Where Authors and Books are the Celebs

Black Cat, 2008
As of late I find that I am reading more and more books about the struggle of women in the world. In The Dancer From Khiva (Black Cat, 2008), the reader enters the world of a young Muslim woman who, after a violent attack, leaves her small town for the larger world outside. Written by Bibish, the tale is told in journal form with no censorship; rather, each detail of this woman's difficult (and at time heartbreaking) life are told in unflinching detail and brutal honesty. Poor, yet filled with a sense of hope, Bibish is met with constant trials - many of which are initiated by the men in her life. Ultimately she is ostracized by the family to whom she returns and must make her way in the world on her own.

The seeming simple language belies a strong story of pain, persecution and persistence. Bibish represents the many women who are fighting against the culture in which they were born; the culture from which they can not break free. Winner of the National Bestseller and Book of the Year prizes in Russia, this is a book that all Americans should read - a book that will teach compassion, strength and the undying importance of a belief in one's self.

Avon 2008

As a young girl growing up in Long Island, I spent hours locked behind my bedroom door sharing secrets with my best friend. As I grew and moved away, the friendship that was once so important grew to be nothing more than a memory; the secrets shared no more than whispers among girls. In her second novel, The Safety of Secrets, Delaune Michel tells the story of two childhood friends who, as an adults in Los Angeles, must recognize that the nature of friendship may change but its inherent nature remains the same.

Fiona and Patricia have been friends since their problematic childhood in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Adults (and actresses) the two women lead extremely different lives - Fiona is married and pregnant; Patricia is a television star marrying the male star of the moment. Slowly the women's friendship falls apart - until the dark secret from their youth emerges in a brutally open way.

Michel, who comes from a family of writers, tells a beautiful story of women, friendship and the nature of forgiveness. Lyrical and poetic, the story flows seamlessly through the heat of the South and the smog of the West Coast.









Wellness Central

Okay it's summer time...and that means we have to put ourselves into bathing suits. Check out this fun diet book courtesy of India Knight and Neris Thomas! It's smart, entertaining and funny while setting forth a diet that makes sense. From now until August 1st, Lit Chick will be running a give-away contest - send your name to us and it will be entered into a drawing to win a book!

Little Brown

In 2000, a dorm at Seton Hall University in NJ was destroyed by a fire. Two young men, in the prime of their lives, made it out of the building badly burned; they were faced with months of rehabilitation and emotional ups and downs. In her new non-fiction book, Robin Gaby Fisher (a two time Pulitzer Prize finalist) tells the story of Shawn Simons and Alvaro Llanos, roommates, friends and burn victims. A journey through the halls of Saint Barnabas Hospital and the tale of the extraordinary staff that help to bring the boys back from the brink of death, this book is at times heartbreaking, at times hopeful. Fisher paints such a human portrait of these boys and their families that the reader feels as though they have walked the pathways with them. A must read this summer.

While you're at the beach this summer, check out these summer reads:

I'm with Stupid by Elaine Szewczyck (5 Spot)
A Summer Affair by Elin Hildebrand (Little Brown)
The Crimson Portrait by Jody Shields (Back Bay Books)


Monday, May 26, 2008

Beach Book!

Check out How the Other Half Hamptons (5 Spot, June 2008) by Jasmin Rosenberg. Rosenberg, a former NY Post Hamptons columnist, has written a slight, humorous novel about summering in the Hamptons; although our three heroines share a house with some forty others and have to deal with filth, drunks and no bathroom space. If you want a true beach book, this is it!

Writing Contest!

The Warren Adler Short Story Contest – Summer 2008 –
Theme is HUMOR
To enter see: www.warrenadler.com
Suggested by the recent publication of Warren Adler's latest novel, FUNNY BOYS, the theme for the Summer 2008 Warren Adler Short Story Contest is humor. We're looking for humorous stories in all their varied forms. From satire to farce, from the whimsical to the uproarious, all writers looking to get a laugh (in a good way!) should enter. We are looking for the subtle and the pungent, the black and dark, the sporty, the salty, the waggish, or whatever can spark a knowing smile, a sly chuckle, or a hysterical belly laugh. In other words, anything goes, just as long as it falls into this category, however one stretches its elastic boundaries.
Entries must not exceed 2,500 words, and there is a minimum length of 1,000 words. As in the previous contests, all stories will be judged on the basis of character authenticity, plotting, narrative drive, and the skillful manipulation of the short story literary form.
Submissions will be accepted from May 1st to August 15th. Entry fee up until August 1st is $15. After August 1st, a late entry fee is $20.
Five cash prizes will be awarded.
The winning story will be awarded the $1,000 grand prize and a personalized first edition of FUNNY BOYS. Mr. Adler will also choose his top five for a People's Choice award that will also be awarded personalized first editions.
Although Mr. Adler will have already chosen the winner, five finalists' stories will be posted on the Warren Adler website on September 1st and the People's Choice winner will be determined by public voting. Warren Adler's top choice, along with the People's Choice winner, will be announced 15 September. Prizes will be as follows:
1st Prize: $1,000
People's Choice Prize $500
Remaining finalists receive $150 each

