The Lotus Singersedited byTrevor Carolan, Digital Geishas and Talking Frogs, edited byHelen Mitsios, Disaster Was My God, byBruce Duffy, Triple CrossingbySebastian RotellaandWe All Fall DownbyMichael Harvey
"..these are real people with real problems living in really troubling situations ...."
—Alan Cheuse
Clearly, Alan and I have been busily sitting down and reading. Of course, there's a nice crop of easily read books out there and that makes this a lot easier, especially when the thrillers are authentically thrilling, the literary biographies happen to feature gun-running enfant terrible poets and the short story collections hail from alien worlds on this world. All in a day's work for "the voice of books" from NPR.
Given both the high quantity and quality of the books in question, I'm going to let our conversation speak for itself. This time around, we found the books we were talking about to be worth readers' valuable time, though not all books will fit all tastes.
For those seeking literary adventure and travel, there are two new books from a new publisher; 'The Lotus Singers,' edited by Trevor Carolan, and 'Digital Geishas and Talking Frogs,' Edited by Helen Mitsios. Both hail from Cheng and Tsui, apparently a company heretofore dedicated to the publication of books teaching the English-speaking world the Chinese language. Cheng and Tsui is now branching out into fiction. Doubleday brings us 'Disaster Was My God,' biographical fiction about Arthur Rimbaud, a major new work by Bruce Duffy, and you can read all about that in today's commentary.
07-27-11:A 2011 Interview with Arielle Eckstutt and David Henry Sterry
"Can we use that?"
—David Henry Sterry
Of course you can! That's sort of the point, isn't it? Even the authors of books intended to help other authors get published, an Escherian concept if ever there was one, need to get publicity, and a phone interview offers a fine alternative. Assuming the interviewer has the gear at home, then everyone can get what politicians like to call the maximum "bang for the buck." Nobody has to leave home and nobody has to even, in theory, get dressed. Let's presume, however, for the duration of this article, that everyone was indeed dressed. I might note that there is a bit in the book on getting interviewed, and it is not unhelpful.
Eckstutt and Sterry have a pretty full plate these days. They both have separate literary careers (she's an agent, he's a writer), they have a website together, that is The Book Doctors (and what a nice linker I am, eh?), and they have these events, which I've heard about for a while — Pitchapalooza, wherein the would-be's line up at the gate and have a minute to pitch their book. It's speed dating for writers and agents, and while it is perhaps a dangerous precedent, it also gets results. People who have attended get signed.
I talked to the writers-about-writers about their book, their websites and their live show. To me it just makes perfect sense; by offering a platform for writers to hone their pitching skills, they are doing the best possible job of pitching their own skills. You can hear just how good they are by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
07-26-11 UPDATE:Podcast Update: Time to Read, Episode 3: David Eagleman, Incognito
Here's the (late, sorry) third episode of my new series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. The podcasts/radio broadcasts will be of books worth your valuable reading time. I'll try to keep the reports under four minutes, for a radio-friendly format. If you want to run them on your show or podcast, let me know.
My hope is that in under four minutes I can offer readers a concise review and an opportunity to hear the author read from or speak about the work. I'm hoping to offer a new one every week.
"He said he was the producer and director of a new TV series called Alfred Hitchcock Presents."
—Mark Seal
It was literally a bright and early morning in San Francisco when I sat down to talk with Mark Seal. Since his plane was leaving early, I was there by 8:30 AM, which necessitated leaving more than two hours before that. Readers can do the math and wind backward through my day, but once I got there to talk to Seal, I can guarantee that I was as riveted then as I was when I read 'The Man in the Rockefeller Suit.' And yes, it is true; this is one of those non-fiction books that I'm inclined to call a novel simply because it is such a powerfully well-told tale.
Seal is as good in person as he is in print, even when posed with telling a rather different tale, that of how he came to create 'The Man in the Rockefeller Suit.' From research to timelines to spreadsheets, we talked about how he put together such a clear-headed vision of the muddled life of Clark Rockefeller.
One of the things about the book that was of particular interest to me was that a character in the book worked at a bookstore when I was a frequent customer there. I'm pretty sure I probably met this character, one whom I suspect a fair number of readers who resided in southern California in the 1980's might also recognize. That is, if you read the same sort of genre fiction as myself, I bet you were in that store, as the 1980's were the peak heyday of this bookseller. I bought many memorable books there, including Stephen Gallagher's 'Downriver' and the UK edition of Clive Barker's 'The Great and Secret Show.'
05-16-12: Commentary : Mark Sundeen Pays Out 'The Man Who Quit Money' : Over the Edges
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2012 Interview with Mark Sundeen and Daniel Suelo : "What would happen if we actually practiced this stuff?"-Daniel Suelo
05-15-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Clive Barker 'Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War' : Impure Life
05-08-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Clive Barker 'Abarat' : Reading in Color
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2012 Phone Interview with Mark Sundeen : "...over the years, I had heard through my friends that he had stopped using money and was living in a cave..."
04-30-12: Commentary : Christopher Moore Follows 'Sacré Bleu' : A Story in Color
Agony Column Podcast News Report: A 2012 Interview with Christopher Moore : "...it often isn't efficient to tell a story in chronological order..."
04-27-12: Commentary : Lisa Lutz on 'Trail of the Spellmans' : Meta-Fiction is Fun
Agony Column Podcast News Report: SF in SF from February 11, 2012 : Panel Discussion Moderated by Terry Bisson and Interviews with Rudy Rucker, K. W. Jeter, and Jay Lake
04-26-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Emmanuel Carrere 'The Adversary' : The Enemy Within
04-23-12: Commentary : T. M. Luhrman Listens 'When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship With God' : Science and the Supernaturaly
04-18-12: Commentary : Gregg Jones Stirs Through 'Honor in the Dust: Theodore Roosevelt, War in the Philippines and the Rise and Fall of America's Imperial Dreams' : A Dream Of Today From Yesterday
Agony Column Podcast News Report: A 2012 Interview with Gregg Jones : "The Philippinos would welcome us with open arms and greet us as liberators."
04-17-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Caleb Carr 'The Alienist' : Subterranean History
04-16-12: Commentary : Richard Zacks Visits 'Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Doomed Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York' :The Wild, Wild East
Agony Column Podcast News Report: A 2012 Interview with Richard Zacks : "Roosevelt and Riis were out looking, and if they did find a cop, he was talking to a streetwalker."
