So, we're talking The New York Stories, only to find out that the most excellent Sam Slaughter is "pumped" to read SEX AND DEATH, which we respond to by failing to not show how geeked we are to learn that.

The New York Stories is @slaughterwrites year-end list shout-out and most grateful indeed. https://t.co/FrOd2aBARZ

— Ben Tanzer (@BenTanzer) December 30, 2015

@slaughterwrites Thanks brother, and it strikes me, that this could go on forever. Which for the record, is fine with me.

— Ben Tanzer (@BenTanzer) January 4, 2016

@slaughterwrites Quite beautiful that is, and you are, Sam Slaughter. Thanks so much, and as always, I hope you dig it.

— Ben Tanzer (@BenTanzer) January 4, 2016

"I loved reading the stories!" The New York Stories is review loved.

It is good to be loved. Excerpt? Always.

"Only one thing could make it better: the author reading them aloud (discussed this and more on Twitter - there's also a video of author reading one of the stories available). Okay, enough semi-coherent fan-girling from me, yeah I liked the stories."

These Things We Loved in 2015 Will Change Your Life.

We though we might have some kind of new opening this year, but how can we, the year is the year, and so in an otherwise terrible year in so many ways, for so many people, at least there are books, and television, music and movies. Though not enough, never enough. But here we are anyway, ignoring the rest of the year if only for a moment to share what there is, and what there was, with you, now, totally.

Memoirs that read like essays that read like memoirs and essay collections that read like memoirs that read like fever dreams, flash fiction and everything in between.

Hollywood Notebook/Wendy C. Ortiz, Benchwarmer/Josh Wilker, This Must Be The Place/Sean H. Doyle, Romantic Violence/Christian Picciolini, Belief is its own kind of truth, Maybe/Lori Jakiela 
 
Books by handsome men with facial hair, bearded, and otherwise.

Crystal Eaters/Shane Jones, Loss Angeles/Mathieu Cailler, The Dark Will End The Dark/Darrin Doyle, Something Good, Something Bad, Something Dirty/Brian Alan Ellis, How To Carry Bigfoot Home/Chris Tarry, Fourteen Stories, None Of Them Are Yours/Luke B. Goebel

Books as collaboration by authors who may or may not have facial hair and/or appear in other categories.

Camouflage Country/Ryan Ridge and Mel Bosworth, Tables Without Chairs #1/Brian Alan Ellis and Bud Smith

And one more by Bud Smith because he's having that kind of year, yo.

F250/Bud Smith (obviously)

The movies we are happy we got to see during a year where we did even better than last year, though still didn't see enough to satisfy our movie Jones.

The End of the Tour, Straight Outta Compton, Ex Machina, Sleeping With Other People, Slo-West, Tangerine, The Diary of a Teenage Girl, Brooklyn, Trainwreck, Mission Impossible: VI

Movies we are happy we got to see because our children wanted us to.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2, Furious 7, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Me and Earl and The Dying Girl

Movies we are really happy we got to see because our children wanted us to.

Inside Out

Documentaries that jammed.

Life In a Walk, Going Clear, Paper Tigers

Movies so bad, yet so good.

Entourage  

Movies just bad. Sadly.

The Fantastic Four. 

The best crafted movies of the year, even if they weren't quite our favorite movie.

Spotlight, Carol, The Big Short

Reboots that left us nostalgic and full of glee and sad.

Star Wars, Creed

The reboot that was not only bat shit crazy, but hands down our favorite movie of the year.

Fury Road

Movies we still hope to see.

Beasts of No Nation, Steve Jobs, The Revenant, Amy, What Happened, Miss Simone?, Room, Sicario

Books published by Curbside Splendor that we quite dug and may have only been partially biased towards as we read them. 

On The Way/Cyn Vargas, Where To?/Dmitry Samarov, I Will Love You For the Rest of Your Life: Breakup Stories/Michael Czyzniejewski

Books we had the pleasure to blurb and hope you have the pleasure to read.

Bottom of the Ninth/Wyl Vilacres, Kinda Sorta American Dream/Steve Karas

Music which we yet again listened to not much of this year, but we still listened to these.

To Pimp a Butterfly/Kendrick Lamar, Something More Than Free/Jason Isbell, Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit/Courtney Barnett, Carrie & Lowell/Sufjan Stevens


Music we got to listen to live, which was way less than last year, though we did get to listen to it with the quite lovely Debbie Pritzker, which made it all better. 

Bill Joel/Wrigley Field

On the other hand, we did finally make it to the Chicago Humanities Festival. And yes, we did that with the quite lovely Debbie Pritzker as well.

Patton Oswalt/UIC Forum

Also, musical theater, for real.

