Monday, July 25, 2016

Buried in Books - My New Precioussssess


Because I can't possibly read every single book that finds its way into my home IMMEDIATELY, though I fully intend to die trying, allow me to show off our most recently acquired precioussssess...




For Review


Lex Williford
Rose Metal Press
2016

A concise and compelling novella-in-flash spanning decades from the 1960s to the present, Lex Williford's Superman on the Roof offers an elegiac coming-of-age tale and a family portrait imbued with tragedy, guilt, grief, and forgiveness. The arguments, injustices, and triumphs of childhood echo into the adult world in unforgettable detail in these short, powerful stories.

Winner of the 10th Annual Rose Metal Press Short Short Chapbook Contest with an introduction by contest judge Ira Sukrungruang who says: "Superman on the Roof did not let me go. [...] In its brevity, its pace, the contained voice of the consistent narrator, in the flashes of story about a family trying hard to find themselves after heartbreak. The book asks: What is lost when someone we love passes on? What do we keep losing? How do we shoulder this loss and carry on, even decades later? "

*Review copy from publisher / I never say no to RMP chaps!




Eric Shonkwiler
MG Press
Fall 2016

In an abandoned Midwestern city, there’s one last vestige of order and days gone by: 8th Street Power & Light. Part government, gang, and power company, 8th Street tasks Samuel Parrish with keeping the city clear of meth and bootleg liquor. Most nights, Samuel tracks down criminals, while others find him navigating hazier avenues: in between drinking and fighting, he’s falling for his best friend’s girl. But when Samuel rousts a well-connected dealer, he uncovers a secret that threatens to put the city back in the dark.

*Requested from publisher / It's the sequel to Above All Men / Hollaaaah!




James Boice
Unnamed Press
Sept 2016

Clayton Kabede is a regular New York City kid, the son of immigrant parents living in the basement unit of an upscale apartment building where his father works as the superintendent. Lee Fisher lives in the penthouse of that same building — wealthy, paranoid, and armed. One night while sleepwalking, Clayton knocks on Lee’s door. A gun explodes senselessly. The Shooting is the story of the journey to this moment.

No city is better suited to be the setting for James Boice’s tour de force about gun violence. The encounter between Clayton and Lee, like gun violence itself, is one that Boice imprints on our national identity, bloodied by its own most sacred myths.

*From publisher for review / It's a new Boice!!! Squeee!




Wendy J Fox
Underground Voices
Sept 2016

Laura Clarey is unemployed and frustrated when her husband proposes a deal: take a solo vacation to recharge. When she accepts, this wife and mother of one has no way of knowing how it will upend her life; away from her family, she must face the failures of her marriage, the people of her past, and the decisions she has made that haunt her.

*From author for review


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