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Last week, we stopped by the SoHo furniture boutique Ochre to check out a book party for Amy Sohn and her new novel, Prospect Park West—so we thought we'd take the chance to ask her about an article that had recently run in the NY Post delving into Sohn's use of real-life celebrities as walk-on characters...

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Tomorrow night at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, one GalleyCat editor will test his feeble skills of memorization beside some of the literary world's finest minds.

To promote Kenneth C. Davis and Jenny Davis' new book, "Don't Know Much About Literature: What You Need to Know but Never Learned About Great Books and Authors," Housing Works is hosting a literary trivia contest tomorrow night. The first round of the contest will feature bloggers and other literary types, and then, the audience will get a chance to participate. The show starts at 7 PM EST, and you can find out all the details at the Housing Works site.

Here's more about the killer line-up, from the post: "Both authors will appear to test your knowledge, from Homer to Harry Potter, from Chaucer to 'Charlotte's Web,' in a live game show complete with buzzers, book bloggers, and beer ... First round teams include Jason Boog, Garth Risk Hallberg, Buzz Poole, Edward Champion, Catherine Lacey, and Drew Toal. Second round teams include you!"

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Monday night, the West Village's 675 Bar was packed with people ready to celebrate the publication of Alix Strauss's Death Becomes Them, a consideration of several celebrity suicides that works at the underlying motivations behind the act. The basement bar's nooks were redecorated to pay tribute to many of the book's subjects—here, Strauss puts the finishing touches on the Kurt Cobain room—and signature drinks like the Virginia Woolf (vodka and Alize Bleu, with a Swedish fish dropped in) and the Dorothy Dandridge (whiskey, mint, and cassis) flowed freely. A few weeks earlier, we'd met up with Strauss, and we asked if this book's origins stemmed from a similar impulse to those of her first book, the novel-in-stories The Joy of Funerals. "It's about the way that we come together, our need for connection, our need to understand after death," she agreed. "When there's a suicide, there are all these unanswered questions; I think we're desperate to be our own detectives and to understand more. So it felt like a natural progression to me."

Was it a depressing topic to live with for nine months, even with four research assistants doing a lot of the grunt work? "A lot of people said I should definitely go out and have fun after five or six or twelve hours of suicide readings," Strauss recalled. "I actually connected with these people in a very weird way, though. Yes, it was depressing, yes, it was upsetting, but I felt so connected to them, because I was doing so much deep research, that it didn't affect me in a sad way as much as it was very intensified. The need to go out was more about having a chance to unwind as opposed to saying this subject was so depressing I was going to slit my own throat. Which would probably help book sales," she chuckled softly, "but is not something I'd like to do. I can be moody and suicidal on other days, and I'm sure I have been, but not because of the book."

The night of the party, however, the mood was nothing but upbeat. We slipped out about halfway through, but not before Strauss rallied the crowd into a celebrity suicide trivia contest—as another partygoer recounted one of the highlights, when Strauss asked how one person's body was found, somebody in the room shouted back, "Dead!"

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On Tuesday, September 15, mediabistro.com is throwing a party to celebrate the publication of Bedeviled: Daddy's Little Angel, the first novel in a four-book series for young readers by New York-based television news writer Shani Petroff, who credits mediabistro.com instructor
Micol Ostow with showing her how to develop a publishable story.

(It just so happens that the next round of mediabistro.com's 12-week course in young adult novel writing begins a week from tomorrow, and it appears there's still room in the program, if you're interested...)

Don't forget to RSVP, and then come join Petroff, the mediabistro.com events team, and perhaps some other YA luminaries at Merchants East at 6:30 p.m. for drinks specials and complimentary appetizers.

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Wednesday night, we dropped in at Sotheby's to introduce ourselves to Daniel Levin and ask him about the plausibility of his debut thriller, The Last Ember, which links an odd fragment of Roman imperial history to the moden-day curators of Jerusalem's Temple Mount...

We also commented on the fact that the novel's protagonist was a budding young classicist who studied at the American Academy in Rome and then went on to law school... just like Levin. "Happily, there's no real analogy there," he said, referring to the tragic backstory that explains the hero's legal career. "I'm just somebody who was interested in the classics and studied them as an undergrad." (As for law school, he also majored in philosophy, and suggests that was what led him to the law.)

Later, we caught up with Levin's publisher, Geoff Kloske, and half-jokingly asked if Riverhead had sweated the proximity of the Last Ember to the arrival of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol. Kloske assured us that Levin's novel had been scheduled for August long before Doubleday sprung their surprise, and Riverhead had seen no reason to deviate from their plans for a perfect late summer release.

