Regular Contributor Amy Pence is with this season’s poetry review. If you are a lover of poetry this one seems like it will not disappoint, but it also looks like it would be great for just the casual poetry reader and a nice change from you normal spring and summer reading!
Lee Rossi is a master portraitist. Reading his third collection Wheelchair Samurai (Plain View Press, 2011), I’m reminded of Van Gogh’s honest rendering of his friends and neighbors such as “Roulin’s Baby” (often referred to as the “green baby”) that hangs in the National Gallery.
His vision is wry and sometimes brutal; he sees to the core. In “Yakuza in the Jacuzzi,” the speaker sends up his sister’s mobster boyfriend “floating like a walrus in the giant/ redwood crockpot behind their house.” His appraisal continues:
…all I really want is to scrub away those awful tattoos
covering the drive-in movie screen of his back—
geishas with shotguns, samurai in wheelchairs,
Fuji-san about to blow its top
and drown Edo in a sea of fire.
Like Van Gogh, in both his portraits and his landscapes, the strokes may be broad, but Read More
Eric Jerome Dickey fans rejoice! The master of obsession, intrigue, romance and deceit is back with a brand new page-turning novel. AN ACCIDENTAL AFFAIR tells the story of James Thicke, a well known Hollywood screenwriter, his A-List actress wife and the sex scandal that turns their world upside down.
Eric joined me in studio the day before the book release to tell his story and to talk about the book, the crazy world of Hollywood and (randomly) laundry!
Intrigued? You should be. If you already an Eric Jerome Dickey – you’ll want to get to know him better and hear right from the man, where he gets his ideas…
If Eric Jerome Dickey is a new author you, don’t be fooled by the pretty pink cover. This book is as gritty and fast-paced as they come.
As always, I hope you enjoy the interview… and be sure to check out the rest of the author interview series on iTunes!
PS – Here’s a little quiz for you… which of the following jobs do you think Eric Jerome Dickey has had in his career?*
a) cook
b) software engineer
c) substitute teacher
d) all of the above
*For the answer, you’ll have to listen to the interview! (Of course!!)
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New York Times bestselling author Eloisa James already lives a double life. She is both the beloved and bestselling romance author Eloisa James AND Professor Mary Bly who teaches Shakespeare at Fordham University and has degrees from Oxford, Harvard and Yale.
But now Eloisa is taking on a third role – that of memoirist. Her new book is called PARIS IN LOVE and it is the story of a year she and her family spent in Paris.
The book will in turn have you laughing, hoping for love for Florent, wanting to meet Milo the dog, and wishing you were as chic as the french women Eloisa encounters. It will also make you hungry! There is plenty of chocolate in this one, along with tucked away French bistros and interesting groceries and markets.
If you think uprooting your life and moving to Paris would be a challenge – imagine what it Read More
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Regular contributor Denise Neary shares her latest discovery. Book Clubs… this one’s for you!
Until our book club won copies of Night Road by Kristin Hannah, in a contest sponsored by the author and Bookreporter, I’d never read one of Ms. Hannah’s books.
Two months later, and I am on my third….and my book club has discussed two, Night Road and Winter Garden.
If your club is looking for books to spark some great conversation, consider Hannah.
You know the adage; don’t judge a book by its cover?
Well, I do….and had decided that Hannah’s books were a little too light for me. (Don’t even bother asking me if I can name all the Kardashian children….I can. So how I come up with these rules about substance is, to say the least, a little nuanced.)
I don’t always love Hannah’s books….but, once started, I can’t put them down. She Read More
In today’s post, regular contributor Denise Neary shares a personal family tragedy with Midtown Review. Please join me in supporting her family in this terrible time.
Friends of Kevin Neary
Do you ever read a good book, and think “really interesting, exciting, but so not like my own life? Me, too.
No more.
On the morning of November 15, my 29 year old nephew Kevin was shot in the neck in a botched robbery attempt. The bullet severed his spinal cord; he is quadriplegic, and he relies on a ventilator to breathe.
So much for the fabled dramatic moment when everything changes.
I am “only” an aunt, and it is heartbreaking. I don’t pretend to know how this feels for Kevin and his immediate family.
