Imprint Extra: Giveaway of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Can you believe it's been ten years since Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner was first published? Over that decade, the novel has been read by tens of millions of people all around the world.

To celebrate the event, Riverhead Books has released a special 10th Anniversary Edition of The Kite Runner, which includes a new foreword by Hosseini.

I read the book soon after it first came out and long before I started blogging. I still remember the vivid characters, the friendship between the boys, the secrets revealed in adulthood, the contrast of life in Afghanistan versus the United States, the exploration of father-son relationships, and the intensity of the story.

The opening paragraph has the power to bring it all back to me:

I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975. I remember the precise moment, crouching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek. That was a long time ago, but it's wrong what they say about the past, I've learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.

If you haven't yet read The Kite Runner, doesn't that make you want to know more? If you are already familiar with the book, then you know what happened that winter, and those sentences will cause the plot to begin to unfold for you.

Whether you're new to Hosseini or want to revisit the book, I have good news! Thanks to Riverhead Books, I'm thrilled that I'm able to offer one of my readers a copy of the 10th Anniversary Edition of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. All you have to do for a chance to win is to fill out the following form.

I'll use a random number generator to pick a winner on March 25, and once the winner is confirmed, I'll erase all personal information from my computer. Winners must have a US or Canada mailing address (no PO Boxes, please). Good luck!



Riverhead Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, visit the Riverhead website. While there, explore their terrific book list, check out authors in the news, and view some fun videos. Stay in the know by following them on Tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter.

Buy The Kite Runner at an indie or at a bookstore near you. (Link leads to an affiliate program.)
Published by Penguin USA / Riverhead, 2013 (anniversary edition)
ISBN-13: 9781594631931
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy).

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Weekend Cooking: A Girl and Her Pig by April Bloomfield

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

_______

April Bloomfield must be one of the hardest working chefs in New York. She co-owns three restaurants and holds the food she serves to the highest of standards. Celebrity chefs, food writers, and those in the know frequent her establishments to partake of her simple dishes with startlingly full flavors.

In her cookbook, A Girl and Her Pig, Bloomfield explains her approach to cooking, shares her stories, and gives us her recipes. Unlike many restaurant chefs, she is well aware that the home cook is not professionally trained and doesn't have a team of kitchen helpers. Thus one her goals is to provide us with knowledge and tips so we can elevate our own dishes from good to wow.

Finding balance is about understanding a dish's harmonious potential, the place where all the flavors achieve a sort of equilibrium. Each bite should make you want to take another. (p. 6)

She emphasizes bright flavors and particular ways to cut vegetables so our food has interest both to the palate and to our eyes. She isn't fussy about fancy presentations and dainty portions, but she is quick to point out that a good-looking plate helps boost the appetite and the enjoyment of the meal.

Some of her recipes may seem long, such as her beef pie, but Bloomfield breaks them down into doable steps and offers plenty of personal notes ("I like to . . "). Other recipes, her grilled sea bass, for example, call for four ingredients and the simplest of directions. Although a few of the main ingredients may be difficult to find or too expensive for everyday eating (quails' eggs, squid), the bulk of the recipes are accessible to the average home cook (featuring familiar meats and vegetables).

Despite the title and the cover photo, A Girl and Her Pig is not solely a meat cookbook. Her vegetable and salad dishes are among my favorites, and I love the nibbles recipes. She also includes a drinks chapter (her version of a Bloody Mary is fantastic) and desserts (that dark chocolate orange cake has my name on it).

As much a book about food and cooking as it is a cookbook, A Girl and Her Pig belongs on the bookshelf next to M. F. K. Fisher, Elizabeth David, and Edna Lewis. The writing is personal and confident and is to be savored along with the meals. Follow April Bloomfield's tips for the perfect cup of tea, plate up some of her soft oatmeal cookies, and get ready to be inspired.

Instead of sharing a recipe, I've imbedded a video that shows Bloomfield cooking three dishes from the book. For a few recipes from A Girl and Her Pig, visit Bloomfield's website.

Beth Fish Reads is proud to showcase Ecco books as a featured imprint on this blog. For more information about Ecco, please read the introductory note posted here on July 15, 2011. Find your next great read by clicking on Ecco in the scroll-down topics/labels list in my sidebar and by visiting Ecco books on Facebook and following them on Twitter.

Buy A Girl and Her Pig at an Indie or a bookstore near you. This link leads to an affiliate program.
Published by HarperCollins / Ecco, 2012
ISBN-13: 9780062003966
Rating: A
Source: bought (see review policy)
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy).

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Imprint Extra: Cathy M. Buchanan on Degas's Little Dancer

In my last Imprint Friday post, I featured Cathy M. Buchanan's The Painted Girls. I couldn't stop reading this fact-based novel about one of Edgar Degas's ballerina models and her efforts to help her family rise out of poverty.

Marie was a young teenager when she entered the Paris ballet school and began supplementing her income by modeling for Degas. The artist used her image in several of his works, including one of his most famous sculptures. I can't help but wonder what Marie would have thought if she realized she would become so well recognized around the world.

Please welcome author Cathy Buchanan, who was kind enough to stop by today to tell us a little bit more about the famous Degas bronze. I'll never look at that sculpture the same way again.

