RobAroundBooks

Daily Bookshot: Mr Darcy Likes to Dance

Rob — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:49:46 +0000

Mr Darcy Likes to Dance, originally uploaded by Robert Burdock.

You may remember back in July that I spoke about Dancing with Mr Darcy (Honno Press), an anthology of 20 original stories inspired by Jane Austen and Chawton House. Well here it is in all of its lime(ish) green glory, and I’m sure you’ll agree it looks rather covetable.

To recap, the 20 stories contained within Dancing with Mr Darcy were selected by award-winning author Sarah Waters, from entries to the Jane Austen Short Story Award 2009 (an award specifically launched this year to mark bicentenary of Jane Austen’s arrival in Chawton; the place where Austen was the most active during her literary life).

The overall winner – Jane Austen Over the Styx by Victoria Owens fronts the collection and is accompanied by the other 19 winning entries. Of the anthology as a whole Sarah Waters has this to say in her introduction:

What all the stories in this anthology show, is the continuing resonance of Jane Austen for modern readers and writers. None is simply an homage to the novelist, but each, in a sense, is a celebration of her work; and collectively they lead us back to her with fresh eyes.

More from me when I get around to reading it. Meanwhile further details on Dancing with Mr Darcy can be found on Honno’s website.

Shot of Short #55: 1647 Ocean Front Walk by Dan Fante

Rob — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:02:33 +0000

Title: 1647 Ocean Front Walk by Dan Fante
Date Read: 04 November 2009
Available Online?: YES (as one of the stories posted by Harper Perennial on their website Fifty-Two Stories, which promises a new (or classic) short story from their collection, posted every week throughout 2009).
Briefly: Depressed at a lengthy bout of ‘writer’s block’, LA writer Bruno works to forget (and survive), by driving a taxicab. Already struggling with the mechanical problems of an aged cab, Bruno’s day is about to get a whole lot worse (or is it?), when he picks up Mrs. Randolph and her daughter Sydney.
Afterthoughts: Cue the victory music! Crack out the party poppers! This story score full marks and for good reason. It’s absolutely fantastic. Gritty, raw and incredibly engaging, this story hits the ground bleeding and stays that way until the very end when a shocking climax puts the cherry on top of a very tasty ‘cake’. This is the first time I’ve read anything from Dan Fante (son of the great John Fante) and it certainly won’t be the last. I love him already! Is that recommendation enough to go and read this story? Then please go away and do so! You seriously won’t regret it.
Notable Quote: I’d diagnosed myself as too fucked-up to write, and made the decision to give it up completely except for the poetry I jotted down while in my cab. Everything else that I’d put on paper—each new attempt at a novel or short story—was a lie. False. Unredeemable pigshit. Hacking twelve to fifteen hours a day was all that was keeping me alive. That and Shenley’s Reserve whiskey.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

*Story read as part of my 100 Shots of Short reading challenge.

Shot of Short #54: On the Weekends Sometimes by Ben Greenman

Rob — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:02:08 +0000

Title: On the Weekends Sometimes by Ben Greenman
Date Read: 03 November 2009
Available Online?: YES (as one of the stories posted by Harper Perennial on their website Fifty-Two Stories, which promises a new (or classic) short story from their collection, posted every week throughout 2009).
Briefly: Boyd has a good friend called Panos. Panos is married Annie. Boyd likes Annie A LOT, and is more or less single. Panos and Annie seem to be going through a rocky patch in their marriage. Will Boyd succumb to his urges and commit one of the biggest taboos – cheating on a best friend?
Afterthoughts: I rather enjoyed this story. It plays with the whole uneasy situation of falling for a best friend’s wife, and the underlying awkwardness that this brings about. I won’t tell you if Boyd and Annie do or don’t in the end. You’ll just have to read it for yourself. One other thing I did like about On the Weekends Sometimes, aside from its storyline, is the structure that Greenman employs in creating it. He uses short punchy sentences throughout – much like I’ve tried to replicate in my description of the story above (I know I failed miserably) – and it really drives the reader along, in a really unique way. Clever!
Notable Quote: The first time that Boyd met Annie, he knew how he felt about her. Boyd was in love with Annie.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

*Story read as part of my 100 Shots of Short reading challenge.

