What DID Susan read in 2013?

I promised to post the complete list of books I read this year.  Here, without further ado, it is.  Oh, and for those who assume I'm some kind of speed reader--I'm really not.  While I read faster than average, mostly, I just spend a lot of time reading.  As many books as I read, I still wish there were time for more!

Lit List 2013:

1.      The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells—Andrew Sean Greer ★★★★★

2.      Frances and Bernard—Carlene Bauer★★★★★

3.      Vampires in the Lemon Grove—Karen Russell★★★★★

4.      Frozen Solid—James Tabor★★★★

5.      Delirium—Lauren Oliver★★★

6.      Sailor Twain: Or, The Mermaid in the Hudson—Mark Siegel★★★★

7.      The Fifth Assassin—Brad Meltzer★★★★

8.      14—Peter Clines★★★★★

9.      Buzz Books 2013

10.  Jujitsu Rabbi and the Godless Blonde— Rebecca Dana★★★

11.  The Devotion of Suspect X—Keigo Higashino★★★★★

12.  Garden of Stones—Sophie Littlefield★★★★

13.  Truth in Advertising—John Kenney★★★★

14.  The Cloud—Matt Richtel★★★★★

15.  We Live in Water—Jess Walter★★★★★

16.  The Sliver Star—Jeannette Walls★★★

17.  Big Girl Panties—Stephanie Evanovich★★★★

18.  Weird Life: The Search for Life that is Very, Very Different than Our Own—David Toomey★★★★★

19.  The Demonologist—Andrew Pyper★★★★

20.  Ghostman—Roger Hodgeson★★★★★

21.  Between Man and Beast: An Unlikely Explorer, The Evolution Debates, and the African Adventure that Took the Victorian World by Storm—Monte Reel★★★★★

22.  Double Feature—Owen King★★★★

23.  The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards—Kristopher Jansma ★★★★★

24.  Life After Life—Kate Atkinson★★★★

25.  Lexicon—Max Barry★★★★★

26.  Indiscretion—Charles Dubow★★★★

27.  Someday, Someday Maybe—Lauren Graham★★★★★

28.  The Mermaid of Brooklyn—Amy Shearn★★★★★

29.  The House at the End of Hope Street—Menna van Praag★★

30.  Code White—Scott Britz-Cunningham★★★★

31.  The Hit—David Baldacci★★★★

32.  The Golem and the Jinni—Helene Wecker ★★★★★

33.  Strangelets—Michelle Gagnon★★★★

34.  Maya’s Notebook—Isabel Allende★★★★

35.  Soon I Will Be Invincible—Austin Grossman★★★★★

36.  You—Austin Grossman★★★

37.  The Rosie Project—Graeme Simsion★★★★

38.  Bad Monkey—Carl Hiaasen★★★★

39.  The Loch Ness Legacy—Boyd Morrison★★★★★

40.  Radium Baby—St. John Karp★★★★

41.  Insane City—Dave Barry★★★★

42.  Tenth of December—George Saunders ★★★★★

43.  Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles—Ron Currie★★★

44.  Labyrinth—Mark Sullivan★★

45.  Love in the Afternoon—Alison Packard★★

46.  The Princess Bride—William Goldman★★★★★

47.  Big Fish—Daniel Wallace★★★★★

48.  The Perks of Being a Wallflower—Stephen Chbosky★★★

49.  Nemesis—Philip Roth★★★★★

50.  The Tin Horse—Janice Steinberg★★★

51.  Suddenly a Knock at the Door—Edgar Keret★★★★★

52.  The Rock Star in Seat 3A—Jill Kargman★★★★

53.  A Hole in Texas—Herman Wouk★★★★★

54.  The Fun Parts—Sam Lipsyte★★★

55.  Pandemonium—Warren Fahy★★★★★

56.  What the Family Needed—Steven Amsterdam★★★

57.  Island 731—Jeremy Robinson★★★★

58.  The Last Policeman—Ben H. Winters★★★★★

59.  Prophet of Bones—Ted Kosmatka★★★★

60.  Syrup—Max Barry★★★★

61.  NOS4A2—Joe Hill★★★★

62.  The Interestings—Meg Wolitzer ★★★★★

63.  The Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared—Jonas Jonasson★★★

64.  Woke Up Lonely—Fiona Maazel★★★

65.  Marathon Man—William Goldman★★★★

66.  The Kings and Queens of Roam—Daniel Wallace★★★★

67.  The Great Gatsby—F. Scott Fitzgerald★★★★★

68.  Gorgeous—Paul Rudnick★★★★

69.  Murder as a Fine Art—David Morrell★★★★

70.  Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction—Annalee Newitz★★★★