Five Things You Never Knew about Degas's Little Dancer Aged Fourteen (unless you've read The Painted Girls)

1. Marie Van Goethem modeled for the sculpture: Fourteen-year-old Marie van Goethem posed both naked and clothed for Edgar Degas. Between 1878 and 1881, he drew, painted, and sculpted her in numerous artworks, most famously in Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. She was from a poverty-stricken family and was trained at the Paris Opéra dance school to enter the famous Paris Opéra Ballet.

2. Marie's meager circumstances were not unusual at the dance school: A position with the Ballet was the dream of many a poor Parisian girl. The ballet offered a chance to escape the gutter, to find fame and fortune if she had talent and ambition and if she was able to attract the attentions of a wealthy admirer.

3. Ballet girls like Marie were often preyed upon by male season's ticket holders: Along with their own private boxes at the Opéra, male season's ticket holders had purchased entrance to the Foyer de Dance, a space built to encourage encounters with the young ballet girls. It was a sort of gentleman's club, a place where highlife met lowlife, where mistresses were sought by industrialists and noblemen with clout enough to advance a girl's career.

4. With Little Dancer Degas may have been hinting at the corruption of Marie: "Scientific" findings of the day supported notions of innate criminality and particular facial features—low forehead, broad cheekbones, forward-thrusting jaw—that indicated a tendency toward crime. It appears Degas bought into the idea and sought to incorporate it into his artwork. The telltale features are apparent in the criminal portrait he exhibited alongside Little Dancer in 1881, and he, in fact, titled the portrait Criminal Physiognomies. With the same features marking Little Dancer's face, art historians hypothesize Degas was suggesting the corruption of young Marie.

5. Little Dancer shocked the city of Paris: When Degas unveiled Little Dancer in 1881, it was to reveal something very curious—a highly realistic wax sculpture of a ballet girl, wearing a real skirt, bodice and pair of slippers and a wig of human hair. She was called a "flower of precocious depravity." Her face, they said, was "imprinted with the detestable promise of every vice." The public, it would seem, had linked Little Dancer with a life of corruption and young girls for sale.

__________

Thanks so much, Cathy. I was fascinated not only with Degas and his work but also with the details of the ballet school and life in the less-romantic areas of Paris. In addition, The Painted Girls brought back many fond memories of own years at various dance studios. (Click the image of the bronze to enlarge it; as far as I can tell it's in the public domain.)

Riverhead Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, visit the Riverhead website. While there, explore their terrific book list, check out authors in the news, and view some fun videos. Stay in the know by following them on Tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter.

Buy The Painted Girls at an indie or at a bookstore near you. (Link leads to an affiliate program.)
Published by Penguin USA / Riverhead, January 8, 2013
ISBN-13: 9781250013972
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy).

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Imprint Extra: Review: Canada by Richard Ford

In the late summer of 1960, America was still hanging on to its innocence. For 15-year-old Dell Parsons, however, all such illusions would be shattered before winter set in.

Because Dell and his twin sister, Berner, never thought of any town as home, the result of a nomad existence guided by their father's military career, their only constants were each other and their parents. They had learned to keep to themselves, to not make connections, and to be ready to pack up and go when required. But after four years in Great Falls, Montana, the twins started to let down their guard and began to blend in; Berner had a boyfriend, and Dell was hoping to join the chess club.

Unfortunately, their father, Captain Bev Parsons—encouraged to leave the Air Force—couldn't make a go of it in civilian life, quickly getting himself into trouble. Despite the fact that Dell's "parents were the least likely two people in the world to rob a bank," (p. 1) that's exactly what they did. Although their mother made sketchy provisions for her children, when she and Bev were hauled off to prison just days after the robbery, the twins were left on their own.

Berner, already rebellious, simply walked out of the house, never looking back. Dell, not willing to ignore his mother's last instructions, waited until a neighbor picked him up to drive him north to his destiny.

In Richard Ford's Canada, Dell Parson tells us "about the robbery our parents committed. Then about the murders, which happened later. The robbery is the more important part, since it served to set my and my sister's lives on the courses they eventually followed." (p. 1). From the opening pages we know Dell's defining moments, and we know he's remembering from the perspective of an adult. What we don't know are the particulars and the role Dell may have played in these events.

The fog of a life into which Dell is driven whirls around him. In Canada, he is passed along to a pair of men with murky pasts and unreadable intentions. He's given a shack to live in, food to eat, and job to do. The boy is accepting of his situation, working without complaint. Although he's utterly alone, Dell recalls and heeds the bits of good advice he's received and tries to create a pocket of normality. After the murders, however, the boy is left wondering about what happens to people who do only what they want to and who have no limits but their own.

One may think of Berner as being the brave one, not so much running away as running to. But it's Dell, who, despite everything, has the courage to find a last sliver of trust and thereby find a future.

When I think of those times—beginning with anticipating school in Great Falls, to our parents' robbery, to my sister's departure, to crossing into Canada, and the Americans' death, stretching on to Winnipeg and to where I am today—it's all of a piece, like a musical score with movements, or a puzzle, wherein I am seeking to restore and maintain my life in a whole and acceptable state, regardless of the frontiers I've crossed. I know it's only me who makes these connections. But not to try to make them is to commit yourself to the waves that toss you and dash you against the rocks of despair. (p. 386)

I don't know how to describe Canada, expect to say it's a novel that envelops you. Richard Ford's writing has been compared to Cormac McCarthy's, and I can see the similarities, especially in the Border Trilogy. But I often find such comparisons to be misleading, to plant the seeds of expectations that are waiting to be crushed. Canada is best read on it's own terms. Dell and the people who inhabit his young world are like no other characters you've met. Canada is one of the best books I've read this year . . . hell, perhaps this decade.

