It’s Lionel Shriver Day! To celebrate the release of Lionel’s newest novel, So Much for That, I and several other bloggers (including Nicole from Linus’s Blanket, who co-hosted this challenge) read books from her backlist.
I’ve read nearly all of Lionel’s books (including the classic We Need to Talk About Kevin), but I had never read my backlist choice: Checker and the Derailleurs. It’s the story of a charismatic, seemingly happy-go-lucky, nineteen-year-old drummer named Checker Secretti, and his band, The Derailleurs, who orbit around him in varying stages of idolization, lust, and disgust. There’s a ton of stuff packed into this novel: a green card marriage, two suicide attempts, glassmaking, parties, arrests, and a lot of music, but it never felt overdone. One of my favorite things about Lionel’s writing is the way she writes about unlikable and despicable people, and it’s easy to see the beginnings of that great talent in this early novel.
Now for the fun part! Anyone talking about Lionel Shriver today—whether in the comments here on this post, on twitter, or on their own blogs—will have a chance to win a copy of So Much for That! If you blog or twitter (with the hashtag #lionelshriver), leave a comment here with a link. I’ll randomly pick five winners (not including me! I’m also very psyched for So Much for That.) So get to it—what do you love about Lionel’s writing? What book is your favorite?
Welcome to a new weekly feature where we’ll be sharing tour information for our authors. Check out this week’s events below, and be sure to come back and let us know if you attend any! Bonus points for taking pictures.
Tuesday, March 9
Kirk Farber will be promoting Postcards from a Dead Girl NEXTCHAPTERBOOKSHOP
10976 N. Port Washington Road Mequon, WI 53092
Lionel Shriver will be promoting So Much for That BARNES & NOBLE #2906/Upper East Side
160 E 54th St New York, NY 10022
Weds, March 10
Kirk Farber will be promoting Postcards from a Dead Girl BOSWELLBOOKCOMPANY
2559 N Downer Ave Milwaukee, WI 53211
Thurs, March 11
Justin Taylor will be promoting Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever OBLONGBOOKS & MUSIC
Ste 6 6422 Montgomery St Rhinebeck, NY 12572
Saturday, March 13
Kirk Farber will be promoting Postcards from a Dead Girl BOOKS & CO
1039 Summit AVE Oconomowoc, WI 53066
Just wanted to remind everyone that Wednesday is Lionel Shriver Day (it was originally supposed to be tomorrow, but, alas, sales conference will keep me away from the computer.) Come back to talk about all of Lionel’s books and for a chance to win her new one, So Much for That!
Lambda Literary just launched a great new site for all your LGBT reading needs. Aside from being authoritative and well-organized, it also just looks really nice (I love the pink/green/lue/gray color scheme.) Go there!
Hello and welcome to the second edition of English 101: The Harper Perennial Classics Book Club! Today’s book is Brave New World.
(The first cover is our deluxe modern classics edition, and that jpg doesn’t do it justice. The second is the regular modern classics edition.)
Confession #1: I have never read Brave New World
Confession #2: I was not psyched to read it when Kayleigh suggested we put it on the list.
Confession #3: I was excited when I realized our new deluxe modern classics edition contained both Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited, because it meant that I had much less to read than I thought.
So, with all that buildup, and after nearly falling asleep during the first chapter, I am pleased to report that I did not dislike Brave New World. A ringing endorsement, I know. But allegory is generally not my thing, and so I was relieved to grow attached to Lenina, Bernard, and John (the savage) while reading. I need that. All in all, though, it didn’t grip me, and I wonder if I would have felt differently if I had read it when I was in high school, at a time when there weren’t forty-seven other books clamoring for my attention.
I’d love to hear from people who are huge fans of Brave New World. What do you like about it? Is it similar or different from what you normally read? When did you first read it, and do you think that mattered?
Check out Kayleigh’s review (which will probably be more positive) on Monday on Roaring 20s! And remember, anyone who comments here OR twitters using #english101 will have a chance to win a copy of The Poisonwood Bible, next month’s book (which I am very much looking forward to, seeing as how I have never read any Barbara Kingsolver)! Do both and they’ll count separately. And if you blog about Brave in the next few days, please leave a comment with a link for more chances to win!
Charlie once belonged to the parents of our beloved B&N sales rep, Carla. He was their shop kitty, but then they closed their shop and went traveling and Charlie went to live in Texas with a friend. All was well!
But then they discovered that Charlie was FIV+, and could not live with the friend’s other cat. And he can’t live with Carla, because her cat, Toonces, has issues. So now he once again needs a home!
Other stuff about Charlie: he is three years old, he has no other health issues, and he is, in the words of Carla, “seriously the best cat I have ever had ever.”
