Author Author

This is going to be a quick post that I’ll add to later, as I’m late for a meeting (cue me going “AAAACK!” like Andy Samberg imitating the Cathy comic on Saturday Night Live).

Our Book of the Week is truly wonderful. Seal Woman by Solveig Eggerz from Ghost Road Press is the story of a young German woman whose World War II circumstances force her to start a new life. She answers an ad in the newspaper from Iceland, and winds up as the second wife of a man whose hard, lonely existence as a farmer is softened only by the presence of “the old woman,” who may or may not be his mother.

Eggerz, an Icelander whose knowledge of Germany comes from several years in which she lived in that country, has crafted a dreamy yet stark portrait of a human’s transition from one world to another. I truly engaged with this book and with Charlotte, and I believe many readers of this site will, too. 

We’ve got ten copies of Seal Woman to give away to ten random winners from the first 30 who post and tell us about the toughest transition you’ve ever made. Was it from single person to spouse? From student to master? Unpublished writer to published author? Perhaps from woman to mother? Whatever your own transformation was, tell us below — and perhaps you’ll receive your own copy of Eggerz’s novel. Thanks, as always, for reading and commenting!

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Have you ever wondered what your life would look like if you were gone? 

Jonathon Bender wouldn’t know, but we can see a version of this fictional character’s life in novelist Michael Kimball’s latest book, Dear Everybody. Jonathon’s letters, diary entries, personal documents, and other ephemera from his family, friends, and colleagues. 

Ostensibly, this explains a life. But (and I think I’m on the right track here), when I finished this slight but powerful story of one man’s failure to hang on, I found myself obsessed with what wasn’t set down. Because, of course, what we leave out of our stories and documents and letters is just as important as what we put into them.

The reason I’m pretty sure I’m on the right track is that Michael Kimball has gained some notice for his ongoing project “Michael Kimball Writes Your Autobiography on a Postcard.” (He’s even written one for me, which I’ll share later this week.) Kimball understands that how we edit is how we live, and that what other people remember about us or what we remember about other people — these are slippery things that cannot be relied on to paint a complete or even reliable picture.

That said, Kimball also understands that the more perspectives we can include, the more likely it is that the layering will produce not truth, but compassion. Dear Everybody is a book about one man’s sadly short life in which any illumination gained throws back light on the people whose stories combine to give us Jonathon’s.

We’ve got five copies of Dear Everybody to give away randomly among the first 20 readers who give us their own autobiography in just one sentence. 

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I try to maintain a relatively neutral stance about our Books of the Week; after all, I’m not reviewing them. I’m interviewing their authors! However, I do choose the authors who appear on this site, and I do tend to choose authors whose work I am interested in, regardless of my critical views on that work.

Sometimes I don’t know anything about an author, however: We get a recommendation, or a request, and I have to read a book first and decide if it’s the right kind of material for “Author, Author!” This was the case with James Mathews, whose short-story collection Last Known Position was published by University of North Texas Press (not my usual source for literary fiction). I knew two things when I started reading: One, that Mathews’ work had won the prestigious Katherine Anne Porter Prize for short fiction; Two, that Mathews had been in the U.S. Air Force.

By the time I finished reading, I was sure of one thing: Mathews is a truly gifted writer. His deft plots are told in voices so unassuming that they lull the reader into suspending disbelief, only to have the stories’ coldly cynical twists slap them back into reality. Except it’s not reality; it’s fiction… Shudder. 

I’ll got out on a limb and say I believe you’ll love these stories, and I’ve got ten copies of Last Known Position to give away. Randomly, natch. We’ll select ten comments at random from the first 30 left answering this question: What was the last short story you read OR Who is your favorite short-story writer?

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The Stupor Super Bowl is finished. (I kid, I kid; I actually watched this year and jumped out of my seat screaming when the Cardinals made their 4th-quarter touchdown…alas…) But doesn’t that mean you have more time for reading, now?