My review of the unabridged audio edition (Harper Audio, 15 hr, 32 min), read by Holter Graham, will be published by AudioFile magazine.

Beth Fish Reads is proud to showcase Ecco books as a featured imprint on this blog. For more information about Ecco, please read the introductory note from Vice President / Associate Publisher Rachel Bressler, posted here on July 15, 2011. Find your next great read by clicking on Ecco in the scroll-down topics/labels list in my sidebar and by visiting Ecco books on Facebook and following them on Twitter.

Canada at an Indie

Canada at Powell's

Canada at Book Depository
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Published by HarperCollins / Ecco, May 2012
ISBN-13: 9780061692048

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Imprint Extra: Giveaway of Lyndsay Faye's The Gods of Gotham

A couple of weeks ago I was raving about Lyndsay Faye's The Gods of Gotham. I noted that "Faye brilliantly captures the heart and soul of the seedier and more dangerous side of New York in the 1840s."

But don't just take my word for it. Among the many critics singing Faye's praise is NPR's Maureen Corrigan, who calls The Gods of Gotham the "worthiest successor yet to Caleb Carr's The Alienist." (You can read the full review in "Two Books That Delight in New York City's Dirt.")

Giveaway: Because I loved Faye's novel and think it would appeal to wide range of readers, I'm thrilled to be able to offer one of my readers a signed copy of The Gods of Gotham. This isn't just any signed copy: Lyndsay Faye and the generous folks at Amy Einhorn Books have offered to have the book personally inscribed. That's right, you can ask Faye to inscribe to you or to anyone you'd like. (Hint: It'd make a great Mother's or Father's Day gift or graduation gift.)

This giveaway is open to anyone with a U.S. or Canadian mailing address (no P.O. boxes). Just fill out the following form. I'll pick a winner on April 15 via a random number generator.

Amy Einhorn Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Amy Einhorn's open letter posted here on January 25, 2010, or click the Amy Einhorn tab below my banner photo. To join the Amy Einhorn Books Reading Challenge, click the link.

The Gods of Gotham at an Indie

The Gods of Gotham at Powell's

The Gods of Gotham at Book Depository
These links lead to affiliate programs

Published by Putnam / Amy Einhorn Books, 2012
ISBN-13: 9780399158377

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Imprint Extra: Alex George on The Right Job for a Family

In my last Imprint Friday post, I introduced you to Alex George's A Good American, which I called "a near-perfect novel."

The book has three constants: music, the Meisenheimer family, and food. Almost by accident, the family finds themselves owners of a speakeasy. As the twentieth century progresses, so does the restaurant, morphing from bar to town diner to Tex-Mex over the course of decades.

I asked Alex if he would tell us a little bit about role food and the restaurant play in his A Good American.

The Right Job for a Family

One of the challenges that confronts all novelists is choosing the right jobs for their characters. In my novel, A Good American, the issue was complicated by the fact that, to provide a measure of continuity to the narrative—the story spans four generations of a single family—I wanted a business that could be passed on from one generation to the next.

Now, my family loves to cook, and to eat. My mother was a professional cook and caterer, my father, a skilled amateur. Their cookbook collection is vast and legendary. They have passed their enthusiasm on to my sisters and me (if not their talent, in my case). The old adage has it that you should “write what you know,” so it was an easy decision to have my fictional family be involved with food: They run a restaurant in a small town in rural Missouri.

What I hadn’t anticipated when I began was how the restaurant became a character in the story in its own right. The book begins with Frederick and Jette Meisenheimer as they emigrate to America from northern Germany. As their family integrates into American life, generation by generation, so the restaurant goes through its own metamorphosis which reflects a similar journey. The original establishment serves starchy German cuisine, although it soon acquires a more exotic edge of Louisiana flavors and spice. The next generation re-creates the restaurant as a quintessentially American culinary institution—the old-fashioned diner. Finally, and perhaps somewhat ignominiously, in its last incarnation it becomes a Tex-Mex place of questionable authenticity.

Although I’ve never worked in a restaurant, I’ve eaten in a fair few (the best kind of research, in my opinion). I enjoyed writing about food—it’s a challenge to convey smells and tastes in the comparatively arid medium of print. My research involved scouring ancient Mennonite cookbooks, poring over wonderful photographs of diners from across the country, and reading countless recipes for gumbo online. I did do some cooking too—but my culinary skills are nowhere near as accomplished as those I give my characters. (One of the benefits of writing fiction is that the world I create in my head is often better than real life.)

Since I finished writing the book, I have pined after some of the characters; they feel like old friends to me now. But almost as much, I miss the food. The Meisenheimer family and their restaurant provide fuel and sustenance to their neighbors over an entire century. All that bratwurst, meatloaf, and jambalaya nourished me too.

And me too! I loved how the cuisine changed as different individuals and generations took over the Meisenheimer business. And you know what a foodie I am—I'm ready to walk into the joint, pull up a seat, and see what kind of food they're serving today.

Thanks so much for stopping by, Alex.

