed, never having taken a single bite out of her, leaving her destiny unfulfilled.
• A happily married proton details his experience of smacking face first into his proton-wife in the Hadron Collider, and his disgust at having turned into a black hole that eats everything that crosses his path.

I first became familiar with Patrick Wensink when I reviewed his short story collection Sex Dungeon For Sale a little more than a year ago. I loved the unique way in which he viewed the world and thought his pacing within each story was perfect. If you are new to Patrick or the sub-genre of bizarro fiction, I would recommend starting there because I think it better demonstrates his flexibility as a writer.

You don't have to be a fan of country music or pseudo-science fiction to pick up what Patrick Wensink is attempting to lay down here. Black Hole Blues is an entertaining, multi-layered novel that keeps it's readers on their toes from the very start. Wensink cleverly handles the daunting task of meshing numerous side stories together in a satisfying finale full of tricks and twists and contains all the right ingredients to make a killer television dramedy .

**Oh no! I almost forgot:

Patrick submitted his book to Kenny Rogers' publicist in the hopes that The Gambler himself would write a blurb endorsing the book. Kenny's management team gave him the runaround, and to get even, Patrick created Death to Kenny Rogers - a website dedicated to ruining Kenny's career. Fancy a peek? Click here to see what all the fuss and hurt feelings are about!

Book Giveaway: Skinny

TNBBC has a great new novel up for grabs!

Diana Spechler's new novel Skinny

will be featured in August for our Author/Reader Discussion.

In order to stimulate discussion,

we are very excited to be able to offer 10 copies internationally!

Here is the book description as it appears on Goodreads:

After her father’s death, twenty-six-year-old Gray Lachmann finds herself compulsively eating. Desperate to stop bingeing, she abandons her life in New York City for a job at a southern weight-loss camp. There, caught among the warring egos of her devious co-counselor, Sheena; the self-aggrandizing camp director, Lewis; his attractive assistant, Bennett; and a throng of combative teenage campers, she is confronted by a captivating mystery: her teenage half-sister, Eden, whom Gray never knew existed. Now, while unraveling her father’s lies, Gray must tackle her own self-deceptions and take control of her body and her life.

Visceral, poignant, and often wickedly funny, Skinny illuminates a young woman’s struggle to make sense of the link between hunger and emotion, and to make peace with her demons, her body, and herself.

The contest will run through July 7th.

Here's how to enter:

1 - Simply comment here stating which copy of the book you would like to receive. If you have a funny or strange dieting or workout story, I encourage you to share it!

2 - Tell us if you are a resident of the US or if you are international (Canada is considered international for this giveaway), and leave me a way to contact you.

*If your comment is missing any of this information, it will be considered ineligible.

3- Agree to participate in a group read book discussion that will run during the month of August over at TNBBC on Goodreads. Diane Spechler has agreed to participate in the discussion and will be available to answer any questions you may have for her.

*If you're comment is chosen as a winner, by accepting the copy you are agreeing to read the book and join the group discussion at TNBBC on Goodreads (the thread for the discussion will be emailed to you at the first of the month).

Winners are chosen randomly

and will be announced here and via email

on July 8th.

Good luck!

Tell Me A Story - Michael Kimball

Welcome to another installment of TNBBC's Tell Me a Story!

Tell Me a Story is a monthly series that will feature previously unpublished short stories from debut and Indie authors. The request was simple: Stories can be any format, any genre, and any length. And many amazing writers signed up for the challenge.

This month's story comes from the hands of Michael Kimball. His most recent novel, Us, was given TNBBC's "next best book" status when it first released in the states back in May. Michael is the creator and co-host of the 5ive:ten Readings in Baltimore, and is a super sweet human being to boot. The story you are about to read is part of a new novel that Michael is working on, and I am humbled that he chose to share it with us today:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I Wanted to Go With Her

It was my sophomore year of high school before I received a telephone call from a girl. Her name was Ellen Bonner and she sat across from me in our beginning typing class. I used to tease her about anything that I could think of—the way she styled her hair, the shape of her nose, the width of the stripes on her corduroys, the flowers on her blouse, the way that she spelled her last name, which was almost funny. Of course, I only did this to Ellen Bonner because I really liked her.

I don’t know exactly why Ellen liked me at first. I was even skinnier than most teenage boys and I had a haircut that hadn’t been popular for years. But I was really fast at typing and there weren’t many other boys in the typing class. Also, I had just turned sixteen years old and had just gotten my driver’s license on my birthday. Being able to drive changed me and, even though we were just teenagers, I feel as if Ellen Bonner thought that I might be able to take her somewhere. Wherever it was, I wanted to go with her.