71.  Eye of God—James Rollins★★★★★

72.  The Order of Odd-Fish—James Kennedy★★★★★

73.  Inferno—Dan Brown★★★

74.  Borrower of the Night—Elizabeth Peters★★★

75.  Oryx & Crake—Margaret Atwood★★★★★

76.  The Year of the Flood—Margaret Atwood★★★★★

77.  MaddAddam—Margaret Atwood ★★★★★

78.  Chose the Wrong Guy, Gave Him the Wrong Finger—Beth Harbison★★★

79.  The Book of Secrets—Elizabeth Arnold★★★

80.  The Last Dragonslayer—Jasper Fforde★★★★★

81.  The Song of the Quarkbeast—Jasper Fforde★★★★★

82.  Stay Up With Me—Tom Barbash★★★★★

83.  Japantown—Barry Lancet★★★★

84.  Suspect—Robert Crais★★★★

85.  Equal Rites—Terry Pratchett★★★

86.  Fiction River Anthology: Time Streams★★★

87.  Doctor Sleep—Stephen King★★★★

88.  The Return—Michael Gruber★★★★

89.  The Eyre Affair—Jasper Fforde★★★★★

90.  Fool—Christopher Moore★★★★★

91.  The Serpent of Venice—Christopher Moore ★★★★★

92.  Lightning—Dean Koontz★★★★

93.  Terminal Freeze—Lincoln Child★★★

94.  The Sensory Deception—Ransom Stephens★★★★

95.  Redshirts—John Scalzi★★★★★

96.  The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie—Alan Bradley★★★★

97.  The Knife of Never Letting Go—Patrick Ness★★★★★

98.  The New Yorkers—Cathleen Schine★★★★★

99.  Grave Peril—Jim Butcher★★★

100.  The Lincoln Lawyer—Michael Connelly★★★★

101.  The Accidental Time Machine—Joe Haldeman★★★

102.  The Roots of the Olive Tree—Courtney Miller Santos★★

103.  Subterranean—James Rollins★★★★★

104.  Relic—Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child★★★★★

105.  The Last Girlfriend on Earth—Simon Rich★★★★★

106.  Six Years—Harlan Coben★★★★★

107.  Code Name Verity—Elizabeth Wein★★★★

108.  The Truth—Michael Palin★★★★

109.  The Long War—Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter★★

110.  Countdown City—Ben H. Winters★★★★★

111.  Pines—Blake Crouch★★★★★

112.  Big Egos—S.G. Browne★★★★

113.  Amy Falls Down—Jincy Willett★★★★

114.  Interrupt—Jeff Carlson★★

115.  Full Ratchett—Mike Cooper★★★★

116.  World War Z—Max Brooks★★★★★

117.  Under the Dome—Stephen King★★★★★

118.  Joyland—Stephen King★★★★★

119.  The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls—Anton DiSclafani★★★★

120.  A Hundred Summers—Beatriz Williams★★★★

121.  Blind Goddess—Anne Holt★★★★

122.  Insurgent—Veronica Roth★★★★★

123.  Crimson—Cosmo Fischer (AKA Warren Fahy) ★★★

124.  The Humans—Matt Haig★★★

125.  Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead—Sheryl Sandburg★★★★★

