Enjoy recent author events, interviews, and bookseller series. Visit our website to learn more: www.skylightbooks.com
Episodes
Friday May 09, 2014
Friday May 09, 2014
Divas Dames & Daredevils (Exterminating Angel Press)
Wonder Woman, Mary Marvel, and Sheena, Queen of the Jungle ruled the pages of comic books in the 1940s. But many heroines of the WWII era have been forgotten. Through twenty-eight full reproductions of vintage Golden Age comics, Divas, Dames & Daredevilsreintroduces their ingenious abilities to mete out justice to Nazis, aliens, and evildoers of all kinds.
Each spine-tingling chapter opens with Mike Madrid’s insightful commentary about heroines at the dawn of the comic book industry and reveals a universe populated by extraordinary women—superheroes, reporters, galactic warriors, daring detectives, and ace fighter pilots—who protected America and the world with wit and guile.
In these pages, fans will also meet heroines with striking similarities to more modern superheroes, including The Spider Queen, who deployed web shooters twenty years before Spider Man, and Marga the Panther Woman, whose feral instincts and sharp claws tore up the bad guys long before Wolverine. These women may have been overlooked in the annals of history, but their influence on popular culture, and the heroes we’re passionate about today, is unmistakable. Includes a foreword by Maria Elena Buszek, PhD.
Praise for Divas Dames & Daredevils:
"Mike Madrid gives these forgotten superheroines their due. These 'lost' heroines are now found--to the delight of comic book lovers everywhere." --Stan Lee
"In one beautifully designed collection, [Mike Madrid] reprints the blood-and-thunder stories of twenty-eight Golden Age comic book heroines. . . . Lovers of comics and strong women everywhere thank you, Mike Madrid!" --Trina Robbins, author of Pretty in Ink: Women Cartoonists 1896-2013.
"Madrid's meticulous and passionate research provides a window into a seemingly lost "herstory" of patriotism, bravery, and progressive ways of thinking about female agency and adventure. This collection, and the engaging context provided throughout, ensure that these divas, dames, and daredevils will not be forgotten." --Jennifer K. Stuller, author of Ink-Stained Amazons and Cinematic Warriors: Superwomen in Modern Mythology.
Mike Madrid is the author of Divas, Dames & Daredevils: Lost Heroines of Golden Age Comics(Exterminating Angel Press) and The Supergirls: Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy, and the History of Comic Book Heroines, an NPR "Best Book To Share With Your Friends" and American Library Association Amelia Bloomer Project Notable Book. Madrid, a San Francisco native and lifelong fan of comic books and popular culture, also appears in the documentary "Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines."
Friday May 09, 2014
Friday May 09, 2014
At Night We Walk In Circles (Riverhead Books)
Join us tonight for a sensational reading from a writer the Minneapolis Star says "like witnessing the arrival of a John Steinbeck or Gabriel Garcia Marquez."
Set in an unnamed, South American country in the aftermath of war, At Night We Walk In Circles shares the tone and masterful prose of the work of Roberto Bolaño, and is driven by a suspenseful plot that makes it impossible to put down. The story centers around a young actor, Nelson, who becomes a part of a radical guerilla theater troupe he’s long aspired to join. Nelson becomes hopelessly entangled with the group and we learn about Nelson’s rise and downfall through the investigation of our narrator, a man obsessed with uncovering Nelson’s mysterious story. In sharp, vivid and beautiful prose, Alarcón delivers a compulsively readable narrative and a provocative meditation on fate, identity, and the large consequences that can result from even our smallest choices.
DANIEL ALARCÓN is author of War by Candlelight, a finalist for the 2005 PEN-Hemingway Award, and Lost City Radio, named a Best Novel of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Washington Post, among others. His writing has appeared in McSweeney’s, n+1, and Harper’s, and he has been named one of The New Yorker’s 20 under 40. He lives in San Francisco, California.
Friday May 09, 2014
Friday May 09, 2014
Happy Mutant Baby Pills (Harper Perennial)
About Happy Mutant Baby Pills: Lloyd has a particular set of skills. He writes the small print for prescription drugs, marital aids, and incontinence products. The clients present him with a list of possible side effects. His job is "to recite and minimize"—sometimes by just saying them really fast and other times by finding the language that can render them acceptable. The results are ingenious. The methods diabolical.