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After nearly a year of speculation, Thomas Pynchon fans can finally buy "Inherent Vice tomorrow.

Ever since Conversational Reading spotted rumors of Pynchon's new private detective novel last October, GalleyCat has investigated the book's development: the handpicked cover art, the first excerpt of the novel, and author Salman Rushdie's thoughts about the new book. This afternoon, we will publish an exclusive video essay about the psychedelic mystery.

But we aren't the only ones excited about the book. Tonight, Book Soup in Los Angeles will stay open past midnight to sell the book, serving home made chocolate covered frozen bananas and banana pancakes to celebrate the release. A Cappella Books in Atlanta, Georgia and St. Mark's Bookstore in Manhattan will stay open past midnight tonight as well.

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When the feminist pop culture blog Jezebel launched, it brought a bit of synergy into Lizzie Skurnick's life—a high-profile outlet where she could act upon her desire to write about the novels that had had significant impact on her when she was a young reader. The column quickly became popular, and it wasn't too long before Skurnick and her agent, ICM's Kate Lee, were talking with Avon about a book. Last week, at an Upper West Side apartment just off Central Park, Skurnick's friends gathered to celebrate the publication of Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading.

Snacks drawn from children's and YA literature (e.g., peanut butter cookies as mentioned in From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler) were scattered throughout the apartment, as literary bloggers Maud Newton and D.E. Rasso mingled with a cluster of YA authors that included Justine Larbalestier, Scott Westerfeld, Maureen Johnson, and Robin Wasserman, along with writers from the "grown-up" literary scene like Julie Klam and Liam Callahan.

We've been dipping in and out of the book ever since the party, and even if we weren't already acquainted with Skurnick through her previous literary blog, we'd be recommending you check it out. Like the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books print spin-off, Beyond Heaving Bosoms, Shelf Discovery takes a serious look at an otherwise critically neglected corner of contemporary English-language literature, but isn't afraid to have fun while doing so. Our New York readers can find out for themselves Tuesday night, July 28, at the Tribeca Barnes & Noble, where Skurnick will be making an in-store appearance.

Last night GalleyCat braved the muggy July weather for the launch party for Granta 107 at the cozy Manhattan bookstore, Three Lives & Co..

We spotted a couple review copies of Thomas Pynchon's "Inherent Vice" floating around the party, and even struck up a conversation with Salman Rushdie about the reclusive author. It reminded us of the NY Observer's feature about 2009's "status galleys"--measuring how much credibility an advance reading copy of a hot book can lend to the regular reader.

Inspired, this GalleyCat editor interviewed some of the writers and editors at the party about their favorite status galley--including video answers from John Wray (author of Lowboy), Matthew Aaron Goodman (author of "Hold Love Strong"), and John Freeman, Granta's acting editor.

Next week mediabistro.com will host the launch party for Lauren Lipton's new novel, 'Mating Rituals Of The North American W.A.S.P.'

The party will be held on Wednesday, July 22, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm at Metro 53 in New York City. The first 50 people will receive a free copy of the book. There will be drink specials and a $4 specialty drink for the occasion: the Cape Codder. Earlier this year GalleyCat editor Ron Hogan interviewed Lipton about her work.

Here's more about the book: "After arguing with her live-in boyfriend about his inability to commit, Peggy Adams flies to a friend's bachelorette party in Las Vegas, and wakes up next to a man she can't remember. Hung-over and miserable, she sneaks out of the sleeping man's hotel room and returns home to New York, where her boyfriend apologizes for the fight and gives her a Tiffany box containing a pre-engagement ring."

(Note: There actually aren't many NSFW lyrics in this video, and they aren't even that outrageous, really... not like other Two Man Gentlemen Band songs we recorded at the show, which glorify drug and alcohol use.)

"We actually met on the very first day of art school," John Leavitt said, looking across the table at Molly Crabapple as fans started to stream into The Slipper Room for the party celebrating the publication of their graphic novel, Scarlett Takes Manhattan Wednesday night. "I noticed she was the only one not drawing on a great big newsprint pad, but in a tiny Parisian sketchbook, and I asked her about it, and we just never stopped talking."

"We actually dropped out of art school within weeks of each other," Crabapple chimed in, "in mutual hatred and disgust."

