Jennifer Estep: Spider’s Bite

978-1439147979 – Mass Market Paperback – Pocket Books – $7.99

Jennifer Estep has written three books before this one, in an edgy paranormal romance series she called Bigtime.  Spider’s Bite kicks off a new series, this one she calls urban fantasy, and I think the description is apt.  It’s gritty, violent, tough, but full of love and a kind of self-defined punk-inspired love that has a depth and strength that is really admirable.

I know the book business likes to categorize books, sometimes quite narrowly, and there are good reasons for that.  So this book falls into a category that Publishers Weekly calls “urban fantasy.”   While I am not quite sure I know what that means, this novel is certainly a full on fantasy novel set in a city, so I guess that label fits in a literal way.  But all labels and categories aside, author Estep has fashioned a terrific set of characters, in particular our hero, Gin.  The first line of the book makes clear what we readers are getting into: “My name is Gin, and I kill people.”  And she does, she is an assassin after all.

I was very impressed with Estep’s writing and she has fashioned a terrific story line.  Some of the characters run to type, but they fit the story so well, we don’t mind.  The author has set her imagination loose on the southeastern city in which the story takes place, maybe in our future, or maybe in an alternate universe, it’s wild and never dull.  I’m looking forward to reading the sequels too.

Jennifer and I had a fun interview talking about this book, how she started as a writer and where her ideas come from.  She’s a dedicated reader turned writer, and her love for books, ideas and writing shines through her work and her words.

See an excerpt from the book at chptr1.com.  Visit Jennifer’s well put together site to learn more about her and her books.

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Lew Paper: Perfect-Don Larsen’s Miraculous World Series Game and the Men who made it Happen

978-0451228192 – Hardcover – New American Library – $24.95

An entire book about one baseball game is probably unimaginable to many people.  Even diehard fans, even those who feel they have heard the story of Don Larsen’s unique feat more than enough times, will be surprised at how easy this book is to (avidly) consume.  Lew Paper manages to keep our attention, even though we know how the story comes out, even though we may know the game, the players, the era so well.  And there are plenty of surprises in these pages.

Paper is a very good writer, almost effortless, and a he is a natural storyteller who plainly loves the material he is writing about.  He uses the game as the structure for telling much more than the story of a single game, of course.  He portrays many of the players in this game, Dodger greats like Jackie Robinson, Carl Furillo, Roy Campanella, Junior Gilliam, and hard-luck pitcher Sal Maglie, the powerful Yankee team of the fifties, which sported Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Billy Martin, Gil McDougal, Moose Skowron and Hank Bauer, all in the prime of their careers.  He brings to life the story of this great team rivalry between two boroughs of the greatest city on earth in the middle of the 1950s, an era that still can fascinate and enthrall us.  And of course baseball is the constant through time, whose essence does not change at all.

It does help to be a baseball fan to like this book, I am sure, and maybe having grown up in or near this great era of intra-New York City competition adds to one’s interest as well.  It was definitely a different time than today, when even star players held real jobs during the off season, and the amount of money won in a World Series could be just enough to give a player some modest luxuries and fleeting financial security.  And of course many of these players had grown up during the Depression, lived through or even fought in World War II or the Korean War.  That may account for some of the different attitudes and behaviors they exhibited on the field and among friends.

But there can be no doubt that Lew Paper has brought this game, these players, this era, vividly to life in a beautiful and brilliant manner.  Talking to him about this book, the research he did to write it, and some of his experiences in talking to surviving players, relatives and witnesses to Don Larsen’s spectacular (and still unique) feat , was a great pleasure for me.  I do love baseball, the game and its history have a terrific pull on me, as it does on many others, but baseball is also just a wonderful lens through which to see human beings, our culture, our foibles, our strengths and our desires.  Thanks to Lew Paper for this book and a terrific interview about it.

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Tom Matlack: The Good Men Project

978-0615316741 – Paperback – The Good Men Foundation – $14.99

A bit more than year ago, longtime friends and former venture capitalist partners Tom Matlack and James Houghton began talking about exploring the meaning of manhood by getting men to share their stories. Today, the Good Men Project is a nonprofit foundation that benefits at-risk boys through the sales of its recently released book and a companion documentary, both titled “The Good Men Project: Real Stories from the Front Lines of Modern Manhood.” The book is a collection of 31 essays by men from all over the country, gay and straight, revealing experiences that are often harrowing but ultimately redemptive.  There’s also a DVD of the film available.