Won’t you help out a sweet kitty?
(if you’re in NYC or the surrounding area and want to help Charlie, just comment here and we’ll get in touch.)
As you may know, today the movie version of Dennis Lehane’s Shutter Island opens in theaters nationwide. Dennis’s publicist here at Harper, Brianne Halverson, was lucky enough to attend the premiere, and I asked her to report back to all of us peons. Here’s what she had to say about the excitement, the stars, and everyone’s favorite celebrity boyfriend, Mark Ruffalo:
What do you do when you’re sitting 4 feet away from Dennis Lehane and his novel-turned-movie is being introduced by Martin Scorsese? The answer is gawk.
This week I was lucky enough to attend my first movie premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York. Not only was I attending a screening of a film by a legendary director, filled with an all-star casting (including Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson), but more importantly I was there as a guest of the books-to-films writer, Dennis Lehane (Mystic River; Gone Baby Gone). To say that I’m a fan of Dennis’ work is an understatement so I was properly geeked out on his behalf.
I’ll leave the meaningful reviews to the film critics and move onto to my rabid gawking. I won’t lie, I was lucky to see a lot of blingy celebrity but here were my personal favorites:
Alec Baldwin – tall, bloated (in a normal, “I’m in my 50’s” sort of way), congenial.
Michelle Williams – Saw her at the after party. Red lips, angelic face, wearing the highest of heels. She delivered old school Hollywood glamour.
Anthony Edwards – I had to resist the urge to say “Talk to me, Goose” but I’ll tell you…the man was wearing a plaid coat. He looked like he should be doing standup in the Catskills. Loved it.
Martin Scorsese – The voice, the glasses, the eyebrows…it was almost as if Marty was a caricature of himself. Classic.
John Kapelos – Aka the janitor from the Breakfast Club and the fiancé from 16 Candles. He was adorable in person and fantastic in the film. Lots of enthusiastic handshakes from that guy.
Leonardo DiCaprio – I’d like to say that we had eye contact or, even better, we spoke—but alas, other than him waving to the crowd when Martin Scorsese gave him a shout out, Leonardo was an elusive figure.
And last but not least…Mark Ruffalo. Sigh. Keep in mind, despite never having met the man, I choose my dress for the night and entire makeup color palette around what I thought Mark would like best. From the moment I entered the theater all senses were tuned into spotting Mark and making him become my friend. It turns out that my senses were remedial and it wasn’t until after I left the theater that I was told that Mark was sitting DIRECTLYBEHIND ME the entire time. The evening was saved during the after party when Mark was on full display to my hungry eyes.
All in all, I drank multiple free margaritas, ate eco-friendly food, saw an incredible film and spent time with an amazing author. Not a shabby night in New York.
If you’ve been living under a rock (or if you’re not a regular reader of this blog), you might not know that we just published a debut short story collection called Everything Here is the Best Thing Ever.
Earlier today, Harper Perennial editor Stephanie Meyers (nope, not Stephenie Meyer) was in my office to discuss a book we’re publishing this fall called The Atheists’ Guide to Christmas. In the course of this conversation, she mentioned the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster:
Tomorrow night at Crawford Doyle Booksellers, join friend of Harper Perennial editor MS Yupin Wang as he celebrates the publication of his memoir, Manchurian American.
From Yupin:
Manchurian American is the personal tale of Yupin Wang, who was born in Northeast China (Manchuria) in the 1930s. He is a witness to the Japanese invasion of China and brutal civil wars, an escapee to Taiwan, and an accidental American who came to the United States in the 1950s and made it. This is a poignant story of the human spirit triumphing over obstacles of nationality, race, and time. Manchurian American is about love, family, friendship, and gratitude for an adopted country. Wang’s personal crusade in a new, bewildering land is as relevant today for him as it is for all Americans who live in a land of immigrants. From his first jobs on the boardwalk in Long Beach, Long Island, to his position as an executive with IBM, Yupin Wang brings wonder, frustration, and success to the story of his journey to become the Manchurian American. This story will appeal to a wide audience: Americans with immigrant roots, Americans who experienced war firsthand, baby boomers, and a younger generation seeking an explanation of the past. Both men and women will find it touching and engaging. Asians and new immigrants to America will find it inspiring.
In 2003, Dwayne Raymond met legendary writer Norman Mailer over a basket of bananas in the supermarket. For both men, it was “one of those fateful nights when you go to the grocery store and your life changes.” In Mornings with Mailer, Dwayne details the following years spent as Mailer’s personal assistant, confidante, and friend. Dwayne joins us here on the olive reader today to talk about an aspect of their relationship that may not immediately come to mind when one thinks of Norman Mailer: food.