126.  & Sons—David Gilbert ★★★★★

127.  Covet—Tracey Garvis Graves★★★★

128.  Dissident Gardens—Jonathan Lethem★★★

129.  Songs of Willow Frost—Jamie Ford★★★★

130.  Enon—Paul Harding★★★★

131.  Night Film—Marisha Pessl★★★★★

132.  A Guide for the Perplexed—Dara Horn★★★★

133.  The Crane Wife—Patrick Ness★★★★★

134.  Never Go Back—Lee Child★★★★

135.  The Bookstore—Deborah Meyler★★★★

136.  Dangerous Curves Ahead—Sugar Jamison★★

137.  The Returned—Jason Mott★★★★★

138.  The Song of Spider-Man—Glen Berger★★★★★

139.  A Bad Day for Romance—Sophie Littlefield★★★★★

140.  The Cure—Douglas Richards★★

141.  Don’t Look Now—Michelle Gagnon★★★★

142.  Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock—Matthew Quick★★★★

143.  Cain’s Blood—Geoffrey Girard★★★★★

144.  The Bone Season—Samantha Shannon★ – Could not finish

145.  Wayward—Blake Crouch★★★★★

146.  Strong Rain Falling—Jon Land★★★

147.  The People in the Trees—Hanya Yanagihara★★★★★

148.  Bait—J. Kent Messum★★★★

149.  Sea Creatures—Susannah Daniels★★★★★

150.  The Execution of Noa P. Singleton—Elizabeth L. Silver★★★★

151.  Starglass—Phoebe North★★★★

152.  Speak of the Devil—Allison Leotta★★★★★

153.  Chimera—David Wellington★★★★

154.  Help for the Haunted—John Searles★★★★★

155.  The Curiosity—Stephan Kiernan★★★

156.  Parasite—Mira Grant★★★★

157.  Sisterland—Curtis Sittenfield★★★★

158.  The Universe Versus Alex Woods—Gavin Extence★★★

159.  Death of the Demon—Anne Holt★★★★

160.  Killer Ambition—Marcia Clark★★★★★

161.  The Tower—Simon Toyne★★★★

162.  Paranoia—Joseph Finder★★★★★

163.  Bellman & Black—Diane Setterfield★★★

164.  The October List—Jeffrey Deaver★★★★

165.  The Ocean at the End of the Lane—Neil Gaiman★★★★★

166.  Fortunately, the Milk—Neil Gaiman★★★★★

167.  The Signature of All Things—Elizabeth Gilbert★★★★★

168.  The Days of Anna Madrigal—Armisted Maupin★★★★★

169.  Below—Ryan Lockwood★★★★

170.  The Circle—Dave Eggers ★★★★★

171.  The President’s Hat—Antoine Laurain★★★★

172.  We Need New Names—NoViolet Bulawayo★★★★★

173.  The Testament of Mary—Colm Toibin★★★★

174.  The Lowland—Jhumpa Lahiri★★★★

175.  Harvest—Jim Crace★★★★

176.  A Tale for the Time Being—Ruth Ozeki★★★★★

177.  Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy—Helen Fielding★★★★

178.  We Are Water—Wally Lamb★★★★

179.  The Goldfinch—Donna Tartt★★★★★

180.  Allegiant—Veronica Roth★★★

181.  Sycamore Row—John Grisham★★★★★

182.  Life at the Speed of Light: From the Double Helix to the Dawn of Digital Life—J. Craig Venter★★★★

183.  The Fault in Our Stars—John Green★★★★★

184.  White Fire—Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child★★★★

185.  The Abominable—Dan Simmons★★★★

186.  Runner—Patrick Lee★★★★

187.  Lighthouse Island—Paulette Jiles★★★★

188.  This is the Story of a Happy Marriage—Ann Patchett★★★★★

189.  The Game—Anders de la Motte★★★★

190.    The Cuckoo’s Calling—Robert Galbraith (AKA J.K. Rowling) ★★★★★

191.  And the Mountains Echoed—Khaled Hosseini★★★

192.  Get the Guy: Learn Secrets of the Male Mind to Find the Man You Want and the Love You Deserve—Matthew Hussey★★★★

193.  Schroder—Amity Gaige★★★★★

194.  Fluke, Or I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings—Christopher Moore★★★★★

195.  Someone Else’s Love Story—Joshilyn Jackson★★★★

196.  The Adversary—Reece Hirsch            ★★★★★

197.  The Luminaries--Eleanor  Catton★★★★

198.  Dark Rising: Alex Hunter, Book 2--Greig Beck★★★

199.  Shadows of the Midnight Sun—Graham Brown★★★

200.  Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal--Mary Roach★★★★

 

201. The Colony--F.G. Cottam★★★★

202.  Agent to the Stars--John Scalzi★★★★

203.  The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism--Naoki Higashida & David Mitchell★★★

204.   Burial Rites--Hannah Kent★★★★

205.  Mount Dragon--Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child★★★★

206.  Binary--John Lange (AKA Michael Crichton) ★★★★

207.  The Second Opinion--Michael Palmer★★★★

208.  Flamethrowers--Rachel Kushner★★★★

209.  Stardust--Neil Gaiman★★★★★

210.  Innocence--Dean Koontz★★★

211.  Out of Her Depth--Brenda Hiatt★★★

212.  The First Bird--Greig Beck★★★★

213.  Americanah--Chimamanda Adichie★★★★

214.  Breakthrough--Michael C. Grumley ★★★

215. Making Toast--Roger Rosenblatt★★★★

216.  Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge--Peter Orner★★★★

217.  Submergence--J. M. Ledgard★★★★★

218.  Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death at a Storm-Ravaged Hospital--Sheri Fink★★★★★

219.  Eleanor and Park--Rainbow Rowell★★★★★

220.  The Son--Philip Meyer ★★★★★

221.  Brainrush--Richard Bard ★★★

222.  A Constellation of Vital Phenomena--Anthony Marra ★★★★★

223.  The Man in the Window--Jon Cohen★★★★

224.  Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief--Lawrence Wright★★★★

225.  The Shining Girls--Lauren Beukes★★★★

 

 

Top 10 Books of 2013

Happy New Year, readers!  It's a fresh year, so I'm making a resolution to get back on the blogging bandwagon.  So, what can I tell you about 2013? Well, I read 225 books in total. Yes,

that's a record. Yes, that's ridiculous.  I will be sharing the full list in my next post, for those who are curious.  I can tell you that roughly 158 of them were published in 2013, 42 of them were debut novels, 20 were re-reads, 18 were YA titles, 14 were non-fiction, 14 were trashy underwater fiction, and 9 were short story collections. But who's counting.

Again roughly, my star rankings were as follows: (1) one star, (8) two stars, (36) three stars, (92) four stars, and (87) five stars. (I'm aware that's one short. One book was not rated.)  It was a superlative reading year, obviously. Here, for the purposes of this discussion are my top ten books of the year.  The first two are tied for first place, the rest are in completely random order.  In the cases that I've written a review, I've linked it here.  Other's will hopefully appear on the blog in the weeks to come.



1. The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells - Andrew Sean Greer

1. The Golem and the Jinni - Helene Wecker

Tenth of December - George Saunders

The Interestings - Meg Wolitzer

Maddaddam - Margaret Atwood

The Serpent of Venice - Christopher Moore

& Sons - David Gilbert

The People in the Trees - Hanya Yanagihara

The Circle - Dave Eggers

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena - Anthony Marra


A few additional notes... I generally try to pick books published in the year ended for my top 10

list. I made an exception for Christopher Moore's The Serpent of Venice, which will be released on April 22, 2014. It's as good as anything he's ever written. And I thought I was bad last year, with three Bay Area authors making my top 10 list. This year there are five Bay Area writers! I'm sorry, we just have some wicked talented people in this part of the world.  It's also worth noting that three of the above are debut novels.  Wow.

Winnowing a list of 225 books down to just 10 is pretty awful. I flat out loved all the books above. I loved the 10 honorable mentions below almost as much, and they might have just as easily made the top 10 list were the competition not so brutal.


The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt

The Son - Philipp Meyer

Eleanor & Park - Rainbow Rowell

The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith

This is the Story of a Happy Marriage - Ann Patchett

A Tale for the Time Being - Ruth Ozeki

We Need New Names - NoViolet Bulawayo

The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman

Night Film - Marisha Pessl

The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards - Kristopher Jansma


Tell me, readers, what were your favorite books this year?  Truly, I'd love to know!

R.I.P., Michael Palmer

I remember vividly the first time I met Michael Palmer.  It was in the swimming pool of the Arizona Biltmore in July 2006.  I walked right up to him and said that thing every writer wants to hear: "I've been reading you since I was a little girl!"  Yeah, that's good for the ego.  Sort of.  And Michael could not have been more gracious and approachable. 