Lloyd has a habit, too. He cops smack during coffee breaks at his new job writing copy for Christian Swingles, an online dating service for the faithful. He finds a precarious balance between hackwork and heroin until he encounters Nora, a mysterious and troubled young woman, a Sylvia Plath with tattoos and implants, who asks for his help.
Lloyd falls swiftly in love, but Nora bestows her affections at a cost. Before Lloyd clears his head from the fog of romance, he finds himself complicit in Nora's grand scheme to horrify the world and exact revenge on those who poison the populace in order to sell them the cure.
Jerry Stahl is the author of Permanent Midnight; I, Fatty; Perv—a Love Story; and Plainclothes Naked. He has written extensively for film and television, and his work has appeared in Esquire, Details, Playboy, and other publications. He lives in Los Angeles.
Richard Lange was born in Oakland, CA and grew up in California's San Joaquin Valley. He's the author of the novels Angel Baby and This Wicked World and the short story collection Dead Boys. His short stories have appeared in The Sun, The Iowa Review and Best American Mystery Stories, and as part of the Atlantic Monthly's Fiction for Kindle series. He received the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, was a finalist for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Friday May 09, 2014
Friday May 09, 2014
A Life in Books: The Rise and Fall of Bleu Mobley (Goff Books)
Join us for a genre-defying night that fuses art and literature, prose and design into a multi-media presentation unlike any other.
A Life in Books: The Rise and Fall of Bleu Mobley, written by Warren Lehrer, is an illuminated novel containing 101 books within it, all written by Lehrer's protagonist who finds himself in prison looking back on his life and career. Nearly a year after the controversial author is thrown into a federal prison for refusing to reveal the name of a confidential source, he decides to break his silence. But it's not as simple as giving up a name to the grand jury. Over the course of one long night, in the darkness of his prison cell, he whispers his life story into a microcassette recorder, tracing his journey from the public housing project of his youth, to a career as a journalist, then experimental novelist, college professor, accidental bestselling author, pop-culture pundit, and unindicted prisoner.
In A Life In Books, Mobley's autobiography/apologia is paired with a review of all 101 of his books. Each book is represented by its first-edition cover design and catalogue copy, and more than a third of his books are excerpted. The resulting retrospective contrasts the published writings (which read like short stories) with the author's confessional memoir, forming a most unusual portrait of a well-intentioned, obsessively inventive (but ethically challenged) visionary.
Written and designed by award-winning author/artist Warren Lehrer, A Life in Books is an extraordinarily original, funny, heartwarming and heart-wrenching exploration of one man's use of books as a means of understanding himself, the people around him, and a half-century of American/global events. Rich with stories that spring from other stories, this genre-defying novel orchestrates a multicultural symphony of characters from Bleu's life and books: lovers, mothers, children, friends, enemies, teachers, students, runaways, rebels, thinkers, dreamers, believers, skeptics, the displaced and dispossessed. It celebrates the mysteries and contradictions of the creative process, and grapples with the future of the book as a medium, and the lines that separate truth, myth, and fiction. This four-color, full-length novel--containing over 101 hilarious and scrumptious book cover designs (and book-like objects)--fuses art and literature, and distinguishes itself as one of those books you'll want to hold in your hands, feast your eyes on, read and re-read, share with friends, and treasure for years to come.
Warren Lehrer is a writer and designer, acclaimed for capturing the shape of thought and reuniting the traditions of storytelling with the printed page. He has received many awards for his books and multimedia projects, including the Brendan Gill Prize, the Innovative Use of Archives Award, three AIGA Book Awards, two Type Director’s Club awards, The International Book Design Award, a Media That Matters Award, and grants and fellowships from the NEA, NYSCA, NYFA, the Rockefeller, Ford, and Greenwall Foundations. His work is in many collections including MoMA, LA County Art Museum, The Getty Museum, Georges Pompidou Centre, and Tate Gallery. He is a professor at Purchase College, SUNY, and a founding faculty member of the Designer As Author grad program at SVA. Together with Judith Sloan, Lehrer co-authored Crossing the BLVD and co-founded EarSay, a non-profit arts organization in Queens, NY. A Life In Books is Lehrer’s 10th book; his first novel.
Friday May 09, 2014
Friday May 09, 2014
Hyperbole and A Half (Simon and Schuster)
Skylight Books is excited, stoked, and over-the-moon ecstatic to be hosting Allie Brosh, creator of the award-winning blog "Hyperbole and a Half."
Never heard of "Hyperbole and A Half" and the book it spawned? Let Allie tell you about it.