Amy Einhorn Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Amy Einhorn's open letter posted here on January 25, 2010, or click the Amy Einhorn tab below my banner photo. To join the Amy Einhorn Books Reading Challenge, click the link.

A Good American at an Indie

A Good American at Powell's

A Good American at Book Depository
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Published by Putnam / Amy Einhorn Books, February 7, 2011 (preorder it now!)
ISBN-13: 9780399157592

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Giveaway Winner: The Book of (Holiday) Awesome

I'm pleased to announce the winner of the The Book of (Holiday) Awesome giveaway, sponsored by the publisher. The winner will receive a copy of Neil Pasricha's latest collection of awesomeness. Congratulations to

Beth S. of A Foodie Bibliophile in Wanderlust

Hope you enjoy the book and find many awesome moments in your everyday life.

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Imprint Extra: Celebrating Good Books & Giveaway

Today marks the third anniversary since I tentatively published my first post, which happened to be about red wines to drink with pizza. My second post was about books. This is my 1,324th post, and I can tell you truthfully that if you had asked me on September 13, 2008, if I thought I'd still be blogging three years later, I would have said no.

I've never celebrated my blogoversary, but I thought I'd use it as an excuse to have an Imprint Extra giveaway. My imprint awareness project started in January 2010, when I decided to host the Amy Einhorn Books Perpetual Reading Challenge. Since then, every Friday I've spotlighted a book from one of my favorite imprints.

Over the last twenty months, I've introduced you to literary fiction, historical fiction, light fiction, memoirs, short stories, and nonfiction from several genres. I have been blessed to have had the chance to work with some great publicists and marketing people, to have gotten to know some fabulous authors, and to have read some of the best books out there.

Today is all about sharing my love of reading and celebrating some terrific imprints by hosting a fairly large giveaway. The giveaway is open worldwide, and you can enter for a chance to win any of the following books. You can pick more than one title to increase your chances of winning, but there will be only one win per person. To enter, just fill out the form and I'll pick the winners on September 26.

Look over the titles and click on the links for more information. Then make your choices. Good luck!

1. Remedies by Kate Ledger is an Amy Einhorn Book that received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, was an August 2010 Indie Next Pick, a book club selection for Self magazine, and the community read for the Twin Cities Jewish Book Fair. It's book about a strong, smart couple who puts all their energy into everything but their marriage and daughter. It's about a family in crisis and what happens when everything finally falls apart. Author Kate Ledger has generously offered two signed copies of her book (two winners, one book each) and she has volunteered to send the books internationally.

2. The Call by Yannick Murphy is a Harper Perennial book that I reviewed and featured this past July. The book is about David, a New England large-animal veterinarian and his relationship with his patients and their owners and his family. It's about how a family deals with profound and unexpected changes and it's about everyday life. I love the unique format that Murphy uses to tell the story and I love the way she captured small-town life. I am pulling a copy of this off my shelves to share with one of you because I think this is a book that has universal appeal. This book has been gently read.

3. Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman, published by Pamela Dorman Books, was one of my top-ten reads for 2010. I absolutely fell in love with CeeCee and the strong women who helped her through and past the difficult years of her childhood. This is a multilayered novel that touches on many themes, but your heart will go out to twelve-year-old CeeCee and you will carry her and the very wise Oletta with you for long time to come. I still think about them even a year after I first met them. I am so pleased to have a copy of the unabridged audiobook (on CD) to give away (brand new). Thanks to Beth for kindly sending me a copy so I can offer it to you. I listened to the book and I can assure you it's a great audio and a wonderful way to read the novel for the first time or the second.

4. When She Woke by by Hillary Jordan, from Algonquin Books, hasn't been released yet. In fact, I won't be featuring it for Imprint Friday until early October. I did, however, introduce you to the novel in June when I talked about the Hot Book Club Titles panel at BookExpo America 2011. Some reviews are already out there. This is an adult dystopian novel that is set in the not-so-distant future and has its roots in The Scarlett Letter. What would happen if your crimes were made visible for all to see? Where could find peace, safety, and new life? This book is already generating a lot of buzz, and I am adding my gently read ARC to the giveaway.

5. Quiet Chaos by Sandro Veronesi is from Ecco Books. The novel won the Strega Prize (the top literary prize in Italy) and came out in English translation last April. I haven't yet read this one, but it's high on my list and I just happen to have an extra unread ARC to share. Here's a bit from the description: "an unforgettable contemporary fable about stepping out of life after it cruelly turns everything upside-down, and finding a resolution to the unsolvable problem of loss in the beauty and strangeness of the everyday."


6. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen is now available in a Picador edition. Do I really need to tell you about this prize-winning, best-selling look at contemporary life? Well, just in case you're not sure what it's all about, I'll share part of the publisher's summary: "Freedom comically and tragically captures the temptations and burdens of liberty: the thrills of teenage lust, the shaken compromises of middle age, the wages of suburban sprawl, the heavy weight of empire. . . . Franzen has produced an indelible and deeply moving portrait of our time." Thanks to the wonderful people at Picador, I have a brand new copy of the novel to offer to one of you.

I hope you're as excited for the chance to read these as I am to share them with you. Thanks to everyone who has been supportive and friendly and kind to me over the last three years. Now on to the entry form. Good luck!