It was true, of course.  Starting with the paperback of his 1982 debut novel, The Sisterhood, I'd been a fan.  I can't claim to have read all of his 19 novels, but I've read a majority of them.  I'm grateful for those hours of entertainment.

That first meeting in Phoenix was at the very first Thrillerfest conference.  I continued to see Michael at T-fest regularly in years to come.  I won't even pretend that I was friends with the man, but we were friendly and would chat when we saw each other.  We had occasions of correspondence over the years.  All of my interactions with Michael were exceedingly pleasant.  I'm deeply saddened to learn of his premature death last week at the age of 71.  His obituary in the Boston Globe may be read here.

My thoughts are with his son Daniel, and the entire Palmer family.  Michael and Daniel were often together at T-fest conferences, and together, they share one of my best memories.  For years, the annual Thriller Awards dinner at T-fest has featured authors performing musical numbers, to greater or lesser success.  That first year, Michael and Daniel brought down the house with a very funny blues number they wrote called the Thriller Blues poking fun at their peers.  Here are the lyrics:

Thriller Blues

In the heat of the summer
In search of a niche
Gale Lynds and some others
Got together to bitch

They were searching for ways
To toot our own horn
And in the wee hours,
ITW was born


(Chorus)
Yeah we write thrillers
Designed to leap off bookstore shelves
Books so damn scary
Sometimes we even scare ourselves


Now we got members
From all over the place
We write rough and tumble
Or with style and grace

We meet as equals
Like sisters and brothers,
Even though we all know (as Orwell wrote)
Some are more equal here than others.


Chorus

First there's the master
The man they call Clive
Puts Dirk in grave danger
Then keeps him alive.

But Clive's a showman,
From his nose to his tail
We hear he'll write his next book
In the belly of a whale


(Chorus or break)

Then there's Morrell
the man stands alone
made up ol' Rambo
became pals with Stallone

still he's hardly a snob
he's one of the masses
even though behind our backs
he thinks we're all jack s of all trades)


(Chorus)

Michael & Daniel share the stage with Brad Parks

It's always "LesKWAH"
It's never Lescroat
Call him Lescroat
Get a fist down your thWAH . . .

But he's getting annoyed
So he has a plan
He's changing his name to
John Grisham


Let's leave out the chorus
It'll make this more terse
Then we can keep going
From bad to verse


Sandra Brown is so sweet
She could cure mankind's ills
And she sells more thrillers
Than Pfizer sells pills

She adds romance
Men and women at play.
Then with a cheerleader's smile,
She blows them all away.

(chorus or solo)
Oh yes, there's Steve Berry
Cashing in on the church
He's suddenly hot
Like he won star search

He's a raconteur
A man about town
Known far and wide
As the poor man's Dan Brown

(chorus)


We've got Preston and Child,
Tess, Dale, Brad, and Stine
With a billion books sold,
We're doing just fine

There's not enough time
To name those we left out
So stow that crushed ego
Get rid of that pout

(Chorus)

So here's the big finish
That says thanks a ton
To Dianne and CJ
And Bob Levinson

We all are winners
For having been here
And with any luck
We'll be back next year

Cause we write thrillers
Designed to leap off bookstore shelves
Books so damn scary
Sometimes we even scare ourselves

*****

And finally,  here's some footage from a joint bookstore event Michael and Daniel did a couple of years ago along the same lines...  Rest in peace, Michael.

VIDEO: Donna Tartt says, "All educated Southerners have three different voices..."



Ugh.  I find myself again on the roll of bad bloggers. 

In my defense, I've been out doing--rather than in writing about it.  San Francisco has had back-to-back festivals: Litquake for literature and the Bay Area Science Festival for, uh, science.  There was some overlap.  And as literature and science are two of my favorite things, I've been running around a lot!

These two interests overlapped up in Marin County about a week ago--though not technically a part of either festival.  Now, I don't like to schlep out to the suburbs too often.  There has to be good reason, if you get my drift.  Donna Tartt, who publishes a novel about once every decade--and who consequently tours about once a decade--was a darn good reason for a road trip.  Book Passage was hosting an unusual daytime event, but I guess you take Donna Tartt when you can get her, right?  Despite the weekday timing, the bookstore was packed.  (Oh, and while Donna Tartt was plenty inducement on her own, I couldn't believe my luck when I saw that geneticist/legend J. Craig Venter was speaking at the store that night!  Look for that footage tomorrow.)

So, Donna's latest novel, The Goldfinch, has been generating buzz for months.  I didn't grab an advance copy of this one.  Actually, I purchased (Yes, I still purchase books.) a copy of the audiobook read by the wonderful stage actor David Pittu on the day of it's publication.  In paper, it's a hefty 750 pages or so, and recorded it's about 32 hours, 25 minutes, and 11 seconds--give or take.  By the time I heard Donna speak, two days later, I was just a couple of hours from the end and finished it in the gap between the two lit events.  All I can say is that the buzz was justified.  I loved this rich and gripping tale from start to finish.  I think the description "Dickensian" comes up with Ms. Tartt from time to time.  I can understand that.  It's been close to 30 years since I read Great Expectations, but for some reason I found myself thinking of Pip as I read the harrowing journey of her young protagonist.  I wholeheartedly recommend the novel, and I further recommend the audiobook, if you are so inclined.  David Pittu is simply astounding.  He brings her words and characters vividly to life.

I so enjoyed this rare opportunity to hear Ms. Tartt speak, and hope that you do as well.  And I'd like to thank Book Passage for bringing her to the Bay Area.  One great way to thank them is to eschew that lousy audiobook and order a signed first edition from Book Passage.  I know they'd be delighted to ship one right out!

