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, [...]

Everyone has a skeleton in the closet, and Tanner’s has been dogging him for over 20 years. It followed him from Belize after a two-year Peace Corp stint that was supposed to help him do something good. But Tanner wonders if some people do good things naturally while others have to work a little harder [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Ever read a book that haunted you? One that would not, no matter how you tried, allow you to put it down until the last page was read? If it’s been awhile since you’ve had that type of a reading experience, then it’s time to read Sandrine’s Letter to Tomorrow by Dedra Johnson.
Sandrine, a girl [...]

I have been a fan of McSweeney’s Quarterly for a very long time. I have also been a regular lurker on their website. It’s quirky. I like quirky.
The founder of McSweeney’s is Dave Eggers, who I’d love to sing about right now, but it would eat up this entire post, make your ears [...]

I’ve just finished reading 100 books. Well, sort of. Giorgio Manganelli’s Centuria contains 100 short-short stories, each taking up only about 1 1/2 pages. What I thought would be 100 short scenes making for somewhat light reading turned out to me much more substantial and intense. Manganelli (1922 - 1990) had a mastery [...]

Another installment of the Japanese Literature Series by Dalkey Archive Press, these two Tsutomu Mizukami Novellas allow an English-speaking readership its first look at The Temple of the Wild Geese and The Bamboo Dolls of Echizen.
The Temple of the Wild Geese tells the story of a temple at the base of Mt. Kinugasa. The [...]

Nothing makes for a more absorbing story than a great main character. Leslie Kove is as entertaining as a protagonist can hope to be. A funny, self-conscious girl who sees herself as ordinary (you certainly will not!), Leslie is plopped right in the middle of the ’60s. Living in an era that was already turbulent [...]

I’ve spent a lot of time in Eastern Europe. I’ve long been fascinated with the gypsies and their wild and nomadic ways, living as though in some parallel universe to everyone else. They’re held so separate, often discriminated against or ignored. For me, I often think it’s as if their passionate and colorful lifestyle is [...]