Sin in the Second City & other delectable reads…
I’m probably the only writer who loathes BEA. Don’t get me wrong – I get giddy over seeing my friends signing their debut books in booths, small publishers proudly showing off their new lists, the coveted galleys I have no shame in swiping, but to me the Javits Center reminded me of a woman’s lipstick being kissed off. The crowds, the abysmal food and heat, the networking, networking and more networking, the business of books – if I didn’t have to be there for work, I wouldn’t. Rather, I’d opt to sit in my office, pulling glass out of my eye. I don’t know. Maybe I just need to get over my fear of crowds.
But if there were a world where I can quietly roam the floor and page through books, alone, instead of bumping into faux Borats and getting overwhelmed with tote bags and buttons and other samples, I’d be in a state of bliss. This weekend, after a serious spring purge of books, clothing and other assorted household items, I spread out my new wares on my living room floor and got giddy all over again. Perhaps it’s because I work in publishing and edit a literary journal and am a writer who’s about to publish a book that I’m growing tired of the business of books, a sales convention that is all about business, rather than the books themselves.
What am I looking forward to? Here are some choice titles that I’m recommending for fall:
*Benjamin Percy’s Refresh, Refresh
*Alice Sebold’s The Almost Noon
*Josh Dorfman’s The Lazy Environmentalist: Your Guide to Easy, Stylish, Green Living
*Brock Clarke’s The Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England
*Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing Edited by Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss (or anything really from Small Beer Press)
*Haven Kimmel’s The Used World
and what should be on your bookshelf right this moment? or at least in early july? Karen Abbott’s superbly written and thoroughly researched, Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America’s Soul. Learn more about Karen Abbott & the book by visiting her website. I’m pretty tickled that Karen will be a guest on my Writers Revealed show in July and I hope (cross all applicable body parts) that we can do an interview/walking tour of old Chicago.
