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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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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Anna Elliott: Twilight of Avalon – a novel of Trystan and Isolde

978-1416589891 – Paperback – Touchstone – $16.00

This is a beautifully written book and immediately engrossing.  I was, quite honestly, surprised to find out that this is Anna Elliott’s first novel, as the writing is so good.  Another retelling of any part of the Arthurian cycle runs grave risks – these are stories many readers know well, and have strong feelings about.  Elliott tells the story from a far different perspective than most modern versions, and I think is quite brilliant in her portrayal of the role of a strong woman in a particularly brutal time.  There is much that is beautiful in this story, plenty of human warmth, redemption, strength of character and charm, even.  But the author does not shy away from a realistic depiction of a dark and dangerous time in early European history.  She manages the unfolding of her story well; I never lost interest in the characters, and was drawn deeply into the world Elliott creates, which after all, is the point of a mythological telling like this one.  I am looking forward to the next two novels in the trilogy.

I enjoyed talking to this first time novelist about Twilight of Avalon and how she came to write it (or how it came to her).  And I think listeners will be interested in what she has to say about this book, early British history and the unfolding of the Trystan and Isolde story through the three books in her story cycle.  There is romance here, but there is also a strong woman whose connection to magic, healing and the realm of spirit has quite a bit to say to modern readers as we are ourselves living in perilous, sometimes dark, often dangerous times ourselves.  Thanks Anna Elliott for the telling.

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Andi Silverman: Mama Knows Breast: A Beginner’s Guide to Breastfeeding

978-1594741654 – paperback – Quirk Books – $14.95

Andi Silverman, author of Mama Knows Breast, interviewed by Writerscast host David Wilk

As a middle aged man, I am clearly not the audience for this book, but when I saw a copy of the book and read the first few chapters I knew right away this would be an author I wanted to interview.  Mama Knows Breast is a great title for a book (as well as for the author’s very well put together and consistently informative website). And her publisher, Quirk Books, has put together a beautifully produced paperback with very cool and comforting illustrations.

As the author, Andi Silverman tells me in our interview, she wanted to write the book she needed when she was looking around at books about breastfeeding – something not medical, or like a textbook, but a book for moms by a mom, with humor, a caring approach, and above all, not judgmental regardless of the decisions each mom makes about breastfeeding.

And of course, as she rightly points out, breastfeeding is not just a subject for women.  Having been father to two breastfed children, I can attest this is true.  Breastfeeding is not a choice that every woman or family can make of course.  But breast milk is healthy and natural, and better for the baby and child than any formula.  My interview with Andi Silverman reflects her spirit and approach as an author – she is full of good advice gently given, and is someone almost any woman would want to consult for advice.

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Alice Eve Cohen – What I Thought I Knew: A Memoir

978-0670020959 – Hardcover

Viking – $24.95

Alice Eve Cohen’s memoir tells an incredible story – a writer and playwright, she was diagnosed as infertile in her thirties, she adopted a daughter with her then-husband (whom she later divorced).  At 44 she began to experience strange physical symptoms – after six months of suffering she was finally recognized as being pregnant.  In many ways that was only the beginning of her story – which is an incredible, honest, sometimes funny but as often a painful journey of discovery.

I generally am not that interested in the modern memoir – most people’s stories are just not that interesting.  But I was attracted to Alice’s story right away, partly because of my own experience with DES and its damages to the children whose mothers took that fertility drug.  Alice’s persona shines through her story.  She is vivid and clear about everything that happened to her and how she felt at the time, and later, and she pulls no punches, including her own foibles, fears, and weaknesses throughout.

Overall What I Thought I Knew is a wonderful book that holds our attention throughout.  It’s transformative for the author and for the reader.  In my interview with Alice Eve Cohen, we talked in detail about the book and her experiences then and now (the events took place several years ago).  She’s not only a wonderful writer but a great interview subject as well.

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Meg Wolitzer – The Ten Year Nap

9781594483547 (paperback)
Penguin Group, $16.00

Writerscast host David Wilk interviews author Meg Wolitzer, whose novel The Ten Year Nap has recently been released in a paperback edition. This brilliantly written novel, set in contemporary New York City, portrays the lives of a group of women who have set aside their careers to raise children. Wolitzer paints her characters with the complexity and sympathy they deserve, but she never lets them off the hook for their foibles and failings. Women and men will recognize – sometimes painfully – much that is familiar to those who have lived through and come after the post-first wave of feminism in modern urban culture. Her humor is subtle but can make the reader laugh out loud as well.

In a wide ranging discussion Wilk and Wolitzer discuss the story line, characters and issues raised in The Ten Year Nap, as well as Ms. Wolitzer’s approach to writing and books and how she works. For any fan of Meg Wolitzer’s novels, and there are many, listening to this interview will be fun and illuminating. The Ten Year Nap is a wonderful book and highly recommended to anyone interested in contemporary American fiction.

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What Was I Thinking? Liz Dubelman

ISBN# 978-0-312-38472-2
St. Martin’s Press, Hardcover $21.95

This fun WritersCast podcast has host David Wilk interviewing Liz Dubelman, co-editor of the wonderfully entertaining collection of first person essays by women describing those special moments in relationships when they suddenly realized: it’s not going to work.  WHAT WAS I THINKING: 58 Bad Boyfriend Stories will be published February 3, 2009.  Dubelman, co-founder of www.vidlit.com, talks about the genesis of the book, how she and co-editor Barbara Davilman (co-author of YIDDISH WITH DICK AND JANE) collected the essays in the book, how women are responding to it, and why it seems men do not have the same sensibilities about relationships that women do.  Dubelman also talks about “Come to Your Senses Day” – February 15, and the book’s website www.c2ysd.com.

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