VIDEO: Armisted Maupin in conversation with David Ulin

I know that I tend to go on and on about all the amazing literary events around San Francisco, but I can't help myself.  It's basically non-stop here.  And, as you've gathered, I tend to stay pretty well-informed about all this city has to offer.  Therefore, it was a bit of a shock that an amazing literary conference almost flew by completely under my radar this past weekend!  It was utterly random that I learned of it in time, but thank goodness I did!  I would have kicked myself if I'd missed it all.

The conference was held at the San Francisco Public Library on Friday and Saturday October 4-5, 2013.  It was free and open to the public.  It's a terrible shame they didn't publicize this wonderful event better because for the most part it was scarcely attended.  What was the conference?  It was called Tales from Two Cities: Writing from California.  San Francisco is obviously one of the "Two Cities," but the other is Los Angeles, and the second part of this conference will take place at the Los Angeles Public Library on February 21-22, 2014.  Angelenos, mark your calendars.  I freakin' hate LA, but gosh I'd love to attend the second half of this event!

Participants of the conference included Tobias Wolff, Robert Hass, Ellen Ullman, Phil Bronstein, Kim Stanley Robinson, and about two dozen more.  The unquestionable highlight was David Ulin's keynote interview with Armisted Maupin, filmed in its entirety above. 

I love Armisted Maupin!  I mean, I've been reading the Tales of the City for what?  A couple of decades now?  I sort of think I live in San Francisco because of these books.  At the very least, they're a factor.  In addition to a deep affection for his fiction, I've met and interacted with Armisted and his husband Christopher around town on any number of occasions now.  They are both just lovely.  It doesn't hurt--I suppose--that I tend to read his novels before they're published, and I always have effusive raves to share before anyone else has seen the work. 

With that in mind, I used a super secret source to acquire an advance galley of Armisted's January 2014 novel, The Days of Anna Madrigal, on short notice.  (Thank you, super secret source!!)  I grabbed it the night before the conference, and I basically power read the novel on Friday morning, before I would be seeing him that afternoon.  Oh, how wonderful it was to reenter Mr. Maupin's San Francisco!  My San Francisco is pretty awesome.  His is better.  And it's populated by such dear old friends.  I so enjoy visiting them. 

I read the novel in a bit over four hours without difficulty.  It's a wonderful addition to the canon.  The only thing is...  I didn't know until hearing Armisted speak that The Days of Anna Madrigal is the very last Tales novel.  If that's the case--and he assures me that it is--then it really is the perfect end to the series.  I just wish that I had known.  I would have savored it a little more.  I will surely have to read again.  Here's a thought...start over from the beginning and read all nine novels!  It sounds crazy, I know, but I've read these books a nearly unprecedented number of times.  They make me happy. 

I'm not reviewing this novel early, and you'll notice I haven't told you a thing beyond the title, however Armisted reveals some tantalizing tidbits in the video above.  (Plus, he's awesome and candid and very, very funny.  I so urge you to watch it in its entirety.)  I was so pleased that I'd managed to read the novel before hearing him speak.  And it was so nice to be able to share my enthusiasm and praise with him afterwards.  He was, as always, absolutely lovely.

Kudos, also, to the wonderful David Ulin, whose work as a reviewer/editor I've admired for years.  He conducts a delightful, spontaneous interview.  And he also gets bonus points as one of the organizers of this conference. 

As for the conference, I may share more of my own video here later, but for those who want more, faster, better, I have great news:  FORA.tv shot the entire event professionally.  You can view the whole shebang right here. 

VIDEO: Antoine Laurain says, "As you can see, my English is very bad..."

Last week I grabbed my favorite Francophile and headed down to the Ferry Building.  Bestselling French author, Antoine Laurain was visiting Book Passage on tour for his charmer of a novel, The President's Hat.  Gallic Books describes the tale like this:

Dining alone in an elegant Parisian brasserie, accountant Daniel Mercier can hardly believe his eyes when President François Mitterrand sits down to eat at the table next to him.

Daniel’s thrill at being in such close proximity to the most powerful man in the land persists even after the presidential party has gone, which is when he discovers that Mitterrand’s black felt hat has been left behind.

After a few moments’ soul-searching, Daniel decides to keep the hat as a souvenir of an extraordinary evening. It’s a perfect fit, and as he leaves the restaurant Daniel begins to feel somehow … different.

My girlfriend wasn't the only Francophile in the house that night.  Msr. Laurain was greeted warmly by his French-loving, French-speaking, French-reading audience, some of whom had discovered The President's Hat in its original language.  As for me, my high school French wasn't going to get me far--I was grateful the gentleman stuck to English.  And despite repeated protestations, his English was more than fine.

Maybe it's just me, but Msr. Laurain seems to epitomize Gallic charm.  His accent is delicious, and my girlfriend all but melted--especially when he mentioned needing an American girlfriend to practice his English.  I got an elbow in the ribs.  His voice has a deep, slightly gravelly quality, and with the accent you have to listen to the video closely.  The conversation with the audience was informal and wide-ranging. 

I haven't had a chance to review The President's Hat yet, so stay tuned, but it's already a big hit in France and England.  The novel certainly has the potential to become a sleeper hit in the States as well, if it can find it's audience.  I could see it winning favor with fans of novels like Mrs. Queen Takes the Train.  I invite you to make the acquaintance of Antoine Laurain on his first ever book tour in the U.S.  Enjoy!





NOTE:  Book Passage will be happy to sell you a signed U.S. first edition of The President's Hat!

