21st Century Literature discussion

Includes an announcement of the new Murakami novel, now selling in Japan, due in U.S. in August:

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/cat...

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

(May not be news to most -- there are already Goodreads editions posted.)

An excerpt of an article by Chad Harbach that may be of interest:

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/cu...

"In a widely read essay entitled 'MFA vs NYC,' bestselling novelist Chad Harbach ( The Art of Fielding ) argued that the American literary scene has split into two cultures: New York publishing versus university MFA programs..."
From Amazon

The essay is not new; this Slate link is dated November 26, 2010.

Authors I noted: Deborah Eisenberg, Gary Shteyngart, Stuart Dybek, Paul Auster, Joshua Ferris, Rivka Galchen, Amy Bloom, Peter Ho Davies. There are more.

For your use at your own risk. Some may be of value, others useless. But since this linked list is created, use it if you like. Remember, you can link through to a Bookseller (and its reviews) from the Goodreads page by selecting the seller at the bottom of the description.

The organization that provides the "Rooster Award" published this list of books (~84) to watch in 2014:

http://www.themorningnews.org/tob/ (a ways down)

"John: So, I promised that I’d try to compile an officially unofficial, purely personal, not-at-all-meaningful “watchlist” for ToBXI. These are books that came or will come out this year that have gotten on my radar for one reason or another. I make no claims, warranties, or guarantees for this list. It’s a doozy."

Go to work and do your job. Care for your children. Pay your bills. Obey the law. Buy products. by Noah Cicero
The Brunist Day of Wrath by Robert Coover
Thirty Girls by Susan Minot
The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld
Redeployment by Phil Klay
Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
The Heaven of Animals: Stories by David James Poissant
The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt
Mannequin Girl by Ellen Litman
Missing You by Harlan Coben
Orfeo by Richard Powers
The Ballad of a Small Player by Lawrence Osborne
Hidden by Catherine McKenzie
Love & Treasure by Ayelet Waldman
Frog Music by Emma Donoghue
Steal the North by Heather Brittain Bergstrom
The Steady Running of the Hour by Justin Go
The Giraffe's Neck by Judith Schalansky
Wonderland by Stacey D'Erasmo
Delicious! by Ruth Reichl
Magnificent Vibration by Rick Springfield
Married Life by David Vogel
Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia
Remember Me Like This by Bret Anthony Johnston
A Moveable Famine by John Skoyles
The Lobster Kings by Alexi Zentner
The Vacationers by Emma Straub
We Are Called to Rise by Laura McBride
All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu
I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You by Courtney Maum
The Divorce Papers by Susan Rieger
No Country by Kalyan Ray
Abroad: A Novel by Katie Crouch
All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner (8/28/14)
Losing in Gainesville by Brian Costello
The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing by Nicholas Rombes
A Life in Men by Gina Frangello
Made to Break by D. Foy
The Possibilities by Kaui Hart Hemmings
The Illusionists by Rosie Thomas
Waiting for the Electricity by Christina Nichol
The Myth of Solid Ground: A Novel by Stephanie Kegan
Road Ends by Mary Lawson
An Untamed State by Roxane Gay
The Hundred-Year House by Rebecca Makkai
Evergreen: A novel by Rebecca Rasmussen
Panic in a Suitcase by Yelena Akhtiorskaya
Beneath the Neon Egg: A Novel by Thomas E. Kennedy
When the World Was Young: A Novel by Elizabeth Gaffney
Three Bargains by Tania Malik
Before, During, After by Richard Bausch
Henna House by Nomi Eve
Your Face in Mine: A Novel by Jess Row
The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar
We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas
An Italian Wife by Ann Hood
Wittgenstein Jr. by Lars Iyer
Hold the Dark by William Giraldi
Ballroom by Alice Simpson (9/9/2014)
The Ambassadors by George Lerner
Wallflowers by Eliza Robertson
The Fever by Megan Abbott
The High Divide by Lin Enger
The Betrayers: A Novel by David Bezmozgis
A Brief History of Seven Killings: A Novel by Marlon James
Quartet for the End of Time by Johanna Skibsrud
Brood by Chase Novak
Beautiful You by Chuck Palahniuk
The Disappearance Boy by Neil Bartlett
Mermaids in Paradise by Lydia Millet
The Happiest People in the World by Brock Clarke
Let Me Be Frank With You by Richard Ford
The Scent of Pine by Lara Vapnyar
Silence Once Begun by Jesse Ball
Friendship by Emily Gould
Casebook by Mona Simpson
Off Course: A Novel by Michelle Huneven (Find out more.)
Every Day is for the Thief by Teju Cole
My Struggle: Book Two: A Man in Love by Karl Ove Knausgård
Lost for Words by Edward St. Aubyn
Dear Committee Members: A novel by Julie Schumacher
Be Safe I Love You by Cara Hoffman
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris

