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Good morning, all! We’re this much closer to the launch of The Book Studio. 

To keep myself out of trouble until the new site is live, I’ve decided to try something Completely Different for a giveaway. I’ve got just three copies of Dara Horn’s new novel All Other Nights available, but instead of having you just leave comments here, I’m going to have you take a walk on the Twitter side if you’d like to nab one of those copies.

The three books will go to three random responses from the first 30 to send me a “tweet.” I certainly understand if you aren’t interested in signing up for Twitter, and I’ll have plenty of “regular” giveaways coming up in the next couple of weeks for my loyal readers. This one is Twitter-specific, however. 

My Twitter “handle” is thebookmaven, and you can find me here: http://www.twitter.com/thebookmaven. Just send me a message (a “tweet”) saying you’d like a chance at All Other Nights. 

Thanks for trying out something new with me!

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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 Unpublished writer to published author?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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Good morning, everyone, and Wednesday greetings. This was supposed to be posted on Monday, but there wasn’t enough coffee, or cold medicine, in the world…

There’s not enough chicken soup in the world, either: At least not for my family today. We’re all down with colds/respiratory infections, and while Mr. Bethanne and I have to work regardless, both Mini Mavens are home from school. Fortunately, when I went out to interview Amy Dickinson at Politics & Prose over the weekend (that interview, with text and video, coming this week!), I bought the younger MM some reading material, so she’s happy. The older MM is curled up with a novel, and Mr. Bethanne is reading The New Yorker. I’ll be reading again, too, as soon as I manage to get this post live.

Today’s question: What do you read when you’re sick?

Again, this is a random giveaway. The first 30 respondents will be entered into a random generator and we’ll pull out 10 who will receive 2 new hardcover books each. Have fun, and thank you — I hope I’ll be back to a normal posting schedule tomorrow.

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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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This week Stephen Hess, Senior Fellow Emeritus in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and Distinguished Research Professor of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University (whew!) took some time to talk with me about his nineteenth book – which is, it is fair to say, quite a departure from Organizing the Presidency. This one is lighter in tone and topic: What Do We Do Now? A Workbook for the President-Elect (Brookings Institution Press, January 2009).

But while Hess’s new book may be lighter in tone and topic, it’s quite serious in its intent. Stephen Hess has been employed by, involved with, and an observer of presidential administrations since the Eisenhower administration (he began there as a speechwriter while still a twentysomething). He knows what happens during good presidential transitions and bad, and he’s got the stories to prove it. 

I asked Hess first why he chose to call this a “workbook” and not a “handbook.” He said “I started with a handbook in mind, but then it became kind of a literary conceit in my own mind. I thought, if I call this a ‘workbook’ I can throw in all of these exercises.” The exercises range from the straightforward (“What promises did you make?”) to the fun (“Pick a Presidential Portrait”).

The inauguration is just days away when I speak to Hess, so I asked him if he thought the “PEOTUS” (President-Elect of the United States) is ready. “There’s a lot of loose ends,” said Hess. “Suddenly he still has one cabinet appointment to make. However, this president has really found remarkable people and made very creative choices for his cabinet.”

Hess told me that the book had its beginnings last year when he thought about the upcoming election: “I realized that I had been involved, in one way or another, in every election/inaugration/transition since the late 1950s, and I started to draft my first chapter, ‘My Life in Transition’ so that readers could understand why I was writing the book. “

Of course, says Hess, “Coming in is more fun than going out, I can assure you!” His “Checklist for the President-Elect” reads like the elaborate timetable for the greatest event-planning situation ever – and that might not be too far off the mark. Obama has “beat my markers,” says Hess. “Clinton, for example, had one of the truly awful transitions – that may be good for Obama, since John Podesta has had 16 years of experience  to realize and analyze what went wrong and what to do differently this time.”

Hess believes that a key to a successful transition is “creating a plan to balance efficiency and creativity with work habits.” Does he think that Obama’s gym-rat habits will withstand the transition? He laughs, but admits that “Right now Obama has to be laser-like about the economy while there are lots of other things trying to force themselves onto his agenda. I think this is what happened to some extent with Bill Clinton. He was a very smart, very creative president who just kept moving around between all of the things that interested him and got truly sidetracked along the way. We shall see if that happens with Barack Obama. Our expectations are that it won’t.”

One of the reasons Hess wanted to set out all of these transition guidelines is that “It’s almost inconceivable, but conceive it: Presidents know so little about how government is really run, that after one of them has made a decision, he hardly knows what happens to it or why it doesn’t come out as he expected. The intereaction between the executive branch and the people who really run things – the high-level civil servatns – can be tainted with a lot of misunderstanding and suspicion, but it doesn’t have to be. I think President-Elect Obama is off on the right foot because he’s got a lot of people who are still relatively young coming back in, people who have great ideas, but experience, too.”

There are some goofs that can be made during presidential inaugurations (Hess says “Look at William Henry Harrison, who spoke for two hours in the freezing cold, got sick, and died a month into office – you can’t beat that in terms of idiocy”), but Hess doesn’t think that anything will upstage Barack Obama’s inaugural address. “Read Dreams from My Father. It’s a great book. It’s clear we are about to have a president who is our most literary stylist since Lincoln.”

Tomorrow: An Giveaway in Honor of the Inauguration

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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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