The Olive Reader

Just got word from an attendee and here’s what he had to say:

Fiction winner – Brief Encounters with Che Guevera by Ben Fountain

Non fiction winner – The Last Season by Eric Blehm

Congrats to both authors!

The levy’s gonna break tomorrow with the announcement of the B&N Discover Awards, which go to “the best forthcoming new work by debuting and underappreciated writers.” Not to congratulate ourselves (we do that with enthusiasm in private) but one might notice that Harper has four out of six finalist spots. All three in non-fiction. Still we’re making a big karma push for Brief Enounters with Che Guevera by Ben Fountain in the fiction category.

Stay tuned for either triumph or defeat.

Congrats to Edward P. Jones! His recent story collection All Aunt Hagar’s Children has been named a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. You can hear his story “Tapestry” at our Digital Media Cafe.

Philip Roth won for Everyman.

FYI, readers. In addition to my giddy, free associations, two new contributors are gearing up for a big debut on the Olive Reader. Josh Marwell, our President of Sales, and Virginia Stanley, our Director of Academic and Library Marketing, will breach the blogosphere. More details to come.

As always, the KGB Sunday Night Fiction Reading Series has some serious quality lined up. If you don’t go for the shadowy corners and good scotch, then go for Francisco Goldman and Daniel Alarcon (accent on the ‘o’).

And, just a note, Daniel’s latest, Lost City Radio, is available in hardcover.

I remember mine: A few years back, my friends and I went spelunking and were trapped in a cave in. These blind, flesh-eating humanoids showed up and wanted to party, but we didn’t have any booze and we were running out of oxygen. In a fit of youthful disregard, we threw caution to the wind, or stagnant dead air in our case, and raged until a sink hole depressed and we were able to escape. The streaming freedom of daylight really defined that summer for me.

Not sure what happened to those zombie people. They haven’t call in awhile.

More to the point, visit www.myspace.com/bestsummerofyourlife or write summerattiffany@harpercollins.com to contribute the story of your best summer. And prepare for the release of Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart, coming this April.

…are inside you. You might not want to hear that after a carefree, three-day weekend, but, hey man, that’s life. According to some equations of questionable cogency, 20 billion of Shakespeare’s atoms enter the average human each day. No wonder I have no appetite. Ha ha.

I bet you’re all riding high into the weekend, some more than others, but can you “top that”?

As usual, when I need a book to recommend I turn to the president. First it was Camus, now this time, another tome of cultural breadth, Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths by Bruce Feiler (that’s us). The president elaborated Monday in an interview aired on C-SPAN:

“Well, I just finished a book called Abraham by a guy named Feiler. And it’s a really interesting book that studies the prophet Abraham from the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim perspective. And the lesson is, is that if you — you can look at Abraham as a unifying factor. In other words, all three of our — all three of those religions started from the same source, which means it’s possible to reconcile differences. And I was impressed by his writing. I really enjoyed the amount of study he did on the subject. And I appreciated his lessons that sometimes as each religion appropriated Abraham to suit their own needs, but, ultimately, we could view Abraham as a way to find a common God.”

(via Shelf Awareness)

This City Reads is “a community alliance of organizations to champion and leverage the power of reading to promote the future success of families, individuals and businesses in the Greater Akron/Summit County.” This February 14th will be their 4th Annual “Day of Reading.” You can sign up and pledge to report your participation. The Learned Owl bookstore will offer “free pancakes and muffins to those who stop in and read for a half hour.”

The deadline was noon today (sorry) but the entries are worth a look. I’m not sure which is my favorite (they’re all so cute!). And even though the contest is practically over, I can’t wait to run home and reenact favorite movie scenes with my little fruit and cookie people. “Your woman still lives, Outlander!” – The Challenge.

This month’s Boldtype leads with a review of Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name:

What better way to explore your identity than by throwing yourself outside of it? What better way to test the warmth and meaning of home than by checking into a hotel made entirely of snow and ice?

Of course, there’s more than that. They review books from a broad swath of genres and feature an interview with Alain De Botton.

We’ve launched the Official Zora Neale Hurston Website! Be sure to visit and tell us what you think.

Tonight, Monday Feb 5th, Vendela Vida reads from her novel, Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name, at the B&N in Chelsea. The reading starts at 7 PM.

“Vida’s second novel couldn’t be released at a better time: It’s a quick read with surprising warmth and weight, perfect for a cold January weekend indoors…What may linger most vividly with readers is the gelid beauty of the Lapland setting, evoked nicely in Vida’s clean and simple prose…Vida’s descriptions quietly conjure …magic.” – Time Out Chicago

“Vida’s laconic wit and uncompromising character sketches set her book apart from her generation’s tired quest-for-self genre.” – New York Magazine

“Vendela Vida’s reputation continues to grow steadily, seeded by her affecting debut novel…and furthered by her firm hand on the tiller of the Believer…With sharp prose, Vida pursues her abiding interest in the legacies of loss and violence.” – Flavorpill

I’d never heard of The Mighty Boosh, a British comedy show, so I’m glad that Maud Newton posted about it. The episode she highlights is relevant because the opening sketch (after the monologue) is about writers. And though I could have never predicted writing this sentence up until the very moment I needed to: It’s hilarious when the chewing-gum vacuum starts sucking up the Inuit kids.

Curious now? Go check it out.