A quick update

Hi readers,

Sorry to go AWOL this week.  My week was derailed by some unexpected and unpleasant medical issues.  During Litquake week, of course.  Grrr.

The good news is that I did make it out to see Christopher Moore and Flip Nicklin on Monday night, and I shot some notably bad video of their talks.  I'll try to post it in the near future.  I also got out to hear the awesome Chuck Klosterman speak, but alas, I was too far away to even attempt video.  I will tell you that the single most interesting thing I learned is that his surname is pronounced with a long "o."  Klost rhymes with toast.  Who knew?  I've been saying it wrong for years.

I was out of commission for Wednesday and Thursday, and I'm not confident I'll make it out to hear Jeffrey Eugenides tonight.  (A bookstore employee kindly offered to reserve me a seat, so we'll see.)  If I don't get video tonight, I've still got his talk from BEA up my sleeve.  And there are still several Litquake events tomorrow, including the final Lit Crawl.  So, I'll continue my coverage next week when I'm feeling a bit stronger.

Oh, two more good things...  A winner has finally been selected for The Dovekeepers giveaway.  Please check the posts' comments section if you entered.  Also, tonight I'll be posting a link to not only my next giveaway, but links to more than 50 other book blogs around the world hosting giveaways! 

So, that's all for now.  Have a great weekend, everyone!

I tend to fall in love with debut novelists…

The Visible Man
by Chuck Klosterman

Lauren Groff, Glen David Gold, Audrey Niffenegger—the list goes on and on. An author writes an exceptional first novel that rockets them to the top of my favorites list. Then commences that eternal wait for the follow-up; the wait to see if it was a fluke or what.

I loved Chuck Klosterman’s debut novel, Downtown Owl. I laughed until I had tears in my eyes, and until he genuinely brought me to tears. Awesome. I’ve been awaiting his sophomore effort and hoping for more of the same. And I was fortunate—not only because I was handed an advance galley of this book by the man himself—but also because he warned me that this second novel is radically different in subject matter and tone than the first.

The Visible Man is a short novel in the form of an unpublished manuscript being submitted to Simon & Schuster, complete with cover letter and parenthetical notes to an editor. The author of the supposedly non-fiction manuscript is a therapist named Vicky Vick. The book she’s written details the therapeutic and other interactions she had with the most extraordinary patient she will ever treat. Identified only as Y___, their initial sessions occur over the telephone. Y___ is very reticent to provide personal details, including the issue that has brought him to seek treatment.

Ultimately, the story comes out; supposedly, he’s a scientist who designed, on his own, a suit that allows him to remain unseen by others. Effectively, he can become all but invisible. He has issues regarding “the sensation of guilt” brought about by actions he’s undertaken when cloaked. Namely, he’s been observing strangers alone in their homes without their knowledge. The story of both patient and therapist is relayed through her professional notes and observations, through transcripts of recorded therapy sessions, answering machine messages, and so forth.

On the one level, this is just plain, old-fashioned good story telling. You’ve got a psych patient who says he can become invisible. Is he delusional? What—if anything—that he says is the truth? Where is this story going to go? On another level, Mr. Klosterman, speaking in the voice of the enigmatic and troubling Y___, gets to engage in all sorts of interesting social and philosophical commentary, and to share the fascinating and bizarre stories of those he spies on:

“My earliest memories all involve staring at people and wondering who they actually were. Staring at my mom, for example, and wondering who she was and what she really felt, and how her mother-centric worldview compared to mine. I didn’t know the definition of the word worldview, but I still had one. My mom was a different person around my brother and a different person around my dad and a different person on the telephone—why would I be the one exception who saw the real her?”

Or, “Our world is really backward, Victoria. It’s backward. Look what society does. It takes the handful of people who know how to succeed and makes them feel terrible for being different. Everyone is supposed to be mediocre, I guess. Everyone is supposed to be dragged into the middle—either down from their success, or up from their self-imposed malfunction. These people didn’t need a support group. These people needed someone to tell them they were okay.”

This is not a comic novel as Downtown Owl was, but there is plenty of humor within the pages. (“Men who talk about the details of their sex life are not real people. I’m not a rapper. I’m not a Jewish novelist.”) I don’t think Mr. Klosterman knows how to be not funny. He does, however, know how to write. The benefit of having only the two principle characters in this story is that they become fully fleshed, even through this non-traditional narrative. Their relationship is a strange and intimate one.

Ultimately, this novel worked for me on many levels. It wasn’t the book that I was hoping for, perhaps, but kudos to Mr. Klosterman for highlighting the diversity of his talent. Sophomore novels are so very often a let-down, but Chuck Klosterman remains near the top of my must-read list.

