Suspend Your Disbelief

Archive for December, 2011

Shop Talk |

Bookish Gift Idea #31: Bartleby tote bag

by Celeste Ng

This bag functions like a secret handshake for readers. Those in the know will understand the words emblazoned on the front: “I would prefer not to.” Those who don’t? Well, they’ll just think you have a cool bag. Available from Melville House Books, these totes boast “enough depth to hold a six-pack” and help support indie publisher Melville House. What more do you need to know? (Okay, maybe this: the bag is also available as part of an “Occupy Wall Street” bundle with a copy of Bartleby, the Scrivener and David Graeber’s Debt. Says Melville House: “This chic tote sports […]


Shop Talk |

Bookish Gift Idea #30: Uneek Literary Dolls

by Celeste Ng

The literary blogosphere has been abuzz about these literary dolls, and for good reason: they’re simultaneously adorable, geeky, and creepy. Dollmaker Debbie Ritter creates handmade cloth dolls of dozens of authors–not just those you’d expect, like Herman Melville, Jane Austen, and Charles Dickens, but also authors you’ve probably never seen in doll form, like Sylvia Plath, Joyce Carol Oates, and Flannery O’Connor. Yes. In case you’re wondering, a fan posted about the Uneek Joyce Carol Oates doll to Joyce Carol Oates’s Facebook page. No response yet from Oates herself on what it’s like to see yourself in doll form… The […]


Shop Talk |

Bookish Gift Idea #29: Smart Pen

by Celeste Ng

Imagine this: you’re taking notes at a reading or a lecture, or while thinking aloud about your latest work-in-progress. Your pen records the lecture, and later, you can place the pen on the paper at any point in the notes and hear the lecture at that point. Doesn’t that sound like magic? Well, we live in magical times. Smartpens, as they’re called, are a reality and are available for around $100. The New York Times gives the lowdown on one, the LiveScribe Echo, and more have come to market lately as well. Plus, the pens and their programs can help […]


Reviews |

Animal Sanctuary, by Sarah Falkner

by Laura Valeri

Published last month by Starcherone Books, Sarah Falkner’s debut novel is the winner of their seventh annual Prize for Innovative Fiction. Contributor Laura Valeri says this of the book: “Even beyond the novel’s halfway point, the reader may still be uncertain of the story’s protagonists or the animal sanctuary’s role. But the pages keep turning because of Falkner’s incisive prose, her accurate and fluid discussion of the aesthetic values of film, and the moral complexity of her characters.”


Shop Talk |

Bookish Gift Idea #28: Magic Whiteboard sheets

by Celeste Ng

Here’s something to help a writer plot out a novel, organize notes or research, or brainstorm. Magic Whiteboards cling to walls or windows to create an instant, giant whiteboard. You can write on them with dry-wipe markers, wipe them clean, and reuse them as often as you like–and when you’re done, you can peel them off and store them for future use. Here’s a demo video: Available from Magic Whiteboard. And keep checking back here at the FWR blog through December 31–we’ve got three more great gift ideas to go.


Shop Talk |

Book of the Week: Aftermath, by Scott Nadelson

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

This week’s feature is Scott Nadelson’s new story collection, Aftermath. The book was published in early September by Hawthorne Books & Literary Arts, an independent press that focuses on American literary fiction and narrative nonfiction, with a growing interest in international literature and books in translation. This is Nadelson’s third collection. He is also the author of The Cantor’s Daughter (2006), which won the Samuel Goldberg & Sons Fiction Prize for Emerging Jewish Writers and the Reform Judaism Fiction Prize, and Saving Stanley: The Brickman Stories (2004), which won the Oregon Book Award for short fiction and the Great Lakes […]


Shop Talk |

Book-of-the-Week Winners: Fimbul-Winter

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

Last week we featured Fimbul-Winter, by Debra Allbery, as our Book-of-the-Week title, and we’re pleased to announce the winners. Congratulations to: Ashlie F. Harper (@ashliefharper) margie at justbooks (@justbooks) David (@notsolinear) To claim your free copy, please email us at the following address: winners [at] fictionwritersreview.com If you’d like to be eligible for future giveaways, please visit our Twitter Page and “follow” us!


Shop Talk |

Bookish Gift Idea #27: Movies about fiction writers

by Celeste Ng

Fiction writers in real life are not usually much fun to watch at work–we sit quietly in the corners of coffee shops or in cramped little offices, hunched over our computers or notebooks, quietly talking to ourselves or making faces as we block out our scenes. But in movies, fiction writers are glamorous, exciting, and even heroic. How about one of these movies for the writer in your life? Capote Stranger Than Fiction As Good As It Gets Miss Potter Adaptation Midnight in Paris Wonder Boys Becoming Jane The Hours Breakfast at Tiffany’s Atonement Finding Neverland At the very least, […]


Interviews |

Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously: An Interview with Scott Nadelson

In conversation with Julie Judkins, author Scott Nadelson discusses how the “mad mystic hammering” of Bob Dylan inspired him to become a writer, why being a formerly reluctant reader informs his teaching, and how New Jersey has evolved in his fiction from an actual place to a state of being.




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