Two Excellent Books

I love it when books give me new eyes with which to see the world. Adam Black's THE PRANK was one of those books*.

THE PRANK was written as though the reader were finding out about a breaking news story through internet news sources. The way it was written as well as the story it told brought questions to my mind about the value of how we ingest media and how that informs how we perceive truth. I loved it.**

       

And now there's BILLY LYNN'S LONG HALFTIME WALK.

Billy Lynn is back on U.S. soil, traveling on a victory tour with his squad of fellow soldiers. This after a dangerous mission in which some of their company were killed. The Bravos are heroes. They are traveling with a movie producer who, while they are traveling, is trying to work a deal to get their story made into a movie. As the culmination of their victory tour, they are invited to participate in the spectacle of a Dallas Cowboys football halftime show.

Written from Billy's point of view, BLLHW juxtaposes the harshness of being a combat soldier with the comfort and excesses of American life.

       

How does a soldier fighting in Iraq, daily battling dirt and blood and fear and enemies, missing family and home, reconcile the lavishness of American life? How can civilians even partially conceive of the difficulties and challenges faced by soldiers in combat?

Fountain gets us inside Billy's head as he and the other Bravos travel together, and by so doing, exposes the stark contrasts between the life of a combat soldier and life in the U. S. of A.

BILLY LYNN'S LONG HALFTIME WALK is brilliant. Fountain gets us to examine soldiering and American life, which allows us to take a deeper look at our own lives. And isn't that ultimately the point?

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*See my blog post about this most excellent book here (you'll have to copy and paste the link, but it's worth it):
http://notthenewyorktimesbookreview.blogspot.com/2011/11/the-prank-by-adam-black.html

**No, really, read the blog post about this book:
http://notthenewyorktimesbookreview.blogspot.com/2011/11/the-prank-by-adam-black.html

Clicking on the book covers will take you to Amazon's web page for each book. Clicking on the underlined title may take you to Barnes and Noble's web page for each book. Purchasing through these links helps support the blog! (Thank you!) You can also send us email: 2of3Rs(AT)gmail(DOT)com. Thanks for stopping by!

An Open Letter to Authors

Authors...

You have written a most excellent book. You would like the world to become aware of this most amazing book.

To this end, you scour the internet, looking for blogs or other book related sites on which to post information about your book. You brand yourself, trying to make yourself stand out from the crowd.

I get this. It's hard to get your book noticed. While digital publishing has made it easier (in some ways) to get your book published, the fact is that with so many more books in circulation, it's hard to get your book noticed. Unless a book is picked up by a major publishing house and gets early buzz from the publisher or a large book selling entity, or is featured on television (as is the case with the recently hyperpopular FIFTY SHADES OF GREY), it can get lost in oblivion.

This means that self-promotion is the name of the game.

You might post information about your most excellent book on this blog's facebook page (NOT the New York Times Book Review). These posts are welcomed.

You might also post or message and ask for a review of your book. This can be a boon for us. It is delightful to discover a heretofore unknown book that we read and enjoy. (See my post on THE PRANK by Adam Black here: http://notthenewyorktimesbookreview.blogspot.com/2011/11/prank-by-adam-black.html).

But here's the deal. You can ask for a review. And we (there are two of us here) may or may not accept your request. We are selective about what we read, and read what we want to read.

Yours may very well be a most excellent book, it just may not be the most excellent book for us. Or it may not be the most excellent book for us at this time.

We appreciate those of you who take the time to send a private message with your request (or an email, using the email address below).

So authors and publishers? Go ahead and post. And email. And good luck with your book.

Thank you for reading the blog! You can send email to: 2of3Rs(AT)gmail(DOT)com.

2011 Reads

It is satisfying to me to look at the books I read last year...

The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan
Incendiary by Chris Cleave
The Absent Traveler by Randall DeVallance
Bloodroot by Amy Greene
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
Chocolate Wars by Deborah Cadbury (yes, THAT Cadbury!)
Annabel by Kathleen Winter
Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
Delirious by Daniel Palmer
Blood, Bones, and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton
Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
Heads You Lose by Lisa Lutz and David Hayward
P.S. I Love You by Cecilia Ahern
Shadow Tag by Louise Erddrich
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simpson
Among the Missing by Dan Chaon
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen
The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum
Needful Things by Stephen King
Bossypants by Tina Fey
A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman
Contented Dementia by Oliver James
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Big Girl Small by Rachel DeWoskin
Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf
Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Alone Together by Sherry Turkle
Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend by Susan Orlean
The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Moonlight on Linoleum by Terry Helwig
Seriously...I'm Kidding by Ellen Degeneres
Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks
Gun, with Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem
Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
The Prank by Adam Black
Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
In the Woods by Tana French
Toast by Nigel Slater
Laura Rider's Masterpiece by Jane Hamilton
War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
City of Thieves by David Benioff
Aftertaste by Meredith Mileti

...and to remember ones I really enjoyed....