VIDEO: David Gilbert and Adam Johnson in conversation

My fall got off to a rocky start health-wise. I’ve been out of balance, and I’ve been having trouble writing for the past few weeks. Ridiculous, I know. But the good news is, I’ve been attending some amazing literary events around town. Sometimes I’m bad about sharing or uploading the video I shoot, but I think this week is the week to feature some seriously awesome events.

The following video was shot several weeks ago—shortly before I contracted the flu, hence the delay in posting. This is the sort of evening that makes me grateful to live in San Francisco, a city where authors like David Gilbert come on book tour, and a city that is home to an extraordinary local literary community. The night of Mr. Gilbert’s lit event at the Book Passage Ferry Building store epitomized what I’m talking about.

Make no mistake, I was pretty excited to hear David Gilbert speak. His novel, & Sons, is

unquestionably one of the best novels I will read this (or any) year. You may read my rave review here. The novel is wonderfully substantive, and I was really curious to hear what the author had to say about it. It wasn’t until the day of the event that I learned he’d be “in conversation” with Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Adam Johnson. Amazing! Where but San Francisco can you see these two literary powerhouses in conversation at your local independent bookseller’s?

Now, readers of this blog may recall that I’m a huge fan of Adam Johnson, professionally and personally. I don’t know the man well, but as far as I can see, he’s the nicest person on the planet.  Seriously, the man’s sweetness and gentleness has been the subject of more than one conversation among the local literati. The opinion is unanimous. And, Adam, I’m sorry to embarrass you if you ever—God forbid—happen to read this.

Here’s the other thing that is consistently amazing about the San Francisco literary community… They come out to support each other. On this particular evening, Andrew Sean Greer, Scott Hutchins, and Tom Barbash were among the audience. I’m friendly with all of them, so it was a great social atmosphere. And we were discussing this very thing—the terrific, supportive literary community—after the talk. I said something along the lines of San Francisco having possibly the best local lit community in the country. I said that people always talk about Brooklyn, but that by all accounts, it’s super-competitive out there. Tom Barbash came back with a quote from Vendala Vida: “In New York, writers read each other’s reviews. In San Francisco, writers read each other’s books.” That’s it in a nutshell.

It goes without saying that the conversation between Johnson and Gilbert was fascinating. And I’m so delighted to be able to share it with you in its entirety. Enjoy!





P.S.:  I am confident that Book Passage would be happy to sell/ship you a signed copy of either of these authors' work!

GUEST BLOGGER POST: The Secret Side of Empty by Maria Andreu

Note from Susan: Generally, guests posting to this blog meet two criteria: They have a novel out, and they're a friend of mine. Well, I've never met Maria Andreu, and in fact, I've had no contact with her at all.  (The arrangements for this blog post were accomplished with the help of a third party.) Nor does she have a book out--yet. The Secret Side of Empty is coming in March 2014, so it's still six months away. The reason I agreed to invite Ms. Andrea to post here is that she has an amazing story, and I think she's got some interesting things to say. I'll look forward to eventually reading her fictionalized account of the life she led as an undocumented teen in America.

Now here's Maria...

My book wanted to be a YA novel. I was not happy with its decision at all. The story of an undocumented girl and what her life is like on the precipice, knowing that “real” life will begin for all her friends but not for her, was so intimately mine that I very much wanted to tell it as my story. But the book had other ideas.

I was born in Spain two months before my parents decided to bring me with them on their grand adventure of making it in America. They were Argentinian by upbringing, Spanish by citizenship. Although they projected both those things on me, what I really became was an American kid. I learned my English on Sesame Street. I loved my Baby Crissy doll with her magical, growing red hair. I wore bad 1970s bellbottoms and envied Marcia Brady along with all the other girls my age.

When I was six, my grandfather died in Argentina. Off my mother and I went to the funeral for what we thought would be a two-week stay. My father stayed behind in the U.S. to send us money. Two weeks turned into two years. Finally, out of ideas on how to reunite with his family, my father paid some coyotes to smuggle us across the Mexican border. In many ways I count that as the start of my story, looking across a border you couldn’t see, wondering why I wasn’t good enough to cross it except against the rules. I was 8 years old. It shaped my personality and world view like few other things have.

As I grew into a teenager I understood the real meaning of being undocumented. No social security number. No college. No job. No “normal” life like the one I saw my friends planning so happily. I looked into the future and saw a blank. And then, in a twist almost too cinematic to work in a book, an amnesty law was passed. Three months after I turned 18, I was put on a path to citizenship and my entire future changed.

I spent decades trying to forget all that, trying to “pass.” Finally, it was an angry pundit on the radio ranting about how we should kick out all the “illegals” that got me thinking. I was proof that people just want dignity and a chance at a good life, that we didn’t want to ruin America, but participate in it. Once I’d gotten a chance at that, I turned my back on the people who were struggling the way I had struggled. I still remember the exact spot of road on which I was driving when I understood that I needed to end my silence.

So I began to speak and write about my experiences. I wrote an essay that appeared in Newsweek, another in The Washington Post. I found my voice. I began writing my story as a memoir.

I shopped that version of the story for 4 years. I got rejected by more than 70 agencies. I fought off well-meaning friends who said, “Just self publish.” There is nothing wrong with self-publishing, but I knew that as someone who had felt so marginalized I needed to sell at least her first book the “traditional” way. I was doggedly, unreasonably determined. So I kept at it. I went to workshops. I got critiques. I rewrote. I got such lovely rejections filled with praise for my prose and my voice. Each one broke my heart and echoed with just how much I didn’t belong.