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Imprint Extra: Simon Van Booy Triple Giveaway

On Friday, I introduced you to Simon Van Booy's unforgettable Everything Beautiful Began After. Last year, I sung the praises of his stunning collection Love Begins in Winter. The Los Angeles Times called Van Booy's first collection, The Secret Lives of People in Love "breathtaking" and "chillingly beautiful."

Once you begin to read Van Booy, you won't want to stop. He writes about love and loss from a such a tender spot that you feel the ache and hope for healing.

The Giveaway: Because I want everyone to read Van Booy's work, I'm thrilled that—thanks to Harper Perennial—one of you will be soon be the proud owner of all three Simon Van Booy books, signed by the author. Whether you are new to Van Booy or an old friend, you won't want to miss this generous giveaway.

All you have to do to be entered for a chance to win is fill out the following form. Because this giveaway is sponsored by the publisher and is for three books, you must have a USA or Canadian mailing address to win. If you live elsewhere, you can still enter if you have a North American friend willing to receive the books for you. I'll pick a winner on August 8, at which time I'll delete all personal information from my computer.



Good luck.

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Imprint Extra: David Anthony and the Mixing of Genres

On Friday, I introduced you to David Anthony's Something for Nothing, which asks just how far family man Martin Anderson will go to maintain his extravagant lifestyle. As I mentioned earlier, one of the intriguing aspects about David's debut novel is that it seems to defy categorization.

I hope you took the time to watch the video interview (put together by Algonquin Books) I posted last week, in which David introduces his novel and discusses the bag-of-money concept. Today, David is back to talk to us about about blending genres.

Mixing Genres: The Suburban Noir

Someone asked me recently about the genre of my novel, Something for Nothing. "I mean, is it a thriller?" she asked. "Or a domestic kind of thing?"

It was the question I had both hoped for and feared. Hoped for because I think my book is actually an interesting blend of these two genres. Feared because I know that this sounds like a bit of a cop-out. Or, worse, as if I'm just indecisive.

As best I can remember, my answer to this question began with a caveat: I didn't start out with any sort of formula in mind. Instead, I just had a place (northern California), a time (1974, the height of the Arab oil embargo), and a situation (a protagonist, Martin Anderson, owns a small craft airplane business and has fallen into serious debt and so decides to accept an offer to fly heroin up from Mexico in order to preserve his lavish suburban lifestyle—one that includes race horses, a deep-sea fishing boat, and a cabin in Tahoe).

But I also explained that although the book revolves around the heroin trade (with several trips back and forth from the San Francisco Bay Area to Ensenada, Mexico), this really isn't a white-middle-class version of The Wire. No seedy heroin dens or scary needles here. Instead, Martin really only takes a tentative step or two over the edge of his safe suburban cordon sanitaire and into the criminal nether world. And this is by design, because in fact it's the borderland between these two spheres that I'm interested in. Or rather, what I'm really focused on is the emotional fallout (the anxiety) that comes from inhabiting this unstable borderland.

My term for the genre that best depicts this liminal space is suburban noir. And I think that this is the genre that best links the thriller and the domestic novel. As I said, I didn't set out to write within a specific genre, but as I started creating Martin's response to his situation, I realized that I had placed him in a noir-like space, one where the boundary between middle-class security and criminal danger has become porous. Think for example of the William Macey character in Fargo, the Fred MacMurray character in Double Indemnity, or the Janet Leigh character in Psycho. One minute their lives are secure if a bit mundane and perhaps disappointing; but then they step over the invisible dividing line, and they're in emotional freefall.

I should add, though, that this space is also fun—certainly for me as a writer, but also, hopefully, for readers. Because the anxious clashes between these worlds is both titillating and, to my mind anyway, the source for often comic tension. On the one hand, this stems from the oddness and incongruity of Martin's encounters with the denizens of the drug world and a police detective that enters the picture. But it also derives from his increasingly odd behavior while at home in the suburbs. Whether sneaking into people's homes and snooping around, lying to his wife about what he's been up to, or burying money in the neighborhood orchard, Martin's erratic behavior is, I think, the mark of his increasing hysteria. And again, this unsettled and sometimes comic quality is what accompanies Martin's location between cultural spaces (middle class and criminal) and genres (thriller and domestic novel).

Or at least that's what I'm hoping for—a mix of the pleasantly suspenseful and the darkly but awkwardly comic, both of which expose the familiar locale of the suburbs for what they are: a pretend space teetering nervously on the edge of the very things they're designed to hold at bay. This is how the suburban noir works, and hopefully it's what readers will find and enjoy in the book.

So to answer the usefully difficult question about the genre of my novel: It's neither a thriller nor a domestic novel. In fact, it's both.

Thanks so much, David; I love the term suburban noir. It's the perfect descriptor of the mix of thriller and mystery, humor and action, domestic and underworld that readers will find in Something for Nothing.

For more about David's novel be sure to check out the Imprint Friday post that spotlights this terrific debut.

Algonquin Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Executive Editor Chuck Adams's introductory letter, posted here on January 7, 2011.

Something for Nothing at an Indie

Something for Nothing at Powell's

Something for Nothing at Book Depository
These links lead to affiliate programs.