Not long ago, I read a story about this book and the fact that the editors could not find a publisher (“no one wants to read about men”).  Being entrepreneurs and successful business people, of course they went ahead and published the book themselves – and did a very nice job of it too.  The book is divided into sections – Fathers, Sons, Husbands, Workers – pretty much all the categories that men will identify themselves at one time or another.  The stories are powerful, emotional without being cloying or sentimental, transformative, in some cases, plain and simply the telling of personal truths that benefit others.

This is a new generation of men talking about their lives, and while some things are different for men certainly than they were in the era when talking about one’s emotional life was unimaginable and unaccepted, it’s still not easy for men to talk meaningfully about the real things that motivate them, or worry them, or even scare them deeply.  The book certainly resonated with me, as I am sure it will for many men.

The Good Men Project is not, however, about therapy and simply talking to each other.  There’s a real agenda here, to make a difference, to make change, to do good (The Good Men Foundation is a registered New York State 501(c)(3) charitable corporation dedicated to helping organizations that provide educational, social, financial or legal support to men and boys at risk. All proceeds from the sales of The Good Men Project: Real Stories from the Front Lines of Modern Manhood book and documentary film DVD will be distributed to the Foundation and will be used exclusively for the charitable mission of the Foundation).

The book features a wide range of writers, some professionals, many not.  The writing is very good throughout.  My interview with Tom Matlack covered alot of territory, including the story behind the whole project, and about this book, the other men who are involved with it, and how the Good Men Project works.  This is a valuable effort that I hope will be broadly successful.

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Steve Berry: The Paris Vendetta

978-0345505477 – Hardcover  -Ballantine Books – $26.00

Steve Berry’s latest adventure. The Paris Vendetta, is a terrific read, grounded in some pretty riveting historical mysteries, with a powerful story that grabs you right away and just will not let go.  I really enjoyed reading it.  Steve’s own description of the book (his site is one of the best author sites I have visited) is the best way to summarize the story without giving too much away:

When Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile in 1821, he took to the grave a powerful secret. As general and Emperor, he had stolen uncountable riches from palaces, national treasuries, even the Knights of Malta and the Vatican. In his final days, his British captors hoped to learn where the loot lay hidden. But he told them nothing and in his will he made no mention of his treasure.
Or did he?
Former-Justice Department operative Cotton Malone is about to find out after trouble comes knocking at his Copenhagen bookshop. Actually, it breaks and enters in the form of an American Secret Service agent with a pair of assassins on his heels. Malone has his doubts about the anxious young man, but narrowly surviving a ferocious firefight convinces him to follow his unexpected new ally.
Their first stop is the secluded estate of Malone’s good friend, Henrik Thorvaldsen. The wily Danish tycoon has uncovered the insidious plans of the Paris Club, a cabal of multi-millionaires bent on manipulating the global economy. Only by matching wits with a terrorist-for-hire, foiling a catastrophic attack, and plunging into a desperate hunt for Napoleon’s legendary lost treasure can Malone hope to avert international financial anarchy.
But Thorvaldsen’s real objective is much more personal: a vendetta to avenge the murder of his son by the larcenous aristocrat at the heart of the conspiracy. Which places Malone in an impossible quandary-one that forces him to choose between friend and country, past and present. Starting in Denmark, moving to England, and ending up in the storied streets and cathedrals of Paris, Malone plays a breathless game of duplicity and death, all to claim a prize of untold value.

I really enjoyed talking to Steve about The Paris Vendetta.  Even though it’s the latest in a series he’s done featuring Cotton Malone, you definitely do not need to start at the beginning of the series.  This book has all the requisite elements for readers who enjoy intelligent, historically grounded adventure novels; it’s almost impossible not to compare Berry to Dan Brown, and in my opinion, Berry is clearly the better writer.   And as an added bonus, Steve is an author who can talk incisively about his own work.  This interview should be fun for his many current fans as well as those who have never read his books.