"This is a book I wrote. Because I wrote it, I had to figure out what to put on the back cover to explain what it is. I tried to write a long, third-person summary that would imply how great the book is and also sound vaguely authoritative like maybe someone who isn't me wrote it but I soon discovered that I'm not sneaky enough to pull it off convincingly. So I decided to just make a list of things that are in the book:
Pictures
Words
Stories about things that happened to me
Stories about things that happened to other people because of me
Eight billion dollars*
Stories about dogs
The secret to eternal happiness*
*These are lies. Perhaps I have underestimated my sneakiness!
Monday Apr 28, 2014
Monday Apr 28, 2014
The Last Ride of Caleb O'Toole (SourceBooks/Jabberwocky)
Join us tonight for the launch party of local author and actor Eric Pierpoint's middle grade novel, The Last Ride of Caleb O'Toole.
Epic in scope, populated by unforgettable characters, this debut wild west adventure novel by popular Hollywood character actor Eric Pierpoint will thrill young readers.
Caleb O’Toole and his two sisters are left orphaned after a cholera outbreak in their hometown of Great Bend, Kansas. Attempting to fulfill their mother’s dying wish, they strike out on a onehorse wagon to travel the treacherous road along the Oregon Trail to the Montana Territory to live with their aunt. Caleb promised to keep his two sisters safe. But safety is thirteen hundred miles away in the rugged Bitterroot Mountains, past the dust-choked deserts, monstrous tornadoes and ravenous wolves of the Oregon Trail. And after witnessing a crime by the infamous Blackstone Gang, Caleb and his sisters have no choice but to brave the dangers of the trail, trying to stay one step ahead of murderous outlaws.
Praise for The Last Ride of Caleb O'Toole:
"The fast-paced adventure serves up a hearty history lesson with side dishes of political, social and environmental commentary. Realistic and complicated characters give the familiar story of the pioneer's journey fresh life. . . a suspenseful adventure with heart." - Kirkus Reviews
"The pace doesn't let up TV and film actor Pierpoint offers a rowdy Wild West adventure in his first book for children. . . Readers seeking action, history, and adventure aren't likely to mind. " - Publishers Weekly
Eric Pierpoint is a veteran Hollywood actor has been on stage, screen, and television for nearly thirty five years and whose credits include Hart of Dixie, Parks and Recreation, Alien Nation, The World’s Fastest Indian, and Holes.
Inspired by his family’s heritage as part of the pioneer migration along the Oregon Trail, including a great-great-grandmother born in a covered wagon, Eric piled Joey, his trusty dog, into his car to trace his family history, experience firsthand what the pioneers must have seen during the Western Migration and learn the history of this amazing era: the American Indian Wars and tribal culture, the hardships of the wild west and friendships that formed because of the dangerous journey. The author’s journey and his research was transformed into THE LAST RIDE OF CALEB O’TOOLE, a unique adventure novel of America’s pioneer past. Visit www.ericpierpoint.net or www.facebook.com/EricPierpointConnection.
Monday Apr 28, 2014
Monday Apr 28, 2014
"Rookie" is an independent online magazine made by and for teenage girls. It was created by Tavi Gevinson in 2011, when she was just fourteen years old; today, about a third of the magazine's staff are teenage writers, photographers, and illustrators. Rookie Yearbook Two features exclusive content from Lena Dunham, Judy Blume, Grimes and Mindy Kaling. The books collects interviews and contributions from notable adults including Morrissey, Emma Watson, Molly Ringwald, Carrie Brownstein, the astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, award-winning cartoonist Chris Ware, and Museum of Jurassic Technology founder David Wilson.
Like the website itself, the "Rookie" yearbooks combine personal essays by young girls; advice about style, sex, friends, and school; fashion; gorgeous photo albums; humor and pathos--in other words, everything a teenage girl thinks and cares about.
On its second birthday, "Rookie" averages more than 450,000 unique visitors, and 1.2 million visits per month (and counting) with 205,000 Tumblr followers. The "Rookie" yearbooks reach that audience and beyond, spanning a diverse group who may have found "Rookie""Yearbook One" on the shelves of their local library or been given the book as a gift from an adult who laments not having "Rookie" around when they were a teenager.
