Interfictions – An Anthology of Interstitial Writing

07. July 2008 · 44 comments · Categories: Book Review and Giveaway, Short Stories · Tags: , ,


If you’ve ever enjoyed a story that seems impossible to categorize, unique and one-of-a-kind, slipping through the cracks of conventional labels, then Interfictions is waiting for you. One imaginative short story after another gives the reader a break from the humdrum, feeding the brain on the real merged with the surreal. Interfictions is filled with characters who hobnob with unlikely individuals, such as talking cats, ghosts obsessed with buttons, and creatures I can’t even begin to explain here.

An interesting feature in this collection occurs after each story when authors share a couple paragraphs, explaining where they came up with the story line, why they write in the manner they do, and other insightful tidbits. If you love writing as much as reading, you’ll find these added paragraphs just as fascinating as the stories they follow.

If you’re looking to stretch your literary mind with some truly inventive writing, enjoying the ride all the way, then give Interfictions a look. You’re sure to find several new authors to track down. I, for one, found a few that bear researching further, because for me, their short stories just whetted my appetite for the interstitial.

Don’t be an interstick-in-the-mud. Enter to win a copy of Interfictions from carp(e) libris reviews; the winner will be drawn at random on Thursday, July 10, 2008.

3 Ways to Win:

1.) Leave a comment telling me something about your short story reading habits. Is it easier for you to get some creative food with a short story? Or is there something else that draws you to them? (Be creative–if I don’t hear from the randomly chosen winner, #2 is chosen by their comment.)

2.) Subscribers are automatically entered into this and all future giveaways. Just enter your email address in the little white box on the upper part of the right hand column. (Please make sure to verify your Feedburner subscription by responding to the email they send you. If you don’t receive it, check your junk mail. Only verified subscriptions are entered for all the giveaways.)

3.) Blog about this giveaway on your blog with a link back.

If you do all three, you have three entries to win.

Published by Small Beer Press.

Contents of a Minute by Josephine Jacobsen – Book Review & Giveaway

17. June 2008 · 54 comments · Categories: Book Review and Giveaway, Chapbooks, Poetry · Tags: , , ,

 


Part of the Quarternote Chapbook Series from Sarabande Books, Contents of a Minute gives us a look into the poetry of Josephine Jacobsen, celebrated poet. This 29-page collection is filled with recently discovered and previously unpublished poetry and is a great collection whether you’re just discovering Jacobsen’s work or you’re already a fan.

Jacobsen’s poetry is filled with depth and rhythm. If you’re new to poetry, I would suggest someone like Jacobsen for her ability to pull the reader into a scene without being confusing. This is not to say her poetry is simple–it is anything but. In fact, the subject matter often has dark undertones, speaking of death or longing. But it is not so heavy as to drag the reader down and leave them wallowing. There is something redeeming about the beautifully swaying beat and the unusual rhyming schemes in many of the works, such as in the poem Natural, one of the recently discovered. It is almost sung, and even if you’re not the poetry-spouting type, you may just find yourself trying to commit a fragment or two to memory for later.

Whether you’re a poetry buff or not, I encourage you to check out Jacobsen’s work. She won many awards in her lifetime, including the Robert Frost Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry, the highest award a poet can hope for. If you’d like a copy for yourself, I have an extra one just for giving away.  Enter to win by midnight on Friday, June 20, 2008.

3 Ways to Win

1.) Leave a comment telling me something about your poetry reading habits. Do you ever read poetry, or is it something you’re hoping to try? (Something more than “I want this book” is kindly suggested.) If the randomly chosen winner doesn’t reply to my email telling them they’ve won, I often choose the #2 winner based on their comment.

2.) or Subscribers are automatically entered into this and all future giveaways. Just enter your email address in the little white box on the upper part of the right hand column. (Please make sure to verify your Feedburner subscription by responding to the email they send you. If you don’t receive it, check your junk mail.)

3.) or Blog about this giveaway on your blog with a link back.

If you do all three, you have three entries to win.

Bone Strings by Anne Coray – Book Review & Giveaway

09. June 2008 · 77 comments · Categories: Book Review and Giveaway, Poetry · Tags: , ,


Poet Anne Coray was born and raised in Alaska. Her book of poetry, Bone Strings, reflects not only the beauty and grandeur that haunts anyone who has even seen a picture of the state, it presents the harshness and disquietude of Alaskan nature as well.

Bone Strings reads with a graceful rhythm, smooth and melodic. However, the poetry is often quite the opposite, describing the things that happen in nature we humans wish didn’t occur–like watching the wildlife channel and always hoping to see the rabbit escape the jaws of the wolf. Coray speaks from the vantage point of one who is well acquainted with all that is Alaska and its wilderness, and one who loves and honors it as well.

