Kayt Sukel is one of those annoying people who can do absolutely everything, it seems. She is an award-winning travel writer, food writer, and science correspondent, and has written for apparently every major publication you might think of. And today sees the publication of her brilliant book, DIRTY MINDS, which delves into the mysterious world of the brain and its …
To Read, or Not To Read?
In my earlier post about my trip to the Midwest Booksellers’ Association in Minneapolis, I mentioned that at the dinner hosted by Penguin on the Thursday night, there had been some spirited discussion between booksellers about what made for the best author events. Certain booksellers felt that, as a general rule, authors should never read from their books at book …
THE BIRD SISTERS by Rebecca Rasmussen
Rebecca Rasmussen came to Columbia to give a reading at PS Gallery at the start of May this year, just after her wonderful debut novel was published. I had been speaking with Rebecca for some time on twitter and invited her to make the trip down I-70 from St. Louis to visit. Her reading was exquisite – understated, funny, and …
Time to Read
Last week I received a direct message via Twitter from the lovely Camille Noe Pagan, whose debut novel, THE ART OF FORGETTING, was published this week by Dutton, an imprint of Penguin (US). Camille was putting together a blog post for the “Author’s Desk” at Penguin.com about how and when authors find time to read. This is a topic of considerable …
Great Writers Coming to Columbia, MO!
My good friend Amy Stephenson, who runs Get Lost Bookshop in downtown Columbia – literally a stone’s throw from my office – is putting together a series of readings by wonderful authors. I’m very excited by the inaugural event, since it is a reading by fellow Amy Einhorn author and New York Times best-seller, Eleanor Brown, whose debut, THE WEIRD …
“The Weird Sisters” by Eleanor Brown
January 20, 2011 marks the publication of a great debut novel called THE WEIRD SISTERS, by author Eleanor Brown. Full disclosure here: Eleanor is an Amy Einhorn author, and although we haven’t met (yet) we have been carrying on a rather wonderful email correspondence over these past several months. She is a wonderful and very funny person (if you don’t …
Monday Morning Novelist
Been there, done that.
My Wife’s Affair
This isn’t a book review, not really. I just want to tell you about a novel I enjoyed a lot. Besides, I think you’re supposed to be icily impartial when it comes to reviews, and I’m not, not this time. The author, Nancy Woodruff, is a friend of mine. We were in a writers’ group together in London, and I actually …
Video Book Trailers, Part Deux
A little while ago I posted an item about book trailers. As I noted then, these can often be rather clunky affairs, due principally to the insurmountable chasm between the product (a novel) and the media being used to sell the product (2 minute You Tube video.) Gary Shteyngart’s answer was to say nothing at all about the book – …
Exciting New Book from, um, Alex George
You couldn’t make this stuff up. A little while ago I dabbled with the idea of a slight name change, reducing myself to a pair of gnomic initials in the manner of Chesterton, G.K., Rowling, J. K., Byatt A.S., and Hartley, J.R. (inside joke for my English readers with long memories.) Anyway, that didn’t last too long, and here I …