Praise for Rookie Yearbook:
"Irreverent, honest, and wholly affirming, this is a book that teen girls will cherish." --School Library Journal
"Many books for teenagers encourage independence and self-awareness, but few do so with this much honesty, humor, and style . . . It's a lucky teen who receives this book as a gift, and a smart one who picks it up for herself." --Publishers Weekly"To say that ["Rookie Yearbook One"] is the essential companion to navigating your teen years, is an understatement."--Hello Giggles
"In short: ["Rookie Yearbook One"] rules."--Bust
"Yearbook" is as impressive as it is inspiring and entertaining."--Vice
Monday Mar 31, 2014
Monday Mar 31, 2014
Teaming up with his longtime friend, artist, and illustrator Chance Bone (yes, that is his real name), Bo takes on everything from painful breakups to bald barbers to farts in EGGHEAD. Showcasing Bo’s utterly original voice, this collection of off-kilter writings, poems, and thoughts makes you think, laugh, and then think, “why did I just laugh?” And like his stand-up and music, EGGHEAD displays surprisingly mature insights.
Praise for Egghead: Or, You Can't Survive On Ideas Alone:
"You have to be brave to be this hilarious, and this sweetly romantic. And of course, a lot of talent helps. Egghead is a remarkable piece of writing!"--Jack Handey, author of The Stench of Honolulu and the Deep Thoughts series.
"Like Walt Whitman, Bo Burnham has made the transition from an internet comedy sensation to a soulful poet. No, not that Walt Whitman. A different guy."--Conan O'Brien
"I would love Bo Burnham's hilarious book even if he weren't my son."--Judd Apatow
Bo Burnham was a precocious teenager living in his parents’ attic when he started posting material on YouTube. One hundred million people viewed those videos, turning Bo into an online sensation with a huge and dedicated following. Bo taped his first of two Comedy Central specials four days after his 18th birthday, making him the youngest to do so in the channel’s history (and his new album entitled what. will be released later this year). His MTV series "Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous," a mockumentary which Bo created, wrote, directed, and starred in, premiered in May 2013 to rave reviews.
THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS OCTOBER 5, 2014.
Monday Feb 17, 2014
Monday Feb 17, 2014
White Girls (McSweeney's)
White Girls, Hilton Als's first book since The Women fourteen years ago, finds one of "The New Yorker's" boldest cultural critics deftly weaving together his brilliant analyses of literature, art, and music with fearless insights on race, gender, and history. The result is an extraordinary, complex portrait of "white girls," as Als dubs them--an expansive but precise category that encompasses figures as diverse as Truman Capote and Louise Brooks, Malcolm X and Flannery O'Connor. In pieces that hairpin between critique and meditation, fiction and nonfiction, high culture and low, the theoretical and the deeply personal, Als presents a stunning portrait of a writer by way of his subjects, and an invaluable guide to the culture of our time.
Praise for White Girls
“I read Als not only because he is utterly extraordinary, which he is, but for the reason one is often drawn to the best writers—because one has a sense that one’s life might depend on them. White Girls is a book, a dream, an enemy, a friend, and, yes, the read of the year.” —Junot Díaz
“Hilton Als takes the reader on a wild ride through the complex, often rough, terrain of art, music, sexuality, race. What he writes—especially about Michael Jackson, Eminem, Louise Brooks, Richard Pryor, Gone With the Wind—is riveting.” —Elaine Pagels
“Effortless, honest and fearless” ––Rich Benjamin, The New York Times Book Review
“Captivating.” —Entertainment Weekly
“Als is one of the most consistently unpredictable and surprising essayists out there, an author who confounds our expectations virtually every time he writes.” —Los Angeles Times
“A comprehensive and utterly lovely collection of one of the best writers around.” —Boston Globe
“Als’ work is so much more than simply writing about being black or gay or smart. It’s about being human.” —Kirkus (Starred Review)
“Mesmerizing.” —Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
“Als is pyrotechnic, lifting off the page in a blast of stinging light and concussive booms that somehow coalesce into profound cultural and psychological illuminations.” —Booklist
“Incisive cultural criticism.” —Roxane Gay, The Nation
“[Hilton] Als interweaves personal revelation with cultural touchstones, sometimes hopping from topic to topic at a breakneck speed, other times examining concepts so strategically and methodically his words become scalpels, flaying open unacknowledged bias, privilege, and conflict where he sees it.” —The A.V. Club
Monday Feb 17, 2014
Monday Feb 17, 2014
Traveling Sprinkler (Blue Rider Press)
We're very excited to host acclaimed and best-selling novelist Nicholson Baker (The Mezzanine, The Anthologist, House of Holes) at Skylight for his new novel, Traveling Sprinkler! Baker will be in conversation with Los Angeles Times book critic (and author himself) David Ulin.
