The Olive Reader

I can think of some people who work here at Harper Perennial who might be excited by this . . .

“The flip-top cigarette pack is one of the most successful pieces of packaging design in history. TankBooks pay homage to this iconic form by employing it in the service of great literature. We have launched a series of books designed to mimic cigarette packs – the same size, packaged in flip-top cartons with silver foil wrapping and sealed in cellophane.”

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of Harper Perennial Pets, featuring Willy!

Willy is the companion of Valerie Laken, author of Dream House. Here’s what she had to say about him:

This is Willy, who takes this position next to my desk every afternoon around 3:30. For a while he sits quietly, then he starts to shuffle, then he makes back-of-the-throat, space-alien sounds to impress upon me that I really need to stop what I’m doing and take a walk. Usually he’s right.

For a while in his youth he was an unofficial mascot of the University of Michigan’s MFA program, and he still misses those folks.

For more from Valerie, check out her guest post on Book Club Girl, where she talks about a childhood spent reading in secret (something she and I share!), and where you can win a copy of Dream House!

Plus, Valerie’s on tour this month with TLC Book Tours—check out her tour stops here, and read the review from her first stop at Stephanie’s Written Word.