Suspend Your Disbelief

Posts Tagged ‘recommended reading’

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novel excerpts: Lorrie Moore and Jonathan Lethem

by Anne Stameshkin

This week’s New Yorker features an excerpt (titled “Childcare”) from Lorrie Moore’s long-awaited new novel, A Gate at the Stairs, coming this September from Knopf. I agree with The Millions, however, that novel excerpts can be hazardous to your reading health–and having read the ARC, I must say this particular morsel doesn’t stand alone as a story or represent the fabulous feast it comes from. So if you can restrain yourself, wait until this book is out and read the whole thing. And in case you missed it, the November 4, 2008 issue featured an excerpt (titled “Lostronaut”) from what […]


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the most anticipated books of 2009

by Anne Stameshkin

The Millions does an amazing job of covering (in what could oxymoronically be called a comprehensive summary) this fall’s most talked-about forthcoming books, including novels from E.L. Doctorow, Margaret Atwood, William Trevor, Kazuo Ishiguro, Lorrie Moore, Thomas Pyncheon, Jonathan Lethem, A.S. Byatt, Richard Russo, Dave Eggers, John Irving, Audrey Niffenegger, and Philip Roth. And yes, I’m now drooling.


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recommended reading: L.A. Times's "Writers on Writing" series

by Anne Stameshkin

Thanks to Erika/Practicing Writing for alerting FWR to the L.A. Times‘s new “Writers on Writing” feature, which publishes every Friday. This week’s upcoming installment will the the fifth, but there are already some very interesting essays, including a piece by Taylor Antrim on writing the second novel and last week’s essay by Rich Cohen: “Will Facebook kill literature’s ‘leave the past behind’ themes?” Read more about (and excerpts from) Taylor Antrim’s debut novel, The Headmaster Ritual, here, and more about Rich Cohen’s books, The Avengers and Tough Jews, here.


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enduring fictional characters: narrative curse?

by Anne Stameshkin

Check out this NPR blog post to find out who the “longest running fictional character” (in any medium) is. If you want to guess before clicking, here are Glen Weldon’s criteria: Consistent: Makes regularly scheduled appearances — no yawning gaps between adventures. Continuous: The character’s adventures form a central narrative that builds on what has gone before. (Read: Katzenjammer Kids, I know you’ve been around a long time, but you’re a gag strip, not an ongoing narrative. Thanks for playing, we have some lovely parting gifts.) New: The constant churning out of fresh content, not simply adaptations, retellings or reprints. […]


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recommended lit journal: Waccamaw

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

Earlier this month Waccamaw launched its Spring 2009 Issue. This is the third volume of the online literary journal published at Coastal Carolina University. The mission of the journal is to combine the rigorous quality and attention to detail of print journals with the reach and distribution of the Internet. And this attention to detail is visible not only in the quality of the authors being published here, but also little things like font choices (Georgia) and the off-white background that gives the illusion of reading from a “page.” The journal even has an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) and […]


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Short Story Month rec: "Carry the Water, Hustle the Hole" by Allison Amend

I have a hard time remembering that I actually like short stories, even though Elizabeth Crane and Melissa Bank and Lorrie Moore are some of my favorite living authors, and short fiction is some (or all) of their best work. So when our wise and talented editor raved about Allison Amend’s newest collection, it took me half a year to get around to reading it. Don’t wait as long as I did. Things that Pass for Love is beautiful and brilliant, each story distinctly separate and distinctly wonderful. It’s hard to choose a favorite, but let’s go with “Carry the […]


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recommended reading: Jami Attenberg interviews cartoonists

by Anne Stameshkin

At Largehearted Boy, check out Jami Attenberg‘s first in a series of interviews with female cartoonists; this one is with Sarah Glidden. You can preview chapters from Glidden’s book-in-progress on the artist’s website, and if you haven’t yet read Jami Attenberg’s Instant Love (one of my favorite collections of linked stories) or her debut novel, The Kept Man, I recommend a trip to the nearest bookstore. Jami also had a great piece, “An Apartment Affair,” in the New York Times last month.


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What are writers reading?

by Anne Stameshkin

Celeste pointed me to this great blog, Writers Read, where writers — among them emerging/debut authors Darrin Doyle, Kyle Minor, Greg Sanders, Kristina Riggle, Brendan Short, and Nathaniel Rich; and established authors Antonya Nelson, Porter Shreve, Darin Strauss, Rachel Kadish, and Jane Smiley — share what they’re reading. It’s interesting to see who reads mostly within genre and who branches out…




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