Pippen, Kinky Boots

Television shows we kept on watching, that was actually good, and we watched a lot of television this year, that got in the way of reading, thinking, and sometimes sleeping, but ultimately made us very happy.

Game of Thrones, Justified, Girls, The Walking Dead, Mad Men, Orange is the New Black, Homeland, Louis, Orphan Black, Rectify, The Affair 

Television shows we lovingly re-consumed because our older son said it must be so and annually at that.

Freaks and Geeks

Television shows we lovingly consumed, or continued to consume, because our younger son said it must be so.

Blackish, Fresh of the Boat, The Goldbergs

Television shows we watched because both children said it had to be, no questions asked, and we quite dug them.

Heroes, The Flash, Arrow

New television shows we quite happily consumed.

Bloodline, Daredevil, Catastrophe, Casual, Jessica Jones
Television shows we somehow didn't watch until this year and now can't understand how that was physically possible.

Fargo, The Americans

Television shows we continued to watch, and love, that no one else seems to watch.

You're The Worst, Married

Television shows we watched even they kind of sucked. Okay, there's just one really.

True Detective

The television show we watch and love so much we are tearing-up now just thinking about it, though that is because we have something caught in our eye, so fuck you.

Transparent

Possibly the single best scene in any show this year. Just saying.



Soaring debut novels and collections we were quite happy to imbibe on.

Drinking From a Bitter Cup/Angela Jackson-Brown, A Tree Born Crooked/Steph Post, Train Shots/Vanessa Blakeslee, If I'd Known You Were Coming/Kate Milliken, Lungs Full of Noise/Tessa Mellas

Quite terrific books by quite terrific literary citizens.

Zero Saints/Gabino Iglesias, The Garden of Good and Evil Pancakes/David S. Atkinson 

Podcasts we still listen to again and again.

WTF with Marc Maron, Other People, The Slate Culture Gabfest, Serial, StartUp, All Write Already

And new ones we added, and will be happy to listen to again and again.

The Moment, Mystery Show, You Must Remember This

Poetry, or stuff quite like it, which we are proud to say we read more of this year than usual.

How We Bury Our Dead/Jonathan Travelstead, Addicts & Basements/Robert Vaughan, Hustle/David Tomas Martinez, errata/Lisa Fay Coutley, USA-1000/Sass Brown, A Taxonomy of the Space Between Us/Caleb Curtis, In Lieu of Flowers/Rachel Slotnick

CCLaP books we loved without (much) bias.

Twilight of the Idiots/Joseph G. Peterson, Big Venerable/Matt Rowan

Books by Jason Fisk, because he's the Jason Fisk.

Sadly Beautiful/Jason Fisk (of course)

Books we just didn't quite finish by year's end. But we will. Soon. Promise.

My Brooklyn Writer Friend/Greg Gerke, Kill Marguerite/Megan Milks, Single Stroke Seven/Lavinia Ludlow, Scary People/Kyle Muntz, The First Collection of Criticism By A Living Female Rock Critic/Jessica Hopper, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep/Philip K. Dick, Rift/Kathy Fish + Robert Vaughan, Messila/Robert James Russell, Marvel And A Wonder/Joe Meno 

And most finally, there are many people to thank for making this a good year in spite of all that has been going on and feels like still will be. And we are most definitely overlooking some, a lot maybe, and we apologize for that, but there you go.