Interview with Jim Bowen, Author of Just Another Mzungu Passing Through (Parthian Books, 2008)

Explain for our readers what a mzungu is? Definition.

A mzungu is a term for white person in kiSwahili which is the tongue most commonly used in East Africa. Mzungu is used in a slightly dismissive way, like gringo in Central America or honky elsewhere.

Tell us a bit about the semi-autobiographical nature of the book - how did a nice Welsh boy end up in Kenya?

I was working as a part time cricket coach for the London Inner City Schools cricket project about 13 years ago for want of anything else to do. I didn't want to come back home to my family's farm at that stage and didn't feel driven to do anything very much. I was living in a tent in a friend's garden in Eastbourne on the south coast using the cricket coaching to pay the bills and having a jolly old time. A friend showed told me that the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association were advertising for a development officer with the help of the VSO, which is the British equivalent of the Peace Corps. I was lucky to be the only person to apply for the job in over a year so, got the job and off I went in January 1996 with a two year contract to teach cricket in Kenya.

My novel is based upon my experiences there, the things I saw and the things people told me, but it is very much about Kenya rather than about me. I wanted people to know about Kenya--that is why I wrote the book. I wanted my friends and family (and later, the readers) to understand why Kenya is as it is, what the average people face, what we in the west have imposed on them and really quite how incredible the people and the country are. It is a novel, and I hope a good read, but it is informative too, I hope, like The Grapes of Wrath is a good read and is also a fantastic way of learning about what the Great Depression meant to the US and people then. Steinbeck could have written a factual account of what he witnessed, but I'm glad he didn't. I wrote my story from the first person 'Griff', and the general narrative follows his time there, but Kenya is really the main character in the story.

What do you think is the biggest issue facing Africa today and how can literature help to educate people about same?

Wow, I've tried answering this question about twenty times but deleted them all as can't seem to get it down right. I don't want to claim I know any answers.

The issues are vast and numerous. Open any international paper and you can read about HIV, famine, corruption, genocide, poverty... These are all massive issues in Africa today and one would hope the rest of the world knows about them and that we are REALLY trying to help instead of taking advantage and using their suffering to boost our own worth.

Literature has a place today, as it always has done, in letting people know about social injustice everywhere. Chinu Achebe, Charles Dickens, Harper Lee, Laurens van der Post, Mark Twain, George Orwell, James Baldwin, Ngugi wa Thiongo... Many writers have helped educate and bring about changes through their writing. They tell important stories brilliantly.

Today we are so clever that we can cause massive injustice to many people from many thousands of miles away, and we can then close our eyes to it, think about something else without ever having to face what we have caused ourselves. There are many, many examples, and one could mention the people who are still suffering from the Union Carbide industrial disaster in Bhopal, India. Over twenty thousand people were killed after that explosion and children are still born seriously deformed over twenty years later. Union Carbide were bought out by Dow Chemicals in 2001 and Dow Chemicals say they have no duty to clean up the mess as the plant is on government land and while the legal battles over who is responsible go on, the shareholders forget all about it and the poor still suffer as a result.

To the north of Cardiff, here in Wales, over twenty years ago, seventy five different toxic substances were brought from a Monsanto factory near Newport and dumped in a quarry on the Brofiscin Farm . 80,000 tonnes of contaminated produce were buried there. Chemically unstable, non-degradable carcinogens that no one would take responsibility for leached out of the quarry, contaminating the local area. Polyaromatic hydrocarbons and acrylonitrile, dioxins created during the production of PCP which had been banned in the US years before were knowingly dumped by one of the US's most bullying companies. A vast number of cattle on neighbouring farms started aborting shortly afterwards . Some lost muscular control while others became lethargic, sterile and suffered from flaccidity. Local people now have highly toxic, unusual pollutant substances in their fatty tissue. They are very ill. And yet no one will take responsibility. Monsanto have fourteen similar dumping sites around the UK all full off dioxins and virulent toxins that they claim are safe but which the Environment Agency consider far too dangerous to open and analyse. And what happens...