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Joann Davis: The Book of the Shepherd

978-0061732300 – Hardcover – HarperCollins – $19.99

The Book of the Shepherd: The Story of One Simple Prayer and How it Changed the World is a beautifully written parable that made me think of writers like Paulo Coelho and Kahlil Gibran.  The conceit of the book is that the author finds a manuscript in a house in Vermont, and has it translated, thus this story.  It’s a short book, and an easy read, but of course, because it is a parable, the book demands to be re-read and thought about deeply.

The story has no distinct place or time.  Joshua is the shepherd who is troubled by the code of “an eye for an eye” that governs his world.  He has a dream about “a new way” and sets off on a quest to find it.

Stone the builder who erects a house that falls on its occupants. Sever the hands of the criminal who pilfers livestock or grain or another’s garment. Whip the child who defies an elder. For such is the law and the law must be obeyed.

For generations, these ironclad rules had governed the people. Nobody questioned whether it was right to humiliate a child or execute a murderer. An eye for an eye was the way of the world.

But was there another way?

Joshua is accompanied by Elizabeth, a former slave who is kind and generous, and David, a boy who must learn to walk in new shoes. Joshua believes that “an age of miracles” will come when the new way is found.

As with any quest, there is adventure along the way. En route to a cave near the Great Inland Sea, the travelers meet a number of interesting and compelling characters, including the Storyteller, the Apothecary, the Blind Man, and the Stranger. Each passes on an important lesson as the travelers journey toward what we realize is their destiny. At the cave, Joshua must see if he can bring forth secrets long buried. But he, Elizabeth, and David will discover that what they have been searching for has been inside them all along.  In the end, The Book of the Shepherd is compelling and meaningful, whatever your political, social or religious outlook or beliefs.  It’s not heavy handed or preachy, and even for many secularists, will be well worth the investment of time to read.

Joann Davis is an experienced writer and former book editor.  She is extremely articulate and passionate about her work, and was a pleasure to interview.  We talked about her work as a writer, her own spirituality, and how The Book of the Shepherd can change people and the world for good.

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Publishing Talks: David Wilk interviews Brian O’Leary

In this series of interviews, called Publishing Talks, I am talking to book industry professionals who have varying perspectives and thoughts about the future of publishing, books, and culture.  This is a period of disruption and change for all media businesses.

Publishing has been a crucial part of human culture for as long as people have been writing and reading.  How will publishing evolve as our culture is affected by technology, climate change, population density, and the ebb and flow of civilization and its economics? Publishing Talks interviews help us understand the outlines of what is happening, and how we might ourselves interact with and influence the future of publishing as it unfolds. Publishing Talks interviews give people in the book business a chance to talk about ideas and concerns in a public forum that are often only talked about “around the water cooler,” at industry conventions and events, and in emails between friends.

This series of talks will give people inside and outside the book industry a chance to hear about some of the thoughts, ideas and concepts that are currently being discussed by engaged individuals within the industry.

Brian O’Leary is a publishing industry consultant with broad and intelligent experience in books and magazines and who operates Magellan Media Partners.  Brian is a thinker and researcher whose writing about publishing I have always found interesting and solidly grounded in data and its intelligent analysis and application.  As he says, he tries to help publishers work faster, better and smarter.  His (shortened) bio: In addition to his consulting assignments, O’Leary is the author of a research report on the impact of free content and digital piracy on paid book sales, as well as the editor and primary contributor for a study of the use of XML in book publishing.  Both reports were published by O’Reilly Media in 2009.  Brian was a senior executive at Hammond, and prior to that spent a dozen years working for Time, Inc.  He earned an A.B. in chemistry from Harvard College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

In this interview Brian and I talked in depth about his very interesting work in analyzing the impact of piracy on books sales, the lack of real data in the book business, and his compelling views about the future of publishing in a digital environment.

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Summer Brenner: I-5, A Novel of Crime, Transport, and Sex

978-1-60486-019-1 – Paperback – PM Press – $15.95

This is a slim novel that packs a pretty powerful punch.  Summer Brenner was best known to me as a poet, but it turns out she has been writing fiction for quite some time.  She has a political interest, as this novel demonstrates, but it is not a tract.  It’s a sensitive portrayal of an Eastern European woman who has been tricked into coming to America, where she has been enslaved in a money for sex ring that makes a business out of the correlation between the desires of women to escape the misery of their lives and men who are willing to pay for sex of all kinds with women, whose real lives they care nothing about.