As with all Skylight Books events, this discussion is free and open to the public (first come, first served). But, because we're expecting a large crowd at this event, we'll be giving out numbered tickets to the signing line to keep things organized. To get a ticket, you must purchase a copy of Traveling Sprinkler here at Skylight Books. The tickets will be available starting Tuesday, September 17, when the book goes on sale. They will be available in-store, or you can order on our website and leave a note in the "Order Comments" field. We will also hold a ticket for you if you order and pay for a book over the phone. There's no limit on the number of copies of Traveling Sprinker you can get signed, but we are limiting the number of backlist titles to three per ticket holder. Thank you for your cooperation!
Paul Chowder, the poet protagonist of Nicholson Baker’s widely acclaimed novel The Anthologist, is turning fifty-five and missing his ex-girlfriend Roz rather desperately. As he approaches the dreaded birthday, Paul is uninspired by his usual artistic outlet (although he’s pleased that his poetry anthology, Only Rhyme, is selling “fairly well in a steady sort of way”). Putting aside poetry in favor of music, and drawing on his classical bassoon training, Paul turns instead to his new acoustic guitar with one goal in mind: to learn songwriting. As he struggles to come to terms with the horror of America’s drone wars and Roz’s recent relationship with a doctor whose voice can often be heard on a local NPR station, Paul fills his days with Quaker meetings, Planet Fitness workouts, and some experiments with tobacco.
Written in Baker’s beautifully unconventional prose, and scored with musical influences from Debussy to Tracy Chapman to Paul himself, Traveling Sprinkler is an enchanting, hilarious—and very necessary—novel by one of the most beloved and influential writers today.
The author has recorded an album of songs in the style of his protagonist. Check one out here!
Nicholson Baker was born in New York City in 1957 and grew up in Rochester, where he played bassoon in high school and spent a year at the Eastman School of Music before transferring to Haverford College. His first novel, The Mezzanine, was about a man riding an escalator. His second novel, Room Temperature, was about a man feeding a bottle to his baby. In his many other works of fiction and nonfiction, he has written about John Updike, about getting up early in the morning, about the inner life of a nine-year-old girl, about the beginnings of the Second World War, and about sex. His book Double Fold, about libraries shedding their paper holdings, won a National Book Critics Circle Award. His poet protagonist Paul Chowder, who first appeared in The Anthologist, is reintroduced in the forthcoming Traveling Sprinkler, his tenth novel, and fifteenth book overall. He lives in Maine with his family.
Monday Feb 17, 2014
Monday Feb 17, 2014
The Color Master (Doubleday)
One of Skylight Books' favorite authors returns with a fabulous new short story collection! You're not going to want to miss this reading.
Truly beloved by readers and critics alike, Aimee Bender has become known as something of an enchantress whose lush prose is “moving, fanciful, and gorgeously strange” (People), “richly imagined and bittersweet” (Vanity Fair), and “full of provocative ideas” (The Boston Globe). In her deft hands, “relationships and mundane activities take on mythic qualities” (The Wall Street Journal).
In this collection, Bender’s unique talents sparkle brilliantly in stories about people searching for connection through love, sex, and family—while navigating the often painful realities of their lives. A traumatic event unfolds when a girl with flowing hair of golden wheat appears in an apple orchard, where a group of people await her. A woman plays out a prostitution fantasy with her husband and finds she cannot go back to her old sex life. An ugly woman marries an ogre and struggles to decide if she should stay with him after he mistakenly eats their children. Two sisters travel deep into Malaysia, where one learns the art of mending tigers who have been ripped to shreds.
In these deeply resonant stories—evocative, funny, beautiful, and sad—we see ourselves reflected as if in a funhouse mirror. Aimee Bender has once again proven herself to be among the most imaginative, exciting, and intelligent writers of our time.
Praise for Aimee Bender
"Marvelous. . . . Few writers are as adept as Bender at mingling magical elements so seamlessly with the ordinary." "--San Francisco Chronicle
AIMEE BENDER is the author of the novels The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake—a New York Times bestseller—and An Invisible Sign of My Own, and of the collections The Girl in the Flammable Skirt and Willful Creatures. Her works have been widely anthologized and have been translated into sixteen languages. She lives in Los Angeles.