I go on too much, and I'm sorry. These are the sorts of stories that are in the newspapers one day and then forgotten about the next.

Some could say that writers have a duty to write about these sorts of stories, to bring them to the attention of the general public who will hopefully one day bring to account those that have benefited through the suffering of others.

To me, good writing should be attractive and inclusive but educational too and if it can make a difference, like the writers I've mentioned earlier, then I believe it can be world changing. Big Business is clever enough to slip free through the courts, but a truthfully told story is always there to point the finger of guilt. I think writers, musicians, artists in general have an important role to play in this. Let's not go softly softly. Pen is stronger, and all that!

Writing coming out of Wales right now is truly extraordinary (same amazing young writers) - why do you think this is so (if you agree, of course)?

Wales has always been a heartland of artisitic expression. We feel affinity with our land and our place in it more than people in many other parts of Britain, I believe. People of my generation were brought up listening to amazing music from people who were proud to be Welsh and who were keen to demonstrate their art through their Welshness. The Super Furry Animals, Catatonia, The Alarm, Manic Street Preachers, even Shakin' Stevens and Bonny Tyler are all proudly Welsh first and foremost. We also have a massive back catalogue of Welsh writers to inspire us. Dylan Thomas, of course, Raymond Williams, Alexander Cordell, Dannie Abse, Bernice Rubens, Gwylon Phillips, WH Davies, RS Thomas and so many others that I really don't know enough about. If only there were more hours in the day...

I think the past has given our generation the courage to be active in our creativity now, and we are lucky that there are publishers willing to give our jottings air. I was very fortunate to have my first story taken up by Parthian Press who are based in the small town of Cardigan just down the River Teifi from where my family farm. Parthian is an excellent publishing house--the stories they have produced over the past few years speak for themselves, stories by young writers like Lewis Davies, Cynan Jones, Rachel Trezise, Tristan Hughes, Lloyd Robson and many others too, are set in a Wales the writers know of as home. The stories are not always that flattering of the place, but that doesn't mean we don't love it! Stories can be more powerful when they are constructively critical of things we care greatly about.

Being Welsh is important to me. My family have farmed this piece of land for over 250 years and we have lived within twenty miles of here for over a thousand. I am not alone in this feeling rooted. It means a great deal.

Do you believe there is a difference between Welsh authors and American authors? If so, what is it?

I don't know. There are links with some writers in both places writing of a sense of pride and love for their plot of land.When America was opening up the writing seemed to wow about the place and the wilderness and the adventure. Writers like Stephen Crane and Jack London... That seems to have changed a bit now maybe. We don't have the vast spaces here in Wales in the same way, though we do write lovingly about the wild places that we have.
I'm afraid I don't know enough about either to have much of value to say.


Influences? Why?

My grandmother wrote stories. She had nine novels published in the 1940/50s under the name Parr Cooper. She is an influence even though she died when I was a young child. She let me know that it was possible to write long stories. She did it, so so could I! Why not? I still love her writing. I can hear her voice in the words. She wrote about India during the war and what it was like coming back to Wales afterwards. Very powerful stuff some of it but she had such humour and decency in what she wrote.

Other influences include:
-John Steinbeck for his clarity, focus and lines like (in East of Eden) 'her smile flashed and disappeared the way a trout crosses a knife of sunshine in a pool' which make me go yeah, that's it! That's why people write!
-Jack London and Jack Kerouac meant a lot to me when I was younger and travelling. London published too much, but a lot of it is brilliant in its simplicity, its brutality and, boy, did he have good material to write about. As for Kerouac, I loved On the Road, Maggie Cassidy, Dharma Bums and one or two other, while the long wibbly ones went over my head a bit. I had a first edition Maggie Cassidy but somebody sole it.
-As a child I loved London, Twain, Victor Canning, Tolkein. Stories with things happening all the time. There were so many others--Richard Adams, William Horwood...
-Graham Greene, William Golding, Dervla Kirwan, Solzhenitsyn, Conrad, Hemmingway, Achebe. I read them when I was in Kenya and unable to go out all that much especially after dark when it wasn't safe. They took me away from the present like a teevee never could have. Good stories, simply told. Something to say. And then there are the Les Norton stories by the Australian Robert G. Barrett who is occasionally worth a read when you're a young fellow with the blues!
-I love East of the Mountains by David Gutterson.