My work with Norman Mailer revolved primarily around two things: books and food. While I came aboard principally to assist him with research for his novel The Castle in the Forest, he soon began to appreciate my love of cooking and was delighted that I was fairly adept at it. Norman understood that there was an essential connection where writing, food and art were concerned and that led to him laying out for me curious ideas about preparation. Consider the grapefruit.
There was a long period of time when he favored having only a grapefruit for lunch. It had to be white grapefruit, however, never pink. He preferred it cut a certain way; halved, scored around the sides to separate the flesh from the skin then sliced into at least 9 precise “V” sections. The slices would float freely in a pool of juice in the “skin cup” so at the end one was rewarded with a satisfying drink. I am amused when I think about this because so many academics have preached to no end about the intellectualism of Norman Mailer and his notions on God and man, boxing and Marilyn, the politics of America and the world and other lofty matters. But what they probably didn’t know was that he considered the cutting of grapefruit, or a particular way of cooking fish, beef, mushrooms, soup and broccoli with as much vigor as he approached concepts of Man’s place in the universe. Few know he deliberated, while lying in bed chasing an increasingly elusive capacity to sleep, how to intermingle flavors. Habitually he would tell me he had mused about blends of tastes, puzzles consisting of seasonings, in dark hours of the morning and forced himself to remember to tell me in the light of the next day. He knew I appreciated culinary combinations as much as I enjoyed the research and transcription work so when he had nocturnally invented something he was certain it would interest me also. Usually it did. Norman inspired me to approach his peculiar recipes the way one might a book-related project: Is the foundation of the idea sound? Is the choice of particular materials reasonable? Will there be suitable integrity to the finished product? Those questions lingered always when mulling the execution of one of his creations. Where nourishment was concerned, he hypothesized endless possibilities and posed incomparable questions.
Norman and I shared many heavy conversations about writing, of course, but we also had countless discussions about food. Once he asked about using one of his favorite desserts, Haagen Dazs Raspberry Sorbet, as a base for salad dressing. I told him we could simply buy some raspberry vinaigrette as it was marketed widely. No, he said, he was not a fan of “corporate raspberry flavor,” but he did have a fondness for the essence one found in that particular sorbet. If only we could capture it! So, I spent an hour or two attempting to master a blend of oil, sorbet, balsamic and God knows what else. It was not a successful venture. In the end, I bought some Newman’s Own raspberry vinaigrette, thinned it with water and mixed it with a heaping tablespoon of sorbet in a blender. A bit later I made a salad for each of us. After a few bites he pronounced the experiment’s outcome as being sub-adequate because although it was not entirely bad, he was aware that one ingredient had come from a plastic bottle. Plastic, he maintained, adversely affected everything it touched. It didn’t occur to him that the whole concept was dreadful; that wasn’t the way his mind worked. Norman believed that anything awful could be fixed if enough work was put into it.
In the last year of his time in Provincetown, his food-lust was mainly satisfied by the simple, raw Wellfleet Oyster. A few friends who dined with him during that last year knew about this near-obsession because he would drag them to his favorite restaurant to enjoy the oysters with him. But what in all likelihood they didn’t know was that it was more than just the pleasure of the taste and the ease of ingesting the oysters. There was an importance attached to them for Norman that went way beyond the act of consumption. He brought the shells home with him always, intending to literally draw on them later; to illuminate the shadowed faces concealed upon their rough outer shells. He saw mysterious portraits etched by tidal waters on them; images of aged, droll characters that were not altogether different from his own doodle-drawings that he’d published in his book of poems, Modest Gifts. He saw it perhaps as a challenge to enlighten, for anyone who cared, what he interpreted as jagged brilliance hidden in the lowly, overlooked oyster shell.
Now these years later after his passing, I find myself mulling the same quirky thoughts in uneasy sleep when pondering a new piece of writing or a meal as Norman did. I don’t know whether to hail him or curse him but I do know I tend to wake up in a much better mood, stoked with ideas and typically looking forward to my day’s work—and to dinner.
You may know Neal Pollack as a humor writer and the author of Never Mind the Pollacks, The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature, and Alternadad. But what you may not know about Neal is that he’s branched out . . . into yoga. We’re publishing his newest book, Stretch, a farts-and-all look at the discipline, this summer.
Neal has decided that it’s high time he gains some actual yoga expertise. But to become a yoga teacher, one must endure yoga teacher training. And to endure yoga teacher training, one must pay. And since, contrary to popular belief, semi-well-known humor writers aren’t exactly rolling in money, Neal needs some help:
But Neal won’t just take your money and run. He’s offering plenty in return, even beyond the joy of helping him achieve the perfect chair pose.
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