On November 7, a special reading at WORD in Brooklyn will celebrate the blurbs that novelist Gary Shteyngart has bestowed upon other books.
Jacob Silverman created a Tumblr site dedicated to archiving The Collected Blurbs of Gary Shteyngart, collecting the author’s praise for books by authors ranging from Molly Ringwald to Adam Wilson to Lev Grossman. You can also follow Shteyngart on Twitter.
Check it out: ”The Shteyngart blurb has become almost a seal of approval that, while comical in the sheer amount of books he’s actually blurbed, are actually really good ways to tell if you’re going to like a book or not … The Collected Blurbs of Gary Shteyngart, Live brings together John Wray, Rachel Shukert, Adam Wilson, Gideon Lewis-Kraus and Karolina Waclawiak (as well as a few words from Silverman), all authors blurbed by Mr. Shteyngart, for a night of readings and tribute to the Russian-born oligarch of back cover quotes..” (Photo via Mark Coggins; link via Sarah Weinman)
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FRIDAY’S FOCUS!
Every Friday we will give you a brief rundown of the books we received over the course of the week. We will “focus” on the books that are jumping into our To Be Read pile. So without further ado…
Everybody knows everybody in The Hollows, a quaint, charming town outside of New York City. It’s a place where neighbors keep an eye on one another’s kids, where people say hello in the grocery store, and where high school cliques and antics are never quite forgotten. As a child, Maggie found living under the microscope of small-town life stifling. But as a wife and mother, she has happily returned to The Hollows’s insular embrace. As a psychologist, her knowledge of family histories provides powerful insights into her patients’ lives. So when the girlfriend of her teenage son, Rick, disappears, Maggie’s intuitive gift proves useful to the case—and also dangerous.
Eerie parallels soon emerge between Charlene’s disappearance and the abduction of another local girl that shook the community years ago when Maggie was a teenager. The investigation has her husband, Jones, the lead detective on the case, acting strangely. Rick, already a brooding teenager, becomes even more withdrawn. In a town where the past is always present, nobody is above suspicion, not even a son in the eyes of his father.
“I know how a moment can spiral out of control,” Jones says to a shocked Maggie as he searches Rick’s room for incriminating evidence. “How the consequences of one careless action can cost you everything.”
As she tries to reassure him that Rick embodies his father in all of the important ways, Maggie realizes this might be exactly what Jones fears most. Determined to uncover the truth, Maggie pursues her own leads into Charlene’s disappearance and exposes a long-buried town secret—one that could destroy everything she holds dear. This thrilling novel about one community’s intricate yet fragile bonds will leave readers asking, How well do I know the people I love? and How far would I go to protect them?
Release Date: August 3, 2010
Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books
Pages: 336
He was a tough-guy Welshman softened by the affections of a breathtakingly beautiful woman; she was a modern-day Cleopatra madly in love with her own Mark Antony. For nearly a quarter of a century, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were Hollywood royalty, and their fiery romance—often called “the marriage of the century”—was the most notorious, publicized, and celebrated love affair of its day.
For the first time, Vanity Fair contributing editor Sam Kashner and acclaimed biographer Nancy Schoenberger tell the complete story of this larger-than-life couple, showing how their romance and two marriages commanded the attention of the world. Also for the first time, in exclusive access given to the authors, Elizabeth Taylor herself gives never-revealed details and firsthand accounts of her life…
“The cold-war era was a very special time to be a child. We were appreciated. World leaders hell-bent on universal destruction might be accumulating nuclear armaments like the lucky winners of a Nickelodeon-sponsored Toys 'R Us shopping spree, but even the homeliest child could send a hand-letter plea for peace … and land herself a spot on the evening news.”
That’s my favorite passage from Rachel Shukert’s new memoir, Have You No Shame? It’s a dark and comic look at my generation, a little bit of history spiced with deeply personal insights—exactly what a good memoir should be.
Today, Rachel explains how she takes these sparkling paragraphs on the road, giving us tips for building a better public reading.
Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.
Jason Boog:
What role will readings play in your book promotion process? What's your advice for writers who want to engage the audience and read in a more dramatic style?
Rachel Shukert:
I'm a total exhibitionist, so I love doing readings! I have several more lined up this summer and am hoping to do lots more this fall. Continue reading...
“The American voice of the sixties I most identified with turned out to be less Ken Kesey and more Philip Roth. I didn't want to take peyote and have visions in the desert; I wanted to marry a nice psychoanalyst or film critic, live in a brownstone in Park Slope with books and really nice rugs, and send checks to progressive political causes. I didn't want to die young. In fact, I wanted to put off dying as long as possible.”
That’s author Rachel Shukert meditating on what the rock star Jim Morrison taught her about literary taste and her own life in high school, in an essay for Nerve. That teenager is all grown up, and just published her first book, Have You No Shame?.
Today Shukert takes us through her real-life influences, the writers who helped her shape her laugh-out-loud memoir. It's a hyper-linked reading list that will keep you busy all summer.
Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.
Jason Boog:
You are a bit coy in your book, but you have some very literary influences--mixing up everybody from Joan Didion to the Torah. Who do you read for inspiration? What's the reading list you would give to an aspiring memoirist?
Rachel Shukert:
Well, certainly Joan Didion. Also, David Rakoff, David Sedaris. Follow this link to continue reading...
"Ah yes, the noise-canceling headphones. You could lock Rush Limbaugh, Phyllis Schlafly and Mullah Omar in a room together with a stack of Hustlers and 10 ounces of meth, and they couldn't come up with anything more misogynist. I storm back to my desk and type the phrases "my husband" "addicted" "video games" "HELP" into the search engine. Hundreds of links appear."
That's author Rachel Shukert turning her husband's videogame addiction into comedic gold on the pages of Salon.
In her new book, Have You No Shame?, Shukert takes that same exaggerated style to a variety of queasy topics--I found myself laughing out-loud at things I never in a million years imagined laughing about.
Today, she teaches us how to write funny, part of my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.
Jason Boog:
You take topics that nobody ever dreamed of making jokes about (the Holocaust, STD's, anorexia and religion), and make us laugh. What kind of writing process do you follow to take this serious material and make it laugh-out-loud funny? Any advice for making our prose funnier?
Rachel Shukert:
This reminds me of something: I had this teacher that told us once, when we were doing some kind of comedy scene "don't worry if you're not funny, because you'll just never be cast in a funny role. You can't learn how to be funny, so forget about it." Continue reading...
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