Future Plans?

We have a one year old daughter, I am farming and running a holiday centre for people with disabilities so there isn't a lot of time for writing at the moment. I'm working on a story called Welshrats which is about a horrible man who is the director of social services in a Welsh coastal city which I think might be quite good when I finally get it done. Apart from that I have a bunch of short stories that need a good polish and... well, if only there was more time.

Mrs. Perfect by Jane Porter (5 Spot, May 2008)

Urgh...Jane Porter made me stay up all night, yet again. And how does she always know exactly what I am thinking? Porter, in a sort-of-sequel to her last work, Odd Mom Out, has continued to delve into the world of modern day women in suburbia as they deal with the conflict of being good mothers, working mothers and perfect mothers.

Taylor Young is a woman defined by her looks, her house, her volunteerism and her high-class friends. Coiffed and coutured, Taylor is so afraid of being exposed for the real person underneath (one that is fragile, fearful and bulimic) that she treats others with disdain; including Marta, the main character of Porter's former work. When Taylor's life suddenly and swiftly falls apart, she soon realizes that she has always been stronger than she has believed and that life can not be defined by things but by those who stick around when the chips are down. Marta, someone Taylor once viewed as "strange," becomes the person that Taylor learns to rely upon in economic and emotional ways.

Porter has an uncanny knack for getting to the heart and soul of the modern American woman. Her ability to tell it like it is without judgment but with a sense of compassion and honesty makes her writing leap from the page and into our hearts. Jane...I am so tired today because of you but I am thankful for the read!

 

Beautiful Children by Charles Bock (Random House)

I have a new favorite author and it is Charles Bock. His new work, Beautiful Children, is a tour de force, a novel that is not only literary (in the best sense of the word) but important in its topic matter. Bock writes with a combination of grace and force that each word stands alone; his ability to paint a visual story of present day Las Vegas and its residents is remarkable and signals the debut of a brilliant writer.

Newell, a young boy growing up with the trappings of upper middle class, has disappeared after a night out with Kenny, his much older friend. This story of his disappearance (but not the tale of his discovery) is told via flashbacks of numerous characters - Newell's father, runaways living on the streets of Sin City, a downtrodden comic book artist, a stripper with a heart of gold. Each character is suffering with their own past and a future that seems to be headed nowhere; their lives are filled with the lights of the casinos and the sounds of slot machines but have little meaning or focus. A story of such heartache that the reader can actually feel the pain and suffering of the storytellers.

Even when the book is heavy handed in its delivery, Bock has the ability to bring words to life. One can see the scenes play out, can become one with the people described even if one's experience is very different. This is a tale of 21st Century decay and loneliness that we can all relate to.

The Host by Stephanie Meyer (Little, Brown, May 2008)

I am not a huge fan of sci-fi/futuristic novels (although I have to say that I do love my friend, Orson Scott Card's work); so when I was given Stephanie Meyer's newest work, The Host, to review, I was a bit reticent. The first fifty page left me confused and ready to walk away from the book. However, I always finish what I start and continued on; soon I found myself unable to put down this interesting, well written book.


In a futuristic America, human beings have been invaded by souls who are only able to love and act peacefully. When the Wanderer invades the body of Melanie Stryder, the two beings are in conflict. Melanie, leaving behind her brother and her lover, is stubborn and refuses to fade away causing the Wanderer unbearable pain and suffering. When Melanie convinces the soul to run into the desert to find the remaining family members (the remaining human beings now hidden underground), the Wanderer is forced to confront what it means to love, what it means to be human. Meyer, best known for her YA vampire series, has crafted a compelling and humane story with a plot that asks the reader to think, to feel and to question.