Monday Feb 17, 2014
Monday Feb 17, 2014
The Silver Birch Press Bukowski Anthology is a 200+ page collection of poetry, essays, stories, and memoirs about Charles Bukowski, along with portraits of Bukowski by over seventy authors and artists from around the world.
S.A. Griffin, co-editor of The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, progenitor of The Poetry Bomb and the Carma Bums, lives, loves and works in Los Angeles.
Joan Jobe Smith, founding editor of Pearl Magazine and the Bukowski Review, has published 25 books, most recently the literary profile Charles Bukowski Epic Glottis: His Art & His Women (& me) (Silver Birch Press, 2012).
Fred Voss, a machinist for 35 years, has been published internationally in hundreds of literary journals and has done seven reading tours of the UK to promote his books published by Bloodaxe: Goodstone (1991, Carnegie Hall with Tin Walls(1998), and 2008's Hearts and Hammers of the Gods. He was a 2013 winner of the Nerve Cowboy chapbook competition.
Monday Feb 17, 2014
Monday Feb 17, 2014
Fairy Tale Comics: Classic Tales Told By Extraordinary Cartoonists (First Second Books)
Join us as Vanessa Davis ("Puss in Boots"), Gigi D.G. ("Little Red Riding Hood") and Bobby London ("Sweet Porridge") discuss their contributions to this fantastic guide to some of your favorite fairy tales.
From favorites like "Puss in Boots" and "Goldilocks" to obscure gems like "The Boy Who Drew Cats," this volume has something to offer every reader. Seventeen fairy tales are wonderfully adapted and illustrated in comics format by such noted artists as Raina Telgemeier, Brett Helquist, Cherise Harper, and others. Edited by Nursery Rhyme Comics' Chris Duffy, this jacketed hardcover is a beautiful gift and an instant classic.
Praise for Fairy Tale Comics:
"A quirky and vibrant mix of visually reinterpreted fairy tales compiled by the editor of the Eisner-nominated Nursery Rhyme Comics."-- Kirkus Reviews
"Nineteen cartoonists re-envision the world of “once upon a time” in this collection of 17 fairy tales . . .These adaptations are sure to enchant devotees of comics and those who like a fresh and distinctive approach to fairy tales." -- School Library Journal
Vanessa Davis' first book, Spaniel Rage was published by Buenaventura Press in 2005. Her newest book, Make Me A Woman, was published by Drawn & Quarterly. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, New York Magazine, Psychology Today, Dissent, The Jewish Daily Forward, Saveur, Lucky Peach, Vice, Spongebob Comics, Seven Stories Press, Chronicle Books, and First Second. She is also a contributing editor over at Tablet.
Gigi D.G. is the writer/illustrator of Cucumber Quest. She lives in California and her passions are colors, sweets and cute video games.
Bobby London is the creator of the comic strip character Dirty Duck. He was a founding contributor for National Lampoonfrom 1972-1980. His illustrations have appeared in Esquire, Rolling Stone, New York Times, Punk Magazine, Village Voice and many more. He was nominated for a grammy in 2005 for his comic book insert in the Rhino Records box set, "Weird Tales of the Ramones."Monday Feb 17, 2014
Monday Feb 17, 2014
No Regrets, Coyote, the latest offering from acclaimed novelist John Dufresne, is a crime story, but Wylie “Coyote” Melville is no detective. A therapist by trade, the highly observant and analytical Wylie becomes a volunteer forensic consultant late one Christmas Eve when he receives a phone call from his friend Detective Sergeant Carlos O’Brien of the Eden Police Department, requesting his immediate assistance on a fresh homicide case. Wylie has an innate ability to take in a scene and provide it with narrative structure—Carlos calls him a mind reader, but that’s not exactly right. “I read faces and furniture,” Wylie explains. “I can look at a person, at his expressions, his gestures, his clothing, his home, and his possessions, and tell you what he thinks, if not always what he’s thinking.”
Wylie arrives at the scene of the crime, the Halliday home, to discover that all five members of the Halliday family have been brutally killed. Krysia Halliday is found on the kitchen floor with her head against the open oven door, apparently shot while baking cookies; her three pajama-clad children lie in the den amid a pile of partially opened Christmas gifts, each with a blindfold over the eyes and a bullet hole in the forehead; and the patriarch, restaurateur Chafin Halliday, his face nearly blown apart, is slumped nearby, not far from the murder weapon. A typed suicide note alluding to unnamed failures rests ominously on the kitchen table. The cops have it pegged as a murder-suicide at the hands of a desperate Chafin, but that explanation doesn’t quite add up for Wylie. Who types a signature on a suicide note? Why wrap expensive Christmas gifts for a family you’re about to dispatch? And why are there so few family photographs in the Halliday household?
