Tag: Fiction

Quick Thoughts: Astray by Emma Donoghue & The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards by Kristopher Jansma

~ Jennifer @ The Relentless Reader ~ 16 Comments
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
Publication Date: October 2012
Categories: Historical, Literary
Source: I won a copy from Book Club Classics!
Description:
The fascinating characters that roam across the pages of Emma Donoghue’s stories have all gone astray: they are emigrants, runaways, drifters, lovers old and new. They are gold miners and counterfeiters, attorneys and slaves. They cross other borders too: those of race, law, sex, and sanity. They travel for love or money, incognito or under duress. 

With rich historical detail, the celebrated author of Room takes us from puritan Massachusetts to revolutionary New Jersey, antebellum Louisiana to the Toronto highway, lighting up four centuries of wanderings that have profound echoes in the present. Astray offers us a surprising and moving history for restless times.

My Quick Thoughts:

Emma Donoghue strikes again! (I was absolutely smitten with Room)

Normally I don’t seek out short story collections. I might not have read this at all if I hadn’t won a copy. I’m very glad that I did. This is chock full of great tales about compelling characters.

I wholly recommend Astray. Each story is irresistible.

Publisher: The Viking Press
Publication Date: March 2013
Category: Literary
Description:
An inventive and witty debut about a young man’s quest to become a writer and the misadventures in life and love that take him around the globe

From as early as he can remember, the hopelessly unreliable—yet hopelessly earnest—narrator of this ambitious debut novel has wanted to become a writer.

From the jazz clubs of Manhattan to the villages of Sri Lanka, Kristopher Jansma’s irresistible narrator will be inspired and haunted by the success of his greatest friend and rival in writing, the eccentric and brilliantly talented Julian McGann, and endlessly enamored with Julian’s enchanting friend, Evelyn, the green-eyed girl who got away. After the trio has a disastrous falling out, desperate to tell the truth in his writing and to figure out who he really is, Jansma’s narrator finds himself caught in a never-ending web of lies.

As much a story about a young man and his friends trying to make their way in the world as a profoundly affecting exploration of the nature of truth and storytelling, The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards will appeal to readers of Tom Rachman’s The Imperfectionists and Jennifer Egan’s Pulitzer Prize–winning A Visit from the Goon Squad with its elegantly constructed exploration of the stories we tell to find out who we really are.

Kristopher Jansma has been named one of Flavorwire’s “Up-and-Coming Culture Makers to Watch in 2013” and The Millions selected The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards as one their Most Anticipated Books of 2013


My Quick Thoughts:

There really isn’t a way to describe this story, within a story (within another story?). It’s a mind bending adventure that kept surprising me.

You might want to carve out a day or two for this one when it comes out. The buzz is big and I think it’s going to be a hit. Turn off your phone, log out of Twitter and give this amazingly written book the undivided attention it deserves. It will be worth your time.

Review & Giveaway of The Love Song of Jonny Valentine

~ Jennifer @ The Relentless Reader ~ 31 Comments
The Love Song of Jonny Valentine by Teddy Wayne
Publisher: Free Press
Publication Date: February 2013
Categories: Coming of Age, Literary
Source: Free Press
Description:
When Whiting Writers’ Award winner Teddy Wayne published his critically acclaimed debut, Kapitoil, it was hailed as “one of the best novels of [this] generation” by the Boston Globe and was shortlisted for a spate of national prizes.

Jonathan Franzen wrote in The Daily Beast that “no other writer, as far as I know, has invented such a funny and compelling voice and story for [this type of character.]” Now, in The Love Song of Jonny Valentine, Wayne turns his sharp wit, flawless narrative ventriloquism, and humane sensibility to our monstrous obsession with fame.
Megastar Jonny Valentine, eleven-year-old icon of bubblegum pop, knows that the fans don’t love him for who he is. The talented singer’s image, voice, and even hairdo have been relentlessly packaged—by his L.A. label and his hard-partying manager-mother, Jane—into bite-size pabulum. But within the marketing machine, somewhere, Jonny is still a vulnerable little boy, perplexed by his budding sexuality and his heartthrob status, dependent on Jane, and endlessly searching for his absent father in Internet fan sites, lonely emails, and the crowds of faceless fans.

Poignant, brilliant, and viciously funny, told through the eyes of one of the most unforgettable child narrators, this literary masterpiece explores with devastating insight and empathy the underbelly of success in 21st-century America. The Love Song of Jonny Valentine is a tour de force by a standout voice of his generation.

My Thoughts:

We aren’t supposed to judge a book by it’s cover are we? Too bad. Because as soon as I saw this all of my sparkle senses started going off. It’s so shiny and shimmery! The cover was the first thing I loved about this book but it definitely wasn’t the last.

Jonny’s narration is spot-on. His innocence will make you smile and his cynicism will make your heart ache. He is surrounded by people who truly love him but those voices are drowned out by the fans, the marketing, the big machine that keeps him famous.

Every move that Jonny makes is choreographed. Every morsel of food that he eats is mentally cataloged and combated by exercise. Every song that Jonny sings is researched to garner and preserve the most fans. Even though he is fawned over by nearly everyone he meets you sense that he is simply a very lonely little boy.

This book is a scathing commentary on our celebrity worshiping culture that I couldn’t put down.

I do hope you’ll enter the giveaway for this amazing book:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Update: Congrats to Kristin from my little heart melodies! You’re the winner! I’ll be emailing you for your details. I hope you LOVE this book!