5 Spot Books, April 2008

In Frenemies, author Megan Crane addressed the way women treat one another; specifically, the way we treat friends who do us wrong. With her newest work, Crane takes on the subject of sisterhood, of actual siblings who can't seem to forget the past. Told primarily through the eyes of Courtney, a successful musician who is about to marry the love of her life, this is a story of three sisters with extremely different outlooks on life, love and family. Norah is the hard working, type A sister who lives her life by the rule book and holds her grudges close to her heart. Raine is the free spirited sister who ran off to San Francisco to live the life of a poor artist, her best friend and sometime boyfriend in tow. When Courtney goes to visit Raine with the hope that she will return home for her engagement party, her life and that of her family is thrown into chaos.

What does sisterhood really mean and do you have to love your family simply because you were born into it? These are the important questions that Crane addresses in this enjoyable and worthwhile read.

Posted by TwoManyShoes at 5:41 PM 0 comments

The Ten Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer

Riverhead Books, 2008

When my daughter turned three and my son six, I was faced with the fact that I had to return to work. Recently separated and in financially precarious straits, I could no longer rely on my freelance writing to pay the mortgage or put food on the table. Even though I had worked off and on while raising my children, it proved exceedingly difficult to find a full time job. I was competing against younger people who were willing to take a lower salary, who had not yet defined their skill set and who were able to be easily molded. The realization that I might not be able to return to work full time was like a punch in the gut; it was maddening and frustrating – a tough pill to swallow.

In her newest work, The Ten-Year Nap, author Meg Wolitzer addresses this exact scenario. Told from the points of view of four friends, but primarily through the viewpoint of Amy, the book focuses on the crossroads a woman experiences when her children no longer need her full time but she is unable to re-enter the workforce. Amy, a Manhattanite married to a mildly successful attorney, wakes up one morning to discover that her ten-year old son is self-sufficient and that she no longer has anything to fill her days with. Jill adopts a child from Siberia, moves to the suburbs and is unable to fit in with the women of Holly Hills. Roberta, an artist, whose son attends his Manhattan private school on financial aid, feels she is at the mercy of the school PTA for fear of being a social outcast. Karen, a brilliant Chinese woman and mother of twins, lives with the constant fear of being left out even as she fails to hide her disdain for others. Add to the mix, brilliant, hard working Penny Ramsey, whose life seems perfect (but is far from it) and you have the typical, if not stereotypical, 21st Century woman. These are women who have been raised to believe that they could do it all; take care of their family, hold down a great job, be perfectly coiffed and well-read.

Wolitzer delivers a book that teeters on the edge of being the Feminist Mystique of our day. Her voice and message are important ones – do women give up a part of themselves upon becoming mothers? Can women re-enter the workforce after taking a long sabbatical? Does there always have to be a choice between motherhood and career? Where Wolitzer leaves the reader a bit flat is in the meandering plot line; the story does not truly move forward until the middle, until a true conflict occurs. Prior to that, the book is slow and almost devoid of dimension with characters that seem a bit pathetic and irritating. When Amy finds herself in the middle of Penny’s marital problems, the book takes on interest as we begin to see these characters as three dimensional. While a reader wants to see herself in the author’s words, it is still essential that a book has conflict that is not only mental but visual.

Women will find a piece of themselves in The Ten-Year Nap, whether they are the stay-at-home mother or the working mother. Wolitzer has taken a topic of such import that, even where the book falters, one can argue the worth of this novel and possibly its place on the shelf next to Betty Friedan.

Posted by TwoManyShoes at 5:36 PM 0 comments

Erotomania by Francis Levy

Two Dollar Radio, August 2008

Imagine that you engage in passionate, feral sex with someone. After the sex is over and you have left the building, you can not remember what your lover looked like; your amnesia of everything but the sexual act is complete. In a truly original literary work, Francis Levy introduces the memorable characters of Monica and James. Told through James' eyes, the story unfolds as James realizes that he wants to know his lover, wants to be able to recognize her on the street (her face, not simply her sexual organs) and may actually be in love, rather than simply lust. Monica, a woman who looks much like Peter Pan, has a sexual appetite that is insatiable and confusing. When James tries to have a "normal" relationship with her, she seems to become enraged, frustrated by his unrelenting pursuit.

Levy writes with honesty and a dry sense of humor that adds to the unique tone of the book. While our characters seem without empathy at the beginning, it soon becomes clear that with sex may come love and a type of relationship that is meaningful and filled with worth.

