What I Read and How I Found It

The Life of an Unknown Man: A Novelby Adrei Makine, translated by Geoffrey Strachan
Published by: Graywolf Press

A few weeks ago, the awesome folks at Graywolf Press announced on their Facebook page that they had found some galleys and they were offering them as a giveaway to Facebook fans. The instructions were to email your contact details and “fiction” or “non-fiction.” Fiction, always. (Almost always.) The Life of An Unknown Man arrived in the mail late last week. Thank you, Graywolf!

This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz
Published by Riverhead Books/Penguin USA

I read Diaz’s last book The Brief Wondrous Life of OscarWao but didn’t love it. I think I was the only one who just didn’t get it or all of the critical acclaim. I’d also tried to readDrown before that but couldn’t get into it and put it down. Having said that, I’ve always said that I would try Diaz again—I was sure there was something there but for whatever reason we just hadn’t connectedyet.

This newest book was part of a BookExpo America eBook sampler that I downloaded before the show. I read the Diaz excerpt and liked it. I’ve been waiting for the book to arrive ever since. I’m hopeful this is the book where Junot Diaz and I fall madly in love.

In My Father’s Country: An Afghan Woman Defies Her Fate by Saima Wahab
Published by: Crown Publishing Group/Random House, Inc.

Saima Wahab was on The Daily Show last month, talking about her experience growing up in Afghanistan and the United States. Her father was progressive—and as a result, disappeared when she was young. Soon after Saima, along with her siblings and cousins, moved to Portland, Oregon.

The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs by Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle
Published by Bantam Dell/Random House, Inc.

It’s hard to say exactly when I first learned about The Secret Race. I seem to recall that right after Hamilton’s appearance on 60 Minutes in May of 2011, word started circulating that he was out selling a manuscript. Anyone who follows bike racing has been watching and waiting with eager anticipation and at last, the tell-all is available.

Memoirs of An Imaginary Friend: A Novel by Matthew Dicks
Published by St. Martin’s Press/Macmillan

Matthew Dicks’ (not Andy Dick’s…. yes, I confuse them) new novel is one that got a lot of buzz at BookExpo America. I was hoping to grab a copy but for some reason (oh, maybe because I was thereworking?) I never did. In the subsequent months, it’s been getting a lot of good press on Twitter. When I walked into the library today, it was sitting there on the new releases shelf, just waiting for me. 

Winter Journal by Paul Auster
Published by Henry Holt & Co.

How did I find out about Paul Auster’s new memoir? Not a clue, it must have been a year or so ago, but he is one of the rare authors whose books are automatic buys for me.

The Uninvited Guests: A Novel by Sadie Jones
Published by HarperCollins

I found out about The Uninvited Guests while reading a review of Emily St. John Mandel’s The Lola Quartet in the New York Times. It sounded like a fun, clever read.

Spoiler Alert: Read Emily’s book instead.

Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures: A Novel by Emma Straub
Published by Riverhead Books/Penguin Group USA

I’m afraid I’ve got another BookExpo America story for you…but it starts before that. Emma was one of my first Twitter friends and she helps make my Twitter feed so much fun.

Her first book, a collection of short stories called Other People We Married is just beautiful. How did I first find out about Laura Lamont? Probably a giddy tweet or Facebook post from Emma, but it was a long time ago and I don’t remember exactly.

Emma was signing books at BEA in June and so of course I had to block that time in my calendar as an appointment (shhh) to slip over to the Penguin booth to meet her. She was swarmed by people (her adoring public!) and I only had a few quick minutes, but I did manage a squeal, a hug, a signed galley, and a picture. Laura Lamont was published this week. Read it.

Inside by Alex Ohlin
Published by Alfred A. Knopf, Publisher/Random House

I’d never heard of Alex Ohlin before and then one day, this happened: Here if You Need Me. It’s a review by William Giraldi and it’s one of the most mean-spirited reviews I’ve ever read. So of course, I had to find out what all of the fuss was about.

Leon and Louise by Alex Capus, translated by John Brownjohn
Published by Haas Publishing, Distributed by Consortium Books

Oh, BookExpo America really is so much fun! Because I am a blogger (yay!), I was invited to a party hosted by Consortium Books. Unfortunately, I could only stop by for a few minutes, just barely long enough to register that the woman standing near me looked awfully familiar and was someone famous but not long enough to actually say something stupid to her or spill a drink on her. (It was Amy Goodman, there in support of her book The Silenced Majority.)

In my goodie bag (yay!) there were all sorts of fab things, including a copy of The Silenced Majority, and also a postcard to come by the Consortium booth the next day for a limited edition galley for the September release Leon and Louise.

Readers I respect were raving about this book during the show and soon after BEA, sales rep extraordinaire John Mesjak posted this on his awesome My3books blog.