What We’re Reading Wednesday: Roses

Posted on 3 March 2010 by Eliza, Associate Editor

Roses by Leila Meacham
Grand Central, January 2010

I was initially drawn to Roses because of the words I kept hearing associated with the novel: Doorstopper! Drama! Texas-family epic! When I read that Leila Meacham is 71-years-old, and that Roses came to her via divine inspiration—while she was in bed drinking a cup of coffee—I knew I had to learn more about the book.

At 600 pages, Roses is the kind of story that you’ll read under your desk, at the dinner table and through the middle of the night until you get to the end. We learn in the opening scene that cotton plantation matriarch Mary Toliver has unexpectedly changed her will at the end of her life. Meacham hooks us by offering no real explanation for this drastic move, and then shifts to the beginning of the 20th century, when Mary first inherits the plantation. The entire saga—filled with heartbreak, betrayal, power struggles and love—spans nearly 70 years. Looking for a good old-fashioned page-turner to gobble up this weekend? Roses fits the bill.

What are you reading today?

He gaped at her, truly shocked. “But, Mary, why?” You’ve had a marvelous life—a life that I thought you wished to bequeath to Rachel to perpetuate your family’s heritage. This codicil is so…” he swept the back of his hand over the document, “adverse to everything I thought you’d hoped for her—that you led her to believe you wanted for her.”

She slackened in her chair, a proud schooner with the wind suddenly sucked from her sails. She laid the cane across her lap. “Oh, Amos, it’s such a long story, far too long to go into here. Percy will have to explain it all to you someday.”

“Explain what, Mary? What’s there to explain?” And why someday, and why Percy? He would not be put off by a stab of concern for her. The lines about her eyes and mouth had deepened, and her flawless complexion had paled beneath its olive skin tone. Insistently, he leaned father over the desk. “What story don’t I know, Mary? I’ve read everything ever printed about the Tolivers and Warwicks and DuMonts, not to mention having lived among you for forty years. I’ve been privy to everything affecting each of you since I came to Howbutker. Whatever secrets you may have harbored would have come out. I know you.”

She lowered her lids briefly, fatigue clearly evident in their sepia-tinged folds. When she raised them again, her gaze was soft with affection. “Amos, dear, you came into our lives when our stories were done. You have known us at our best, when all our sad and tragic deeds were behind us and we were living with their consequences. Well, I want to spare Rachel from making the same mistakes I made and suffering the same, inevitable consequences. I don’t intend to leave her under the Toliver curse.”

Related in BookPage: Read an interview with Leila Meacham.

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Anne Rice goes digital

Posted on 3 March 2010 by Trisha, Managing Editor

Anne Rice has become the latest author to release a “Vook” (see an earlier post about Vooks here). She’s chosen an out-of-print short story, set in 1888 London, to republish in the new digital format. “The Master of Rampling Gate” is selling for just 99 cents right now (regular price $4.99), and I have to admit the preview, which includes one of the accompanying videos, is pretty interesting (not least for the revelation that such a thing as a “Gothic historian” exists).

You can choose among three views:  just the text, just the videos, or a mix of both.

Throughout the text you can click on words and be taken to Wikipedia links explaining them, just in case you don’t have a visual reference for “mullioned windows” or “Victoria Station.”

Screenshot of the Vook

I’m curious to see what kind of a response you readers have to something like this. Interested, or not a chance? At 99 cents I am tempted to give it a try, although Vooks don’t seem quite as impressive after Penguin’s announcement yesterday of their ebook vision for the iPad (I want that travel guide!).

After the jump, the YouTube trailer for “The Master of Rampling Gate” and an embed of the Penguin UK presentation (via).

Continue reading →

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Remembering Barry Hannah

Posted on 2 March 2010 by Eliza, Associate Editor

Barry Hannah

The Associated Press reported this morning that Barry Hannah, Southern author extraordinaire and creative writing professor at the University of Mississippi, died Monday. He was 67. Hannah’s death came just a few days before the 17th Oxford Conference for the Book; his work is the subject of the conference.

Hannah’s first novel, Geronimo Rex, was nominated for a National Book Award in 1972. It received the William Faulkner prize for writing. Short story collection High Lonesome was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1996.

