John Reed and ReVO are Kickstarter.

For real. So do hit it. It just might change your life.

Orphans. Mellow Pages Library. The Brooklyn. Beautious. Totally.

(The) Orphans is coming to Brooklyn.

It's true. There is Orphans reading on November 30th, 7:30 pm, at the Mellow Pages Library and we would like you to join us.

There will be disco balls. Sparkly and true. Books. So many books. Words. Endless words.  Dogs and Cats living together. And rock star readers who are sure to change your life:

Joseph Riippi - Because, A Cloth House

John Reed - Tales of Woe, Snowball's Chance

Sara Lippmann - Sunday Salon, Girls Write Now

And TBWCYL, Inc. Spokesperson Ben Tanzer - Orphans, out now from Switchgrass Books and NIU Press, among others.

So please join us. Please spread the word. And please don't stop being you, because we think you are quite awesome at that.

Word.

Peculiar Ambitions. Keating. Hettler. Vaughan. Giron. Cobalt. Cook. Cantab. Matis. Pane. Seidlinger. Greenspan. Tuite. Heat. Goldman. Sirois. Tallon. Kuntz. Owens. Donnelly. Jurmu. Monticello. Sunnyoutside. Sparks. Gager. Vargas. Other Voices. Chapin. Will. Curbside Splendor. Mcmahon. Byloos and Seitzinger. Knabb. Housley. Carr. Charbonneau. McNamara. Electric Literature. Tyler. Williams. Frangello. And This Podcast Will Change Your Life, The AWP 2013 Edition Part I - Tales of Woe, starring the John Reed.

All that. And podcast with the John Reed. Most beautious and sure to change your life.

John Reed. Snowball's Chance. September 11th. Christopher Hitchens. Critical Mob. And Questions.

Excited we are to see the John Reed talking the most excellent Snowball's Chance tenth anniversary, September 11th and Christopher Hitchens at the Critical Mob. So do hit that. Now how about some excerpt? Word.

CM: Snowball's Chance has been in print for ten controversial years. What impression do you think it has left on readers and critics?

JR: On the one hand, people talk to me about Snowball all the time. They say they've read it, and seem to know what it's about. On the other hand, I very often realize that this person who says he/she read Snowball has not read it or even seen it. I don't know what to make of that. Snowball, to me, has always been a terrible heartbreak.

In terms of the writing itself, when I looked at Snowball -- right around the time of the first talk of this new edition -- I found the novel made absolutely no sense at all. I called James Sherry, the original publisher, and asked him what that meant. He said, "John, that means you wrote it." In terms of the allegory, alas, I'm afraid the decade has only made me more self-assured.

We are CCLaP Podcast Dreadful. And in some awfully fine company yo.

For real. Here. Look. Now. Please. Right?

My Father's House. Blurb goodness from the John Reed.

"Tanzer is a goliard for our times, singing, laughing, and wise with our sorrows." John Reed

The TBWCYL, Inc. 2010 Top Ten Lists are coming. Here. Now. Books.

We will be Top Ten lists for the rest of the week, because really when you think about it, its time, like now, has to be, and today will be books. To be clear, well, straight up, we do not limit ourselves to books published in the year we are covering, just anything we read, we also readily embrace the fact that we are not objective, we virulently, even violently tilt towards indie releases, and to be honest, and we do believe in that, honesty that is, we are often influenced by the fact that the authors we dig may be acquaintances, or people we would like to be acquainted with, and/or based in Chicago the home of TBWCYL, Inc. headquarters. With that in mind, here you go, though please note, that despite all we just said, we are opening with a non-indie, non-Chicago author, and no, we can't totally explain that, but to say, this first one really knocked us out, big time.

