The Lucy Variations is about Lucy Beck-Moreau. As the book opens, Lucy is a sixteen-year-old former world-class pianist, and current…well, that’s the question. When your identity has been entirely constructed around one thing for as long as you can remember, … Keep reading
Category Archives: Recommended Authors
In which Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan and Laini Taylor are smart.
Yesterday Laini Taylor and I went to Cassandra Clare & Sarah Rees Brennan‘s Portland tour stop. It was in the midst of a mall. The large, enthusiastic crowd blended seamlessly with the people bringing small children to have photos taken … Keep reading
Interview with Gordon Dahlquist, author of The Different Girl
I was lucky to get an advance copy of Gordon Dahlquist’s new novel, The Different Girl, which pulled me in immediately, starting with this quote from the first page: I’m not sure how old I am, mainly because there are … Keep reading
Interview with Jen Violi, author of Putting Makeup On Dead People
If you have not yet discovered the lovely work of Jen Violi, you’re in luck: her acclaimed first novel, Putting Makeup On Dead People – about a girl named Donna who disconcerts her friends and family when she realizes she wants to … Keep reading
Interview with Hanne Blank, author of Straight: the surprisingly short history of heterosexuality
Hanne Blank was gracious enough to answer a couple of questions for me about her super-fascinating book Straight: the surprisingly short history of heterosexuality. First, watch the trailer: SR: You do such a good job of clearly explaining the fraught socio-historico-politico-other-things-that-end-in-O … Keep reading
Book recommendations from the BGL retreat
One of the things we did at retreat was, inevitably, recommend books to each other. I did not record who recommended what, but here follows the eclectic selection of titles that came up during one of our discussions. Links are … Keep reading
Times Out Of Mind
Diana Wynne Jones almost made me miss my flight. I was so entirely inside FIRE AND HEMLOCK that it was only the final boarding call that managed to penetrate my consciousness. Are you surprised that I was reading it for … Keep reading
April Henry at Powell’s
Tonight I went to see April Henry talk about her latest books at Powell’s. Yes, that’s books, plural — Girl, Stolen; The Night She Disappeared, and Eyes of Justice. I am in awe not just of how quickly she can … Keep reading
Friday Five
Things I am doing, an incomplete selection: Making oatmeal with a lot of stuff in it. Tips: toast the pecans before you chop them. Use frozen blueberries when fresh ones are out of season. Frozen banana works too, and is … Keep reading
I am reading Lolly Willowes
…by Sylvia Townsend Warner, as a result of this article. I am loving it, the prose and the mood. Here is a quote from it that reminds me a bit of Tove Jansson: Her mind was groping after something that eluded … Keep reading
Matter-of-fact surrealism
I absolutely loved The People Who Watched Her Pass By, by Scott Bradfield, whose other books I am going to read right quick, and I was trying to figure out exactly why. I kept folding back the corners of pages, … Keep reading
William Gibson at Powell’s, January 18th
If William Gibson is speaking anywhere near you, I recommend you go. This is the second time I’ve seen him at Powell’s; here’s what I wrote about the other time. This time Mr. Gibson was juxtaposed with a taxidermically-themed art … Keep reading
Interview with Colleen Mondor, author of MAP OF MY DEAD PILOTS: THE DANGEROUS GAME OF FLYING IN ALASKA
You may know Colleen Mondor from her blog, Chasing Ray, or her insightful reviews for Bookslut, Booklist, and Eclectica Magazine. Her first book, Map of My Dead Pilots, is a gripping, unflinching look at what it’s like to fly for … Keep reading
A different kind of school story: New Kids by Brooke Hauser
I’m a sucker for journalism about teens’ lives; whether it’s photo essays like Adrienne Salinger’s In My Room: teenagers in their bedrooms, interviews like Sydney Lewis’s A Totally Alien Life Form: Teenagers, or books like Brooke Hauser’s, which tell teens’ … Keep reading
Wordstock: Emily Warn and Ursula Le Guin
I’d thought I’d lurk around Wordstock on Saturday, but I elected to write instead. But I did come for a substantial portion of Sunday, above and beyond the session I was moderating. First I went to see Emily Warn and … Keep reading
Down and Delirious in Mexico City: the Aztec metropolis in the twenty-first century by Daniel Hernandez
When I read journalist Daniel Hernandez‘s book Down & Delirious in Mexico City: the Aztec metropolis in the twenty-first century, I often found myself picturing the scenes he writes about illustrated by Los Bros Hernandez (no relation). Passionate soccer fans, … Keep reading
What I learned from Tina Fey
Some writers, I am given to understand, struggle because they have SO many FABulous iDEas, they just don’t know WHICH one to write FIRST! I am not one of them. My inner critic, who resembles a very angry prosecuting attorney, … Keep reading
Mod-Mod Read-In Paperback Book List
Today I received an Amazing Artifact. The Mod-Mod Read-In Paperback Book List was produced in 1970, under the auspices of the Young Adult Services Division, the precursor of the Young Adult Library Services Association. From the titles, it seems to be … Keep reading
Among Others by Jo Walton
When I finished Jo Walton’s Among Others this afternoon, my first thought was: “Now I know how people who imprinted on mainstream comics feel about Jonathan Lethem’s Fortress of Solitude.” I loved Fortress of Solitude, but I was often aware while … Keep reading
Doing the things that need doing
I just sent a contribution to the Nathan Wolfson Trust. If you knew L.K. Madigan, if you were a fan of her work, that is a thing you could do as well. I’m glad I had the chance to meet … Keep reading
Agglutination
There is a point when I’m working on something new when I can’t experience anything without seeing it through the lens of what I need for the new thing. I’m not going to talk about the new thing yet, probably … Keep reading
Margaret K. McElderry
Ten years ago, I was part of a group planning an event that I couldn’t believe was going to happen until it did: Susan Cooper’s 2001 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture at the Scottish Rite Center here in Portland. It … Keep reading
David Levithan And The Uses of Arbitrary Constraints
The other night I went to hear David Levithan read from The Lover’s Dictionary at Annie Bloom’s Books. The Lover’s Dictionary is, as you may know, a novel in the form of dictionary definitions. It was an excellent reading from … Keep reading
Fair Play by Tove Jansson
Sometimes when friends return borrowed books, I feel compelled to reread them right away, to welcome them home. Tove Jansson’s Fair Play came back recently. It was an especially fast reread because it’s so short and clear, not a wasted … Keep reading
Paris Review interviews
This is the sort of thing that people have Tumblrs for now, I know. Just pretend this is a Tumblr post, okay? Because I find this sentence from the introduction to the Paris Review’s Art of Fiction interview with James … Keep reading