Excited to see that Erik Larson (The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin, Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History, Thunderstruck) has a new book coming out:

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania


Release date: 3/10/15

RIP PD James :-(

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014...

So sad that PD James has passed

Kirsten wrote: "So sad that PD James has passed"

Me too! I've been working my way through her catalog, and I have fallen in love with her writing style. She was a real treasure.

This award has been discussed in the past on this board, but I can't reconstruct where, so will provide this article thereon here (some have asked its purpose -- there are some words in this article):

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/201...

Amazon has some fairly interesting Kindle specials today (12/31/14) for $2.99, including:

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (2013 Man Booker)

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (Short List 2014 Baileys' Women's Prize for Fiction)

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo (2013 Man Booker short list)(at least this one has been offered previously)

and a few already discussed here (as may have been one or more of the above -- I'm not checking closely), including the moderator current selection (but if you didn't participate or now want your own copy or...):

The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers

The Maid's Version by Daniel Woodrell

May be a couple more of particular interest. I'm quitting listing here. Check the site.

Don't forget to check previous post any interest.

If you have not heard, The New Yorker has published a story, " Kino," by Murakami Haruki:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/201...

I have not read it yet, but scanning it, I notice cats figure in the story, which is no surprise!

Maureen wrote: "If you have not heard, The New Yorker has published a story, " Kino," by Murakami Haruki:"

Thanks, Maureen!

FYI: Amazon $1.99 kindle special today, 3/6/15:

History of the Rain by Niall Williams

Man Booker Prize Nominee for Longlist (2014)

Lily wrote: "FYI: Amazon $1.99 kindle special today, 3/6/15:

History of the Rain by Niall Williams

Man Booker Prize Nominee for Longlist (2014)

[bookcover:History of the Rain|..."



I read this last year and really enjoyed it.

Just found this listing of "9 Books With Endings That Will Shock You": https://www.kirkusreviews.com/lists/9...

What do you think? Can you think of books with shocking or dissatisfying endings?

This week's New Yorker has an excerpt from Algerian writer Kamel Daoud's upcoming English translation of his novel The Meursault Investigation:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/201...

The novel is written from the perspective of the brother of Meursault's murder victim in Camus's L'Etranger . I'm intrigued. And now that I think about it I have to wonder why no one has written a book with this theme before--the victim is never given any humanity in Camus's novel, which is the point of that novel, but also provides a perfect place to provide an alternative perspective from Camus's 'othering.'

More about the writer here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/05/boo...

and here:

http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...