Shot of Short #53: Beneath All That Bone by Jess Walter

Rob — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:01:34 +0000

Title: Beneath All That Bone by Jess Walter
Date Read: 03 November 2009
Available Online?: YES (as one of the stories posted by Harper Perennial on their website Fifty-Two Stories, which promises a new (or classic) short story from their collection, posted every week throughout 2009).
Briefly: Witnessing a particularly traumatic road accident on the freeway, Nate and Tracy decide to pull into a motel to reflect and spend some ‘private time’ with one another. At first all seems well, but there is more to this couple than first meets the eye.
Afterthoughts: This is a really good story, and ingeniously crafted. Rather than following a straightforward chronological narrative, Walter’s mixes it up a bit. A flashback here, a bit of ‘live’ action there, Beneath All that Bone reminded me quite a lot of the story-telling technique used by Tarantino in the movie Pulp Fiction. Clever stuff and superbly engaging all the way to the final full stop.
Notable Quote: The paramedic drove his crossed hands into the woman’s chest; beat after beat rising and falling for her, rising and falling. Nate was surprised at how deeply the man had to push—but of course, the heart lies beneath all that bone. The paramedic would have to nearly flatten the woman to cause her heart to beat, to push blood out to all of those distant points. It would be like working a bellows beneath that casing of bone. And yet it seemed too violent, too rough, this thing he was doing to save the woman

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

*Story read as part of my 100 Shots of Short reading challenge.

Bookshelf of the Week: JP Valentik’s ‘homely’ bookshelves

Rob — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:51:16 +0000

The theme for this week’s Bookshelf of the Week is all about homeliness, and it probably doesn’t get much more homely than this shot of JP Valentik’s bookshelves, taken by the man himself.

Mr. Valentik is a naturalist, with a keen interest in ornithology (his Bird Traveling blog can be found HERE), and a virtual browse of his bookshelves (best conducted using the highest resolution of the photo), wholly reveal Mr. Valentik’s love for nature. His passion is not just represented on these shelves in the form of books however. There’s a whole host of naturalistic (is that the right word?) knick-knacks on display. Have a mooch. I’m sure Mr. Valentik won’t mind.

The homely highlight of this shot though has to be the positioning of Mr. Valentik’s reading chair, right next to the wood stove. This is what he lovingly refers to as his ‘winter comfort station’; a turn of phrase which just makes me glow all over.

Thanks for serving up such a great shot Mr. Valentik, and may your winter nights be full of warmth and words.

New non-profit publisher to champion novellas

Rob — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:23:17 +0000

Fans of novellas and longer short stories may be interested to know that Madras Press, a new non-profit publisher, will be launching next month (December).

Madras Press have a clear aim of publishing stories which are too long for magazines but too short for most publishers. Believing that the novella story form is a difficult format for publishers to work with, founding editor of Madras Press, Sumanth Prabhaker, says that these ‘clumsy, ill-fitting stories are made perfect when read in the simplest possible way’.

Working closely with each author to ensure that all profits from each sale go to the charity of his/her choice, US-based Madras Press will begin publishing their pocket-sized editions of individual stories from early December. The first quartet of books (as shown above – click covers to visit individual product pages) are available to pre-order now, on the Madras Press website.

Further details on Madras Press publications, and their authors can be found on the Madras Press website. Madras Press can also be found on Facebook, and like all good publishers, followed on Twitter.

Adding a bit of personal commentary I applaud Madras Press for what they’re trying to do for novellas. I agree that they are often overlooked by other publishers (with the exception of Melville House Publishing, Capuchin Classics and Roastbooks, to name but three) and as a fan of the story form it’s great to have a new publisher on the scene who’s dedicated to championing the novella. I wish them every success.

Daily Bookshot: Proofs Can Be Luscious Too

Rob — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:35:20 +0000

Proofs Can Be Luscious Too, originally uploaded by Robert Burdock.