Richard Ford, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Independence Day, was a friend of Hannah’s. He said, ”Barry could somehow make the English sentence generous and unpredictable, yet still make wonderful sense, which for readers is thrilling. . . You never knew the source of the next word. But he seemed to command the short story form and the novel form and make those forms up newly for himself.” Continue reading →

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Open for discussion

Posted on 1 March 2010 by Lynn, Editor

Earlier this month my book club read Jayne Anne Phillips’ Lark and Termite, which drew quite a range of reactions. Though everyone in the group agreed that Phillips is a terrific writer, some felt that this critically acclaimed novel (a finalist for the National Book Award) was a difficult reading experience. Readers questioned the supernatural elements, the use of symbolism (yes, Lola IS the cat) and a few plot points that strained belief. Despite all this, I can tell you that we had a wonderful discussion of Lark and Termite and that I came away from the meeting with a clearer understanding of this remarkable novel and a stronger appreciation for Phillips’ talents.

All of which serves as proof of The First Law of Book Clubs: It isn’t necessarily the books that everyone loves that spark the best discussions. In fact, my reading group has had some of its very best talks about books that most of us hated (I won’t mention any titles but a certain talking gorilla comes painfully to mind). Don’t get me wrong — we’ve also had wonderful conversations about books that each and every book club member thoroughly enjoyed. But in the end, it’s not only the quality of a book, but the experience of reading and sharing your reaction to it, that makes or breaks a book club.

What about it, book club members? What book has sparked the best discussion in your reading group? Tell us in the comments by March 14 and you’ll be entered to win copies of a recent reading group title for everyone in your club (up to 10 copies). The prize is being provided by the fine folks at Vintage/Anchor Books, and the winner can choose one of these recent Vintage/Anchor paperback releases:

Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy
Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese
Lark & Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips
The Private Patient by P.D. James
A Partisan’s Daughter by Louis de Bernieres

The winner and five runners-up will also receive a copy of The Maeve Binchy Writers’ Club, in which the beloved Irish author offers advice and encouragement for aspiring writers.

For more ideas and resources for your book club, check out the Vintage & Anchor Reading Group Center. And if you haven’t already, be sure to register your book club at BookPage.com.

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And now for something completely different

Posted on 1 March 2010 by Trisha, Managing Editor

It’s always a treat to hear that David Sedaris has a new project in the works. Even more exciting? Finding out he’s going off the beaten path.  Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, a collection of fables being published by Little, Brown in October 2010, will be illustrated by celebrated picture book author and artist Ian Falconer, reports Publisher’s Weekly.

David Sedaris

Ian Falconer

Though fables might first seem an odd choice for an accomplished essayist, I think the form could be the perfect showcase for Sedaris’ humor and imagination. What say you?

Related in BookPage: Interviews with David Sedaris, and reviews of his work; Meet Ian Falconer.

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Put yourself in a book

Posted on 26 February 2010 by Eliza, Associate Editor

Would you like to have a character—a zombie—named after you?

You might remember that in 2005, a woman paid $25,100 for the privilege of having a Stephen King character—a zombie, in fact—named after her brother. (The book was Cell, and the zombie’s name was “Huizenga.”) The proceeds, earned in an auction, went to the First Amendment Project, which has also allowed bidding for characters in John Grisham, Dave Eggers and Neil Gaiman books.

A news item in yesterday’s New York Times reminded me of this odd concept of reader participation: Tony Award-winning actress Patti LuPone is holding a contest for readers to name her forthcoming autobiography. She explains: “Dolls, I’ve been busy writing the story of my theatrical life and need your help to find a suitable and fabulous title.”

Romance novelist Robyn Carr is holding a similar contest (which you may have seen advertised on our site): Readers can enter for a chance to have a character named after them in one of her 2011 books, specifically, a kitchen colleague in the restaurant where we’ll first meet the story’s heroine. (Granted, the difference here is that Carr’s and King’s contests are all luck or money, whereas Lupone’s takes creativity. The NYT suggests “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina.”)

In October I blogged about The Amanda Project, a YA mystery series by Stella Lennon. The series is innovative because social media plays a role in the books’ editorial content; readers can interact on The Amanda Project website, and their comments could be incorporated into characters or subplots.

Commenters: What do you think about this marketing/fundraising technique? Would YOU like to have a character named for you in a book? Or your title splashed across a new hardcover? Or is editorial content best left to the experts—the authors themselves?

Related in BookPage: Read a review of The Amanda Project, a review of Robyn Carr’s Forbidden Falls or a review of Stephen King’s Cell.

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The political and the personal

Posted on 25 February 2010 by Kate, Associate Editor

There’s been no shortage of major books about political figures recently—think Going Rogue and Game Change, just for starters—but a few titles coming out this spring will be sure to generate even more interest in these very public lives.