2015 update of the list @3 above:

Watch List from the Morning News Tournament of Books (The Rooster Award)

Saint Mazie by Jami Attenberg
Green on Blue by Elliot Ackerman
After Birth by Elisa Albert
A Cure For Suicide: A Novel by Jesse Ball
There's Something I Want You to Do: Stories by Charles Baxter
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee
Outline by Rachel Cusk
The Only Ones by Carola Dibbell
The Infernal: A Novel by Mark Doten
The Turner House by Angela Flournoy
Purity: A Novel by Jonathan Franzen
Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
City on Fire: A novel by Garth Risk Hallberg
Delicious Foods by James Hannaham
Our Souls at Night: A novel by Kent Haruf
Dear Thief by Samantha Harvey
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Tusk That Did the Damage by Tania James
Welcome to Braggsville by T. Geronimo Johnson
The First Bad Man by Miranda July
My Struggle: Book 4 by Karl Ove Knausgaard
I Am Radar by Reif Larsen
Get in Trouble by Kelly Link
Satin Island by Tom McCarthy
God Help the Child by Toni Morrison
The Whites by Richard Price (Harry Brandt)
The Poser by Jacob Rubin
The Book of Aron: A novel by Jim Shepard
Making Nice by Matt Sumell
The Last Flight of Poxl West by Daniel Torday
A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
Find Me by Laura van den Berg
Gold, Fame, Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Mislaid: A Novel by Nell Zink

http://www.themorningnews.org/tob/
Featured comment

Two of the above have already been shortlisted for the Bailey Award:

Four Flannery O'Connor books are the Amazon Kindle literary fiction specials today, Wednesday, 5/6/2015.

The Complete Stories
Wise Blood: A Novel
The Violent Bear It Away: A Novel
Everything That Rises Must Converge...

Interesting article at io9:

10 Utterly Brilliant Novels That Have One Fatal Flaw

http://io9.com/10-brilliant-novels-th...

There’s no such thing as a perfect book — but some books feel as though they could be just about perfect, if they didn’t have one nagging problem. And sometimes, the most wonderful books have the most glaring shortfalls. Here are 10 amazing novels that are each marred by a fatal flaw.

The flaws, I suspect, may not be universally perceived as being present, let alone fatal.

HuffPost has an article "21 Books From The Last 5 Years That Every Woman Should Read" by Nina Bahadur.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05...

How many have you read



(Sadly, I've only read one.)

I've read four. The Goldfish, Americanah, Swamplandia and NW have all been group reads for this group. I didn't really feel like I understood NW, but the others were all outstanding.

I have read 8 and have 1 other one on my shelf. Two I did not care for; three I loved (one is non-fiction); and three I enjoyed. My list of the best books written by women in the past 5 years would look quite different! For example, how could The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner not be on the list?!

Linda wrote: "For example, how could The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner not be on the list?!"

I agree completely.

The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld

This is one of those books the longer I am away from it, the more it returns to haunt. I would put it on a shelf of best recent books by women.

But others that would be in the running (several nonfiction):

I am reading The Empathy Exams: Essays by Leslie Jamison and feel that it would be on this list.

Bestsellers from the Hay Festival Bookshop, Friday 22 May 2015

Children
1. Sarah Crossan, Apple and Rain
2. Sam Hepburn, If You Were Me
3. M. G. Harris and Jamie Anderson(?), Beyond Gemini Force One
4. Tim Bowler, Game Changer
5. Sophie McKenzie, Girl, Missing

Adults
1. John Lewis-Stempel, Meadowland
2. Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, The Shed That Fed a Million Children
3. Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, An English Spring
4. Andrew Boucher, Death in the Close
5. Jack Andraka, Breakthrough

https://www.hayfestival.com/wales/ind...
Scroll down.

Just found this list of the "101 Best Crime Novels of the Past Decade"

http://www.booklistreader.com/2015/05...

We probably should have an "author news" thread (maybe we do and I didn't look hard enough this morning), but an article on DFW that may interest some:

"The Rewriting of David Foster Wallace" by Christian Lorentzen
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2...

Another author (poet) clip this morning:

"Friends, colleagues mourn passing of Pulitzer Prize winning poet James Tate"

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ss...

