Bookdwarf

To encourage and cultivate young reviewers and critics under the age of thirty, the Virginia Quarterly Review is holding a “Young Reviewers Contest” in September of this year. The prize for the winning entry is $1,000, publication in VQR’s Winter 2009 issue, and a publishing contract for three additional reviews worth up to $3,000. Finalists [...]

I enjoyed reading Seven Days in the Art World. The author approaches the art world from a sociological point of view. It’s not a tell all about artists and curators behaving badly by any means. I’m not too familiar with the art world, which is why this slim book seemed like a perfect introduction. The [...]

Martin Clark will be reading at my store tonight from his latest novel The Legal Limit at 7pm. I’m looking forward to meeting him in person for the first time. He’s always charming in his emails.

I’ve been on a reading tear lately, reading so many books that I don’t have time to mention or discuss on the blog. Here’s some of what I’ve been reading: I read both Augustus and Stoner by John E. Williams. They are very different books but both brilliant. Augustus is a masterful novel that brings [...]

Chad Post interviews with independent bookseller legend Karl Pohrt, who owns Shaman Drum Bookshop in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I’m mentioned! My friend Mike also runs a cool website called The Meeting House. Recently he interviewed Salvatore Scibona, whose debut novel The End I had the pleasure of reading a few months back. Submit a question [...]

Yes, we finally managed to get to a gun range! The Mancheseter Firing Line Range is a short one hour drive into New Hampshire. We started off with a Ruger .22, progressed to a Beretta 9 mm, and finished with a Smith & Wesson .38. Fun was had by all. The folks at the gun [...]

I’m just now getting around to reading Liesl Schillinger’s review of Atmospheric Disturbances. I was surprised at the amount of people who chimed in to agree with my assessment of the book (5 seems like a lot to me). Schillinger’s review does seem a bit wide-eyed at the idea that a woman wrote the novel. [...]

I’m still enjoying Augustus by John Williams. You could even say that I’m savoring it. It’s been so humid and disgusting here that I’m having a hard time reading or doing anything. But this book is good, fantastic I’ll even say. I’m heading down to the Philadelphia area tomorrow so I won’t be blogging. Here [...]

Fourth of July was spent slow cooking a brisket and consuming mojitos with friends. Good times but no reading. I finished reading Telex from Cuba on Saturday afternoon. It happened to receive the NYTBR cover this past weekend. I think I tend to agree with the reviewer on this one. It’s not a perfect book, [...]

Atmostpheric Disturbances seems like the kind of book I would like. I avoided reading any reviews until I had a chance to read it, even the long piece by James Wood in the New Yorker a few weeks ago. I found the plot about doppelgangers interesting initially. Who doesn’t wonder who would notice if you [...]

I’ve been meaning to write a lengthy blog post about Jonathan Karp’s article in the Washington Post all week. Work crises have conspired against letting this happen. Read the article however, it’s worth it. It’s basically about why publishers publish so many books (hint: it’s green and lives in your wallet). Perhaps tomorrow I’ll have [...]

From today’s Shelf Awareness: The much-anticipated film adaptation of Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates will not be finished in time to debut at film festivals in Telluride, Toronto or New York “because [director Sam] Mendes has been shooting the Focus Features comedy Farlanders this summer, a road movie set for 2009 release co-written by Dave [...]