Published by Algonquin Books, 2011
ISBN-13: 9781616200220

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Imprint Extra & Giveaway: The Book of (Even More) Awesome by Neil Pasricha

Remember last year when I oohed and aahed over Neil Pasricha's The Book of Awesome and his entertaining blog 1000 Awesome Things? I'm happy to tell you that so many people felt the same way that his second book, The Book of (Even More) Awesome, was recently released.

As Neil says in the introduction to the new collection, many of us get overwhelmed with the stresses and strains of balancing work and family, some of us are dealing with personal losses, and others are simply feeling down in the dumps. By taking time each day to notice the awesome moments--no matter how small--we can find bits of happiness even under the gloomiest conditions.

Here are a few of my own awesome moments from the last few days:

• Lazing on the deck on a sunny afternoon pretending to read. Awesome!
• Finally putting the snow shovels away for the season. Awesome!
• Spotting a pileated woodpecker in my apple tree. Awesome!
• Getting a note from Neil to share with my readers. Even More Awesome!

Beth Fish Readers!

Hello! Whew! What a year it's been since we last chatted!

Congrats to those of you still doing the Amy Einhorn Perpetual Challenge! I had lunch with Amy in New York this week and I can personally verify that she is an absolute gem. She is shiny and sparkly and extremely valuable. And the books she keeps releasing are awesome to say the least.

Thank you all so much sincerely for your support last year when The Book of Awesome came out! I can't honestly believe it's still number one on bestseller lists a year later.

This past week I had the Nerve Attack of a lifetime when I went on The Today Show for The Book of (Even More) Awesome. You can't see the sweat stains in the clip but I assure you they were there. A sprightly and confident Dick Van Dyke sitting next to me only added to the worries. It was a fun day and reminded me how lucky it's been to talk to everyone about awesome things.

More than anything, I just wanted to say a massive thank you to all of you for the support. You guys are great. You guys are terrific. And you guys are very truly . . . AWESOME!

Lots of love from Canada,
Neil

Thanks so much Neil. I'm thrilled that you have seen such success; because of your blog and books, many people find a spark of joy every day.

The Book of (Even More) Awesome is the kind of book you browse through when you need a pick-me-up. Some of you might consider reading a passage every morning so you can start your day with a smile. Share some awesomeness with your friends and family and encourage others to talk about their own magical moments.

What were your awesome moments from the last few days?

Now what could be more awesome than than getting a note from Neil or bringing a smile to someone's face? The chance to win a signed copy of The Book of (Even More) Awesome. Because this giveaway is being sponsored by the publisher, it's open only to people with a U.S. or Canada mailing address.

To enter, just fill out this form. I'll pick a winner (using a random number generator) on May 20. Good luck!



Amy Einhorn Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Amy Einhorn's open letter posted here on January 25, 2010, or click the Amy Einhorn tab below my banner photo. To join the Amy Einhorn Books Reading Challenge, click the link.

The Book of (Even More) Awesome at an Indie

The Book of (Even More) Awesome at Powell's

The Book of (Even More) Awesome at Book Depository
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Published by Putnam / Amy Einhorn Books, April 2011
ISBN-13: 9780399157509
YTD: 45
Source: Review (see review policy)
Rating: B+
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy)

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Domestic Violets Giveaway: Winner

I'm pleased to announce the winner of the Domestic Violets giveaway, sponsored by the publisher. The first winner will receive a will receive an ARC of Matthew Norman's up-coming novel. Congratulations to

Florinda from The 3 R's Blog!

Hope you enjoy the book.

Thanks to Harper Perennial for sponsoring this giveaway.

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Imprint Extra & Giveaway: Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman

I can't tell you how excited I am about today's Imprint Extra. Really. Matthew Norman's Domestic Violets is so new, there isn't even a picture of the cover on Harper Perennial's website. In fact, the book summary has yet to be written.

The best gushing description I could find comes from the Harper Perennial blog, The Olive Reader, posted last December:

Get ready to hear a lot about this book, because I’m going to start talking about it now and keep mentioning it constantly until next fall. It’s the story of Tom Violet, a struggling novelist with a soul-sucking office job whose father is a Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist. Tom has a lot of problems: the aforementioned job and pain in the ass father, a terribly inconvenient crush on his assistant, a suspicion that his wife is sleeping with a guy she met at the gym, and, of course, the desperate desire to publish his novel. He’s kind of an idiot sometimes, but he never stops being sympathetic. I fell in love with him a little bit.

I admit I'm developing a bit of crush myself . . . and I've read only the first few chapters. What Erica didn't tell you in her description is that you'll also meet a neurotic dog, a brace of ex-stepmothers, a powerful literary agent, and other great characters. The novel is told from Tom's point of view and is written in an easygoing, almost conversational, style. Here's a sneak peek:

I open the door and find my dad sitting at my computer desk staring at his laptop and casually smoking a joint. The window is open and he's turned on the ceiling fan, but the entire upstairs smells like the inside of a VW van, and I have to actually wave a plume of smoke out of my face.

"Nice, Dad. Just make yourself right at home."

He coughs and snaps his computer shut with a loud thwack. From the sleepy stoned look on his face, I can't tell if he's been writing or napping.

"You know there is a child in the house, right?"

He holds the wiry little bud out, offering me some.

I look out into the hallway for signs of [my wife and daughter] and then close the door. "Alright, but I'm doing it under formal protest."