Whatever it was that Ellen Bonner liked about me, it was enough for her to ask me out, which made it easy for me. She knew that I wasn’t going to say no. The whole rest of the week, all that I could think about was Ellen Bonner naked. The picture of that in my head made my whole body vibrate.

That Friday, I almost stood up Ellen Bonner because I was afraid to ask my dad if I could use his car. I didn’t know what he would make me do to get the keys. My request seemed to surprise him and he just gave me the car keys. I still don’t know if he was surprised because I had a date with a girl or because that meant that I probably wasn’t gay.

I don’t remember what restaurant we went to or what movie we saw or what we said to each other when we were driving in the car. All that I really remember is sitting with Ellen Bonner in the dark of the movie theater and the warmth of our touching arms on the armrest between us.

The next Monday, Ellen Bonner and I met each other at our lockers and we walked to our classes together. All of our classmates in the hallways looked at us between classes and the way that they looked at us together changed who we were. We became so much older in just a few days.

After a few weeks, Ellen Bonner and I started talking on the telephone nearly every night. We had long telephone conversations almost every night of the week. We talked about classes and other people at school. We talked about why we liked each other and if we were going to have sex. I don’t remember what my argument for having sex was, but her reasons for not having sex were fear and God. That seemed as if it mattered so much then. The best part about talking with Ellen Bonner was how great it felt to be somebody else’s favorite person.

My ear usually hurt after my long telephone calls with Ellen Bonner. After I made it upstairs to my bedroom, I would lie on my back in my bed and touch my telephone ear with my hand. I could still feel the telephone there and I could still hear her voice in my ear.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I want to thank Michael for participating in TNBBC's Tell Me a Story. If you like what you've read, please support Michael by checking out his website and books. Help spread the word by sharing this post through your blog, tumblr page, twitter and facebook accounts. Every link counts! And be sure to check back with us next month for the next installment....

Indie Book Buzz: Two Dollar Radio

Indie Book Buzz is a new feature here at TNBBC. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be inviting members of the indie publishing houses to share which of their Summer and Fall 2011 releases they are most excited about!

This week's picks come from Eric Obenauf, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Two Dollar Radio.

Summer 2011

SEVEN DAYS IN RIO

Releases August

This is the second novel we’re publishing by Francis Levy. His debut, Erotomania: A Romance, received pretty much my favorite reviews of any book we’ve published. I mean, it’s tough to compete with the subtitle that appeared with the Village Voice review, asking readers ‘Are golden showers the blowjobs of tomorrow?’ Erotomania earned Francis comparisons to Henry Miller, Jean Genet, Mary Gaitskill, and Nicholson Baker, and was placed amongst a couple year-end best-of lists. I think of his writing as Nicholson Baker catwalking on speed; it’s high octane.

Seven Days in Rio is about a Manhattanite, CPA, and sex tourist named Kenny Cantor, who becomes waylaid in an absurdist skewering of Rio de Janeiro, at a psychoanalytic conference. It’s hilarious, and features some real gems:

"Our parting had felt a little like the last scene of Casablanca. There was no plane waiting to take her away from me, there was no heroic resistance leader standing between us, no war, and I wasn’t a hardened American expatriate named Rick. Yet I felt I could hear the strains of “As Time Goes By” playing on the piano in some beat-up North African café."

Fall 2011

DAMASCUS

Releases October

Joshua Mohr has done nothing but impress me since I read the manuscript for his first novel, Some Things That Meant the World to Me, a couple years ago. With a first novel by a young writer, the work can be really brilliant, but you realize it’s a first novel and can’t help but daydream about the potential for what will follow. Damascus is Josh taking his writing to the next level. I’m just thankful that we got to be a part of that process.

Damascus takes place in the volatile year of 2003 – remember when the country was split rabidly for or against Iraq? It tracks a motley cast of characters who orbit a dive bar, seeking their own quiet redemption, as the bar agrees to host its first (and last) art show. Josh’s strength lies in crafting singular and beautiful characters with incredible economy. I love how this book opens:

"Let’s start this one when a cancer patient named No Eyebrows creeps into Damascus, a Mission District dive bar. For years the place’s floor, walls, and ceiling had been painted entirely black, but that afternoon the owner added a new element, smashing twenty mirrors and gluing the shards to the ceiling so the pieces shimmered like stars, transforming Damascus into a planetarium for drunkards: dejected men and women stargazing from barstools.
When the first customer of the day walked in and witnessed the bar’s broken-mirror constellations, he said to the owner, “There must be 10,000 years of bad luck hanging here.”
“That would certainly explain a few things,” Owen said, who had a heinous birthmark underneath his nose that looked like a Hitler moustache."

