Book notes
What’s going on in the world of publishing
Chicago Lit: ‘Office Girl’ by Joe Meno
Joe Meno’s latest novel, Office Girl, is about what it means to be young, arty, doomed and bummed-out in the big city. It is also about arrested development surrounding a wispy, bittersweet romance between a pair of alienated twentysomething bohemians whose artistic ambitions are being worn away by one soul-killing call-center job after another in Chicago.
Review: ‘Heading Out to Wonderful’ by Robert Goolrick
Robert Goolrick’s first novel, “A Reliable Wife,” was a delightful surprise when it was published in 2009. The tale, a sort of early 20th-century Midwestern noir, was a love triangle set in northern Wisconsin and St. Louis. Goolrick’s new book, “Heading Out to Wonderful,” sets in motion another love triangle. This time the novel begins in 1948 in the tiny hamlet of Brownsburg, Va., the sort of town “where no crime had ever been committed,” and “there weren’t any stoplights. ... The people here then, they believed in God and The Book.”
A ‘WONDERFUL’ LIT LIFE
Robert Goolrick is having what can only be described as a spectacular second act. Once a hard-partying New York ad executive who ended up on welfare and in Alcoholics Anonymous, he is now well known as the author of a highly praised, best-selling debut novel (“A Reliable Wife) and a blistering tell-all family memoir (“The End of the World as We Know It). Now he’s on a summer book tour promoting his latest novel, “Heading Out to Wonderful.”
Literary listings
Local book signings and literary events, July 20-Aug. 2.
Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 goes digital to study Cheryl Strayed’s ‘Wild’
Oprah Winfrey catapaulted books onto best seller lists in the first version of her book club. Will the talk show queen have the same impact on OWN?
‘Gone Girl’ puts Chicago author Gillian Flynn in the thriller elite
The former magazine writer, who initially tried her hand at fiction “to see if I could,” scores critical acclaim, strong sales and a rich movie deal for her third novel, a tale of a marriage gone very bad.
'Encyclopedia Brown' author Donald Sobol dies at 87
Donald J. Sobol, author of the popular "Encyclopedia Brown" series of children's mysteries, has died. He was 87.
A STORYBOOK LIFE
At just 22, Chris Colfer has made a career centered in storytelling via acting, screenwriting and now fiction. Best known for his Golden Globe-winning portrayal of gay teen Kurt Hummel on TV’s “Glee,” Colfer has written The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell (Little, Brown, …
Review: ‘The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln’ by Stephen L. Carter
One thing you can say for “The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln,” the new novel by legal scholar Stephen L. Carter, is that it’s entirely free of vampires. That’s just about the end of the good news, unfortunately. Though Carter begins with an exciting premise — Lincoln has survived John Wilkes Booth’s bullet, only to be pulled down into the muck of partisan politics — this is a dreary, endless book, without momentum, intrigue or a character to linger in the mind beyond the last page.
Review: ‘A Hologram For the King’ by Dave Eggers
Thematically, “A Hologram For the King” is a novel about well-intentioned bumbling, about impotence and failure and self-delusion, on both the personal and national level. It is also a novel by Dave Eggers, whose name is synonymous with almost everything hip and cool on today’s literary scene. Is it an accident that the book’s jacketless embossed cover almost appears to proclaim: “A Hologram for the King Dave Eggers”? The acknowledgments list dozens and dozens of people who read, advised, edited, proofed and helped produce the book. The cynical might wonder whether this is a work of art or a corporate
Best sellers 07.08.12
Publisher’s Weekly’s top 10s for the week of July 15.
Literary listings
Local book signings and literary events, July 13-28.
‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ author E.L. James’ husband has book deal
NEW YORK — Let “Fifty Shades of Grey” author E.L. James write about sex. Her husband has a thriller for young adults coming out in the U.S. this fall. Random House Inc. imprint Delacorte Press announced Monday it will release Niall Leonard’s “Crusher” on Sept. …