In this smart and utterly absorbing thriller, Dufresne masterfully introduces a host of quirky, realistic, three-dimensional characters. The effect is a carefully crafted character study of Wylie himself, as we get to know his motivations, his thought processes, and his limitations. No Regrets, Coyote is a dazzlingly intricate mystery that elevates the genre with its pointed insights into the workings of the human mind.
Praise for No Regrets, Coyote:
“No Regrets, Coyote is a very cool ride. If Raymond Chandler was reincarnated as a novelist in South Florida, he couldn’t nail it any better than John Dufresne.” —Carl Hiaasen
“No Regrets, Coyote is a novel so good you want to throw a party for it. It’s tense, unnerving, fearless, and funny as hell. Beautifully rendered on every page, it may be a crime novel in name but it’s literature for the ages.” —Dennis Lehane
“If anyone has a vision of the world as compellingly particular and compassionate as John Dufresne’s, I don't know who. No Regrets, Coyote takes noir fiction and slivers it with shards of humor, ironic insight, and an almost hallucinogenic specificity. This is lean and honest storytelling that is as moving as it is engaging. Read this book. Believe me, you’ll have no regrets!” —Andre Dubus III
“Genuinely funny, genuinely suspenseful crime novels are rare, but No Regrets, Coyote succeeds on both counts. John Dufresne’s hilariously dark vision of South Florida brings to mind the work of such masters as Donald Westlake and Elmore Leonard. It’s a lurid pleasure from beginning to end.” —Tom Perrotta
“Get ready to read this one twice, people—once to see what happens, and again to savor the sentences. Here, American treasure John Dufresne has written a noir, but instead of playing by the rules of noir, he makes noir play by the Rules of Dufresne. And we are the beneficiaries. So sit back, put a cooler of beer by your chair, and settle in, you’ll be here awhile:No Regrets, Coyote is impossible to close.” —Tom Franklin
“John Dufresne has turned his considerable artistic gifts to the crime novel, and the result, No Regrets, Coyote, is touching, nervy, richly detailed, and populated with a cast of characters who are utterly unique and terrifyingly real. Its humor is abundant and warm-hearted, and its detective hero is unlike any we’ve ever met before. American crime fiction has just gotten a lot more interesting.” —James W. Hall
“The ordinary crime novel narrows as it goes, the possibilities limited by deductive reasoning. But John Dufresne’s No Regrets, Coyote is an extraordinary novel, expanding until anything seems possible and everyone connects. Steeped in place, wholly original, it is, line by line, one of the best books I’ve read in a long time.” —Laura Lippman
John Dufresne is the author of seven books, including New York Times Notable Books Love Warps the Mind a Little andLouisiana Power & Light. He lives in Dania Beach and teaches creative writing at Florida International University.
Monday Feb 17, 2014
Monday Feb 17, 2014
Saving the Season (Knopf Publishing Group)
A stylish, richly illustrated, practical guide for home cooks and preserving enthusiasts, the first cookbook from journalist Kevin West, author of the popular blog Savingtheseason.com.
Incorporating classic favorites and new flavors, West gives us more than one hundred recipes, organized by season, for sweet preserves and savory pickles; easy-to-can vegetables and fruits; condiments such as relishes, chutneys, and salsas; and cordials, candies, and cocktails. Interspersed with the recipes are chronicles of West's travels and the history of American preserving traditions from California to New Mexico to Long Island. A witty and erudite culinary companion, West makes a rich and entertaining story of the introductions to the recipes. Also included is a primer on preserving techniques that addresses issues of food safety and nutrition.
KEVIN WEST is from rural Blount County in eastern Tennessee. He attended Deep Springs, an experimental college in the White Mountains of California, and Sewanee: The University of the South. For 13 years he was on staff at W magazine, with postings in New York, Paris, and Los Angeles, where he was West Coast editor and where he still lives. He runs the blog SavingtheSeason.com; writes about food, culture, and travel; and produces a retail collection of jams and marmalades. He is certified as a Master Food Preserver by the University of California Cooperative Extension.