A Look at Lena Dunham's Book Proposal

My presence here has been scarce lately. I need to catch up on reviews and get moving on my best of 2012 list. But until then, please enjoy this gem from Lena Dunham's book proposal. You know, that one for which she got a $3.7 million.

Read Dunham's proposal in its entirety here.

One Month Until The Casual Vacancy, You Guys!

Today marks exactly one month until the release of The Casual Vacancy, JK Rowling's first novel for adults. I couldn't be more excited. 

The synopsis definitely piques my interest - much more than the bland looking cover does anyway. I'm happy the novel will take place in England, because it just wouldn't feel JK Rowling-ish if it didn't. Cobblestones? Check. Wonderfully traditional English sounding names? Check.

When Barry Fairbrother dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…. Pagford is not what it first seems. And the empty seat left by Barry on the town’s council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

Sounds promising, right? I'm trying not to get my hopes too high, but it's JK Rowling and it's really hard not to expect greatness. I'll try not to compare her new novel to her best selling series, but I will say I hope it is just as imaginative. It seems Rowling herself doesn't want any comparisons to her earlier works, even when it comes to her marketing. B&N Vice President Patricia Bostelman says of the "left in the dark" marketing approach of Little, Brown, "Apparently much of their behavior is at J.K. Rowling's wishes." Rowling "has very strong opinions on how she wants publishing of the book handled. She's trying not to live on the laurels of Harry Potter and very much wants to have this book stand alone, on its own merit, just as if she were just any other author who was landing on the scene." Except it's JK Rowling, and she most certainly isn't "any other author."

Beth from Bookworm Meets Bookworm and I talked about doing a read-along that would start right around, or on, the novel's release date. More details to come on that... 

Eugenides is coming to Boswell!

I'm super pumped about this one! Jeffrey Eugenides is coming to Boswell Books on Sunday, October 23rd for a reading of The Marriage Plot! You know, that book everyone is talking about that I absolutely adored. From the Boswell Books website:

What more praise do you need than Boswell bookseller Stacie’s enthusiastic recommendation: “Eugenides deftly delivers a novel of great thought and romance, using the languages of philosophy, literature and theology to astutely explore the labyrinthine pathways of the heart. The warmth, intellect and beauty that glows from its eloquent pages and immersive characters had me in tears by the end. It's been years since a novel touched my soul so effectively: I LOVED THIS BOOK!”

I am definitely planning on attending this event. I'd put Eugenides in my top five authors I'd love to meet, so I feel really lucky that he is coming to Milwaukee and I am available to attend. Since I received an ARC of this one, it's a perfect opportunity to buy a hardback copy and get it signed.

Boswell Book Company is located at 2559 N. Downer Avenue, Milwaukee WI 53211.

In a somewhat related note, you know that vest that Eugenides was photographed in for a billboard in Times Square (pictured above). The one that is basically the wardrobe equivalent to Franzen's glasses? Well, you can follow it on Twitter now @EugenidesVest.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: The Trailer

Jonathan Safran Foer is really good at writing books people want to turn into movies. I didn't ever see Everything is Illuminated, but I did read it and liked it well enough. This next one though, I'm going to see for sure. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is in my top three of all-time favorite books and while I know the movie can't live up to the book's magic, I do hope it comes close. 

Fah La La La La, La La La La

Christmas came early, you guys. All thanks to the lovely librarian Melissa Rochelle over at Life:Merging. I could not be more excited. I'll be finishing up The Weird Sisters today and moving right into this.

Books I Would Like for My Birthday

My birthday is one week from today and I created a small wishlist of books that I'd love to get for my birthday. Even if it's just one or two, I'd still be happy :)

1. The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier: This novel has been praised for it's use of artistry and imagination and I've wanted to read it since March.

2. Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine: A look at the "delusions" concerning gender differences.

3. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaimen: I've had this one on my TBR since last year and I still haven't found it. I think it would be great for the RIP challenge.

4. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: This one actually comes out on my birthday so most likely I'll end up buying it afterwards, but I can't help but put it on this list.

5. In The Garden of Beasts by Eric Larson: Narrative non-fiction that takes place during WWII - I've heard many great things about this book.

6. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach: Everyone is talking about this debut novel and I'm interested to check it out.

7. The Submission by Amy Waldman: "Ten years after 9/11, a dazzling, kaleidoscopic novel reimagines it's aftermath ."

8. I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive by Steve Earle: I've heard this isn't for the faint of heart, but if you can pull through it, it's worth it.

9. Windows on the World by Frederic Beigbeder: I've had this book on my radar for awhile and I think it would be an eye-opening read in light of the 10 year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

10. His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman: I have heard marvelous things about this trilogy from many book bloggers so I'm thinking it's a must-read.

Books at the top of my Fall TBR

1. The Marriage Plot by Jeffery Eugenides: I would kill for a ARC of this one, but since I'm not that cool I am counting down the days until October 11th when Eugenides latest is released.

2. Untouchable by Scott O'Connor: This was a gift from a friend and since I read this review I've been waiting until Fall to pick it up. It sounds like it will be a good fit for the RIP challenge - my favorite challenge of the year.

3. 11/2/63: A Novel by Stephen King: I will admit, I have never read any Stephen King. I've been told The Dark Tower series is one of his best and I hope to get to it someday, but in the meantime I've got my eye on his new release. But I'll have to wait until November 8th.

4. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: I don't think it's a coincidence that this one will be released on my birthday, September 13th - ok it's very much a coincidence. But either way, I can't help but be excited about this one; circuses, magicians, greed and love sounds promising to me.

5. Them by Joyce Carol Oates: I bought this one in July and it's still sitting on my TBR. I'm thinking Fall will be the season to read it.

6. Night by Elie Weisel: Another dark and horrific book, only this one isn't fiction. Night is about a teenager who struggles to survive in a Nazi death camp.

7. The Wife by Meg Wolitzer: I can't remember where I read this review for this one, but it sounded amazing and I bought it a few weeks ago. A tale of "witty disillusionment," this one also sounds quite promising.

8. Surfacing by Margaret Atwood: I've only read one Atwood so far this year, which is somewhat out of character for me. This was has been looking at my from my TBR for a few months now and I can't wait to tackle it.

9. Packing for Mars by Mary Roach: I enjoyed Stiff very much, and I've heard Roach's latest is just as interesting.

10. The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris: This is another that has been hanging out on my nightstand waiting to be read. I enjoyed Then We Came To An End and this one sounds even more interesting.

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish

Is it October yet?

Just last week I read Middlesex, the 2003 Pulitzer winner. I may be one of the last book bloggers to discover the magic that is Eugenides - he is truly amazing. Then I read about his latest work, The Marriage Plot, which will be released in October of this year. Then just yesterday The Millions released the opening lines of his latest novel and I don't think I've been this excited about a new release since I was 13 and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets came out. Really.

Via The Millions, the opening passage of The Marriage Plot:

To start with, look at all the books. There were her Edith Wharton novels, arranged not by title but date of publication; there was the complete Modern Library set of Henry James, a gift from her father on her twenty-first birthday; there were the dog-eared paperbacks assigned in her college courses, a lot of Dickens, a smidgen of Trollope, along with good helpings of Austen, George Eliot, and the redoubtable Bronte sisters. There were a whole lot of black-and-white New Directions paperbacks, mostly poetry by people like H.D. or Denise Levertov. There were the Colette novels she read on the sly. There was the first edition of Couples, belonging to her mother, which Madeleine had surreptitiously dipped into back in sixth grade and which she was using now to provide textual support in her English honors thesis on the marriage plot. There was, in short, this mid-sized but still portable library representing pretty much everything Madeleine had read in college, a collection of texts, seemingly chosen at random, whose focus slowly narrowed, like a personality test, a sophisticated one you couldn’t trick by anticipating the implications of its questions and finally got so lost in that your only recourse was to answer the simple truth. And then you waited for the result, hoping for “Artistic,” or “Passionate,” thinking you could live with “Sensitive,” secretly fearing “Narcissistic” and “Domestic,” but finally being presented with an outcome that cut both ways and made you feel different depending on the day, the hour, or the guy you happened to be dating: “Incurably Romantic.”