As the story of I-5 unfolds, Anya, the main character, is traveling the interstate corridor up central California from Los Angeles to Oakland; adventures ensue, some of them strange, some of them desperate, all of them painful and sad.  Still, Brenner’s characters matter, she is sympathetic to all of them as human beings, even the worst exploiters in the crew.  That makes this novel much more than a book about sex, money, power and violence; in Brenner’s hands, these characters transcend their typologies to become real people trapped in their individual gulags.  She writes visually, so that with a relatively few words, we can see what she wants us to see, the places her characters inhabit, and even their interior worlds.  It’s gut wrenching book, but our faith in the ability of people to overcome the obstacles between themselves and their humanity is never lost.

This is really a terrific book; yes, the cover makes it look like a trashy paperback from the 50s, but done in a modern enough way that there is no mistaking it for anything exploitative.  I-5 is a hardboiled story, and it is as noir as any book you will read, but it’s a transformative experience to read and one that should not be missed.  In my interview with Summer, we talked quite a bit about the how she came to write this book, and many of the issues of sexual slavery in America and worldwide today.  She expresses a deep emotional connection with the characters in her novel, based on her own experiences as a woman.  Her abilities to imagine her characters and their stories is remarkable.  Summer Brenner is a writer more people should know, and one who important things to say.

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James A. Owen: Here, There be Dragons

978-1416912279 – Hardcover – Simon & Schuster – $17.95 (a paperback edition is also available – but the price difference is small enough for me to recommend you buy the hardcover)

James A. Owen is a wonderful writer.  It’s interesting to me how many really excellent writers there are who are categorized as “young adult” writers because the books they write are about things like dragons, or boys who are heroes or even young wizards in an imaginary school in an imaginary part of England.  In my opinion anyway, Here, There be Dragons is a book for readers of all ages or any age.  It’s well written, has characters with depth, beautifully done line drawings by the author, and a fast moving, engaging story line that includes heroes who are connected to our literary history in some very interesting ways.  What more can one ask for in a novel?

“What is it?” John asked.
The little man blinked and arched an eyebrow.
“It is the world, my boy,” he said. “All the world, in ink and blood, vellum and parchment, leather and hide. It is the world, and it is yours to save or lose.”

An unusual murder brings together three strangers, John, Jack, and Charles, on a rainy night in London during the first World War. An eccentric little man called Bert tells them that they are now the caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica — an atlas of all the lands that have ever existed in myth and legend, fable and fairy tale. These lands, Bert claims, can be traveled to in his ship the Indigo Dragon, one of only seven vessels that is able to cross the Frontier between worlds into the Archipelago of Dreams.

Pursued by strange and terrifying creatures, the companions flee London aboard the Dragonship. Traveling to the very realm of the imagination itself, they must learn to overcome their fears and trust in one another if they are to defeat the dark forces that threaten the destiny of two worlds. And in the process, they will share a great adventure filled with clues that lead readers to the surprise revelation of the legendary storytellers these men will one day become.

It’s a pretty good bet that if you like this book, you will be pleased to know you can continue to read.  This is the first volume in the Chronicles of Imaginarium Geographica series, which has now reached a total of four books, with more to come.  It’s probably true that this book and its series will appeal most to a certain type of reader, one who has read and enjoyed adventure stories, particularly those well written classics of the past (again, I don’t think it’s about the age of the reader but rather one’s interests).  Unlikely heroes, normal people faced with challenges to which they rise, mythological characters brought to life, and above all, dragons, definitely motivate some of us more than others.  I guess I am one of those.

I had the pleasure of meeting James A. Owen at Comicon in San Diego.  I was impressed to see a writer so willing to engage with his readers – Comicon can be exhausting for exhibitors and for creators even more so.  In this interview, he displays his engaging personality, and talks with me about the origin of his work as a novelist, his work in comics, contacts with film makers (the film adaptation is in development and appears scheduled as a 2011 release), and his attempt to revive the classic magazine, Argosy.  Owen started as a comic book writer and illustrator, and even was a publisher of comics, and then moved into writing novels almost accidentally.  This is a lucky turn of events for readers of fiction.  You can learn much more about James A. Owen and his work at this website and he also has a beautiful blog based site, the Wonder Cabinet, that is well worth regular visits.  I’m hopeful that over time, Owen’s work will reach the wider audience it deserves.