You’ll definitely want to make some time for David Baldacci’s latest novel Divine Justice. It’s got a few of his creepiest characters yet, as well as some amazing Camel Club adventures. If you want to learn more, you’ll have to wait for our Wednesday video interview.

However, today you enter to win a free copy — one of ten — today by leaving me a comment telling me who your favorite series author is. (So easy! I’m feeling generous and fatigued today…)

Do note our new giveaway rules, however.  In the interests of spreading the love, we’ll now be drawing our giveaway winners randomly from all the responses we receive.  So, you no longer have to be one of the first people to respond in order to win.  Good luck!

NB: The giveaway is now closed. We’ll post the lucky winners on Monday! Thanks, all, for visiting and commenting. Happy weekend reading!

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I’m late to the party with this blog; I meant to post earlier today, but I got caught up in another book which I’ll tell you about another time in deference to the madly delightful Susan McCorkindale, author of this week’s spotlight title. 

Anyway, you need to read Confessions of a Counterfeit Farm Girl, because it will make you laugh out loud, and after the eclipse we’ve all just endured, we need that. I need that. You need that. Susan McCorkindale is a Jersey girl who wound up at the pinnacle of magazine marketing in Manhattan before her husband “Hemingway” kidnapped the entire family (well, OK, not really kidnapped, but sorta…) to a rural Virginia farm/homestead where (to paraphrase my beloved Pioneer Woman) McCorkindale traded black heels for tractor wheels and spa treatments for, well, a lot of cow manure. 

And she loves it. I’ve met the woman in the flesh; she really, really loves it all and she is NOT lying about it. I would know; after all, I’ve watched the first episode of “Lie to Me.” No microexpressions on this woman’s face. Everything about Susan McCorkindale is macro!

You will love this book, and you will receive one of our ten giveaway copies if you write in and tell me what makes you a “counterfeit:” wife, mother, reader, accountant, volunteer, Olympian, whatevs (and yes, Mario Moccia, this is the perfect time for you to respond!). 

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Some of you are probably like me, right now: simultaneously watching the Inaugural proceedings on while surfing the net for more news about them. So I understand if no one gets over here today. The books will keep!

I mixed things up a little this week because of this. I wanted as may people as possible to read my interview with Stephen Hess about his new book, What Do We Do Now? A Workbook for the President-Elect (Brookings). 

(Oooo, you’ll have to be patient with me for a moment. I’m watching the Obamas enter the White House for coffee with the Bushes. Michelle Obama brought them a gift — don’t you wish you knew what it was?)

We’ve got ten copies of What Do We Do Now? to give away to the first ten readers who respond with what President-Elect (very, very soon to be President) Obama might do to support literacy and/or the arts during his time in office. (After the economy, natch.)

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I’m thrilled to start the New Year off with a giveaway from an author who really “gets” new media and how it affects publishing — but who also “gets” how much readers love real books. Brad Meltzer has been making readers happy with great stories ever since his first novel, The Tenth Justice, came out in 1997.

His latest book is The Book of Lies, and it combines Meltzer’s love of history and puzzles with his love of comic books. (If you’d like to take a look at any of his Justice League comic books, click here.) It also asks a lot of questions about Cain and Abel, fathers and sons, and what we owe the past versus what the past owes us. There’s a lot packed into this thriller!

But Brad packs a lot into each book tour, too. He never shirks an appearance and is truly gracious to his fans, yet he still manages to find time to do unexpected things (like get his publisher to sponsor a NASCAR vehicle when The Book of Secrets came out), to write a blog, and to run a foundation. One of the things he says that makes sense to me is “Just because it’s a book doesn’t mean you have to sell it like a book.”

In honor of Brad Meltzer, this week’s giveaway question is: Where or how would you sell a book differently? We’ve got ten copies of The Book of Lies to give to the first ten responses that meet our giveaway guidelines.

Tomorrow I’ll have my interview with Brad posted, and I hope you’ll enjoy listening to him talk about the little house in Ohio that inspires him (hint: it’s not where he grew up!).