Matt Rowan, Jacob Knabb, Dave Housley, Jason Behrends, Anna March, Victor David Giron, Jason Pettus, Moeses Soulright, Nathan Holic, Ryan W. Bradley, Steve Lafler, Lavinia Ludlow, Rob Funderburk, Greg Olear, William Walsh, John Barrios, Joseph G. Peterson, Michael Seidlinger, Gabino Iglesias, Adam Lawrence, Dave McNamara, Peter Tieryas Liu, Mike Smolarek, Duncan MacKenzie, Jeffrey Barken, Nik Korpon, Andrew Keating, Joseph Bates, Paul Luikart, Justin Lawrence Daugherty, Matty Byloos, Naomi Huffman, Brad Listi, Loren Kleinman, Michael Czyzniejewski, Ken Wohlrob, Myles and Noah Tanzer, David Masciotra, Clayton Smith, Mel Bosworth, Benoit Lelievre, Todd Summar, Megan Stielstra, Hosho McCreesh, Catherine Eves, David S. Atkinson, Debbie Pritzker, Peter Schwartz, BL Pawelek, James Yates, Kristin Fouquet, Clayton Smith, Seth Berg, James Goertel, Amber Sparks, Robert Vaughan, Jillian Lauren, Meg Tuite, Robert Duffer, Brian Alan Ellis, Joseph Michael Owens, Angela Jackson-Brown, Keir Graff, Joana Topor MacKenzie, Joanna Shroeder, Johnny Misfit, The Book Cellar, Michael Paige Glover, Jennifer Banash, City Lit Books, Judith Tanzer, Kimberly Ann Southwick, Erika T. Wurth, Leesa Cross-Smith, Brian Gresko, Chris L. Terry, Mark Heineke, Mike Bushnell, Richard Thomas, Adam Tanzer, Patricia Ann McNair, James Tadd Adcox, Sean H. Doyle, Chris Oxley, John Reed, Jerry Brennan, Lauren Becker, Robert James Russell, Brian Gresko, Lori Hettler, Bill Hillmann, Brad King, Shawn Syms, Steve Karas, Barry Graham, David Tomas Martinez, Wendy C. Ortiz, Matt Micheli, Christine Rice, D. Foy, Robyn Pennacchia, Cari Luna, Angela Vela, Rachel Slotnick, Behn Reza, Boswell Book Company, The Mooney's, Eric Shonkwiler, Cyn Vargas, Allison Joseph, Sara June Woods, Steve Himmer, Sara Lippman, Mikaela Shea Fowler, Giano Cromley, Zoe Zolbrod, Tom Williams, Jennifer Pastiloff, Joshua Mohr, Susan Rukeyser, Patrick Wensink, Mark Cronin, BJ Hollars, Amy Guth, Robert James Russell, RA Washington, Davis Schneiderman, Ray Charbonneau, Sam Slaughter, Gina Frangello, Steph Post, Rachel Hyman, Nick Ostdick, John Tribble, Scott McClanahan, Pete Anderson, Jill Howe, Amy Eaton, the Tomaloff's, Susan Messing, Paula Bomer, Wyl Vilacres, Brandon Will, Sass Brown, Melissa Faliveno, Timothy Moore, Christian Picciolini, J. Bradley, Jason Fisk, Gint Aras, Mark Schwab, Yogi Roth, Eric Spitznagle, Ryan Ridge, Lisa Fay Coutley, Tim Kinsella, Jeffrey Pfaller, Dane Bahr, Lee Krecklow, Keidra Chaney, Rob Funderburk, Jonathan Travelstead, Daniel Nester, Shane Jones, Christopher Bowen, Liz Mason, Chris Tarry, Al Kratz, Leah Angstrom, David Olimpio, Jessica Kashiwabara   

"An intimate glimpse into the lives of writers, runners, sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers." The New York Stories is TNBBC Top Reads of 2015, quite fine company and so Ludlow.

It really is Top Read, much appreciated, fine company, thrilled, and Ludlow, be still our hearts. Excerpt? Of course. Endlessly.

"We have the privilege of seeing some at their most honest and vulnerable and others as they make mistakes, come of age, regress in maturity, and carry forward hope that they will make better choices next time." 

The New York Stories (and friends) is Curbside Yuletide Party thing.

"A keen work of literary art worthy of your attention." The New York Stories. The CCM/Entropy. The Joseph G. Peterson. And many appreciations.

Most definitely appreciations for the CCM/Entropy and the Peterson. And yes, many at that. Excerpt? Of course. Always.

"The Tanzer style evolves from the pithy speech and the dialogic to-and-fro of David Mamet’s early plays. If the 1986 movie classic, About Last Night, enacts a cinematic variation on Mamet’s theatrical production, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, then Tanzer’s opus enacts prose variations on About Last Night.

In other words, in so far as About Last Night softens and laughs up the hard edge of Mamet so too does Tanzer take his cue and fill in comic color around the dark and mean parameters of Mamet’s vision. Both writers, Tanzer and early Mamet, are distinctly urban, Gold Coast Chicago, male-centric and minimalistic. But in my view Tanzer’s take is more generous and open than Mamet’s. While Mamet is ultimately a tragic dramatist, Tanzer’s worldview is ultimately comic and, should I say, more loving and, yes, there is tragedy and hurt here as well."

"Like getting a totally sweet hand job from someone with an MFA." The New York Stories is Clash "10 Best Books of 2015" list. And in ridiculously fine company at that.

Really fine. And most appreciated. So please do check it out. Excerpt? Always.

"Harkens back to the golden age of dirty realism, where Carver and A.M. Holmes and Gaitskill and Tobias Wolff were all your tightest bros. Tanzer’s the best, man." 

The New York Stories is all Steve Karas, book haul and fine company.

