Suspend Your Disbelief

Author Archive

Shop Talk |

First comes (book-related) love, then comes (book-related) marriage, then comes…

by Celeste Ng

Here on the FWR blog, we’ve discussed how literature can find you love–through online dating sites for book-lovers or in person through speed-dating in libraries. (Hey, even the New York Times picked up on it!) But what do you do AFTER you’ve found love? Well, boys and girls: 1. Sometimes when two bookworms love each other very much, they decide to get married. If they’re really book-lovers, the proposal happens IN the library, as with this couple, who got engaged thanks to a very special book: Stephanie of Read In a Single Sitting tells the story of her proposal, which […]


Shop Talk |

Why old books smell so good

by Celeste Ng

You know how you go into a rare books library, or maybe an old used bookstore, and you step between the shelves and take a deep breath and there it is: that incredible old-book smell. To me, it always smells like leather and caramel and dust and sunlight, all blended together. Turns out, there’s a scientific answer (as well as a teleoogical one) for just why old books smell so damn good: This sign might be on to something. Smell is the scent most strongly tied to memory, and in my dreams (the real, I’m-asleep ones) I’m often combing the […]


Reviews |

The Beginners, by Rebecca Wolff

by Tyler McMahon

A bookish fifteen-year-old breaches taboos in the small New England town of Wick. Poet Rebecca Wolff’s masterful first novel is an Appalachian folk ballad rendered gothic–full of sex and ghosts, mixing caution and temptation, obsessed with origins but somehow timeless.


Shop Talk |

Milk + Bookies

by Celeste Ng

In addition to possibly having the best name for a literary charity ever, Milk and Bookies has a worthwhile mission: to bring children books AND to teach children about giving. Says the organization’s site: At Milk + BookiesTM events, boys and girls are provided the opportunity to select, purchase and inscribe books that are then donated to their peers who do not have access to books of their own. The fun-filled events feature music, story time and, of course, milk and cookies. […] Milk + BookiesTM combines two essential and worthwhile efforts: literacy promotion and service learning. While the book […]


Shop Talk |

Book of the Week: Chronic City, by Jonathan Lethem

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

This week’s feature is Jonathan Lethem’s most recent novel, Chronic City, published by Doubleday in 2009. Lethem is the author of seven other novels, three collections of stories, and two books of essays. He’s also contributed to dozens of edited anthologies, journals and magazines, and garnered numerous awards during his career, most notably a National Book Critic’s Circle award for Motherless Brooklyn in 1999 and a MacArthur Genius Award in 2005. He lives in Brooklyn and Maine with his third wife, filmmaker Amy Barrett, and their son. In 2009 he co-founded Red Gap Used Books in Blue Hill, Maine, with […]


Shop Talk |

Book-of-the-Week Winners: Men in the Making

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

Last week we featured Men in the Making as our Book-of-the-Week title, and we’re pleased to announce the winners. Congratulations to: Ted Thompson (@Tednotedward) Daniel Perry (@danielperrysays) Louis Dzierzak (@WriterLou) 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 |

Your newest ally for NaNoWriMo? Google Docs.

by Celeste Ng

It’s November 1, and that means–yup! NaNoWriMo is upon us. We’ve posted here before about various tools that can help you in your mad writing binge–see below–but this year, we wanted to share a techie tip for distraction-free writing that’s easy and free. Did you know that Google Docs can provide a clean, tool-and-menu-free writing environment? That’s right–nothing to buy, download, or install. Power Tips for Google Docs tells you how: If you are a big fan of WriteRoom on the mac, or the Windows clone, you’ll be happy to know that you can achieve a similar distraction free experience […]


Interviews |

Letting Tinkerbell Die: An Interview with Jonathan Lethem

Jonathan Lethem discusses our unwillingness to let go of the Tinkerbell-myth of benevolent power, MFA programs, the idea of New York City as a Ponzi scheme, why in some ways subcultures are all that exist, and his past and future work in this wide-ranging interview with Roohi Choudhry.


Shop Talk |

Halloween lit

by Celeste Ng

We don’t usually think of Halloween as a “reading” kind of day, but I can think of at least a couple of Halloween-related stories. In Lorrie Moore’s classic short story “You’re Ugly, Too,” a history professor escapes her life by visiting her sister over Halloween weekend–to attend what may be the most painfully awkward Halloween party in literature: Zoe put on her bonehead. […] When Earl arrived, he was dressed as a naked woman, steel wool glued stretegically to a body stocking, and large rubber breasts protruding like hams. “Zoe, this is Earl,” said Evan. “Good to meet you,” said […]


Shop Talk |

Costume ideas… for your books

by Celeste Ng

So you’ve figured out what to be for Halloween. But why shouldn’t your books get in on the fun, too? The website Facsimile Dust Jackets sells reproductions of early-edition dust jackets, sized to fit whatever book you want–so you can “dress up” your volumes for Halloween or year-round. Here’s the cover of Of Mice and Men: Or why not let your staid dictionary let its hair down and disguise itself as Barney O’Hara: Trapper? If these are out of your budget, you can always make your own book costumes–uh, I mean, dust jackets. Craft blog Hydrangea Girl has a how-to. […]




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