President Obama may already have two books to his name, but David Remnick’s The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama is the first major biography to be published about him. Remnick, who won the Pulitzer Prize for 1993′s Lenin’s Tomb, will cover both Obama’s personal life (such as his relationship with his mother) and his political life. Says Paul Bogaards, executive director of publicity at Knopf, “Remnick conducted hundreds of on-the-record interviews to write the fullest narrative possible of a sitting President. He relies on conversations with family, friends, teachers, professors, mentors, donors, and rivals of Barack Obama––as well as with the President himself.” Knopf will publish The Bridge on April 6th, with a first printing of 200,000 copies.

And a mere two weeks later, on April 20th, Gotham will publish Michelle Obama’s brother Craig Robinson’s family memoir, A Game of Character: A Family Journey from Chicago’s Southside to the Ivy League and Beyond (Gotham). With a first printing of 250,000, Robinson’s book promises to share his insights into developing that elusive quality known as “character,” with stories about his and Michelle’s childhood, growing up and eventual acceptance into Princeton University.

Finally, with a first printing of a whopping 750,000 (!), Laura Bush’s memoir, Spoken From the Heart, will be released by Scribner on May 4th. There’s very little official information to be found about this book—they aren’t even sending out advance copies—but with numbers like that, expect this one to be HUGE.

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Sharyn McCrumb heads back to the mountains

Posted on 25 February 2010 by Trisha, Managing Editor

Fans of Appalachian literature, take heart—after 7 years, Sharyn McCrumb is returning to her acclaimed Ballad series on June 22 with The Devil Amongst the Lawyers.

From the catalog:

In 1934 all the national publications sent their star reporters to remote Virginia to cover the trial of Erma Morton: a beautiful 21-year-old year old mountain girl with a teaching degree, accused of murdering her father–a drunken tyrant of a man.

One of the journalists—18-year-old Carl—tells it like he sees it, earning the wrath of his citified cohorts, who are writing the backwoods crime story they think people want to read, rather than the truth. Will his sister, Nora, who has the “sight,” be able to save Erma—and Carl?

We’ve said before that McCrumb “is just the author to unearth the facts, sprinkle them with a little mountain magic and bring them to life in her fiction.” (from an interview for Ghost Riders).  The Devil Amongst the Lawyers should bring more of the same.

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Tailed in Vienna

Posted on 25 February 2010 by Eliza, Associate Editor

J. Sydney Jones

J. Sydney Jones is the author of 12 books, including 2009’s The Empty Mirror, a “stylish and atmospheric” mystery novel that “breathes life into turn-of-the-century Vienna.” Jones’ latest novel is Requiem in Vienna (published Feb. 2 by Minotaur Books), another mystery starring Viennese lawyer Karl Werthen and criminologist Hans Gross. In a guest blog post for BookPage, the author shares the experience that inspired his series—when, as a young man living in Vienna, he was tailed by a watcher for the state police.

I’ll Be Watching You

It took me two, maybe three weeks to figure it out.

At first I thought it might be a shopkeeper I did occasional business with. That would explain why he looked so familiar. The butcher on Langegasse or the wine merchant in the Altstadt. He had the same general features: slight build, medium height, light brown hair and eyes, gray overcoat. Nothing stood out. A figure that blends into the background.

I would catch sight of him across the Josefstaedterstrasse on my way to the language institute where I taught; see his reflection in a store window on Graben and he would quickly turn away; pass by him leaving the Stadtbahn station, his back to me, his head buried in a day-old issue of the Kurier. Once I actually came upon him talking with my building portier, a guilty look on both their faces.

This was the Vienna of several decades ago. It was still the Cold War. Foreigners living in Vienna fit into a risk category for the state police, anxious to protect Austria’s neutrality. It did not help that a childhood friend, also living in Vienna at the time, had become involved in a nationalist cause in Yugoslavia.

Still, until I discovered that I had my very own watcher, I had been living in another make-believe Vienna of schlagobers and Mozart. I had believed the tourist propaganda of the city of dreams and waltz.

My watcher stayed with me for over half a year, until I moved on for a time to Greece. Returning to Vienna the next fall, I no longer saw him or sensed his presence. But it was a wake up for me. I began to look at the underside of Vienna after the watcher; seeing the city as not only beautiful, but also treacherous. It is a vision that has remained with me, informing all of my writing about Vienna.

—J. Sydney Jones

Related in BookPage: Read a review of The Empty Mirror or read Bruce Tierney’s February Whodunit? column.

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Big PEN/Faulkner news for a Nashville writer

Posted on 24 February 2010 by Abby, Fiction Editor

When the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction finalists were announced yesterday, the names were recognizable—even predictable: Barbara Kingsolver, Lorrie Moore, Colson Whitehead and Sherman Alexie. But the fifth finalist, Lorraine M. López, nominated for Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories, stood out from the crowd.