(1) The Road/Cormac McCarthy

(2) Hush Up and Listen Stinky Poo Butt/Ken Sparling

(3) Stories II/Scott McClanahan

(4) Beautiful Piece/Joseph G. Peterson

(5) Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom/Mel Bosworth

(6) Slut Lullabies/Gina Frangello

(7) Working on a Dream - The Progressive Political Vision of Bruce Springsteen/David Masciotra

(8) Sweet Charlotte's Seventh Mistake/Cori Crooks

(9) Chasing Pigeons Make Me Feel More Powerful/Kendra Grant Malone

(10) Tales of Woe/John Reed

Some additional 2010 literary love sure to change your life (albeit in no particular order): One Damn Thing After Another/Tim Hall; When We Make Our Dinosaur/J.A. Tyler; We Know What We Are/Mary Hamilton; Old Men, Gods, And Monsters/Peter Schwartz; Twenty Stories/Kristin Fouquet; El Vocho: Love at the Twilight of Oil/Steve Lafler; Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago/Mike Royko, Charactered Pieces/Caleb J. Ross; Ryan Seacrest is Famous/Dave Housley; Red Ivy Afternoon/Mark Brand; Lambs of Men/Charles Dodd White; Some Identity Problems/Corey Mesler; The Sagging: Spirits & Skin/Jason Fisk.

Also, the two books we never quite got our hands on, but plan to, because not doing so is a terrible oversight and pains us to no end: Daddy's/Lindsay Hunter and Baby & Other Stories/Paula Bomer.

And, how about a 2011 sneak preview of sorts? A number of books have come in over the last few months just as our ability to make time for reading has slowed dramatically, so books we are geeked for as the new year is upon us (and again in no particular order): Cardboard Gods/Josh Wilker; Sophomoric Philosophy/Victor David Giron; Fight For Your Long Day/Alex Kudera; Cloud and Other Stories/Jason Jordan; Songs of Vagabonds, Misfits, and Sinners/Ken Wohlrob; Chasing the Runner's High/Ray Charbonneau; Mont-Saint-Michele and Chartres/Spencer Dew.

Finally, for your retro viewing pleasure:

TBWCYL, Inc.'s 2009 Top Ten Books List

TBWCL, Inc.'s 2008 Top Ten Books List

TBWCYL, Inc.'s 2007 Top Ten Books List

This Book Will Change Your Life - Tales of Woe by John Reed.

Can woe fit in your hand? Say you had a book that while having some heft still fit right there in your hand, like a paperback, and say that book had stories about baboons eating the brains of babies, and anorexic models, women dieing in horrific car crashes, and prostitution, and rape, and cancer, and shooting deaths, and on and on, but could still fit in your hand, its size almost the inverse of the intensity of its content. Would you want to read it, this series of horrific, yet true, stories piling onto each other in a morass of pain and suffering? What if we told you the book was by TBWCYL, Inc. favorite John Reed, author of a number of joints, including, Snowball's Chance and All The World's A Grave, two works that take something you think know, Animal Farm and Shakespeare's plays respectively, and make them into something new and different, and endlessly readable. Which is the thing thing about Tales of Woe, the new collection by Reed, its all the worst things you can possibly imagine, told as if you've never heard them before, fresh and absorbing, and readable, compulsively readable, as everything Reed does has been, and certainly will be. So, can woe fit in your hand? Absolutely.

Reed. Graham. Virginity. Woe. Largehearted. Flatmancrooked. All of it.

Quite exciting indeed to see two of our favorite writers, the John Reed and the Barry Graham, making appearances in two of our favorite venues, Largehearted Boy, via a Book Notes Essay, and Flatmancrooked, via the 10 Everywhere series, respectively. We would add, that John's new book Tales of Woe is currently being consumed here at TBWCYL, Inc. headquarters and we will report back on it soon. Very, very soon.

John Reed's Tales of Woe.

New York writer and TBWCYL, Inc. favorite John Reed has a new joint coming out titled Tales of Woe and frankly it looks creepy and fantastic all at once. More soon. We promise.

Reed. Walsh. And some very kind words for Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine.

Two wholly unique writers that we greatly admire here at TBWCYL, Inc. headquarters had some very kind words to say about Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine this week over at the Goodreads.

First, John Reed author of All the World's A Grave and Snowball's Chance wrote:

"Tanzer evokes what it is to be smart and puzzled, and full of ennui. A deft portrait of characters in mid-wander."

And second, William Walsh of Questionstruck fame and a contributor to This Zine Will Change Your Life said:

"This novel was a lot of fun to read...Clever. And charming throughout."

Many thanks gentlemen, much, much appreciated.

All the World's a Grave by John Reed.

The wholly unique writer John Reed has gone all Girl Talk in his latest book, All the World's a Grave and the result is a terrific mash-up of six Shakespeare plays - Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, King Lear and Henry V - that hang together in ways surprising and true.