IN THE WOODS
by Tana French

     

It took me several tries to get into this book, but once I did, it was worth it. A mystery, set in Ireland, where the main character - and narrator - is a detective...and a victim.

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THE PRANK
by Adam Black

     

I loved this. Written as a breaking news story online through facebook "likes" and posts, blogs, news releases, interviews, etc. This book has much to say about how we ingest and interpret the information we glean online. brilliant.

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THE NIGHT CIRCUS
by Erin Morgenstern

     

Morgenstern has created a magical world which may just sweep you away.

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THE WEIGHT OF SILENCE
by Heather Gudenkauf

     

Callie, a young girl comes running from the forest after being missing. She doesn't speak. Why doesn't she speak? What happened in the forest? This book stayed with me long after I finished reading it.

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THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy by Suzanne Collins

               

Even though this is categorized as a "teen" selection, this is a great story, set in a future world with characters to root for...this is excellent.

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BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP
by S.J. Watson

     

A taut psychological thriller...the main character had and accident that caused a mental condition where she doesn't remember who she is or what her life is when she wakes up in the morning. Every morning she wakes up next to a man who is a stranger to her. She has to rediscover her life every day. really well done.

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MAJOR PETTIGREW'S LAST STAND
by Helen Simpson

     

Set in an English village, Major Pettigrew, a proper, retired, widowed military man, discovers love, which others in the village find improper. delightful!

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WHEN GOD WAS A RABBIT
by Sarah Winman

     

Starting as a little girl, Elly tells her story of her family, including her brother Joe and her best friend Jenny Penny. This is endearing, quirky, poignant and very engaging. A very good read!

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ANNABEL
by Kathleen WINTER


     

This novel enveloped me from the beginning. Though compared to Jeffrey Eugenides's MIDDLESEX because they both deal with hermaphrodites, ANNABEL is more intimate in scope. I loved this.

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THE LOVER'S DICTIONARY
by David Levithan

     

Such a brilliant idea - a love story told through dictionary entries. REALLY well done. This would be a wonderful Valentine's Day, engagement, anniversary or wedding gift.

Clicking on the picture of the book cover will take you to Amazon.com. Clicking on the underlined book title will take you to Barnes and Noble's website. You can read more about each book and purchase it there. Doing so helps support the blog. Thanks for reading!

The Prank by Adam Black

I am re-publishing this blog post...for some reason (as yet unknown technical difficulties) this blog post got deleted (?). Too strange. I need to figure out what that's about.

This post was originally published on November 29, 2011.

This was too excellent of a book to let this blog post go. So here it is. I apologize if it's a repeat for you. Thanks for understanding.


Have you heard about this book?

          

The story begins, and the town of Gill Falls, Missouri is flooding. Six-year-old Melissa Nevis is in a boat by herself, being carried by the floodwaters towards the falls. This child is in danger. This story must be told.

And so it is, told in the way that news stories are told these days, through Facebook posts, news articles, breaking news bulletins, fan pages, commentary, open letters, and interviews, etc. Reading this feels like following a real news story online.

We, as news/entertainment consumers, have learned to pay attention to information differently than we used to. We skim and scan, focusing our attention on stories or threads or posts that interest us and skipping the rest.

In addition, the news media is no longer as concerned about making sure that the facts are correct or that they are reporting accurately. “News” is now more a race to see who can reveal the story first and make the most people pay attention to their story the fastest.

Black believes that these phenomena have ramifications for how we think, how we process information, as well as how truth is presented and accepted.

Black briefly presents this in a foreword, and brilliantly illustrates it in THE PRANK. I was drawn in by the author’s premise, and following the story of Melissa Nevis was entertaining (because isn’t that what news is?), penetrating and perceptive.

The author wrote this story as if it were a breaking online news story (A Child is in Danger! What is going to happen? Here is the latest on Melissa Nevis!), and he expects that readers will read it as they would an actual online news story, skimming, sometimes skipping, reading the posts and threads and information that interest us in the moment.

As I read, there was some skimming - not much skipping - I was eager to find out what happened next in the Melissa Nevis saga. At the same time I found myself considering questions raised by his premise and the story itself...

How does reading this way inform how we perceive the world? If we gather information in this way, and if the news media races to produce information without making sure their information is correct, how do we, how can we, know what the truth is? And, of course, what’s happening with Melissa Nevis?!

This book would be a great book for a book group. It raises questions about the news and truth and how we - individually and collectively - perceive and react to what we see online.

Is this perhaps malignant phenomena of this digital age in which we live? Discuss.

I have been telling everybody about this book. I've ordered copies into the bookstore where I work and will have it featured in the store. This is a book worth reading.

Note: I find it at least a little bit ironic that I am telling you about this book in a blog...one of the media highlighted in the book. Not that blogs are intrinsically malignant, it's just another example of how we gather information. How many of you reading this right now cherry-pick your way through blogs? My guess? We all do.

Many thanks to Artless Dodges Press who sent me a copy to read and review. You can order this book by clicking on the book cover, which helps support the blog as well as this new and promising author. Thanks for checking out the blog!