Finally, it was an impossibly young-looking agent at a pitch conference who told me, “The problem with your pitch is that all the action happens when the protagonist is a teenager. Your book wants to be a YA novel.” I thanked her and rolled my eyes internally. Didn’t she get I wanted to be a Real Writer? There was so much I didn’t understand about Real Writing and about the wonderful literature now finding its way out into the world as YA. It would be months before I’d be ready to understand that she was right.

Everything flowed almost as if by magic when I finally let it sink in. I opened up the big YA titles of the time and saw one agency name over and over again: Writers House. I sent a pitch to their slush pile. Within days I had a response from someone. I Googled her name and my heart started pounding when I learned that she was the same person who had pulled Twilight from the slush pile too. I had queried too soon – I only had 3 chapters, and here they were, asking for the whole manuscript. I pounded it out in 10 days. Of course I’d told many versions of this story, so it was ready to be told quickly. I kicked myself at probably blowing my chance… until they accepted me as a client. So, yes, technically I got the first agent I pitched. Their “we’d love for you to be our client” email still sits framed in my living room. They sold my book in a multiple-offers situation in the first round.

So I feel a certain peace with the story coming to the world as a YA novel. I am a big believer in “flow” and things happening as they should. I don’t know if I fully understand the mystery of why this book wanted to happen this way, but I can’t deny the unmistakable ease with which it did. If I were hard-pressed to come up with a theory it would be this: we all love stories. People may resist something that feels pedantic or is trying to push a certain worldview, as a memoir might have. As a novel, The Secret Side of Empty does none of that. It will appeal to anyone who has ever felt left out or who has ever faced a problem that has felt too big to figure out. The Secret Side of Empty lets you get a glimpse into a life you otherwise would probably never see. It has a love story, characters I hope people will like and, at its core, this very complicated problem of the restricted choices faced by undocumented people in general and kids in particular. But it doesn’t tell you what to think. It just lets you inside. Hopefully, that will spark conversations.


ABOUT The Secret Side of Empty

It's the story of a teen girl that is American in every way except for in one very important way: on paper. She was brought to the U.S. as a baby without proper documentation, so she's "illegal." As the end of the safe haven of her high school days draw near, she faces an uncertain future. Full of humor and frustration and love, The Secret Side of Empty speaks to the part in all of us that has felt excluded or has had a secret too scary to share. What M.T., the main character, finally discovers is the strength of the human spirit and the power that's unleashed when you finally live the truth.


Giveaway Info:

Maria is giving away two separate prizes on her tour, a $250 Amazon Gift Card AND a Kindle Fire.

1) For a chance to win the $250 Amazon gift card, OR the Kindle Fire leave a comment on her blog post for that day. Winners will be randomly selected on September 30th.

Maria Andreu’s Bio:

Maria’s writing has appeared in Newsweek, The Washington Post and the Star Ledger. Her debut novel, The Secret Side of Empty, is the story of an “illegal” high school senior. It was inspired by Maria’s own experiences as an undocumented teen. Since becoming a citizen, Maria has run her own business and has become a soccer mom. She lives with her 13-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son in northern New Jersey.

Links Maria Andreu’s website- http://mariaeandreu.com/
Maria Andreu on Twitter: https://twitter.com/WritersideofM
Maria Andreu on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maria.andreu.books

Preorder The Secret Side of Empty- http://amzn.to/17LaXLX

Psycho killer qu’est-ce que c’est?

Cain's Blood
by Geoffrey Girard

I heard about this novel’s audacious high-concept premise several months before its publication. Marketing copy said:

“A terrifying debut novel about the evil in each of us: when clones of infamous serial killers escape from a secret government facility, it’s up to a former Army Ranger to stop them… with the help of a teenage killer clone.”

And I was basically like: You had me at ‘clones of infamous serial killers.’ I mean, with a premise like that, it was either going to be unbelievably awesome or excruciating bad. Execution would be everything. And I am officially declaring Geoffrey Girard’s debut thriller UNBELIEVABLY AWESOME. If Cain’s Blood doesn’t rocket to the top of the bestseller list in the land of Hannibal Lecter, well, there is no justice in the world of publishing. And, of course, there isn’t, so who knows.

Okay, back to the story… Honestly, beyond the blurb above, there’s nothing you really need to know. Well, I’ll mention that teenage helper is an innocent, 15-year-old clone of Jeffrey Dahmer. Oh yeah, Girard’s not playing around. This novel is a who’s who of serial murder, with appearances by Ted Bundy, David Berkowitz, Ed Gein, etc. The gang’s all here. As I stated above, execution is everything with a premise this bold. Mr. Girard starts things off provocatively by giving readers a prologue in the form of “A Brief History of Cloning” in which he writes, “Cloning humans, by the way, is still completely legal in the United States, everyone just assumes it’s not.” Uh, I certainly did. Mr. Girard has done his homework on everything from genetics to the differences between psychopaths and sociopaths:

“About one half of one percent of Americans could be diagnosed as sociopaths or psychopaths. So says the National Institute of Mental Health… There are degrees to everything. Ninety-eight percent of that two million are only sociopaths, and most sociopaths are little more than flaming assholes… Guys with no regard for the feelings and rights of others. Care only about Number One, steal for the hell of it, moody guys who screw over coworkers, start bar fights out of boredom, won’t talk to their kids…that kind of thing. True psychopaths are much, much rarer. The difference is important, and also horrible.” [I’ve condensed the quote above with ellipses.]

How is that not fascinating? When it comes to science thrillers, the science doesn’t have to be rock solid, but you have to make me believe it. Mr. Girard did a laudable job of making his outrageous premise plausible. And there was neither too much nor too little of the science. He got the balance just right.