About Eric:

Eric Obenauf is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Two Dollar Radio, an outfit he founded with his wife and brother. His writing has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, The Rumpus, Modern Fix, and The Huffington Post. He lives in central Ohio with his wife and two kids, enjoying the occasional competitive game of basketball.

First, can I just say that Joshua Mohr's was my absolute MUST HAVE galley from BEA 2011?! So psyched to see that it made Eric's buzz-worthy list!

So what do you think guys? See anything that catches your eye? Which of these books are you most excited to see release? Help TNBBC and Two Dollar Radio spread the buzz about these books by sharing this post with others!

An Indie Book Event Video Preview.. Starring ME

Holy shit you guys! I grew a set of lady balls the other day and filmed myself giving you all a sneak peek preview of what I'll be talking about at The Indie Book Event on July 30th.

Come and support me so I don't feel like a big ole ugly loser, ok? OK?!

*I owe Michael Davidson an apology. I don't know why I said "Open TOE Press" because in my head I heard myself saying "Tiny TOE Press" but there you have it, video don't lie!

** and how about that god-awful freeze frame of my face! I could crawl under the covers in embarrassment and never ever come back out!

Me. Indie Book Event Flyer. Awesomeness.

Indie Book Event.

July 30th. NYC. Panelist. Me. Can you dig it? Be there!

I will be discussing two panel topics:

The difference between "Indie" and "Self-Published"

and why they need our support.

&

How to reach out to authors/publishers

and build and maintain those relationships.

Wave your Indie flag proudly!!

Review: And Yet They Were Happy

Read 6/7/11 - 6/23/11

3 Stars - Recommended to readers familiar with genre

Pgs: 305

And Yet They Were Happy joined the list of author/reader discussion novels this month on TNBBC and was welcomed with words of praise and excitement.

This collection of short stories stands out among the rest of it's kind because each of the stories contained between it's covers are exactly two pages long: Two-paged stories that detail the lives of a young recently married couple who manage to make their home among the chaos of disasters, floods, and monsters.

The intentional symmetry of the stories forced author Helen Philips to choose her words carefully. (Word economy, I have to believe, is not something a writer usually concerns themselves with.) Pulling from personal experience, existing fables and legends, and even her own dreams, Phillips creatively constructs a world unlike any I have ever known.

Some of her stories have a hazy, murky, magically dreamlike quality to them. I likened them to "a fever dream" - dreams that are at once terrifying and surreal and make sense as you're dreaming them, but quickly evaporate into inexplicable, confusing, disjointed stories as you attempt to describe them upon waking. These stories always left me frustrated. The more I tried to make sense of them, the more I felt the meaning slip away.

Others softly simmered over religious undertones. Stories like "Flood #2" which finds Noah old and defeated at a bar as he explains to the bartender that "the rain just kept coming..It became difficult to gather them two by two". And "Flood #3" where Noah would awaken from nightmares of a great flood which prompted him to construct an Ark he never had to use. These stories were my favorite. I really enjoyed her visions of Adam and Eve, Noah and his Ark, and the peacefulness that lived within those tales.

The stories are broken up into chapters that serve as a sort of explanation or description of the stories you will find there. The chapter titled "We" contains a cute story of the young couple as they make intricate plans on where to meet up should they become separated out in the world. In the "Wife" chapters, we learn of a couple who must store their pet birds in their freezer as they begin to die off. "Regime" contains a story where the town decreed that hanging out laundry to dry is no longer allowed. Yet an old woman who lives near our married couple continues to hang hers out, and while the sirens ring down the street, everyone admires her clothesline, looking for clues.

The overall construction of the collection is impressive. Phillips mentioned in our discussion that the NYC publishers declined picking up the collection due to it's inability to be categorized - it fails to fit neatly into a genre. Though that was not an issue for Leapfrog Press, an indie publisher who continues to release top quality fiction. They have quite an eye for storytelling and the chances they take always seem to pay off!

This book will not work for everyone. Fans of Blake Butler will appreciate Helen Phillips's creative spin on storytelling. These are stories that, though they are incredibly short, force the reader to think about what it is they are reading. This book does not promise a happy ending - or any sort of ending, really. It can be read cover to cover, story to story or you can skip around and "dip" into different sections. In fact, Helen mentioned in the discussion that one of her readers tackled the collection by reading all the short stories that were numbered #1 first, then #2 second....

