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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A few months ago, two books showed up at my house for review for the
Chicago Tribune, a paper I've had the privilege of writing for over the course of many years. Both had August publication dates. Both were intriguing. The first was by the actress Molly Ringwald, and I, but of course, had corporate work to do. "I'll just see what this is about," I told myself, but once I opened
When It Happens to You, Ringwald's debut novel in stories, I could not stop reading. The book contains exceptional writing—chilling, precise, moving. It tells the story of a marriage through interlocking tales. It is polished work, considered work, and I said as much in the
Tribune.
This morning I share my first two paragraphs, below. The rest appears in
Printers Row, the weekly book magazine that Elizabeth Taylor launched six months ago. Filled with reviews, interviews, stories by readers, children's thoughts, trends, this is essential reading for book lovers and can be ordered digitally (by those of us who don't live in Chicago) for just $29/year. Check out a sample issue
here.
Two paragraphs, then, from my
Tribune review:
A novel in stories, a good one, is like a well-built house on a breeze-infused day—windows open, doors unlocked. Stand in the right place, and you’ll feel the stir. You’ll see surfaces give way to shadows, sunlight pool and recede. You’ll see that flicker just beyond—in the far room, at the turn of the stairs, back among the orchids in the broad bay window. The floor is solid. The walls are plumb. Little else is absolute.
When It Happens to You, the first book-length fiction by the actress Molly Ringwald, is a well-made house—thoughtfully designed, conscientiously crafted, open to the intrigues of weather. A fraying marriage stands at its core—a philandering husband, a wounded wife, an angry six-year-old daughter, and a suite of frozen embryos. The old woman next door, a playmate’s mom, a fallen TV personality, a young violin teacher, and a cross-dressing child will all, somehow, be implicated in the familial mess—or feel the reverberating consequences. Regret will hang heavy, but it will not cure.
Actress and author Molly Ringwald is publishing a serialized short story posted at Five Chapters.
“The Harvest Moon” opens her upcoming book, When It Happens to You: A Novel in Stories. The book comes out on August 14th–you can follow Ringwald on Facebook and Twitter if you want more updates. Here are the first few sentences. Follow this link to read the whole story:
As far as Greta knew, there was nothing in the sky that night.
Lying on her back in the bathroom on the cool of the white marble tiles, she heard the summons again. Her husband tapped the horn of the car: one long, noisy beep followed by two shorter taps, as if in apology. She strained to close the zipper on a pair of jeans without pinching the soft flesh of her midsection. It was a task she found both onerous and humiliating, primarily since she had purchased the pair less than a month ago, having gone through the same depressing experience with every other pair that lay folded in her dresser.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Immigrant teens (in the spirit of today being the anniversary of 9/11, I thought I would post this article about a photography exhibit in Los Angeles documenting the experience of new young Americans) (Jewish Journal)
- Too much girl talk? (I feel... Read the rest of this post
This is a great recommendation from you! Perfect fit for me. I will have to order a copy.
I've been reading about this book everywhere! Sooo cool you got to review it.
I've seen this book everywhere, but I'm often not interested in celebrity books? But this seems to be really good and also somehow I missed that it was fiction, lol.