Scarlett Takes Manhattan emerged from Backstage (note: also NSFW), a collaborative project Crabapple and Leavitt published online at the webcomics collective ACT-I-VATE. Then, Crabapple recalled, Fugu Press came calling. "They were like, 'Do whatever you like, here's an advance, do anything as dirty or weird or obscure as you want,'" she told us. So they took one of the characters from Backstage and began to consider how she might have become a vaudevillian fire eater in late 19th-century Manhattan. Collaboration came easy: "We usually outline the story together, and then she'll work on the designs and I'll work on the script and we'll email each other the scans and the scripts," Leavitt explained, while Crabapple added, "John's sensibility is very witty and comedic, and mine is very angsty and teenage girl-ish, so he reins in a lot of my excesses."

"But if you're wondering why the tone seems bipolar near the end, it's because we were working independently," Leavitt told us, laughing. "I kept telling her, it's not Lolita! At best, it's Little Annie Fanny with corset jokes." (Meanwhile, Crabapple shook her fists, shouting "Damn you!" over this explanation.) Then it was time for the pair to get ready for their book party—which featured, in addition to The Two Man Gentlemen Band

On Tuesday, June 23rd, mediabistro.com instructor and author Tom Zoellner will host a party to celebrate the release of his new book, "Uranium." The party lasts from 6:30 to 8:30pm, and will be held at Katra in New York City.

The author will sign books, share Yellow Cake, and toast readers with his specialty cocktail, the Uranium Drop. Drink specials and complimentary appetizers provided by Katra. You can RSVP here. Earlier this year, Zoellner appeared on The Daily Show to talk about his book about this unstable element.

Here's more about the book: "Uranium is a riveting journey to the heart of this eerie mineral, taking us from slave camps in Africa, to desert mesas, war councils, smugglers' routes, doomsday cults, jungle mines and secret enrichment plants over five continents in a narrative that is equal parts history, investigative journalism and nonfiction thriller."

GalleyCat caught up with Mike Edison's I Have Fun in Brooklyn Five-Star Super Tour last night, a raucous mix of storytelling, book promotion, and rock & roll crammed into a skinny Fort Greene bar.

The tour already hit the neighborhoods of Cobble Hill and Williamsburg, as musicians helped Edison pitch the paperback version of his memoir, "I Have Fun Everywhere I Go." He'll make two more Brooklyn stops--a burger flipping music event at Red Hook's Freebird Books and a final party at Roberta's Restaurant in Bushwick.

After the show, GalleyCat caught up with Edison to find out why New York book tours should spend more time in Brooklyn. He explained: "Everywhere I hit on this tour, no one is jaded, no one is suffering from the typical seen-it-all ennui that so many literary types seem to suffer from. Everyone is genuinely appreciative that we are coming out, and and working hard for them, doing something different. No kidding, this is the future of book touring. Forget fancy 'name' bookstores, you gotta go where the people are--where they sell drinks."

continued...

While some of us were taking a last-minute stroll through the Javits Center to close out BookExpo America, John Oakes (with the bullhorn) and Colin Robinson took a bunch of their friends out on the historic fireboat John J. Harvey—you may remember the upcoming memoir by its mechanic, Jessica Dulong—to celebrate the launch of their new publishing company, OR Books. The two plan to dedicate themselves to publishing in print-on-demand and electronic formats, focusing their attention on independent bookstores and direct consumer sales. They also plan to publish no more than two books a month, preferring content with "a distinctive progressive edge, reflecting the new era of the Obama presidency and the economic and environmental challenges it faces," according to their press release. ("As in the wake of 9/11," the announcement continued, "the severity of these crises is pushing wide audiences to engage at new levels with what is happening in the world around them. OR Books will be positioned to satisfy this demand.") You can find out more about their vision in a video they shot earlier this spring; the first books are scheduled to ship in September.

Among the others who've signed on are novelists Lisa Dierbeck, Josh Furst, and Dale Peck and the journalist Choire Sicha, all of whom were aboard the boat—along with Obama's favorite new novelist, Joseph O'Neill, and several other supportive authors, agents, and publishing executives.

(photo: Miriam Berkley)

UPDATE: Sicha emails to clarify, "Mischief & Mayhem, a new publishing outfit composed of the four authors you name plus the wonderful D.W. Gibson, is now working towards an agreement with OR Books. After all, we share a common vision of how book publishing desperately needs to be changed radically, and we're looking forward to coming to an arrangement with John and Colin where we join forces to bring exciting, risk-taking books to readers."

Two summers ago, we told you about HarperCollins editor Rakesh Satyal and his occasional moonlighting as a cabaret singer; it turns out that he was also working on a novel, Blue Boy, based ever so loosely on his own childhood as an Indian-American coming to terms with his sexual identity in Ohio. That novel's out now, and he's been doing a series of readings and musical performances—which leads us to tonight's event at The Slipper Room. (Full disclosure: This event was put together by senior editor Ron Hogan in his other capacity, as the curator of the literary website Beatrice and a reading series with the Mercantile Library Center for Fiction.)

