Fictionaut Five: Victoria Lancelotta
Oct 14, 2009 in Fictionaut Five with 0 Comments
With today’s installment, Meg Pokrass takes over the Fictionaut Five series of interviews. Every Wednesday, Meg will ask a writer five (or more) questions.
Victoria Lancelotta is the author of the short story collection Here in the World and the novels Far (Counterpoint) and Coeurs Blesses (Phébus). Booklist called her “a razor’s-edge writer with an existential streak and a fascination with the dichotomies of being.”
Victoria’s story “The Anniversary Trip,” originally published in The Gettysburg Review, appears in The Best American Short Stories 2009, edited by Alice Sebold.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
WORD loves HMH
From WORD bookstore blog:
Mentions The Sealed Letter, George Orwell, and Time Traveler's Wife, plus I included the comments which plugs BA Nonrequired Reading. (Bolds are mine.) -HH
Mentions The Sealed Letter, George Orwell, and Time Traveler's Wife, plus I included the comments which plugs BA Nonrequired Reading. (Bolds are mine.) -HH
WORD on Wednesdays: 7 October 2009
Posted on October 7, 2009 by Word
...We’ve got Terry Tempest Williams on there because dozens of other indie booksellers love her, so even though no one here has read the book, their recommendations are good enough for us. The Sealed Letter by Emma Donague because Stephanie loved it, and the paperback of State by State because it is a cool collection. And George Orwell for good measure. You can’t go wrong with George Orwell’s essays.
Rounding things out, at the top we’re featuring Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger a. because The Time Traveler’s Wife is one of Christine’s favorite books of all time and b. because the publisher sent us a gorgeous letterpress broadside to display with it (poking out the top there) and we love letterpress more than a simple blog post could express.
So there you have it! The bizarre thought patterns behind our front table. As you can see, we don’t always solve every question perfectly every week. But we hope you’ll continue to read along and let us know what you think.
4 Responses
Rich, on October 7th, 2009 at 5:02 pm Said:
I’ve been wondering if the Sealed Letter was any good. Thanks for the rec.
FYI, Emma Donoghue wrote a great bio about two crazy Victorian spinsters who wrote poetry and plays under the pen-name Michael Field. It’s really good. Check it out if you can find a copy: We Are Michael Field (Absolute Press, 1998).
Reply
Brittany, on October 14th, 2009 at 2:15 pm Said:
See you’re giving Dave Eggers some front table love…have you checked out the Best American Nonrequired Reading 2009?
Reply
Word, on October 14th, 2009 at 3:18 pm Said:
Yep, we actually have a big display elsewhere in the store with all the Best Americans! Very popular here.
Sunday Hangovers
Last link is about How to be a Movie Star...
Sent to you by hannah via Google Reader:
via Shaken & Stirred by Gwenda on 10/4/09
- Maggie Stiefvater with a butt-kicking post about questions that writers can only answer for themselves.
- Someone has reposted the entire Sci Fiction archive without permission. Ellen Datlow has links and contact info for writers who would like their stories removed.
- The real missing link? Her name is Ardi.
- Both Colleen Mondor and Sara Zarr offer some perspective on banned books week and crimes involving young women. (If you are defending Roman Polanski, just UGH. What is wrong with you? You like rich people's privilege that much?)
- Alana Joli offers some interesting thoughts about urban fantasy, and then about literature and genre fiction and the Great Divide.
- That New York Times' essay by Arthur Krystal--in case you missed it--about the differences in thinking when writing vs. speaking.
- Jeff Ford recently asked for his blog readers' favorite ghost stories (short story length) for a top ten he's compiling for a class he's teaching this semester. You could do worse than reading any of the resulting stories. Any you'd add?
- Speaking of which, Ron Charles gives a good review to Audrey Niffenegger's just-out Her Fearful Symmetry, and offers a round-up of this year's best creepy, literary-flavored reads so far.
- The Elizabeth Taylor biography sounds like the chronicle of an absolute nutcaseSPLENDID.
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The Best ‘Worst’ Book Discussion
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via Book Group Buzz - Discussion of Book Clubs, Reading Lists, and Literary News - Booklist Online by kaite stover on 10/10/09
Like most book group facilitators, I'm always looking for ways to enhance the discussion. At the last meeting of the Kansas City Public Library's lunch time biblio-chatters, Downtowners, I barely had to list a finger. That day's selection was National Book Award Winner, The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan. In addition to bringing in three new members (two of them men!), participants brought their own discussion enhancers.
One of the men who had lived for a time in the most southwestern corner of Kansas brought a map of the state and surrounding state and passed it around for the other participants to examine. He pointed out the Cimarron National Grassland area and talked about what the land looked like now .
Another participant held up the incendiary documentary, The Plow That Broke the Plains, and brought reader attention to this important historical document and it's depiction of the misuse of the land that lead to the Great American Dustbowl. She also noted the use of folk music in the film.
Readers discussed the scholarship and writing style of the author. All found the story compelling, but felt there was too much extraneous detail that bogged down the narrative. One reader did note that while she tended to skip many of the ecological or scientific or political details, they were necessary for reader to understand the long term effects of the Dustbowl and how it came to be.
The last related item that participants briefly discussed is Newbery Award winner, Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse. This verse novel presents this tragic period in the Great Depression through the eyes of a fourteen-year-old girl who loses her mother and younger brother in a tragic accident for which she blames herself. Through the never-ending dust storms, Billie Joe holds onto her love for the music of the period, ragtime, and begins to forge a new relationship with her stubborn father who will not leave the harsh and unforgiving land.
All the Downtowners remarked that this significant piece of American history was given short shrift in their high school history classes and appreciated the detail learned in Egan's book, Hesse's juvenile novel, and the documentary.
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Hard Boiled Wonderlands
Harcourt backlist.
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via Book Group Buzz - Discussion of Book Clubs, Reading Lists, and Literary News - Booklist Online by Neil Hollands on 10/9/09
Hard boiled detective novels and speculative fiction are not common subject matter for book groups, but that's a dirty shame. Some of the best fiction being written these days is in the genres. A coincidence in my recent reading schedule has left me thinking about books in which these two genres coincide.
I just received Strange Cases by Jill H. Vassilakos and Paul Vassilakos-Long as a review assignment. It's a guide to speculative mystery fiction, one of the increasingly specialized reference works that we librarians seek out because they help us advise readers in the ever-more-diverse book world. Readers' advisory books are our secret weapons, and book group leaders ought to add them to their arsenals. I'm excited to see what these writers have to say; maybe more about that in a future blog.
This is not the only wonderful mixture of hard-boiled and speculative fiction awaiting readers. Try Jonathan Lethem's Gun with Occasional Music, which combines genetic manipulation, dystopia, a classic wiseacre detective, and much other weirdness. Lethem's dialogue is worth the price of admission alone.
Or race through Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt series, a blitzkrieg of five lightning-paced novels featuring a tough fixer, New York gangs, and vampires. The adventure 
Another standout is Richard K. Morgan's Thirteen (published as Black Man in his home country of Britain.) It's another tale of genetics gone wrong, this time with healthy doses of racial justice and international politics thrown into the science fiction mix. Also consider Jim Butcher, or Mike Carey, or even Charlaine Harris, whose Sookie Stackhouse series has taken a decidedly tougher turn in recent editions.
That's enough for tonight. Time to go back down the rabbit hole with Murakami.
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