Massive lit love. Lost in Space. Fine company. And the Kristin Fouquet, who is so full goodness our heads just might explode.

"Honesty, poignancy, and humor." Lost in Space. Le Salon Annex. Love. Much.

And appreciations to the Kristin Fouquet for making it so. Excerpt? Word.

"I am grateful Tanzer allowed this peek into his life as a son and as a father with all its fears, hopes, denials, and joys. I believe this book is one he will always be proud of and also a beautiful gift to his sons. Oh, and speaking of gifts, Father’s Day is next Sunday. Why not order a copy for all the great dads in your life?"

Indeed.

And then there was the time that we posed with the Kristin Fouquet to hype our new books at the Maple Street Book Shop and all was right in the world. Or at least in New Orleans anyway.

This Book Will Change Your Life - Twenty Stories by Kristin Fouquet.

Last night we went to the book release party for David Masciotra's new book Working On a Dream: The Progressive Political Vision of Bruce Springsteen. It was awfully fun, with much music, Masiotra supporters, beer and the Jason Fisk, and we will have more about the book and David soon. We promise, but the main reason we are telling you about all this is because the release was in Joliet, yes that Joliet, which meant taking a train, which meant time for writing, sweet, and reading, and we read a lot, including Night Soil Man, the first story from the Big Lonesome by Jim Ruland, which was just heartbreaking, and Chapter Three of the Truth or Something Like It, the engrossing new novel by Curtis Smith, both of which we will touch on here some time soon as well. We promise, but today, and right now, we are going to focus on Twenty Stories by Kirstin Fouquet, which is such a terrific blend of music, sex, humor and alcohol, that just might sound a bit like the book release party itself, except that unlike David's focus on Bruce, Kristin's focus is on New Orleans and these stories about jazz singers, adulterers, cross-dressers and writers not only reinforce, but expand everything you think you know about the city and the people who live there.