Mailbox Monday: The On Top of October Edition

You know, it's getting to the point that I feel having a plain old mailbox is inexcusably boring...

So, no big literary news on this end.  I think the highlight of last week was going out to see an advance screening of the remake of Footloose with a bunch of friends Friday night.  Not very literary, but surprisingly enjoyable!  It was like being 15 again. 

I think this will also be a quiet week for lit events--until Litquake starts on Sunday with an awesome fairy picnic!  Let's hope for good weather!  The following week, I've got lit events that I could attend every night--depending on my energy and stamina.  Sometimes even I need an evening off.  But there should be some fun stuff to report in the near future.  And on that note...

Reamde
by Neal Stephenson
Release date: September 20, 2011
Source: Finished hardback from publisher

I couldn't get past page three of Anathem, but this is much more up my alley.  In fact, I read all 1,000+ pages in about 3 days.  OMG, what a rollicking good time I had!

Wishes & Stitches
by Rachel Herron
Release date: October 11, 2011
Source: Finished trade paperback from publisher

This will go to a knitter in my life.  Is this something you'd like to see given away on the blog?

Falling Together
by Marisa de los Santos
Release date: October 28, 2011
Source: Finished hardback from publisher

I recall de los Santo's debut novel, Love Walked In being pleasant enough.  Truthfully, my expectations for this novel aren't super high, but not every novel needs to be brilliant.  Some can be merely entertaining and pass the time.  This will probably fit the bill when the mood strikes.

The Cat's Table
by Michael Ondaatje
Release date: October 4, 2011
Source: The Amazon Vine program

Ondaatje is another novelist that sadly I've not read before.  Jon says his writing is gorgeous, but I have to admit the description of the novel's shipboard plot is what grabbed me.

The Technologists
by Matthew Pearl
Release date: February 21, 2012
Source: The Amazon Vine program

Pearl's debut novel has been sitting on my shelf unread for many years--not through any lack of interest on my part.  And each subsequent novel has caught my eye.  But it looks like I'll finally read him with this forthcoming release.  Like his other novels, this is a period thriller.  The description of this novel makes it sound like a science thriller solved by the members of MIT's first graduating past.  That just sounds delicious.

The Good Father
by Noah Hawley
Release date: March 20, 2012
Source: Electronic galley from publisher

While not an original premise (We Need To Talk About Kevin), this is always an intriguing one to me.  It's about the experience of the parent of an (adult) child who commits an unimaginable crime.  In this case, this eponymous father's son is caught on video attempting a political assassination.  Can't wait to read this, but given that it won't be released until spring, it probably will wait a while.

The Dressmaker
by Kate Alcott
Release date: February 21, 2012
Source: Electronic galley from publisher

There can never be too many Titanic novels.  Am I right?

The Dovekeepers
by Alice Hoffman
Release date: October 4, 2011
Source: Electronic galley from publisher

Did anyone happen to notice that I'm trying to give away a free copy of this high-profile soon-to-be-best-seller?  I'm thinking, "no."  Putting aside my own complex response to this novel, it's getting rave reviews.  For this reason, I'm going to extend the deadline on last week's giveaway.  Please post a comment to the linked giveaway by Wednesday, October 12th for a chance to win.  I urge you to enter, as the odds are in your favor!

Books finished in the last week:

The Revisionists by Thomas Mullen
Reamde by Neal Stephenson
The Visible Man by Chuck Klosterman
The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

This was a hefty reading week.  I'd guess about 2,000 pages.  That's certainly not unprecedented.  I don't even know how unusual it is, but it feels more like an accomplishment when a single title is over 1,000 pages long.  I'm not sure why that is.

The Visible Man by Chuck Klosterman sort of snuck up on me.  It was one of the books I was most excited about acquiring at BEA, but the on-sale date was so far off that I put off reading it in lieu of books coming out sooner.  Suddenly I noticed the other day that it goes on sale tomorrow.  So, I had to fit it in over the weekend.

What an interesting novelist Mr. Klosterman is turning out to be!  I haven't read his journalism or non-fiction, but I loved his uproarious debut novel, Downtown Owl.  When I saw him at BEA, I asked if this latest would be in a similar vein.  On the contrary, it's not a comic novel, but very, very interesting.  I have no idea what I will write in a review...

Currently reading:

To be determined.  I might just watch Terra Nova tonight, LOL.  

So, what books have you guys acquired?  What are you reading?  Pleas let us know in the comments!