Travel. Read. Non-work travel. More read. And this week we have sucked down two novels with much in common. Stephanie Kuehnert and J. Adams Oaks, the authors of I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone and Why I Fight respectively, are both products of Columbia College's fine fiction writing program here in Chicago and both still live here, further expanding, defining and building the argument for Chicago's should be respected position as a mecca of killer American writing. Further, both books are debut novels that touch on violence and broken families and like all debut novels include some sort of road trip that inevitably becomes a journey. Finally, we have been sitting on these books for some time now, but know no reason for why this is. And so here we are, read and read, perfect books for days on the beach, late nights, car rides, trains and planes, with I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone a tribute to all things punk, and what music can be, escape, healing, and power, and Why I Fight an exploration of violence, in this case bare knuckle fighting, as a reaction to and a salve for confusion, pain and fear. In some ways both are about how we express what we cannot understand or control in the rawest most immediate ways possible with the hope that maybe, just maybe we will gain the tools needed to grow, find balance and live with hurts that never quite go away. Both books should also change your life, at least for a hot moment, so go check them out, now, there, good. 
And it is madness. Look at this freaking line-up. Seriously, present company excluded, this reading is going to be killer. For more details please visit the Orange Alert Press blog and then you know come-out and join us. If you already have plans, cancel them, now, like immediately, because this reading will most definitely change your life.
Much awesomeness to touch on including, but not limited to the fact that last night was the inaugural Orange Alert Press reading at The Whistler and it rocked, big time, and for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the killer line-up - the great local writer and terribly handsome Robert Duffer who read a new piece he's working on, the quite cool Stephanie Kuehnert author of the awesomely well-received novel I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone, read from her forthcoming novel Ballads of Suburbia, and maybe our favorite local live reader Spencer Dew read a new piece as well called Why I am a Catholic. So yes, quite happening, and yes, much newness going on, but we also want to take a moment to touch on two additional and not so tangential topics. First, we have finished engorging ourselves on the killer paranoia driven near tales of love lost, crushed and stroked that comprise Spencer's short story collection Songs of Insurgency and loved it to say the least, so go buy it, please, it just may change your life, and two, our book review/interview with Jew Punk Steven Lee Beeber author of the most excellent Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's and editor of the wonderfully tortured insomnia anthology AWAKE! which is titled If I could sleep, I would dream about Joey Ramone - you see the tie-in, right, nice - is now live and begging to be read, so we would be thrilled if you chose to read that too. Though no pressure or anything, we're just saying.
And did we mention the kick-ass line-up, present company excluded of course? Don't get us wrong, we love to hype ourselves here at TBWCYL, Inc., but still even we have some limitations. No, it's true, we do, they're fairly minor and we tend to ignore them, but we have them, just look at the by-laws.
Travel. Read. Non-work travel. More read. And this week we have sucked down two novels with much in common. Stephanie Kuehnert and J. Adams Oaks, the authors of I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone and Why I Fight respectively, are both products of Columbia College's fine fiction writing program here in Chicago and both still live here, further expanding, defining and building the argument for Chicago's should be respected position as a mecca of killer American writing. Further, both books are debut novels that touch on violence and broken families and like all debut novels include some sort of road trip that inevitably becomes a journey. Finally, we have been sitting on these books for some time now, but know no reason for why this is. And so here we are, read and read, perfect books for days on the beach, late nights, car rides, trains and planes, with I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone a tribute to all things punk, and what music can be, escape, healing, and power, and Why I Fight an exploration of violence, in this case bare knuckle fighting, as a reaction to and a salve for confusion, pain and fear. In some ways both are about how we express what we cannot understand or control in the rawest most immediate ways possible with the hope that maybe, just maybe we will gain the tools needed to grow, find balance and live with hurts that never quite go away. Both books should also change your life, at least for a hot moment, so go check them out, now, there, good. 