"I'll make sure it's noted in the official ledger," he says. (p. 59)

Later in the summer Domestic Violets will be spotlighted here in more depth for an Imprint Friday post, and my full review will appear a little closer to the book's publication date. Watch for some good buzz about this debut novel at BookExpo America in May and on book blogs over the summer.

To learn more about Matthew Norman, be sure to stop by his blog, The Norman Nation. In one of my favorite of his recent posts, Norman talks about his 17-month-old daughter's taste in reading material.

I know that it's going to be torture for some of you to wait until September to read Norman's debut novel. Worry no more! I'm thrilled to be able to offer one of my readers an advance reader copy of Domestic Violets. This giveaway is open to anyone with a U.S. or Canada mailing address. Just fill out the following form to be entered for a chance to win. I'll pick a winner on April 24 (and will delete all personal data at that time).




Harper Perennial is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For information about the imprint, please read Erica Barmash's welcome note posted here on June 18, 2010. I encourage you to add your reviews of Harper Perennial books to the review link-up page; it's a great way to discover Good Books for Cool People. And don't miss the The Olive Reader, the Harper Perennial blog.

Published by HarperCollins / Harper Perennial, September 2011
ISBN-13: 9780062065117

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Boxed Edition of West of Here Giveaway: Winner

I'm pleased to announce the winner of the West of Here giveaway, sponsored by the publisher. The winner will receive a fabulous boxed edition of the novel along with maps and postcards. Congratulations to

Kathy from Bag, Books & Bon Jovi

I hope you enjoy the book.

Thanks to Algonquin Books for sponsoring this giveaway.

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Imprint Extra: Giveaway--Boxed Edition of West of Here by Jonathan Evison

To help celebrate the launch of Jonathan Evison's fantastic new novel West of Here, Algonquin Books has generously donated a beautifully packaged copy of the novel to one of my readers.

What's this book all about? As the publisher says, it's "an exposition on the effects of time, on how something said or done in one generation keeps echoing through all the years that follow, and how mistakes keep happening and people keep on trying to be strong and brave and, most important, just and right."

The story takes place in the Pacific Northwest at the end of the nineteenth century when there were still wild parts of Washington State to be explored and maybe settled. We also see the twenty-first-century results of the actions and decisions made by some of the area's earliest white citizens. Check out my Imprint Friday post for the full scoop.

Here's the giveaway (open to those with a U.S. or Canadian mailing address): One reader will receive this beautiful boxed edition of West of Here:

Your book will come in a very cool wooden box packed with some fun extras: A letter from Algonquin's executive editor, Chuck Adams; five reproductions of vintage postcards from Port Bonita and Washington State; a reproduction of an 1883 map of Washington Territory; and a copy of an 1879 map from the Department of the Interior and General Land Office.

This book package brings an already fabulous novel to life. I love every item and referred to the maps and postcards several times while reading the book. I know you'll love this boxed set too.

To enter, fill out the following form. I'll pick a winner on February 24 via random number generator, at which time I'll delete all personal data from my computer. Good luck! Thanks again to Algonquin for sponsoring this giveaway.

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Imprint Extra: Caroline Leavitt and Cars Plus Giveaway

Yesterday I reviewed Caroline Leavitt's newest novel, Pictures of You. As I've mentioned, this engrossing novel was my Skype book club's pick for this month. We met on Sunday, and our discussion of the book was one of our most fruitful meetings.

Caroline presents so many great topics to think about—such as parenting, the need for drama, and the effects of asthma on a child's life—all of which fueled our conversation. In addition, we used the reader's guide at the back of the book to prompt even more discussion. And, of course, we each had our own take on the characters and their behavior. I can safely recommend Pictures of You as a terrific book club selection.

One thing my group didn't talk about was what motivated Caroline to write a novel centered so specifically on a car accident. I am thrilled that Caroline has decided to come clean and share her little secret with the readers of Beth Fish Reads. Let's take a look:

Art Doesn't Necessarily Imitate Life

In every single one of my novels, my characters are wildly in love with their cars. They jump in their Hondas or their Toyotas and drive for miles at night, thrashing out problems—or running away from them. Adrenaline-charged drivers, they can't imagine their lives without their trusty autos. Because of this, it might make perfect sense to know that my new novel, Pictures of You, revolves around a lethal car crash. You might even wonder about my own driving ability.

The truth is I'm completely phobic about cars.

My dirty little secret is that I don't drive at all. I don't even like to be a passenger in a car. Part of why I live in the New York City area is because of the incredible public transportation.

I'm not sure where the phobia came from, but I've always been fearful. Like all kids, I took driver's education. The instructor rolled his eyes while the other student in the back giggled as I made the car shimmy on the road. I got my license only because all I had to do was drive around the block, and after that, my parents insisted I take these brush-up courses. I took three, before the instructor pulled over to the side of the road and shook his head at me. "Caroline," he said. "Don't take this the wrong way, but you are the absolute worse driver I have ever encountered. Some people aren't meant to drive, and you seem to be one of them."

I admit I wasn't surprised, but I wasn't going to give up so easily. I began to wonder if I could clear up my phobia by writing about it. So I thought of the worse possible thing, which was not just a car crash, but a crash where someone was killed. I gave my fear to my character Isabelle, who, through no fault of her own, kills April, a wife and mother, in the crash. Because it's fiction, I ramped things up a bit, making Isabelle' phobia worse than my own. Isabelle can't even get in a car without breaking into a cold sweat. Her heart bangs against her chest, her breathing stitches up. I worked through the phobia for Isabelle, pushing her so she could slowly, gradually, climb back in her car and put it in drive.