Note to listeners: this interview is slightly longer than most at 27 minutes, but should provide sufficient interest to reward your investment of time.

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Caroline Leavitt: Girls in Trouble

978-0312339739 – paperback – St. Martin’s Griffin – $14.95

Sometimes you get lucky.  There are books you find by accident, maybe you choose them just to browse, not meaning to become engaged, they’re discoveries, books you would not “normally” have picked up to read, they surprise you, you’re hooked, and then you can’t stop reading.  For me, reading Caroline Leavitt’s Girls in Trouble was just that sort of a book.  In this case I read it because she wrote me an email and asked if she could send me a copy of the book, which was easy enough for me to agree to.  When it came, I picked it up, the story line described on the cover has some personal resonance, so I took a chance and started reading.  And then found I could not put it down.  Reading Girls in Trouble was a constant surprise and revelation.  It took me places I did not expect to go, it gave me characters I wanted to know and know better, and I believed in their experiences.  And it’s a big plus that Caroline can really write.

I don’t want to give any of the story away, but suffice to say, what happens to the people in this book is not what you expect, and reading it will help you understand something important about families, relationships, and parenting.  Not the easy, feel-good poster stuff from the movies either.  I recommend this book to almost any kind of reader, male or female, old or young, literature readers and even those who just like to be entertained.  It’s that good.

Given how much I liked this book, interviewing Caroline Leavitt was quite a pleasure.  She has a lot to say about writing, and the way she interacts and lives with her characters, and how this and her other books came into being.  Girls in Trouble is a rich vein to mine for an interview too, as it works on so many different levels and across so many lives and years, and of course because it is centered around an open adoption gone terribly wrong, it generates a certain amount of controversy and that gives the author another great subject to talk about.  I am very much looking forward to reading her next novel, Pictures of You (which we also talked about in this interview).

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Douglas Gayeton – Slow: Life in a Tuscan Town

978-1-59962-072-5 – Hardcover – Welcome Books – $50.00

If you love beautiful books, Slow: Life in a Tuscan Town by Douglas Gayeton will be irresistible.  Gayeton is a film maker who ended up living in a small town in Tuscany that his wife (at that time) was from.  When she left him, he stayed.  He learned to speak Italian, and fell in love with the people, the place, and the pace of a community that was completely foreign to him and his American way of being.  As he told me in this interview, as a film maker, he is used to telling stories.  When he began to take photographs, thousands of them, the only way he could make sense of them was to create a narrative from them.

Which he did, by writing notes on the actual photographs, and also by layering multiple shots of the same scene over time.  The effect of the images and words here is mesmerizing.  And of course the representation of these people, their way of living, and the places they inhabit embody the stories Gayeton tells here.

This is both a personal narrative and one that – as great art must do – transcends and transforms the specific experiences portrayed.  Gayeton takes us on his journey to help us understand ourselves through an experience of others, just as he did.  I view these photographs and read the writing on them (notes, anecdotes, recipes, and many facts about Tuscany and Tuscan life), and find myself transported – beyond the “real” places he pictures to an almost spiritual state of being that is based in the imagination and soul of place.  “Slow” living is something all of us who are seeking meaning need to experience, Slow: Life in a Tuscan Town is a doorway that will help us enter that experience.  Welcome Books deserves a lot of credit for making this spectacular book.

DOUGLAS GAYETON is a filmmaker, photographer, and writer. His images are held in a number of influential museum and private collections around the world, and have been featured in numerous print and online media, such as Time Magazine. Since the early 90s he has created award-winning work at the boundaries of traditional and converging media for AOL, MSN, MTV, Yahoo, Fox, Vivendi, Sony, Viacom, Sega, Intel, National Geographic, PBS, Warner Bros., Columbia, and Virgin Records. Recent projects include LOST IN ITALY, a 26 episode interstitial TV series Gayeton created, directed, and shot for Fine Living, and A SECOND LIFE ODYSSEY for HBO, the first documentary shot inside a virtual world.

Doug Gayeton is also a terrific interviewee, who tells his story particularly well.

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