López

While I didn’t recognize the title of the story collection, I thought I recognized the name: I had an English professor named Lorraine López as an undergraduate at Vanderbilt.

Turns out Professor López is not only an incredible teacher (her Latino literature class remains one of my favorites) but a greatly talented writer. I love this description of Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories, from fellow writer and critic Heather Sellers: “An amazingly original Flannery O’Connor/Loretta Lynn collision, this collection lets us witness the indomitable spirit and forces us to take pure joy in all we really ever have a chance at: flawed, gorgeous, weird, rollicking, screwed survival.”

Published in November 2009 by BkMk Press (at the University of Missouri, Kansas City), Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories is sure to get a lot of attention in the coming weeks—and we couldn’t be happier for its gracious and gifted author.

Lorraine M. López was kind enough to humor a former student—and took time out of her busy teaching/writing schedule to talk with BookPage today.

When did you find out you were named a finalist for the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction? What was your initial reaction?

My editor at the Press, Ben Furnish sent me an email saying he’d been contacted by the PEN/Faulkner Prize administrators who wanted my contact information, and soon afterward, I had an email telling me to call the director of the Prize. I called right away and she congratulated me for being a finalist for the award. I’m a low-key person, so I’d make a terrible game show contestant. I don’t whoop and holler. I think I said, “Wow,” but quietly. I don’t think I was able to take it in fully for the first 24 hours or so. I’m still processing the news, which is unbelievably wonderful, the kind of thing I wouldn’t even dare to dream. And when I saw the list of the other finalists, I went into super-fan mode, and I grew excited all over again with the anticipation of meeting these writers and hearing them read at the ceremony in May.

Continue reading →

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The new Mattie Ross

Posted on 24 February 2010 by Eliza, Associate Editor

When I went home to Arkansas in December, conversation on more than one occasion drifted toward the Coen Brothers’ new movie adaptation of Charles Portis’ 1968 novel True Grit, which opens on Christmas Day 2010.

Why are they re-making the film that won John Wayne his only Oscar? Were any locals auditioning for the role of 14-year-old Mattie Ross? Had anyone had a sighting of Portis, the novel’s reclusive author, who lives in Little Rock? And why on earth weren’t the Coens shooting the movie in Yell County, Arkansas, where the novel takes place? (Instead it’s being shot in New Mexico, which has high film incentives.)

Hailee Steinfeld

For a while we’ve known that Jeff Bridges will be Rooster Cogburn, the U.S. marshal who journeys with Mattie on the search to find her dad’s killer (played by Josh Brolin). Matt Damon will play Texas Ranger La Boeuf. But yesterday, Variety reported that newcomer Hailee Steinfeld has been cast in the all-important role of Mattie, who narrates the novel. Although the John Wayne version plays up the role of Cogburn, the Coens plan to focus on Mattie’s point-of-view in their adaptation.

There’s little information available about Steinfeld online, such as her age or hometown.

True Grit fans: Can you see her as Mattie?

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What we're reading Wednesday: Husband and Wife

Posted on 24 February 2010 by Trisha, Managing Editor

Husband and Wife by Leah Stewart
Harper, May 2010

Sarah and Nathan are just your average American couple: still in love after more than 10 years together, they have a toddler daughter and an infant son; Nathan is a novelist poised for commercial success with the release of his new book, Infidelity. But when Sarah learns that the book isn’t all drawn from Nathan’s imagination, what they thought they knew about their relationship is called into question.

Leah Stewart (Body of a Girl, The Myth of You & Me) is an acute social observer, and her take on this oldest of stories is worth reading. Told from Sarah’s perspective, the novel puts readers in her place and asks them to consider the temptations and trials of a longterm relationship.

“Do you still love me?” I asked, as though I was just now following up on what he’d said as we got in the car. Two hours ago it wouldn’t have crossed my mind to ask this question. Now I heard how tremulous my voice sounded when I did. I stared at his profile. The corners of his mouth turned down, as in a child’s drawing of a sad face.

“Of course I do,” he said, but this time he didn’t sound sure, and I said so. “It’s just . . .” He shot a look at me, gripped the wheel with both hands. “Sometimes, part of me wishes I didn’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“I wish I could say I didn’t love you, or we were unhappy, or I was in love with her. At least then I’d have a reason for doing what I did.”

“Yes,” I said. “That would be much better.” “You’re gazing at me adoringly!” I used to cry, when I caught him looking at me, and he’d deny it, and then I’d insist that he was, that he was freaking me out, and I’d pretend to flee his presence, and he’d chase me and tickle me and fix me with wide eyes, a goofy smile, and say, “I love you, I love you, I love you, you can’t get away.”