But as is almost always true with the unspeakably sad, there are lovely things, too. I write to point readers to some great writing. Here is the webpage Kevin’s brothers JP and Chris developed to keep Kevin’s legion of friends up to date on Kevin’s rehabilitation, on fundraising efforts, on visiting hours, on the related criminal case:
http://kevinneary.com/kevins-
Take a look at it, and I think you will understand how proud I am of Kevin and his family. Faced with horrible, they have chosen Read More
Earlier this week, the Atlanta chapter of the Midtown Review Book Club had the pleasure of hosting author Karen White and hearing all about her current and future work. It was a lot of fun and everyone really seemed to enjoy it. Coincidentally, one of Karen’s favorite authors is Diana Gabaldon, which sparked a conversation among the faithful in which we decided we needed to go back 20 some years and read the first in the Outlander series, OUTLANDER! Some of us read it a long time ago, and others have had it on their list but just hadn’t gotten around to it. So… it’s a long book for a short month, but we’re going for it.
For the details on the Atlanta gatherings (in Sandy Springs), join our Meetup group at http://www.meetup.com/MidtownReview/. (To start a Midtown Review meetup near you – click here: http://www.meetup.com/Midtown-Review-Book-Club/)
If you’re nearby, we’d love to have you join us in person – but if you can’t feel free to comment here or on our Facebook page!
– Dana Barrett, Managing Editor
Here at Midtown Review, we love watching an author’s career take off… and that is just what has happened with Brad Taylor. When he visited last year for the an interview about his debut novel ONE ROUGH MAN, I knew he was going to be big. And I was right… ONE ROUGH MAN, the first in the Pike Logan series became an instant New York Times and Publisher’s Weekly bestseller! Can Midtown Review take credit for that? Er, well… probably not, but I’m still proud of Brad’s success and thrilled that he was willing to come back for an interview about his new book ALL NECESSARY FORCE.
ALL NECESSARY FORCE picks up the story of Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill not too long after we left them at the end of ONE ROUGH MAN. Pike is not going Read More
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Guess what happens tomorrow? No? Okay let me help you… Joshilyn Jackson’s new book A GROWN UP KIND OF PRETTY hits bookstore shelves – and if you pre-ordered then maybe your mailbox too!
Joshilyn is one of our favorite authors here at Midtown Review, and I for one, can’t wait to start reading this one. Here’s the description of A GROWN UP KIND OF PRETTY from Joshilyn’s website - or even better listen to Joshilyn describe the book and bring the characters to life in my most recent interview with her.
As with all the Midtown Review podcasts, this one also contains a sneak peek of what Joshilyn is working on next!
As always, I hope you enjoy the interview! And be sure to check out the rest of the author interview series on iTunes!
– Dana Barrett, Managing Editor
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Regular Contributor Shannon Ross is back today with her take on the THE MARRIAGE PLOT by Jeffrey Euginedes. I’m pretty sure I’m the one who loaned her MIDDLESEX, so I’m taking credit for her wanting to read more of an author I introduced her to!
This fall I was excited to learn of Jeffrey Eugenides’ most recent novel, The Marriage Plot. It was only in 2010 that I first read Eugenides’ highly acclaimed Middlesex, which I thoroughly enjoyed, so I had high hopes for this next novel. Despite reading a review indicating that this contribution was not as impressive, the plot seemed of interest and I was enthusiastic to give it a try. Reflecting the public interest in the novel, there was a long waiting list at my local library, and several weeks later I picked up my copy.
As the novel opens, the story focuses on Madeleine Hanna who is a Brown University senior on her graduation weekend (class of ’82), without much of a post-graduation plan. In fact, many of the students do not have set plans, due to a high unemployment rate (suggestive of our current job market). Madeleine is dealing at the moment with her overeager yet well-meaning parents who are visiting for graduation, and more chronically with a recent breakup that has contributed to her lack of direction.
We are introduced to Mitchell Grammaticus as Madeleine runs into him during a breakfast Read More
Regular Contributor Denise Neary is back and is encouraging you to follow your literary dreams this year. I would add that there are plenty of pros and cons to self-publishing and plenty of ways to go about getting it done. Educate yourself before making any publishing decision, and be sure you know where your money is going and what results you can rightly expect. With that in mind, enjoy the success story Denise is sharing and WHATEVER your dreams are this year, whether literary or otherwise, don’t be afraid to go for it!
Is it your new year’s resolution to be published in 2012? Keep reading!
A friend and colleague, Paul Vamvas, was generous enough to let me read a draft of a book he was working on a few years ago. I gave the draft the ultimate commuter compliment…..I almost missed my stop, I was so engrossed in what I was reading.
Paul worked on the book, made it better, even warmed my heart by including a character named after Chester County (PA) bookseller extraordinaire Joe Drabyak, http://articles.philly.com/
Paul got thumbs up for his work from readers, other generous writers, agents, editors, publishers—but his book never found the right home in traditional publishing.
So what did he do? Read More