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Before you make any New Year’s resolutions, here’s a book you might want to take a look at: Dick Meyer’s Why We Hate Us: American Discontent in the New Millennium. Meyer, a longtime CBS News producer who joined NPR as their VP of Digital Media in 2008, has written a “man-on-the-street-ifesto” (forgive me) about what it is in modern life that is not simply crass and superficial, but that makes us stressed out and unhappy.

According to Meyer, the growth of what he terms “omnimedia” and “omnimarketing” have broken down the ties between people, making it easier for us to be discourteous and disrespectful at our various technological removes and making it harder for us to come out of our individual shells and “only connect,” as R. Buckminster Fuller would remind us to do.

That thesis may not be new, but Meyer’s treatment of it from a media professional’s perspective combined with his personal gentlemanly temperament, is. It’s a treatise that manages to be analytical and personal at the same time. Example: One of the most elegant sections of the book is a chapter about Meyer’s father-in-law and how that man created community and meaning throughout his life.

If you read Why We Hate Us, your New Year’s resolutions might, just might, look a little less about you and a little more about the people around you. Some friends of mine have a printed list of ways to create community displayed in their home. I’ve searched online for that list but can’t find it; if anyone out there has a link, I’d love to see it! The point is (and I’m not stating this as well as Meyer does, so read his book), having a community around us is important, and even vital. Doing something for somebody else is one of the fastest and easiest ways to get rid of discontent (NB: I’m not recommending philanthropy as a cure for depression; I’m talking about a less pernicious form of discontent).

We’ve got ten copies of Meyer’s book to give away to the first ten readers who share their favorite way of creating community — even online ways apply!

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Full disclosure: I have absolutely no objectivity about this book, because Louis Bayard is a friend. So unfortunately, if I tell you that he’s a brilliant writer, you’ll have to dismiss my opinions as sentiment-raddled ramblings.

That’s why I’m happy to say that there are plenty of other critics out there who can tell you that Louis Bayard is a brilliant writer, and that his latest novel The Black Tower is a terrific read. Don’t believe me? Listen to them!

Sarah Weinman: “To neglect history is to ignore it and suffer the consequences. But to write about it, to take salient points about a particular time and place and character and create both an engaging mystery that provokes the reader, is to ensure a positive feedback loop of remembering that solves the problem posed at the beginning of this review. The make-believe world of The Black Tower succeeds by broadcasting larger truths that might otherwise elude us.”

Marilyn Stasio: “Bayard makes brilliant application of Vidocq in this fanciful adventure…No snatch-and-run researcher, Bayard takes care to capture Vidocq’s roguish voice and grandiose affectations, as well as the melodramatic substance of his published memoirs.”

Ross King: “The Black Tower weaves history and fiction together in the trademark style—linguistic brio, a slickly unfolding plot, a raft of colorful characters—that has propelled Bayard’s work into the upper reaches of the historical-thriller league…In Bayard’s hands, Vidocq becomes an arrogant, bullying, wine-swilling, foul-smelling underworld spy and master of disguise—and an utterly compelling character.”

We’ve got ten copies of The Black Tower to give away to the first ten readers who respond to this post (following our giveaway guidelines, please) and tell me which historical character you think would make a great fictional detective.

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Welcome back from the Thanksgiving holiday, everyone! I hope you had lots of time to read something good. We’ve got a new book to give away — and a wonderful new author video right on its heels.

I hope you’ll take a few minutes and watch my interview with Domnica Radulescu, whose debut novel, Train to Trieste, came out this fall. It’s the story of a girl name Mona who longs to escape the drudgery of life in Ceaucescu’s Romania, but whose dreams aren’t realized in quite the way she’d imagined they would be once she emigrates to the United States.

If you’d like to nab one of ten copies of Domnica Radulescu’s Train to Trieste, tell me in a comment on this post (following our giveaway deadlines, please) which author you’d most like to see interviewed on this site in 2009.

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