Posted by TwoManyShoes at 5:21 PM 0 comments

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch

Little, Brown April 2008

My younger brother chose years ago to move from the East coast to the South; specifically, he moved to Savannah, Georgia where he practiced medicine, raised a family and lived on the edge of a swampy, wood in a large home. At first they loved Savannah but soon he found that the difference between South and East was as large as the crevices that define the Grand Canyon. Savannah was made up of people who had lived their entire lives in the South, people who distrusted Northerners, people who defined themselves by the homes they owned and the families they had come from. My brother and family soon sold their home and moved to a college town in Virginia where they were accepted.

Katie Crouch in her new work, Girls in Trucks, relates the story of Sarah Walters, a Charleston debutante, who is determined to leave behind her Camellia Society past and start anew. Crouch, a talented writer with a honest voice, moves through time and space quickly; Sarah is a college student, an aspiring writer in New York City, a woman grappling with a failed relationship. The reader moves through Sarah's experiences and roots for her to succeed. Crouch has created a character that the reader adores and understands. When tragedy brings Sarah home, it is clear that she can not run from her past; that she must accept her roots in order to become the person who she needs to be.

I can't wait for the next Katie Crouch book.

Posted by TwoManyShoes at 8:29 AM 0 comments

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Blog Archive

• ? 2008 (15)
  • ? May (3)
    • Mrs. Perfect by Jane Porter (5 Spot, May 2008)
    • Beautiful Children by Charles Bock (Random House)
    • The Host by Stephanie Meyer (Little, Brown, May 20...
  • ? April (3)
    • 5 Spot Books, April 2008 In Frenemies, author Me...
    • The Ten Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer
    • Erotomania by Francis Levy
  • ? March (2)
    • Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch
    • Keeper and the Kid by Ed Hardy
  • ? February (4)
    • Sway by Zachary Lazar
    • The Turnaround by George Pelecanos
    • Mata Hari by Yannick Murphy
    • Carpool Diem by Nancy Star
  • ? January (3)
    • The Woman Who is Always Tan and has a Flat Stomach...
    • Midori by Moonlight
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    • ODD MOM OUT
    • Beginner's Greek
    • The Girl Who Stopped Swimming
    • Seeing Me Naked
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About Me

TwoManyShoes

A single mother of two who only recently started to date after being divorced for five years...and boy does it suck!

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5 Spot Books, April 2008

In Frenemies, author Megan Crane addressed the way women treat one another; specifically, the way we treat friends who do us wrong. With her newest work, Crane takes on the subject of sisterhood, of actual siblings who can't seem to forget the past. Told primarily through the eyes of Courtney, a successful musician who is about to marry the love of her life, this is a story of three sisters with extremely different outlooks on life, love and family. Norah is the hard working, type A sister who lives her life by the rule book and holds her grudges close to her heart. Raine is the free spirited sister who ran off to San Francisco to live the life of a poor artist, her best friend and sometime boyfriend in tow. When Courtney goes to visit Raine with the hope that she will return home for her engagement party, her life and that of her family is thrown into chaos.

What does sisterhood really mean and do you have to love your family simply because you were born into it? These are the important questions that Crane addresses in this enjoyable and worthwhile read.

The Ten Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer

Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch

Keeper and the Kid by Ed Hardy

Wendy Nelson Tokunaga

St. Martin’s Griffin, 2007

Midori Saito has always dreamed of marrying an American man; so when Kevin, an American teaching in English in Japan asks for her hand, Midori follows him to San Francisco. Unfortunately, Midori’s dream soon becomes a nightmare when Kevin breaks off the engagement, leaving her to fend for herself. In Midori by Moonlight, author Wendy Nelson Tokunaga delivers a funny, heart-warming take on the typical “fish out of water” story.

Midori, determined to stay in America, calls upon the assistance of Shinji, a friend of Kevin’s and a Japanese ex-patriate working and living in the city. Like Midori, Shinji favors American woman especially his current girlfriend, the Japan obsessed Tracy. Although Shinji offers Midori a share in his apartment, he is clear that she must pay the rent. Unable to get a job as a pastry chef (throughout the novel, Midori creates exquisite deserts and downs huge quantities of pastries), she takes a job as a hostess in a karaoke bar in Japantown: a job that humiliates her but pays the bills and does not require a green card.  While the odds are clearly stacked against our heroine, she refuses to give up and soon finds that she has chosen (even in the face of difficulties) the path she was always meant to take. The fish soon finds that the American dream can be grasped by anyone determined to reach for it.