For the reader who loves the great outdoors and stands in awe of its complexities, its gentle beauty as well as its unforgiving hardness, Bone Strings will satisfy your urge to experience it all through poetry. I have one copy of Bone Strings to give away to a reader chosen at random. To win, enter here before midnight, Thursday June 12, 2008.

3 Ways to Win

1.) Leave a comment telling me something about your views on Alaska. Have you been there? Do you want to visit? Or do you live there? (Something more than “I want this book” is kindly suggested.) If the randomly chosen winner doesn’t reply to my email telling them they’ve won, I often choose the #2 winner based on their comment.

2.) or Subscribers are automatically entered into this and all future giveaways. Just enter your email address in the little white box on the upper part of the right hand column. (Please make sure to verify your Feedburner subscription by responding to the email they send you. If you don’t receive it, check your junk mail.)

3.) or Blog about this giveaway on your blog with a link back.

If you do all three, you have three entries to win.

Published by Scarlet Tanager Books.

Book Review & Giveaway Mishaps Etc.

04. June 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Book Talk · Tags: ,

If you tried to enter the giveaway for A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness yesterday and were unable to do so, you were the victim of a computer mishap and a wee bit of errant code. The problem is fixed, to my great relief! If you did enter already, you’re still entered. For some reason, the post worked just fine in certain browsers.

If you were unable to enter and would like to, please click this link for A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness. It’ll work now, really!

Also, I am a little uncertain what Feedburner will be sending to all my subscribers this evening, as I tinkered away with my site in the morning. So in the interest of making sure today’s regularly scheduled review is not overlooked, I’m linking it here for you. That’s because it’s a review with a wonderful 88-year-old poet who has her first book published, and I would not want anyone to miss out on discovering her. Here’s the link to that interview: A Cartography of Peace. Please don’t miss it.

Thanks for your patience, and to make sure everyone has an opportunity to enter the giveaway for A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness, I’m extending the deadline to June 8, 2008.

Bad Karma by Tamara Sheward – Review & Giveaway

08. May 2008 · 80 comments · Categories: Book Review and Giveaway, Travelogues · Tags: , , ,


If you’re looking to escape the daily grind and relax on an exotic getaway, then you may not want to travel with Tamara Sheward. Her travelogue Bad Karma (Confessions of a Reckless Traveller in Southeast Asia) recounts her adventures with her best friend El. These two cocky anti-Birkenstockers manage to plant themselves into a variety of bizarre situations in every village and city they enter. Little to no traveling plans, shoddy tour guide books, and edgy attitudes may not provide for a relaxing vacation, but it sure makes for one heck of a fun read.

As Tamara and El ramble through Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia, readers will cringe as they foresee problems the travelers didn’t. Customs are accidentally stepped on (never leave your chopsticks standing straight up in your rice bowl) throughout the book. Tamara and El are well-seasoned backpackers, and while they’ve left their homeland of Australia on journeys many times before, they’ve never been to the foreign lands of Southeast Asia, and they find it’s a whole different world than what they’ve ever experienced before.

I love to travel, but I’m a serious researcher. I’ll read up on every little thing I can get my hands on (surprised?) before setting foot outside my country. That’s probably what made reading Bad Karma such an entertaining toe-curler. If I ever get the chance to travel to Southeast Asia, I’ll take this book along as a guide on how to avoid botched travel plans. It can double as an entertaining read when my Fodor’s just won’t do.

So if you’re ready to hop on a rickshaw and careen through the streets of Cambodia with Tamara and her friend El, I have an extra copy of Bad Karma to give away. You have until midnight May 12, 2008. Happy Trails!

3 Ways to Enter:

1.) Leave a comment telling me what interests you about the book. (Something more than “sounds good” is kindly suggested.) Or tell me YOUR travel horror story!

2.) Subscribers are automatically entered into this and all future giveaways. Just enter your email address in the little white box on the upper part of the right hand column. (Please make sure to verify your Feedburner subscription by responding to the email they send you. If you don’t receive it, check your junk mail.)

3.) Blog about this giveaway on your blog with a link back.

Do all three, and you’ve got three entries to win!

The Unforseen by Christian Oster – Review & Giveaway

26. April 2008 · 69 comments · Categories: Book Review and Giveaway, French Literature · Tags: , , ,


Narrated by an unnamed man, The Unforeseen gives us a good look at a most uncommon human. The man, who suffers from a perpetual cold, finds himself alone in a strange city. At the mercy of strangers from beginning to end, he starts going by the name “Serge”. Although he often blurts out an embarrassing detail or two about his current situation, he never really tells anyone about himself, despite the fact he’s been given every opportunity.