I love it when a publisher pays just as much attention to their proof copies as they do to their retail editions, because aside from anything else it offers the reader a little more motivation to pick them up. Take this one for instance, A Life Apart by Neel Mukherjee (Constable & Robinson). As soon as I took this beauty out of its packaging, I just went Wow!

This proof not only bares the same design that will adorn the retail edition when it is published in hardback in January 2010 (not an unusual feature I know), but the paper used for the pages in this proof is also of a silky smooth quality. Not bad for a ‘throwaway’ copy eh?

And what about that design? It’s simple yet intricate at the same time – a genius stroke from it’s designer, ~~who’s identity I’ve still to discover~~ EDIT: I’ve been reliably informed that the cover design was the work of Leo Nickolls (recently mentioned on RobAroundBooks for his cover work on Pauline Melville’s Eating Air (Telegram Books)).

On a less material level, because that’s what most important of course , A Life Apart has the making of an incredible read too. First published in India 2008 under the title, Past Continuous, this debut novel from Neel Mukherjee won India’s Vodafone-Crossword Award for best novel of 2008 (a joint winner with Amitav Ghosh for his novel Sea of Poppies – you can see them both at the award event HERE (bottom pic)), and its synopsis is deliciously tempting:

Ritwik Ghosh, twenty-two and recently orphaned, finds the chance to start a new life when he arrives in England from Calcutta. But to do so, he must not only relive his entire past but also try and understand it. Moreover, he must make sense of his relationship with his mother – scarred, abusive and all-consuming.

But Oxford holds little of the salvation Ritwik is looking for. Instead he moves to London, where he drops out of official existence into a shadowy hinterland of illegal immigrants. However, the story that Ritwik writes to stave off his utter and complete loneliness – a Miss Gilby who teaches English, music and Western manners to the wife of educated zamindar – begins to find ghostly echoes in his life with his aged landlady, Anne Cameron.

And then, one night, in the badlands of King’s Cross, Ritwik runs into Zafar bin Hashm, suave, impossibly rich, unfathomable, possible arms dealer. What does the drive to redemption hold for lost Ritwik?

What do you think? Looks good to me! I’ll be diving into A Life Apart a little closer to its publication date. So keep an eye out for that.

Daily Bookshot: Gabriel

Rob — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:49:35 +0000

Gabriel, originally uploaded by Robert Burdock.

It’s not often I look forward to diving into a 688 page paperback, but then today’s subject is hardly a run-of-the-mill paperback. This, for those who don’t know already, is of course Gerald Martin’s seminal biography on Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez. The hardback edition was published by Bloomsbury in October 2008, and the eagerly awaited paperback edition (pictured here) was published last month.

You may have noticed in the last paragraph, that I referred to Martin’s biography on Márquez as being ’seminal’. I did this purposely and for good reason. This is the only biography on the Columbian author that exists so far, which makes it seminal on its own. But more than that, despite having reservations with Martin initially, Márquez has proclaimed Martin as being his ‘official biographer’. So an endorsement from the great man himself? That’s surely going to set this biography as a lasting testament to ‘Gabo’, and a work by which all future biographies on the Columbian wordsmith will be measured.

Another reason I’m excited about this biography is because Martin tells us in his foreword that it was 17 years in the making. This is instant attraction for me. No biographer is going to spend that long on a biography without having injected comprehensive detail and meticulous accuracy into the work. A bit of an unqualified comment to make without reading the biography first perhaps, but coupling Martin’s 17 year labour of love, with Márquez’s endorsement of Martin, makes this one hell of a reading prospect.

Anyway, expect to see me commenting on Martin’s Márquez biography as I slip in the odd chapter or two, as and when I can.

Canongate serving up ‘Sum’ exciting events

Rob — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:53:46 +0000

There’s exciting times ahead in Edinburgh and London next week as David Eagleman, author of Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives flies in from the US for two very special events organised by UK publisher, Canongate.