Satyal will be reading from Blue Boy, and he'll be joined by his longtime friend and editorial colleague Sarah Rainone, who's also just published a debut novel, Love Will Tear Us Apart, about a group of high school "friends" reuniting years later when two of them get married. But that's just half the evening's entertainment: Several singer/songwriters from the Bushwick Book Club will be on hand to perform original songs based on the two novels—and there are plans in the works for both Satyal and Rainone to show off their musical chops as well. (The words "Disney" and "showtunes" have been mentioned.)

As pre-BookExpo America parties go, and we admit to a total lack of objectivity here, this is going to be one fabulous event, so come by the Slipper Room (167 Orchard St) tonight starting at 6 p.m. It's a cash bar, but there's no cover, and the entertainment begins at approximately 7 p.m.

Simon Van Booy celebrated the publication of his latest short story collection, Love Begins in Winter, with a reception at Partners and Spade, NoHo's only-by-appointment deluxe thrift store/art gallery. The texts of stories like "Tiger, Tiger" and "The Missing Statues" formed a backdrop for the reading—and we're told at least one person in the audience had a Flip video camera, so there's a good chance we might all get to see it soon. In the meantime, Van Booy advocates the enjoyment of short fiction as part of a series of "public service announcements" from HarperPerennial authors.

(photo: Alyssa Robb)

Earlier this week, we dropped in on the book party for Anna David's second novel, Bought, at Frederick's in the West Village, and even though we showed up fairly early the room was already insanely packed—so it was really too noisy to do much else other than congratulate David on her success while Nick McGlynn of Random Night Out snapped photographs all around the room. But we did get to ask her later, by email, about how the novel had started out from an article she wrote for Details five years ago on high-class prostitution in Los Angeles:

"I ended up spending about six months infiltrating a world of exploitative madams, girls who were making up to $50 to $100K a night for sex because they were 'famous' porn stars, and security guards for these girls who were secretly cooperating with the FBI," David told us. "Unfortunately, the article ended up being, essentially, an ad for the most abusive madam of all. It wasn't the magazine's fault—I wasn't assigned a gritty exposé on evil madams but a more basic story about how rich men got their rocks off. Still, it always frustrated me that I'd learned so much about this sub-culture and hadn't been able to really write about any of it.

"So, after selling my first novel, I began thinking that a story that focused on the money-for-sex business would be able to address the sorts of themes that concern all women: the fact that we don't make as much money as men and most of us struggle with whether or not to allow ourselves to be taken care of financially by them. It's been grilled into our heads since birth—or at least it was grilled into mine—that we should be paving our own way but where does that leave us in terms of being able to raise our own kids? We may not talk about it all the time but it's messy, confusing territory for most of us. We also may not talk about how we use our sexuality to get what we want but, in developing the main prostitute character in the book, I had to look at the ways I related to her—and I found them. I've definitely used my sexuality manipulatively—whether it was to get to the front of a line or to be the center of attention—and I know I can't be the only one."

David also showed us a quiz about those types of situations that both men and women are invited to take online (although men will have to mentally reframe some of the questions before answering).

Remember last week, when we told you about that one night everybody seemed to be throwing a book party at once? Well, Rachel Lehmann-Haupt was one of those authors, and she recently sent us some pictures from that evening's reception at MoJo for her book about reporting on the fertility options available to women in their mid-thirties and early forties while sorting out her own personal interests, In Her Own Sweet Time. While on book tour, Lehmann-Haupt continues to discuss the subject in an ongoing column for True/Slant, "an original content news network" founded by former AOL programming executive Lewis DVorkin.

Last night memoirist, editor, and rock & roll scribe Mike Edison launched the paperback edition of "I Have Fun Everywhere I Go" with a blazing set by Boss Hog. So blazing, in fact, that one GalleyCat editor's videocamera couldn't handle the punk rock book party at the Manhattan club, Bowery Electric.

The camera worked, however. Here, Edison is pictured between cartoonist John Holmstrom and Patti Smith Group guitarist Lenny Kaye. They were two of the many musical and literary stars at the event enjoying free beer and White Castle sliders.

GalleyCat caught up with Rachel Shukert, who is finishing her follow-up to "Have You No Shame?" Oddly enough, her new memoir combines the influences of Elizabeth Gilbert and George Orwell. We also chatted with Denise Oswald about her plans as the newly minted editorial director of Soft Skull Press.