Now, obviously a tale like this lives and dies with plotting and pace. Honestly, there wasn’t a whole

lot to the plot. Some bad dudes escaped and a good, if damaged, soldier had to round them up. But within that simple structure, Girard kept his tale lively, offered up some surprises, and kept things moving at a lightning pace. Turning pages was not only effortless, it was mandatory. I can’t imagine that any reader will be surprised to learn that this novel is full of the most lurid and graphic kind of violence. It’s definitely not for everyone. I’m not generally a fan of gratuitous violence, but I’m not even sure it was gratuitous. All I know is that I couldn’t look away.

Character development is not what drives this sort of story. The damaged soldier thing is a bit of a cliché, but Shane Castillo was a likeable enough protagonist. And Mr. Girard did a fine job with his teen Dahmer, making him sympathic and creepy all at once. There is much that is black and white in this tale, but the author also makes good fodder of the moral ambiguities inherent in the situation. Should Cain’s Blood be your next book club pick? Probably not. But I say give yourself a pass and enjoy the guilty pleasure of this very wild ride.

And one more note: Cain’s Blood is actually one half of Mr. Girard’s debut. It’s a complete novel, but he is simultaneously publishing a young adult novel called Project Cain. It tells the exact same story as this novel, but from the POV of the teen Dahmer. I haven’t read it yet, and I know it will be somewhat redundant, but I have to admit I’m curious.

“There’s the story, then there’s the real story…”

MaddAddam
by Margaret Atwood

Early on in the long-awaited conclusion to her MaddAddam trilogy, Margaret Atwood writes:

“There’s the story, then there’s the real story, then there’s the story of how the story came to be told. Then there’s what you leave out of the story. Which is part of the story too.”

And in MaddAddam, at last, Ms. Atwood gives us all of the above.

It’s been a decade since I first read Oryx & Crake, and four years since I read The Year of the Flood. I loved both books, loved the way the two intertwined and complemented each other. So, in preparation for this final volume, I started by rereading the first two novels of the trilogy. Wow, oh wow, did they hold up well! I realize that not all readers have the time or inclination to revisit books they’ve already read, but in this case it was well worth the extra effort, if only to fully appreciate the connections between the three novels. I don’t believe that a trilogy was planned when Ms. Atwood wrote Oryx & Crake, and yet it was almost as if she had salted away loose ends a decade ago as part of some subconscious, brilliant master plan. For those who aren’t inclined to follow my suit, MaddAddam helpfully opens with a four-page summary entitled, “The Story So Far.” Personally, I wouldn’t consider reading this final volume without having first read the prior two at some point.

When last we visited with the God’s Gardeners, it was the post-pandemic Year of the Flood. We’d been on a harrowing journey narrated through the eyes and voices of two Gardeners, Toby and Ren. In MaddAddam, Toby is back as narrator, and while Ren is a secondary character in the novel, I have to admit that I missed her voice. This time around, the tale is told by Toby alone until late in the novel a surprising second narrative voice emerges.

And it’s appropriate that Toby tells the tale, because it is primarily (Finally!) the story of Zeb, a man that Toby has secretly desired for years. Up until now, Zeb has been an enigmatic character, always hard to pin down. In MaddAddam, it becomes clear that Zeb’s history is inextricably linked to that of Adam One and the God’s Gardeners, as well as that of Crake and the Crakers.

But in addition to looking backward, the story of Toby, Zeb, Snowman, the God’s Gardeners, the Crakers, and the “MaddAddamites” who engineered them, moves forward. The whole bunch of them are joined in an uneasy community. The Crakers are an alien intelligence. Says one of the MaddAddamites, “Their brains are more malleable than Crake intended. They’ve been doing several things we didn’t anticipate during the construction phase.” Amen to that! There are many unexpected complications of joining humans and Crakers together, many of them quite comic. The comic relief is welcome, because Atwood’s post-apocalyptic future is dark. Of all the Craker characters, there is really only one who stands out, a young boy christened Blackbeard. He befriends Toby, and is, simply put, adorable. He is also the entrée for readers into the Craker mind. Can it possibly be accurate to say he “humanizes” them?

There are many dangers facing this little tribe. Probably the most aggressive threat is that of the

Painballers—escaped prisoners who have all but lost their humanity. The matter of humanity is, I think, central to this tale because if humanity is to be measured among the characters, it’s a broad spectrum. The Gardeners and their allies are a fairly admirable bunch, trying to live in peace, sustainably, and protect the Crakers. While the Crakers have some extraordinary natural defences and abilities, left to their own devices in this harsh world, these childlike beings would surely perish. The Painballers are entirely human, but have regressed to an almost animalistic state. And then there are the pigoons—the enormous, genetically-engineered pigs that have acquired an unknown degree of human intelligence in addition to the transplant organ-compatibility they were designed for. The pigoons are a threat to all constituencies, and in MaddAddam, we learn a great deal more about these animals.

I can only write so much here, and yet it is a testament to Ms. Atwood’s epic achievement with this final volume that there is so much substance contained within a mere 416 pages. I want to discuss the role of mythology and written language within this tale, the allegorical elements, the cyclic nature of the story being told, and the connectedness of all things. And, I want to quote her at length, for the sheer intelligence of her thoughts, and the beauty of her expression of them. Truly, I could go on and on.

She has given us the story, the real story, and how it came to be told. Ms. Atwood has looked into our future with this trilogy. She has extrapolated trends in our culture today and carried them into a worst possible tomorrow. Her work is disturbing because her vision is undeniable. Different readers will get different messages from this tale, and will take away different lessons. Despite the darkness, I am left with a feeling of hope. And a very strong impulse to start talking with the bees.