The first event in Edinburgh on 11th November at 7pm at the Traverse Theatre, will see Eagleman joined by former Bishop of Edinburgh and author, Richard Holloway, as they discuss Sum, and Eagleman’s remarkably imagined vignettes on the afterlife. In the London event, which takes place the following evening (12th November, 7:30pm) at the Southbank Centre, Eagleman will be joined by Philip Pullman in a similar discussion chaired by the BBC’s Kirsty Lang.

Although full details have yet to be confirmed, both events will also include live and recorded readings from a number of prestigious Sum: Forty Tales fans, including Nick Cave, Stephen Fry, Jarvis Cocker, Brian Eno, and The Wire’s Clarke Peters.

Sadly, at the time of posting, tickets for the London event have now sold out, but tickets for the Edinburgh event are still available – I know this for sure because I’ve just booked mine. So if you were contemplating on going to the Edinburgh event, but needed another good reason to go, then you’ve got one – you may bump into me .

Seriously though these look like great events. Sum: Forty Tales has been getting a lot of rave reviews since it was published, and being about halfway through it myself I can wholeheartedly confirm this (although Stephen Fry’s proclamation that ‘you will not find a more dazzling book this year or he’ll eat 40 hats’ is a lot more effectively endorsing than I could ever be ). It’s not just about the quality of the book though. Canongate have lined up two excellent discussion partners in Richard Holloway and Philip Pullman. Holloway, who’s latest book I’m also in the midst of reading (Between the Monster and the Saint), is known for his outspoken views on the Church, and Philip Pullman you may remember, is publishing his sure-to-be-controversial rewritings of the Gospels next year. Who better than these two then, to talk about afterlife with David Eagleman?

Further details on these events can be found on the Sum event page at the Traverse Theatre website, and the Sum event page at the Southbank Centre website.

Sunday’s weekly ’round up’

Rob — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:18:45 +0000

Sigh! So did anyone watch the New York marathon then? It was a real shame that Paula Radcliffe didn’t take her third consecutive win at New York A bigger shame though that Eurosport saw fit to change live coverage from one channel to another, and then delay in returning to the action; preferring instead to show a tennis match until its close. 25 minutes later and I’d missed the marathon meander through the more cultural parts of Brooklyn, and most of Queens. Boy was I livid

Anyway back to the more bookish matters in hand, and given I’ve officially returned to ‘full time’ blogging on Monday, following a week’s break (you wouldn’t think it would you? *grin*), I thought I’d better close off the week by returning with the the usual Sunday round up of the week’s posts on RobAroundBooks. There’s not as many posts, or as much variety to them as I’d planned to bring you during this ‘Rob returns refreshed’ week, but the best laid plans of mice and men eh? Here’s the round up:

Five from Fifty-Two

Daily Bookshot: Yay turns to Heyyyy!!

31 Shots of Shock: #26 – ‘The Old Nurse’s Story’ by Elizabeth Gaskell

Reading Journal: Monday 26th October 2009

31 Shots of Shock: #27 – ‘Midnight Express’ by Alfred Noyes

Daily Bookshot: Great Expectations!

Reading Journal: Tuesday 27th October 2009

Bookshelf of the Week: Amsterdam Public Library

31 Shots of Shock: #28 – ‘An account of some strange disturbances in Aungier Street’ by J. S. Le Fanu

Reading Journal: Wednesday 28th October 2009

31 Shots of Shock: #29 – ‘The Upper Berth’ by F. Marion Crawford

Reading Journal: Thursday 29th October 2009

Happy Halloween from all at RobAroundBooks!

31 Shots of Shock: #30 – ‘The Haunted and the Haunters’ by Edward Bulwer-Lytton

31 Shots of Shock: #31 – ‘The Fountain House’ by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya

And so we march forward into a new week, and top priority for me is catching up on my review posts. I’m currently sitting four reviews in arrears, which is a bit ‘argghh out loud’ for me because I detest being behind. The good news is I’ve now cleared the decks of my 31 Shots of Shock challenge, which consumed more of my time then I thought it would have (it was worth it though because I really enjoyed it), so with my decks now clear of that I’ve reclaimed a little more blogging time. Here’s hoping I use it wisely. Have a great reading week folks.