Book Recommendation: A Visit from the Goon Squad

I'd have to label Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad not just as one of the best books of 2010, but as one of the best books of the decade.  Strikingly original, smart, penetrating in its insights on both individual nature and collective American consciousness, the book is as rewarding to read as it is fun.  A reader's book for sure, this is a must read for writers.  What Egan does with structure alone--taking the notion of suddenly popular "linked stories" to a place perhaps only ventured into with as much authority by Tim O'Brien and Elizabeth Strout--the book could be required reading for writers wanting to examine a book's architecture.  It's made a couple of dozen "best of 2010" lists already and it certainly tops mine.  Navigate towards this Washington Post review for not just more praise but an excellent summary and analysis:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/15/AR2010061504751.html

After Setting Record, UConn Women Keep It In Perspective : The Two-Way : NPR

As the father of three daughters, all three of whom have competed in athletics in college and all of whom have "kept it in perspective," getting it done in the classroom first and participating in sports second, all of whom have always exhibited class and humility, my own perspective on the UConn Women's record is a bit jaded. It is a view in total agreement with this commentary: After Setting Record, UConn Women Keep It In Perspective : The Two-Way : NPR. How refreshing it is to see a group of athletes show the class they have to celebrate their success without tarnishing the successful history of others. Some lament UConn's total domination of women's basketball in the way we so enjoy hating those who are so wildly successful. I say give the women, their coaching staff, and the program the credit it deserves; you have to build programs like these and you have to do so with a relentless pursuit of excellence. We should show them something akin to the class with which they have reached this milestone and congratulate their success. Then we should move along, people; it's just basketball. The real repercussions of such achievement reside in the things we can learn from it: hard work, camaraderie, goal-setting, high expectation of the self, surrounding oneself with others who demand excellence...

Query Mistakes

Here is a link to an excellent article by JH Tohline compiled from interviews with agents about the most common mistakes they see from first time writers in query letters:  http://www.jmtohline.com/2010/12/biggest-mistakes-writers-make-when.html

Hurray for Small Presses!

The 2010 National Book Award for fiction goes to Jaimy Gordon for Lord of Misrule and published by McPherson and Company, a small New York press that typically plans print runs of 2,000 copies for literary titles (they bumped this one up to 8,000 for the first run when the nomination for Lord of Misrule was announced just before the first run, knees shaking, no doubt, with worries of unsold returns.)

On the bestseller list...the first volume (and a doorstop at that) of Mark Twain's autobiography, published by the University of California Press.  It has now sold something over a quarter of a million copies after a planned initial print run of 7,500.

Another NBA finalist this year was I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita, published by Coffee House Press.

Just a few recent examples of wonderful success stories from small publishers.  Good for the editors at these and other fine small presses.

Dare to be smart and buy books that fuel the imagination and challenge the mind.  Don't let sales volume and marketing budgets determine what should be read.  One way to see a more eclectic vision and read a greater breadth of work is to support small presses with your purchasing power.

Book Recommendation: The New Valley

Remember the name Josh Weil.  When he produces a book to follow up his debut collection of three novellas The New Valley (2009), buy it.  Once in a while a new writer comes along who reminds you why you love books, why  books allow you to see people in ways you'd forgotten you could, books even that teach you to question yourself and your preconceptions.  In this beautifully, honestly written novella collection, Weil continuously shows us characters we tend to, at first glance, think that we should dismiss, and in some instances, characters we dearly want to hate.  And then he does the remarkable--he redeems them, or rather, he presents them in the fullness of their humanity and allows us to redeem ourselves.  You'll never see the hill country between the Virginias in quite the same way after reading this book.  He writes himself into situations that seem like they might well prove impossible for a veteran author and then every time he gets it just right.

2010 National Book Awards, The National Book Foundation

2010 National Book Awards, The National Book Foundation

Pearls Before Breakfast - washingtonpost.com

This story is several years old now, from 2007. but it is not only tremendously well written, it forces us to ask critical questions about art and the role of art in our lives, our ability to recognize beauty, our tendency to believe there is value in the shear industry of our busy lives, and our current hierarchy of values. Focused on the world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell, the Washington Post put on a fascinating experiment with music in a public space. This is well worth reading: Pearls Before Breakfast - washingtonpost.com