We are happy to report that we have been to Des Moines and back and we want to thank Alice and Beaverdale Books for hosting us and Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine last night. It is a killer independent book store and we think you just might want to visit them and buy many books. We are also happy to report that we got to visit with the John Domini and his lovely wife and fellow author Lettie Prell, and in the next day or so you can expect a most excellent new Domini-centric edition of This Podcast Will Change Your Life. Finally, sort of, as we drifted between planes, trains, cabs, shuttles, and cars, we got to read, a lot, and we are now excited to give a shout-out to two books we really enjoyed:
First up, You Must Be This Happy to Enter by long-time This Blog Will Change Your Life muse Elizabeth Crane. What's interesting about this book for us, is that it was watching Ms. Crane read the story Donovan's Closet several years back at the Metro when we really got hooked on her and her writing, but as Cranium as this story is, and as funny and at times magically twisted as the stories in this book are overall, it is the two closing stories Most Everything in the World and Promise, that reminded us why we are such fans of hers. Elizabeth Crane knows relationship, and she endlessly, and wonderfully, captures the pain, confusion, and glee that comes with them like few others.
Similarly, the most excellent Barry Graham pulls off a really neat trick with The National Virginity Pledge. On the surface what you get is a series of awesomely disturbed pieces rife with prostitutes, gamblers, tacos, Wal-Mart, car crashes, and bodily fluids. The thing is, while the interplay between these images are entertaining all by themselves, what you come to realize as you slowly lose yourself in Graham's cracked world, is that these stories are also a super-insightful exploration of all the myriad ways relationships go bad, get lost, and leave us wanting.
TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer will be reading from Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine, and maybe even his new joint, the tentatively titled You Can Make Him Like You, tonight at Beaverdale Books in Des Moines. The most excellent writer and man about town John Domini will also be in the house and we think you ought to come as well. What do you say, c'mon, do we hear road trip? Nice. See you there at 7:00pm.
We are quite excited and most appreciative to have been invited to read from Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine at Beaverdale Books in Des Moines, Iowa on Monday April 20th. We hope to see you there and we are assuming that with three weeks notice you will be able to make it regardless of where you live or what you may already have scheduled. That is a correct assumption, right? Good, because did we also mention that not only is the illustrious, and fetching, John Domini likely to be there, but we may also read some stuff from You Can Make Him Like You the tentative title of the new novel we are working on? We didn't? Well, he just might be there, and we just might read the new stuff, so now you know and most definitely need to come, yes? Excellent. See you there.
First up, You Must Be This Happy to Enter by long-time This Blog Will Change Your Life muse Elizabeth Crane. What's interesting about this book for us, is that it was watching Ms. Crane read the story Donovan's Closet several years back at the Metro when we really got hooked on her and her writing, but as Cranium as this story is, and as funny and at times magically twisted as the stories in this book are overall, it is the two closing stories Most Everything in the World and Promise, that reminded us why we are such fans of hers. Elizabeth Crane knows relationship, and she endlessly, and wonderfully, captures the pain, confusion, and glee that comes with them like few others.
Similarly, the most excellent Barry Graham pulls off a really neat trick with The National Virginity Pledge. On the surface what you get is a series of awesomely disturbed pieces rife with prostitutes, gamblers, tacos, Wal-Mart, car crashes, and bodily fluids. The thing is, while the interplay between these images are entertaining all by themselves, what you come to realize as you slowly lose yourself in Graham's cracked world, is that these stories are also a super-insightful exploration of all the myriad ways relationships go bad, get lost, and leave us wanting. 