Mighty fine lookin' book haul from last night. @chicagoexpatjy @BenTanzer @wyllinois @DanNielsenFIVES @hobartpulp pic.twitter.com/KAtJl2dfEh

— Steve Karas (@Steve_Karas) December 7, 2015

"Masterful modern storytelling." The New York Stories. Thankful still.

Most thankful in fact. Excerpt? For sure.

"The New York Stories exceeds on the old maxim: show, don’t tell. Here in Ben Tanzer’s modern Yankee Yoknapatawpha, the reader is a third wheel in the lives of the residents of the author’s fictionalized hometown, and is allowed to feel and experience first hand, rather than consume from an unnamed omniscience. Beyond anecdotal, the New York Stories eschews linear storytelling in favor of juxtaposing memory and nightmare, moving in fits and starts, so that the reader, when the NY Stories is at its best, can honestly be left confounded if his or her memories are their own or one of Tanzer’s vignettes."

"Tanzer's greatest talent is his ability to make the personal universal." The New York Stories. The Clayton Smith. The appreciations.

Endless. All of it. Excerpt? Totally.

"All of these tales center around a fictional small town in upstate New York, the sort of unimpressive geographical black hole that you hate growing up in but don't ever seen quite able to escape. Maybe this collection speaks so loudly to me because I'm from a town just like Tanzer's fictional Two Rivers, New York, but I think the fundamental truth of the place and its people is rooted in all of us; we grow up thinking we know everything, and that everything is tragic, and we grow old learning that the tragedy is what we've made for ourselves."

The New York Stories is all Pungent Parlour and CCLaP Chicago Book Expo 2015 Preview at City Lit Books, yo.

Thanks to @cclapcenter, @citylit_books, @jason_pettus, @BenTanzer, @josephgpeterson & the rest of the readers for a great event last night!

— Chicago Book Expo (@ChicagoBookExpo) November 20, 2015

We are all CCLaP, all Chicago Book Expo 2015, all City Lit and all The New York Stories all of the time. We are also quite proud of all of it.

@cclapcenter @ChicagoBookExpo @josephgpeterson Yo, the @josephgpeterson is going to be there? So in.

— Ben Tanzer (@BenTanzer) November 17, 2015

And yo the Ben Tanzer too an even better reason. https://t.co/1IHhM8uh3E

— Joseph G. Peterson (@josephgpeterson) November 17, 2015

An unabashed, and ongoing, The New York Stories Sell All The Books! and Bad At Sports podcast hype thing.

SELL ALL THE BOOKS! @BenTanzer talks "The New York Stories" at the Bad At Sports podcast: https://t.co/x4m7EPyYE6 pic.twitter.com/Y7EkVtj1FR

— CCLaP Staff (@cclapcenter) November 9, 2015

So unabashed, and endlessly ongoing, and for even more of all that, please do feel free to learn more about The New York Stories Sell All The Books! campaign and/or listen to the Bad At Sports podcast, because all, or any of that would rock, a lot, thank you. 

The New York Stories is The Seven Deadly Sins. Not to mention "Untrammeled," Greed and Angela Vela.

(Courtesy of the Jonathan Schneider)

Fisk Peterson Tanzer (and a cast of thousands) The New York Stories CCLaP Chicago Book Expo 2015 and City Lit Books at 6:30 pm on November 19th.

For reals. More here and here. And quite certainly sure to change your life. A lot.

 

The New York Stories is Pop Up Book Fair. And the Gint Aras too, yo.

Bad at Sports podcast we are.

We are long-time Bad at Sports fanboys, not to mention one-time interviewers there of, and being on their podcast might be more than a thrill, it might even be biblical. We are also quite appreciative for the opportunity to talk Orphans, Lost in Space, The New York Stories, Curbside Splendor, This Podcast Will Change Your Life and so much more. So we hope you dig it, and that it changes your life, if only for a moment at that.  

CCLaP Books represent.

Sell All The Books, yo.

No, really, let's do that. Book clubs. Fans. Friends. Family. People I only met once, but we had a moment. You're all welcome. Also, there's a party, so let's do that too. Cool? Excellent. See you there. And thank you in advance for all of it.

"This book is about those times outside of "most of the time" most of us know so well these days." The New York Stories. Goodreads. Quite dig.

And quite appreciate. Excerpt? Totally. Yes.

"Here's a great part:

"...I leave when my time is up, and I re-enter the real world, and reality, no longer as supported or safe as I just was in the protective cocoon of the office, but now better able to re-experience life in all its messy chaos. I try to keep everything constant and balanced, not too high, not too low, always pushing, but cool, not removed, but still more tightly wrapped than I would like to be. And most of the time this works fine."

Most of the time. This book is about those times outside of "most of the time" most of us know so well these days. I highly recommend this book."