LitBlog Co-Op

Dan Wickett announces the Winter LBC pick: Kirstin Allio’s fabulous debut novel Garner. Yay!

In other news, don’t expect more here until tomorrow. Ms. Link & Mr. Grant came for an impromptu visit and we are busy having fun and watching weird Russian movies.
 

It’d been many years, pre-LitBlog Co-Op, since I had required reading. I’d forgotten how much the spirit can chafe against such things. In fact, last round, I sort of despaired at one point — I didn’t love any of the books and I just wasn’t sure I could stick it out with the LBC over the long haul if such misery was required along with the reading. I don’t mean that all the books were terrible or anything; I actually grew pretty fond of the Stern and especially the Gann. But I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea of five new prospects arriving at the PO Box either.

You see, there’s this stack of books a mile tall next to my bed that I also want to read. But these, these I had to rank and discuss. I had to read these. It instantly made every other book in the house more attractive.

Here’s the thing. This time around was completely different. This time around the nominators announced their nominees and I was really surprised. Most of them I had completely missed. And they looked FANTASTIC. They showed up and they were a good-looking set of books aesthetically. They had promise. They were the kind of books you look at and want to read. (And some of the author photos are downright hot.) And they delivered. I didn’t hate anything this time. I loved three of the books and liked the other two well enough. I didn’t regret the time spent reading anything and I felt really lucky to be reading these books the vast majority of the time.

So, I’m excited about this next round. It’s a strong crop of books, we’re doing some new stuff (Podcasts! Ed rocks!) and if you think something else is a good idea, drop a line. In the meantime, I’m now weighing the books I’ve read in the last year to come up with my own nomination for the next round, due shortly. (If you feel really strongly about a book, drop me an email or leave it in the comments.)

Mostly, I just hope you’ll all tune in on Monday and in the weeks ahead to read and discuss these five pretty wonderful books. Starting with the Most Wonderful of Them All on Monday morning.

Three of the writers whose books the LBC read this last quarter have put up excellent essays or answers to questions so far. There’s a new one today, but on the off chance you skipped the others, I’m linking those again:

• Elizabeth Poliner on Mutual Life and Casualty (Not to mention a dead interesting convo in the comments of Kassia’s post on this book, about women’s fiction and domesticity.)
• Kirby Gann on Our Napoleon in Rags
• Steve Stern on The Angel of Forgetfulness

It’s Kirby Gann week over at the LBC, where we’ll be discussing Our Napoleon in Rags. I just threw up a starting post a few minutes ago. Stop by and join in. Should be fun.

(And I definitely expect to see you there, because I know you’ve read the book.)

The posts are flying fast and furious over at the LBC as the boys discuss Lance Olsen’s 10:01. Here’s the first in the series by World Fantasy Award nominee Matt Cheney. Like Matt, I was heavily reminded of Geoff Ryman’s far better 253 (which I urge you to read as soon as you finish all those posts):

What this book reminded me of again and again, and to its detriment, was Geoff Ryman’s 253, which started out as hypertext and eventually was published.  253 can be both (or alternately) tedious and addictive, but I generally feel that the writing is better than in 10:01, perhaps because it is less intent on creating various voices, a technique I find cloying unless the writer is a particular sort of ventriloquistic genius. Comparing the two works is unfair on the whole, though, because they are quite different, but that’s one of the dangers that comes with writing a book primarily driven by its structural concept — it begins to look a lot like other books primarily driven by their structural concepts.

Next week’s discussion is of Kirby Gann’s Napoleon in Rags and I’ll be participating in that one (because it was my favorite). That’s probably it for this fine, blustery Friday. Good weekends all round.

Then please go over to the LBC and help defend me against the ones who can’t take a joke. Yeah, I finally posted about this round’s selection. Also, some questions at the end (which will be clearer in context):

Are there any story-within-a-story books or American-Jewish fantasies any of you want to recommend or discuss? Writers left off the list? You hate Neutral Milk Hotel?

Y’all smarties go over there and weigh in.

Definitely check out the LBC this week. Things kicks off with a discussion of Steve Stern’s Angel of Forgetfulness, followed by late week appearances by the book’s publicist, Ami Greko, and editor, Paul Slovak. Stop by and heckle the peeps.