THE STORY SPOT

As you know, I love to plug LA writers and those who live a literary life. I stumbled upon Julie Robinson‘s site a while ago and though I haven’t attended any of her salons, I wanted to pass her Summer Reading List on to you. The authors and works she’s selected are some of my personal faves. She’s collected a good variety of genres from fresh and established novelists around the world so there’s something sure to please everyone.
Happy reading!

Literary Affairs’ Summer Reading List

From fellow Antioch grad Alistair McCartney comes his debut work, The End of the World Book.

The End of the World Book is both a novel and an encyclopedia (A to Z) of memories, obsessions and philosophical fixations, working in and building upon the same metafictional terrain as Bolano, Borges and Sebald. Darkly comic, TEOTWB chronicles the story of one man’s life, both the world and its dissolution.

The Los Angeles Times Book Review of The End of the World Book by David Ehrenstein.

Get The End of the World Book on Amazon.

I’m a dork. Even worse, I’m a Facebook dork. And who can I tell but you, dear reader, that I’ve recently become one-FaceBook-friend-removed from James Frey.

I know. Who cares, right? But hey, this guy got literary tongues a waggin’ and for more than a blink too. Is he a big fat liar? When will his name cease to be mentioned in the same sentence as the word, “liar”? Dunno. Don’t care. This guy got people to R-E-A-D and talk about books again and he writes about Los Angeles in his new novel. Love ya, buddy.

Visit James Frey’s BigJimIndustries where you can leave a message on his cell. Then, when you’re done with that, head on over to Amazon.com and pick up your fresh copy of Bright Shiny Morning.

My fabulous mentor and long-time writing instructor, Jim Krusoe, has just given us a new story to devour. Girl Factory is now available via Tin House and promises to be a fanciful, fun-filled ride because that’s just the kind of guy he is. I’m forever grateful to Jim as he’s the main instigator (or perpetrator, depending upon your view) of this.

Also catch his interview with my secret crush, Michael Silverblatt, on KCRW’s Bookworm.

Read an excerpt at the Tin House site: www.tinhouse.com

“A yogurt parlor in a corner mall somewhere in the city of St. Nils contains a dark secret in its basement, and Jonathan, the mostly clueless clerk who works there, just wants to fix things once and for all. But, beginning with an early encounter in an animal shelter that leaves three dead, things don’t always work out the way they ought to. Or do they? Filled with memorable characters, including two dogs (one too smart for his own good) and a retired sea captain, this unsettling darkly comic novel is an exploration of memory, desire, and the nature of storytelling. More disturbingly, Girl Factory raises questions about the ubiquitous objectification of women, the possibility for change, and the nature of freedom.“
–from Tin House

C’mon reading groups; you know you want your copies!

Recently, the always-insightful Michael Silverblatt interviewed Pulitzer-winner Geraldine Brooks, author of a new work of fiction, People of the Book.

They discussed the possible prevention of great cultural loss in the future as has been in the past. I wanted to transcribe this for you, as I find it to be most eloquent:

I think it comes down to whether or not we can bring people to appreciate that what unites us is greater than what divides us.

We don’t have a really good track record over the centuries. We make these wonderful multicultural societies from time to time and when we make them, they turn out to be the prosperous ones and the creative ones and they’re the ones that move the ball forward with human knowledge.

But then we have this fear of otherness that comes up and smashes them over and over again and then you’re left with something harrowed and sterile and monocultural. Just as monocultures aren’t healthy for agriculture they’re not so healthy for human culture either.

True and true.

Keep reading brazenly and doing so in public.

Geraldine Brooks on Bookworm, March 13, 2008
More on Geraldine Brooks
Michael Silverblatt’s Bookworm on Santa Monica-based KCRW