Kirsten *Dogs Welcome - People Tolerated" wrote: "Just found this list of the "101 Best Crime Novels of the Past Decade"

http://www.booklistreader.com/2015/05..."

Nice list with some authors I've not read. Louise Penny is certainly a favorite!

Go Set a WatchmanI'm also glad to see Louise Penny mentioned more than once.

I haven't seen thread for the notorious Go Set a Watchman. I'm about to begin it and am curious to hear others' comments. Does this deserve a thread, Dearest Moderators?

If you hurry, you could go nominate Go Set a Watchman for September. We don't normally open threads for books that are not a group read. We have not experimented with Buddy Reads, as far as I know. If there is any interest, we could.

Been awhile since I have linked a book of interest and an Amazon Kindle offer. These are only good for a few more hours (8/6/16, Midnight PDT), but decided to flag these two:

Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg

Cujo by Stephen King

Check their Goodreads descriptions if interested. I decided to order neither, although Clegg's book had "called" to me a year ago. The Secret is there, too, if interested, as well as several others, of course.

If anyone other than me really enjoyed John Darnielle's Wolf in White Van, apparently he has a new book: Universal Harvester

http://www.stereogum.com/1891582/the-...

Kirsten *Dogs Welcome - People Tolerated" wrote: "If anyone other than me really enjoyed John Darnielle's Wolf in White Van, apparently he has a new book: Universal Harvester

http://www.stereogum.c..."
Wolf in a White Van was one very strange book. Universal Harvester sounds like a tractor brand from the 1960's. Just read the blurb re the book and could be!

Lily wrote: "Been awhile since I have linked a book of interest and an Amazon Kindle offer. These are only good for a few more hours (8/6/16, Midnight PDT), but decided to flag these two:

[bookcover:Did You Ev..."

Clegg's book was one of my absolute favorites from last year - well worth reading!

Doug wrote: "Clegg's book was one of my absolute favorites from last year - well worth reading! ..."

Thanks for the input, Doug! I have now missed the sale, but I will keep on my TBC -- to be considered -- list. Maybe someday sample, at least, a library copy.

The Clegg book is now available in paperback too, so it might be worth having another go at getting it nominated for a group read.

Hugh wrote: "The Clegg book is now available in paperback too, so it might be worth having another go at getting it nominated for a group read."

I liked the Clegg book - it was a good read.

Linda wrote: "Hugh wrote: "The Clegg book is now available in paperback too, so it might be worth having another go at getting it nominated for a group read."

I liked the Clegg book - it was a good read."

Anyone remember who nominated it before? Or when? Not that such probably really matters.....

I believe I nominated it quite a while ago. I'm not sure if it's been nominated again since then.

Looks like Caroline nominated it for the October, 2015 Open Pick, and Linda nominated it for the December 2015 Open Pick. Perhaps its time has finally come?

Kirsten, the most recent FSG newsletter had a piece on UH. See here: http://www.fsgworkinprogress.com/2016/08/announcing/?utm_source=wipnewsletter&utm_medium=na&utm_term=na-darniellewip&utm_content=na-readblog-announcement&utm_campaign=9780374282103

Thanks, Marc, I really enjoyed Wolf in White Van and was happy to see he'd written another book.

Washington Post is reporting that book readers live longer!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/t...

Kirsten *Dogs Welcome - People Tolerated" wrote: "Washington Post is reporting that book readers live longer!

Wooohoooo! I can only imagine the amount of reading time our members put in on a weekly basis, much less over a lifetime.

The study shows correlation, not causation. Maybe book readers are less likely to leave the comfort of their home and thereby get in traffic accidents or be hit by lightening. Or maybe by always having their heads buried in a book, they are less likely to accidentally make eye contact with the nutcase looking for a fight. Or maybe they spend so much on books, they don't have anything left over for cigarettes and heroin.

I think you'll eventually be able to read yourself to immortality. Just wait. Another study said that 100% of people with grandparents die...