If you are ready to experience short stories in a format unlike any other, I encourage you to seek out And Yet They Were Happy.

Enjoy the book trailer while you think about it:

Of Things Bookish

Twitter is great source of bookish news for me. Look what I stumbled across today in my Twitter Stream:

FlipBack Books - The Next Little Thing

Hodder & Stoughton have created hardback travel-sized novels that are barely bigger than your smartphone. Opening top to bottom instead of left to right, the words are printed landscape to give you a larger reading surface. Mixed reviews on this one. I'm seeing the draw, but still sticking with my full sized novels, thanks! What do you think?

Handmade Book Light - The New Night Light

Grathios Lab has posted a how-to on building your own book light out of an old hardcover novel. I really dig this, a lot. If I was handy, I would totally construct one for myself. But I'm not, so I can't, but I'm totally willing to accept one should someone wish to built it for me!

Indie Book Buzz: Atticus Books

Indie Book Buzz is a new feature here at TNBBC. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be inviting members of the indie publishing houses to share which of their Summer and Fall 2011 releases they are most excited about!

This weeks picks come from Libby, Assistant Editor at Atticus Books.

Summer 2011

The Great Lenore by JM Tohline

(June 15)

When “everyone-who-meets-me-falls-in-love-with-me” Lenore is mistakenly pronounced dead, she’s given the chance to discover how her cheating husband and his absurdly wealthy, preppy and dysfunctional family will react-and to decide whether her far less than perfect marriage was a mistake worth taking back. Beautiful and elegant in a pull-at-your-heartstrings kind of way, The Great Lenore makes you glad, for once, that you’re not in a villa on Nantucket—but is my first pick for a day on the beach.

The Snow Whale by John Minichillo '

(July 30)

A brilliant, ironic and totally unique take on the more famous but less fun to read (in one editor’s estimation) Moby Dick. A DNA test reveals that desk doodle salesman and suburban white guy John Jacobs is part-Inuit, sparking his determination to forsake his wife and white picket fence to join “his people” in Alaska in their sacred whale hunt—aside from telling a page-turning story, Minichillo raises some intriguing questions about American homogeneity and our obsession with race.

About Libby:

Libby Kuzma is Assistant Editor at Atticus Books (atticusbooksonline.com) and the Managing Editor of their weekly online journal, Atticus Review (atticusreview.org). When it comes to books, her favorites usually end up being somewhere in the classic literature canon, with Dickens as her favorite author of all time but To the Lighthouse (Woolf) as her current number one.

So what do you think guys? See anything that catches your eye? Aren't those covers to die for? Which of these books are you most excited to see release? Help TNBBC and Atticus Books spread the buzz about these books by sharing this post with others!

Ode to Keanu....

I had a moment of weakness. I should hang my head in shame. I should be ashamed of myself, but I am not. I cannot feel ashamed while my insides are squealing like a tween girl at a NKOTB concert. (yes, I just dated myself. No, I never liked NKOTB. You just totally googled what NKOTB stood for, didn't you?)

I just caved in to a crazy bookish urge. I buckled under the pressure of an oh-god-I'm-going-to-hate-myself-in-the-morning-for-this impulse buy.

In 3-5 weeks,

I will be the proud owner of Keanu Reeves' book of poems -

Ode to Happiness.

That's right. I said it.

Now admit it. You're totally jealous, aren't you?

This 40-page book of poetry sells for $55 smackers (yep, you read that right. At $55 smackers, you are buying the book for more than a buck a page), and contains paintings (not painted by Keanu) and words (written by Keanu) that were supposedly written as a way of pseudo-speaking out against the whole "Sad Keanu" internet craze that went around many moons ago.

My impulse buy was spearheaded by the ever-wonderful Andrew Shaffer, who, upon seeing me freak out on Twitter when I learned of this book (oooohhh, 15 minutes ago), sent me the link to Amazon.com where they were selling it for 36.54 with FREE shipping! HELLLLO! I jumped on that shit like a shark on a bucket of chum.

The purchase was also fueled by my sick and twisted love affair with Keanu. The dude is fucking hot, and has mastered the art of agelessness. Despite his very robotic approach to acting, I find him immensely fascinating to watch and listen to. And now, I will have the pleasure of reading the words his hand has penned. *swoons*.

Someone pick me up off the floor. No, wait, leave me here for a moment while I luxuriate in my purchase-high. And lose myself in this totally fitting, old school love song.. starring.. oh yes.. Keanu!!