When You Are Engulfed in Flames – Book Review

Jun 032009

When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

I find David Sedaris absolutely hilarious when he appears on This American Life, but when ever I read one of his books, it leaves me with a profound sense of malaise. His written word just doesn’t work for me. It was with this knowledge that I tried the audiobooks of “When You Are Engulfed in Flames,” in hopes that I just needed Sedaris’ delivery to enjoy his book.

Happily, this was indeed the case. I found “When You Are Engulfed in Flames” to be a very enjoyable collection of essays. I’d say that the title essay, which was the last one and by far the longest, was probably my least favorite. Sedaris does have a tendency to ramble, which is usually mitigated by the short nature of his essays, but it became overly apparent in the long essay. I would forget for long periods that his whole Japan adventure began with his attempt to quit smoking.

A bit slow at the end, but overall the David Sedaris audiobook was a very enjoyable experience.

Buy this book from:
Powells - book or audiobook
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound - book or audiobook
Amazon – book or audiobook

Belong To Me – Book Review and Giveaway

Jun 022009

Belong To Me by Maria de los Santos

I’m usually sort of wary of books that seem like they would fall into the genres of chick lit, or even women’s fiction. I’ve become a little more amenable to the idea lately, and have even requested a list from Swapna of Skrishna’s Books of some smart women’s fiction that might make for some lighter reading when the baby comes. I was pleased to see that one of the books she recommended to me was “Belong to Me,” which I had already accepted for review from the publisher. That made me feel good about the possibility I would like “Belong to Me” and, after having read “Belong to Me,” I’m extremely confident about the other books on the list she gave me, because I LOVED “Belong to Me.”

Cornelia and her husband Teo have recently uprooted thir urban selves to move to the suburbs of Philadelphia. Originally feeling on the outs with the other women in the neighborhood, particularly the fairly snotty Piper, Cordelia makes friends with Lake, a waitress with a brilliant, loveable 13 year old son named Dev. Throughout the book, all of their lives become increasingly intertwined, with Cordelia and Piper moving from hostility to accord to friendship as Piper deals with the terminal illness of her best friend Elizabeth.

I loved basically everything about “Belong to Me.” It is a little on the sweet side, being what I would consider women’s fiction. However, the writing is easily of the caliber of good literary fiction. The characters were fantastically written and flawed. I really, really wanted to hate Piper, but de los Santos just wouldn’t let me view her as a one-dimensional villian. Basically I was just totally enthralled by the characters, the story, and the writing. I had quite the ‘aha!’ moment when I read the back of the book and realized that de los Santos is an award-winning poet and holds a Ph.D. in literature and creative writing. Suddenly I understood why everything was so smart and well put together.

If you are looking for women’s fiction that has large cross-over potentional, a story that is enthralling and feels real with fantastic writing, I would definitely recommend “Belong to Me.”

I have three copies of “Belong to Me” to giveaway. Because HarperCollins is sending these out, this giveaway will be US-only. Sorry international readers. To enter, leave a relevant comment on this post. It should include “please enter me” or something of that nature, but if that is all that is in the comment, you will be disqualified. Blog or Twitter about this contest for extra entries. You must leave an additional comment for each additional entry and you must leave the URL for your tweet or blog post or additional entries will not be counted.

This contest will close Friday, June 12th. Winners will be notified and addresses will be sent to the publisher who will send out your books.

Buy this book from:
Powells.
A local independent bookseller via Indiebound.
Amazon.

Teaser Tuesday – In The Sanctuary of Outcasts

Jun 022009

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

Grab your current read.

Let the book fall open to a random page.

Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.

You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

Please avoid spoilers!

in the sanctuary of outcasts picture “I used the leprosy cafeteria restroom, off-limits to inmates, to wash my face. My cheeks were covered with red splotches, like my skin was allergic to my own tears.”
- In the Sanctuary of Outcasts by Neil White, p. 162

Feel free to check out an interview with the author.

Fabulous Authors and Others!

Jun 012009

I wanted to make sure that I can keep providing you all with interesting content when baby comes, which could be any time now. I hope I will still get some reading time, but I’m not counting on a whole lot of time to write reviews. Seems like it would be easier to read than write while feeding. I do have some great reviews saved up for you all to get me through a few weeks at least, but I have also lined up what I think are going to be some really interesting guest posts, mostly from authors, but from a publicist as well.

Here’s my tentative schedule, but it is subject to change as I do not yet have all of the posts in my possession (we actually haven’t reached the deadline I set yet, some authors are just SUPER ahead of the game):

Tuesday, June 9th – Katherine Howe, author of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (my review) – “On The Importance of Procrastination”

Monday, June 15th – Eve Brown-Waite, author of First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria (my review)

Monday, June 22nd – Marisa de la Santos, author of Belong to Me (my review)

Monday, June 29th - Mei-Ling Hopgood, author of Lucky Girl (my review)

Monday, July 6th - Kate Travers, Director of Marketing and Publicity for Folio Literary Management

Monday, July 13th – Karen Harrington, author of Janeology (my review)

Monday, July 20th – Katie Alender, author of Bad Girls Don’t Die (my review)

Enjoy!

The Story of a Marriage – Book Review

Jun 012009

The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer

Pearlie Cook is a housewife in San Francisco post-World War II. She lives in a small house with her husband Holland and young son who has polio. Pearlie knew Holland when they were both growing up in the South, was his girlfriend back home before he went into the war. When she arrived in San Francisco, she met him again entirely by accident, and it was not long before he told her that he needed her to marry him.

I was a bit apprehensive when Pearlie married Holland, because it really didn’t seem that she knew him at all, which given the rest of the book is probably exactly what I should have been feeling. Holland doesn’t talk much about his time in the war, so Pearlie really is not expecting it when Buzz comes to their front door, claiming to be a friend of Holland’s from when he was in the army. Even less expected than Buzz’s presence, however, is what he will tell Pearlie and the sacrifice he will ask of her.

Initially I wasn’t quite sure how I would feel about this book. There is a sort of dreamy, far-off quality about the story, particularly in the beginning and I was sure I wouldn’t be able to identify with any of the characters because of it. However, Greer’s beautiful, lyrical writing soon drew me into the story. It made sense for the novel to have such a dreamy quality, because much of what happened seemed surreal to Pearlie.

This is a wonderfully done work of literary fiction. If you stick primarily with contemporary fiction and don’t venture much into literary fiction this may not quite work for you, but if you enjoy literary fiction I highly suggest you give this a read.

Buy this book from:
Powell’s.
A local, independent bookstore via Indiebound.
Amazon.