You see, this newfound “Serge” has no social skills. Zip. Zero. Zilch. And since every situation he finds himself in is a very social atmosphere, the reader is left dangling between sympathy and outright laughter. Our stiff and obsessive narrator never seems to see himself as lacking social skills – in fact, he appears to think he’s the sort that goes the extra mile in politeness and decorum. But social graces he has none. The reader can only guess at what are the true reactions of those he meets along his journey, as “Serge” seems a little confused as to what people are actually thinking.

The Unforeseen was originally written by Christian Oster in French, published first in 2006 as L’imprevu. Oster has published 12 novels in all, including My Big Apartment, winning him the Prix Médicis in 1999. He currently resides in Paris.

The novel was translated by Adriana Hunter who managed to keep the prose fluid, and the style is consistent throughout. The subtleties of the narrator’s ability to make others slightly uncomfortable were no doubt tricky to translate, yet they remain humorously intact.

If you would like to win a copy of The Unforeseen and perhaps brush up on how to embarrass yourself in public, I have a copy to give one winner. Enter before midnight, April 29, 2008.

3 Ways to Enter:

1.) Leave a comment telling me what interests you about the book. (Something more than “sounds good” is kindly suggested.) If you’d like, you can instead tell me something you did that embarrassed you in public, but this is just to make things more interesting, and besides I’m nosy.

2.) Subscribers are automatically entered into this and all future giveaways. Just enter your email address in the little white box on the upper part of the right hand column. (Please make sure to verify your Feedburner subscription by responding to the email they send you. If you don’t receive it, check your junk mail.)

3.) Blog about this giveaway on your blog with a link back.

Do all three, and you’ve got three entries to win!

Voices of the Lost and Found by Dorene O’Brien – Review & Giveaway

23. April 2008 · 83 comments · Categories: Book Review and Giveaway · Tags: , , ,


Voices of the Lost and Found gives the reader a well-written collection of short stories, each crafted in a distinctively different voice than the one before. How author Dorene O’Brien manages to carry all these personalities around in her head, I can’t even begin to imagine. But this, together with edgy story lines and delicious irony, is what makes Voices of the Lost and Found an impressive work.

Eleven stories in all, the characters are truly the heart of the book. From the gripping story of a graffiti artist (Way Past Taggin’) to the humorous tale of a fishery worker whose boss was murdered with only his left hand remaining (No Need to Ask), the narration is so realistic you’ll swear you’re hearing voices. I don’t know if it’s this way for everyone, but when I read, it’s usually my own voice slightly altered to fit the character. Men are a little lower register, sometimes with an accent, but it’s still me in there. With O’Brien’s work, I heard actual voices. Please don’t turn me in. I just tell it like it is.

I had the honor of interviewing Dorene O’Brien about her experiences writing this book. I’ll be posting that tomorrow, so make sure and stop by.

If you want to hear voices in your head too, you’re in luck. I have one extra copy of Voices of the Lost and Found to give away. There are three ways to win: All subscribers are already entered into this and all future giveaways, so if you aren’t subscribed, you can do so in the right hand column of this page. Or you can leave a comment telling me what interests you about this book. (Something more than “sounds good” is kindly requested.) You can also link back to this post in your blog for an entry. Do all three, and you have three entries! I’ll draw a winner on at midnight EST on April 27th, 2008.

Special thanks go out to Bloggy Giveaways, who does a fantastic job of promoting. They’re hosting a giveaway carnival right now, so if you like winning things, this is your spot.

Voice of Ice by Alta Ifland – Review & Giveaway

02. April 2008 · 57 comments · Categories: Book Review and Giveaway, Goldfish Award Books · Tags: , ,


One of my purposes with carp(e) libris reviews has been to help you as a reader stretch out and discover literature you otherwise may not have found. I can’t ask you to try something out of the ordinary if I’m not willing to do it myself. For me, this reach is poetry – something I’ve always known I should grasp for, that it would fulfill a reading need of my own. And I have begun to search out poets to share here, in an effort to expand the horizons of my own bookshelf, along with yours.

Voice of Ice did something for me I cannot quite explain. So often with the craft of writing, pain is beauty. Voice of Ice by Alta Ifland is the perfect example. I can only imagine the poet being stopped by her own words as she wrote, just to weep. Alta Ifland is originally from Eastern Europe, and her feelings of being stuck between two worlds which are both and neither her own, is transcribed into her poetry.

Ifland’s poems hover in a dreamlike state, and I felt as though reading her words, I was reading my own half thoughts I’ve never dared express aloud. She’s made a beauty of what we have all struggled to understand about ourselves, trying to figure out where we fit into this very imperfect world. Her words are so personal that I hesitate to share with you how they touched me because if you read it (as I hope you do), you may learn too much about who I am. That, as I am learning, is good poetry.