But did writing about a car phobia help me? In a way. I'm still uneasy about cars and driving, but I think I've made a sort of peace with that. Maybe it's just who I am. And lately, I've been collecting the names of other writers who don't drive, like Alice Hoffman and Ray Bradbury, just to give me a little company. In the fictional world, I drive with the radio blasting, but in real life, hey, you'll find me happily walking, on a subway, or hailing a cab.

Thank you so much, Caroline, for sharing your secret with us. I promise we won't tell anyone. You do such an amazing job capturing the adventure of taking to the highway, no one would ever guess you weren't a natural-born driver.

So what about you? Driving: Love it or hate it? I don't mind driving, but I much prefer to be a passenger. It's so much more fun to look out the window and be in charge of the map and the toll money.

The Giveaway

Caroline has very generously offered ten (yes, ten!) of my readers a signed book plate that shows a very special symbol that is associated with Pictures of You. Don't you just love those wings? The photo is what's shown on the book plate. It so clearly echoes the book cover, I know you'll want one in your copy of the novel.

And even better, Caroline is opening up this giveaway to readers worldwide! To enter, just fill out the following form. I'll pick the ten winners on Valentine's Day (February 14). After the winners have been contacted, I'll delete all personal information.




Be sure to check out my teaser, review, and spotlight posts of Caroline Leavitt's Pictures of You.

Algonquin Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Executive Editor Chuck Adams's introductory letter, posted here on January 7, 2011.

Published by Algonquin, 2011
ISBN-13: 9781565126312

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Brush Up Your Shakespeare Giveaway: Winner

I am so pleased to announce the winner of the Brush Up Your Shakespeare prize pack sponsored by Eleanor Brown, author of The Weird Sisters (now officially published and in your local bookstore). Congratulations to

Rachel of Chaos Is a Friend of Mine!

I know you'll have fun with the magnets, enjoy watching the DVD, and love reading The Weird Sisters.

Thanks so much to Eleanor for hosting this giveaway.

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
Published by Putnam / Amy Einhorn Books, January 2011
ISBN-13: 9780399157226

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Imprint Extra: Brush Up Your Shakespeare and Giveaway

Earlier this week I raved about reviewed Eleanor Brown's wonderful The Weird Sisters, which has a strong Shakespeare connection. There are many reasons to love the novel, and as I said on Monday, you don't have to be a student of the Bard to appreciate the story. I, however, had a personal reason for wanting to read about the three daughters who grew up listening to their father quote Shakespeare.

No, my dad is not a professor of Elizabethan drama. And the only Shakespeare quotes in our house were the lame ones, such as "Out damned spot," said when washing something. But my father is currently fulfilling a life-long dream of his: To read the complete works of Shakespeare.

My dad retired when he was about eighty-one, and a few years later he began his project. Now at the age of eighty-six, he has read all the sonnets and poems, a short biography, and the vast majority of the plays. This week he's finishing up Cymbeline, and then he'll have just five plays left, all in the history group and all about kings.

But what if you wish you knew just a little bit more about Shakespeare but weren't quite ready to retire and join my dad in his reading adventure? Well, today is your lucky day because author Eleanor Brown has a fantastic solution. Take a look:

Occasionally, when people hear The Weird Sisters contains Shakespearean references, they give me a wide-eyed look of horror. Don't panic! If you're a Shakespeare lover already, you'll have a great time with Rosalind, Bianca, and Cordelia. But if you've had a bad experience with Shakespeare in the past--maybe someone attacked you with a twenty-pound copy of The Riverside Shakespeare, or maybe you just had a teacher who made one of the plays feel like hard work--you don't have to worry! No Shakespearean expertise is required.

And to prove that the ol' Bard can be fun, I'm giving away a special prize pack to one lucky Beth Fish Reads reader: a signed copy of The Weird Sisters, a set of Shakespearean magnetic poetry (perfect for livening up a dull refrigerator), and a DVD of the Reduced Shakespeare Company's The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: Abridged, so you can brush up on 37 plays in under 2 hours. Hours of fun for Shakespeare lovers and fearers alike! --Eleanor

Thanks so much to Eleanor for providing such a terrific Shakespeare-inspired giveaway. Yeah, you read it correctly: One person will get a signed book, a Shakespeare DVD, and a Shakespeare magnet set. What a great giveaway! Thanks again to Eleanor for putting the prize together, and thanks to the wonderful people at Amy Einhorn Books for all their help.

All you have to do to enter the giveaway is to fill out the form. Please note that the giveaway is for United States and Canada mailing addresses only. If you live elsewhere, ask a blogging friend to be a go-between for you. I'll pick a winner via a random number generator on January 20, the official publication date for The Weird Sisters.



Just for fun, let me leave you with the Muppets' version of "Brush Up Your Shakespeare." The short video is a little bittersweet, however, because it stars a young Christopher Reeve.

Amy Einhorn Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Amy Einhorn's open letter posted here on January 25, 2010, or click the Amy Einhorn tab below my banner photo. To join the Amy Einhorn Books Reading Challenge, click the link.

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
Published by Putnam / Amy Einhorn Books, January 2011
ISBN-13: 9780399157226

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