Tokunaga explores the life of an immigrant and the nature of the dream of freedom, both internally and externally, in this work. Via a plot that is certainly a chick lit format, the work delivers on its goals

Bitter Lemon Press, February 2008

As Cora and family picnic at the beach, Cora becomes enraged over the sexually overt behavior of a young couple sitting next to them. Without warning, Cora attacks the male and kills him; so begins the unraveling of her past; a past which is inextricably linked to the man she has murdered. Although it is clear that Cora has committed the crime, Police Commissioner Rudolf Grovian is determined to discover why, even if it means uncovering that which Cora can not face.

Hammesfahr, considered one of the greatest German crime authors, deftly explores how our past serves to define us and how one can never truly run from what was. Lyrical prose and concise wording creates a novel that hits at one's very soul; each word is rift with meaning and purpose. This is a book created by a master of the genre - one that an American public would be wise to embrace.






Grand Central Publishing, March 2008

I am exhausted and the reason is simple...I stayed up all night unable to put down Joshilyn Jackson's forthcoming book, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming. Laurel is a mother and wife who lives in a beautiful home in a gated Florida community with her husband, David and daughter, Shelby. Her present is altogether different than her past: one that includes the Southern town of DeLop, a poverty, drug stricken town where her relatives still reside. One evening, Laurel awakes to find a ghostly female figure hovering above her (Laurel has a history of seeing ghosts) and follows the figure down to the pool where she is startled to find the dead body of Molly, Shelby's friend. This discovery propels Laurel to reach out to her estranged, bohemian sister, Thalia, a young woman who lives for drama and chaos. Together Laurel and Thalia will face the past they have tried so hard to run from while solving the mystery of the present.

In Jackson's adept hands, the character of Laurel is rich and complex: refusing to see the truth behind family secrets and the reality of her own life, Laurel is foibled and true. Thalia has such depth and strength that one can actually visualize her, right down to her bizarre clothing choices and marriage to a gay man. The nature of family and the fear of disclosure runs under the entire book - who are we? Are we simply a compendium of all of those who have come before or can we ever really wash away our history? As the book comes to its spectacular finish (one that couldn't be seen), the reader can only wish that Jackson will hurry up and finish her next book. This is one of the best books to come across our office desk in quite awhile.



5 Spot, January 2008

I've loved Liza Palmer's writing since I read Conversations with the Fat Girl. In her forthcoming 5 Spot release, Seeing me Naked, Palmer again addresses the issue of outward appearance, only this time the focus is on a young woman from an extraordinarily high profile family. Elisabeth Page, a pastry chef, is the daughter of famed author Ben Page and literary man of the day Rascal Page. In the glare of their spotlights, Elisabeth feels inadequate; she can never be good enough for her father or heroice enough for her brother. Not only is she stuck working crazy hours at the hottest restaurant in LA, she is stuck in a relationship with Will, a childhood friend who simply can't commit to anything other than his journalism. When she is presented with a great job opportunity and meets Daniel Sullivan, a basketball coach, Elisabeth must let go of all the pretense, shed her "clothing" and allow herself to appear naked, flaws and all. Once this occurs, her transformation will allow her to move on with her life.

Palmer writes with humor and warmth, bringing the reader in to the story quickly and creatively with each word. We are meant to like these characters and we do...they are us, struggling with family, with the desire and search for happiness in love and career and faltering as we go. At its heart a story of family and the fact that love can truly conquer all.



Little Brown, Dec. 2007

The Greek gods and goddesses are alive and well, residing in a dilapidated London house and working in rather tedious jobs. There's Apollo who is a television psychic, Artemis who takes care of dogs when not hunting, Aphrodite who works as a phone sex operator and Dionysus who runs an underground club. A true dysfunctional family, Aphrodite, in a moment of revenge against Apollo, places a "curse" on him which makes him fall head over heels for the mortal house cleaner, Alice. After Apollo's kisses are rebuked by Alice (she's in love with the meek engineer, Neil), Apollo brings Zeus back to earth and chaos ensues. Soon Neil, with a little help from Artemis, is visiting the underworld in search of his true love.

In her debut novel, British author Marie Phillips manages to bring to life the twelve gods of Olympus in a humorous, creative way. While educating the reader about each god's respective powers and traits, Phillips creates a larger than life world where mortals and immortals live as one. Using descriptive language and fine character portraits, Phillips' tale transcends the absurd; the reader can visualize these gods as actual "human beings" or at the very least as beings that fill the human body. The book is funny, fun and entertaining - a promising debut novel.