As American publishers tone down publicity budgets, book parties are now booming in New Delhi.

The NY Times reports that literary parties in this Indian city have grown--bringing a crowd of readers, writers, and party animals. The travel piece actually gives readers the phone numbers and websites for the most popular book party venues in the city--allowing globetrotting literati to find the best spots.

Here's more from the article: "The parties--already frequent--have been buoyed by the novelist Aravind Adiga's Man Booker Prize for 'The White Tiger' in 2008 and the eight Oscars this spring for 'Slumdog Millionaire,' which was based on a book by an Indian diplomat. And you needn't be an industry insider to attend--in fact, it rarely matters if you have an invitation or even if your name is on a list--but it does take a little digging to track down the events."

One hundred readers from around the country were invited to attend the first White House Poetry Slam, a cultural event that includes poet Mayda Del Valle, novelist Michael Chabon (pictured), playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, and a speech by President Barack Obama.

Scheduled for this evening, the event will also feature actor James Earl Jones and two jazz musicians. According to KTAR.com, the First Family is fulfilling a promise to support the arts during Obama's tenure.

The article quotes Arizona lawmaker Kyrsten Sinema about her excitement for the event: "[Sinema] quotes the White House contact as saying, 'We're looking for people who are hip, young and cool. And, I said, 'uh, huh, how did I get picked?' I didn't sound very hip and cool on the phone. I sounded like a 12-year-old girl. I was like, 'Oh, my gosh.'" (Photo via; link via Isak)

When we walked into the Four Seasons last night for the party celebrating the publication of Kate Kelly's Street Fighters: The Last 72 Hours of Bear Stearns, the Toughest Firm on Wall Street, we thought the candlelight was a nice ambient touch—turns out it was because the building had lost power, and behind the kitchen door we could see the arc of a flashlight waving wildly. (Still, kudos to the staff, who got everything out smoothly, and it was all excellent.) As the setting sun took away what little light there was left in the room, we managed to find a spot where the backup generators provided us with enough illumination to chat with the Wall Street Journal reporter about how she was able to turn this book around so quickly after the financial firm's collapse, and then went back to full-time work at the paper the day after she handed in the manuscript to Portfolio.

"We wanted to get the book out quickly because we knew events were happening very fast in the marketplace," she explained. "People seemed interested in what was going on in Wall Street and the markets, so for sure we wanted to get out quickly before there was a tsunami of books about broader issues and the crisis. We believed that Bear Stearns was the first domino to fall."

A crowd of writers and mothers gathered at the Slipper Room in Manhattan last night, helping launch "Love, Mom: Poignant, Goofy, Brilliant Messages from Home."

Conceived by Doree Shafrir (currently of the NYO, formerly of Gawker) and Jessica Grose (formerly of Jezebel), the book collects wacky correspondence from mothers around the country.

GalleyCat caught up with Shafrir for a quick video interview, finding out how she built her packed turnout for a book party in the middle of a recession. Our siblings at FishbowlNY also stopped by the festivities last night, uncovering some photos of the party.

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GalleyCat was given an exclusive look inside of the 2nd Literati-A-Go-Go event of the year. Literary agent, Donna Bagdasarian, Former PW VP & Publisher, David Nudo, VP of Wikimedia New York City, Inc., David Shankbone and acclaimed author, John Reed hosted the packed mixed media and book publishing event.

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On Tuesday writers, agents, and celebrities joined ten-year old Cassidy Megan to raise awareness about epilepsy at Dylan's Candy Bar in Manhattan. The New York-based Anita Kaufmann Foundation helped the young epilepsy sufferer educate Americans about the disease.

GalleyCat joined the festivities, chatting with novelist and blogger Robin Slick. The list of supporting writers included Litpark's Susan Henderson, novelist Caroline Leavitt, author MJ Rose, and Writers House agents Dan Conaway and Kenneth Wright.

Here's more from the release: "Motivated by her own struggles with epilepsy, Cassidy created Purple Day last year in Canada to let kids know they are not alone and to educate the public. She designated March 26th as Purple Day--named after the internationally recognized color for epilepsy: lavender. Now her grassroots effort is going global and coming to the US."

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Yesterday afternoon, the marketing managers for DK Publishing celebrated Mardi Gras—and the arrival of a new edition of their DK New Orleans travel guide—with a little in-house party, complete with masques and beads. They stayed close enough to the holiday tradition that they baked a tiny Baby Jesus doll into the King Cake... No word, though, on who got the lucky slice, or what favor they might have enjoyed around the office for the rest of the day.

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