“Let me go!” I’d shriek, laughing and squirming. “Let me go!”

“I’m sorry,” he said now. “I don’t know what I’m saying. I don’t really mean any of that. I love you. I just feel so bad.”

I said nothing, though what I wanted to say was, Yes, you love me, you do, and how could you ever for one moment wish that away?

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'Bad Mother' author returns to fiction with 'Red Hook Road'

Posted on 24 February 2010 by Trisha, Managing Editor

I don’t know yet if I’m taking a vacation this summer, but if it happens, Ayelet Waldman’s latest will be tucked in my suitcase. Red Hook Road is being published in July 13. It’s her first novel since 2006′s Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, which interviewer Alden Mudge called “sharply observed, completely absorbing and sometimes wickedly humorous. Like Lionel Shriver and Zoe Heller, Waldman has a gift for creating flawed, and therefore human, characters. You may not always like them, but you root for them.

Red Hook Road sounds a little more dramatic than Love, which centered on the not-so-unusual dilemma of a stepmother struggling to accept her role. In an interview with Amazon, Waldman says that Red Hook Road was inspired by a newspaper story—a young couple, killed in a car crash on their way to their wedding reception. On her twitter feed, she describes it more succinctly: “Abt 2 families in Maine, connected & divided by tragedy and hope. Hey, just pulled that outa my butt. Pretty good!”

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Late-in-the-month February fiction is here

Posted on 23 February 2010 by Eliza, Associate Editor

On Monday, we’re posting the March print edition of BookPage online—but until then, here’s a preview of a few new books I’m particularly excited about. Best of all, each one comes out today! Browse the summaries below, then head to a bookstore or library. Which book will you read first?

John Banville won the Man Booker Prize for his latest novel, The Sea, and today you can read The Infinities—which BookPage columnist Robert Weibezahl describes as “a glimmering world that hovers between the lives of humans and the manipulations of the playful Olympian gods, exploring deep and ageless themes of love, loss and the meaning of time.” If that doesn’t hook you, how about this: Weibezahl calls Banville a “magical writer” with a “superlative gift for limning the essence of our own humanity in all its ungodly imperfection.” Read a full review of The Infinities.

Embezzlement, murder, blackmail, Celtic myth and a mysterious show woman? These elements come together in Venetia Kelly’s Traveling Show, Frank Delaney’s passionate tale of a boy’s coming-of-age in Ireland of 1932. Ben McCarthy must go on a quest to bring his father back from the circus, where he’s escaped to fall in love with Venetia Kelly. Delaney weaves Ben’s personal tale with Irish history—and the result is an “inventive, amazing work” writes Arlene McKanic in BookPage. Read a full review of Venetia Kelly’s Traveling Show. 

Elaine Beale’s Another Life Altogether has been regarded as a debut, although the author did publish a murder mystery in 1997 (now out of print). In any case, I’m glad that Beale is back. Her new novel deals with psychological development, the challenges of fitting in as a teen and a quirky family; it’s a worthy story filled with action and emotional drama. Read a full review of Another Life Altogether.

Any other recent releases you can’t wait to read?

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From the mailbag

Posted on 23 February 2010 by Trisha, Managing Editor

This just in: our galley copy of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, which is being released in the U.S. on May 25.


I still think it was silly of Knopf to wait so long to release Hornet (why punish the first, and probably most loyal, fans of the series? not to mention, the below screen cap suggests there were more than a few sales lost to ebooks, the UK edition and illegal downloads) but it has made the release of the finale an anticipated event.

To do our part to fan the flames, here’s an excerpt from the first chapter:

The girl on the guerney could live with a piece of lead in her hip and a piece of lead in her shoulder. But a piece of lead inside her brain was a trauma of a whole different magnitude. He was suddenly aware of the nurse saying something.

“Sorry, I wasn’t listening.”

“It’s her.”

“What do you  mean?”

“It’s Lisbeth Salander. The girl they’ve been hunting for the past few weeks, for the triple murder in Stockholm.”

Jonasson looked again at the unconscious patient’s face. He realized at once that the nurse was right. He and the whole of Sweden had seen Salander’s passport photograph on billboards outside every newspaper kiosk for weeks. And now the murderer herself had been shot, which was surely poetic justice of a sort.

But that was not his concern. His job was to save his patient’s life, irrespective of whether she was a triple murderer or a Nobel Prize winner. Or both.

Though I haven’t read the series, this is an intriguing opening. And speaking of intriguing, the actress who plays Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish films is definitely that. Check out the trailer for The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest below. (We’ll get our own English-language version of the first Salander adventure in 2012.)

Are you counting the days until May 25?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fccRlpFuLo&feature=related]

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