Beginner's Greek by James Collins, Little Brown, January 2007

AN INTERVIEW WITH JAMES COLLINS

You worked in finance and as a journalist. Now you're a novelist. How did this book come about?

Going by my natural abilities and inclinations, I have always been better suited to writing fiction than to working in journalism much less in finance, so I feel as if I have sort of been moving backwards to the thing I should have been doing in the first place. But I never would have had the confidence after college just to say, “I’m going to be a novelist.”

When I was first trying to figure out what to do I thought that getting some financial experience would make practical sense and would be useful no matter what. That has proved to be true, and it was interesting, but, as anyone who knew me could see immediately, I was not cut out for a career on Wall Street. I was really lucky to have some friends who helped me make a transition to journalism, which I like a lot, even though I am most comfortable sitting by myself making stuff up.

This particular book came about after I had moved to rural Virginia and had switched from having full-time jobs in New York to just writing on my own. I had a couple of germs for a novel in my mind and I started it thinking I would write it on the side quite quickly, but I enjoyed writing it so much that it got longer and longer and more and more complicated. I’d say that the finished book is probably only sixty per cent of the original manuscript.

What's your writing process?

I wrote the first hundred pages or so in longhand and then switched back and forth from longhand to writing on the computer. I can’t explain why I wrote some sections one way and others in the other way. I do really like the tactile experience of using a soft pencil (no. 1, to be specific) on paper. I feel a little silly saying all this but I know that when I read interviews with writers I am always fascinated by these details—what size nib of a fountain pen they use.

I tried very hard to have a regular schedule. That’s what real novelists do, right? They work religiously every day between certain hours. But the fact was that with two small children and lots of other things of life to interfere I never could establish a set time that I could devote exclusively to writing, so I would work as long as I could whenever I had chance at all times of day and night. It was my own fault because I just never could insist that I not be disturbed. And, funnily enough, since I had worked at magazines where the phone is constantly ringing and people are constantly coming to see you while you are trying to write or edit, I think having a certain amount of activity around me was familiar and even stimulating. Also, I tried to avoid becoming dependent upon there being certain set conditions in order to write. One of the nice things about writing fiction I found was that all you need is a pencil and paper and you can work anywhere and any time, and that’s what I did.

Authors you would like to meet?

This could be a very, very long list, especially if I included writers of non-fiction and authors who are dead. But let’s see, here are a few living writers of fiction off the top of my head: John Updike, Philip Roth, David Lodge, Tom Wolfe, Michael Chabon, Alice Munro, Louise Erdrich, William Vollman, David Foster Wallace, Jane Smiley, Allegra Goodman, Peter Carey ….

Your book is a wonderful exploration of a young man's unrequited love. Would you consider the book a member of the new genre, male lit?

It’s funny, a couple of people have mentioned that they were struck by the fact that protagonist of a book like this was a man. It never occurred to me to think of that as being unusual, since it seemed to me that male heroes of love stories have always been very common. “Boy meets girl…boy loses girl…boy gets girl back” is the classic formula. So, no, I don't think of it as being part of a new genre, and, while I really like Nick Hornby, whose success started the "lad lit" trend, I actually hope my book has a bit more "lit" and a lot less "lad" than the typical one in that category.

Have you ever met someone remarkable on a plane?

Something like the incident in the book actually happened to me, but I knew the other person slightly and there were no romantic consequences, so it wasn't really the same. Otherwise, I find as I get older I am less shy about talking to strangers, and while I haven’t met anyone truly remarkable, I have had some enjoyable conversations. I know much more about shark-fishing and theatrical lighting and how a Dollar Store makes money than I did before, and I have gotten a look into other people’s lives, which is endlessly fascinating, no matter who they are.

Future plans?

I have started a new novel and have an idea for another one, so I hope to write those, while also doing some journalism, too.

Peter is about to marry Charlotte, a woman he is fond of but not necessarily in love with. No...the love in his heart remains with Holly. Holly who is now married to Peter's best friend, the serial cheater Jonathan. I don't want to give away the important plot points of the book but suffice it to say that life keeps the two lovers apart whereas fate ultimately brings them together. A kind of Greek comedy with a bit of tragedy thrown in, this book showcases the talent of a honest, sardonic writer who delivers a truly rewarding, entertaining read.



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