Not only is this a stunning work to read, it is wonderful to hold and look at. The care with which Les Figues Press put the book together is apparent. It’s slender and a little weighty with a glossy cover and a beautiful work of art on the back. Danielle Adair has done the artwork for each book in the TrenchArt series of which Ifland’s is a part. I don’t always talk about the appearance of books, but I’ve noticed that independent presses have an artistic way of putting together a book that I appreciate. This one gets an A from me!

(Later Note: Alright, alright. P.J. Grath is correct – in the comments she mentions I’ve really raved about this book. This one really deserves the Goldfish Award, so I’ve come back and bestowed it upon this very worthy book. It’s been making me itch that I didn’t put it there in the first place. Carry on, dear readers.)

Now that I’ve got you wishing you could have your own copy, I do have one here for a giveaway. As always, subscribers are automatically entered into this and all future giveaways. Or you may leave a comment telling me what intrigues you about this book. Posting a link to this giveaway on your blog enters you as well. Do all three, and you have three entries. I’ll randomly choose a winner on April 5, 2008, at 12noon EST.

Chronicle of San Gabriel by Julio Ramon Ribeyro – Review & Giveaway

31. March 2008 · 69 comments · Categories: Book Review and Giveaway, Peruvian Literature · Tags: , , , ,


Travel by book. It’s the only hope most of us have to go globetrotting and see places we’ve dreamed of, always feared, or never even heard of. In Chronicle of San Gabriel, Julio Ramon Ribeyro will take you to a Peru you never knew existed. Based on his own experience, this fictional work recounts one 15-year-old boy’s trip with his skirt-chasing, ever-drinking uncle to visit relatives in the mountains of Peru. The world he discovers there at the family hacienda is like nothing he could have fathomed.

The hacienda of San Gabriel is more of a pit stop, being the only place along the way for travelers to rest for the night and get a home cooked meal and perhaps a few too many adult beverages. While a large number of rebellious cousins and quarreling aunts and uncles call it home, others drift in and out causing a constantly changing series of interactions between contrasting people in the middle of nowhere – a sort of mini galaxy.

I couldn’t help but draw comparisons between Chronicle of San Gabriel and one of my favorite books The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. In both instances, you have an unusual group of people placed together in a remote location. Both groups form their own hierarchies, smaller groups, etc. as people are prone to do. But in Chronicle of San Gabriel, the outcome is more wild, passionate, and even sometimes lawless than the mostly-European group in The Magic Mountain. Oh, would I love to sit down and talk with someone else who has read both! This could consume the better part of an afternoon.

If you’d like to win your own copy of this fascinating book, I have one to give away. As usual, there are three ways to enter: 1.) Subscribe to this blog to be entered into this and all future giveaways here. 2.) Leave a comment telling me what intrigues you about this book (something more than “Sounds good” is kindly requested). 3.) Post a link back to this giveaway on your blog. Or do all three, and you have three entries. The winner will be drawn on April 3, 2008, at 12noon EST. (Please enter themommyspot(at)gmail(dot)com into your address book so you don’t miss the email telling you the book is yours.)

Home Among the Swinging Stars by Jaime de Angulo – Review & Giveaway

26. March 2008 · 50 comments · Categories: Book Review and Giveaway, Latin American Literature · Tags: , ,


Home Among the Swinging Stars is a brilliant collection of poems by Jaime de Angulo (1887 – 1950). His reflections of nature in the American West often feel like lyrics of Native American chants, painting images of coyotes, wild stallions, canyons and cactus. In contrast, other poems speak of the difficulties faced by Native and Latino Americans.

Having fallen in love with the desert myself, I was anxious to read these poems to see if I could recapture the feeling of being under that expansive sky, miles from anywhere. Home Among the Swinging Stars not only delivered those wished-for images, but poetry of the Big Sur and California Redwoods as well. Jaime de Angulo’s poetry feeds the imagination whether you’ve been Out West or not, also giving you a sense of the people who have lived there.

Jaime de Angulo, of Spanish descent, was born in Paris and moved to America when he was 14 years old. He lived in California, Colorado, South America, and several other locations in the U.S. and abroad, leading a rather complicated and continually evolving life, which greatly influenced his work. (If anyone is looking for a subject for writing a biography, this is one I’d love to read!) De Angulo’s writings have inspired many writers, including Jack Kerouac.

If you’d like to have your own copy of Home Among the Swinging Stars, you can enter to win one here. Subscribing to this blog automatically enters you into this and all future book giveaways. Or you may leave a comment on this post telling me what intrigues you about the book. Link to this post on your blog, and you’ll get another entry as well. I’ll choose a winner at random on March 29, 2008, at 12noon EST.

Special Note: I have TWO giveaways running right now! Normally I do one at a time, but since I misread the calendar when posting, you’ve still got time to enter to win The Edge of Europe by Pentti Saarikoski.

Home Among the Swinging Stars is published by La Alameda Press.

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