Wherein we are Local Writers reading with the quite amazing Joseph G. Peterson, Bill Hillmann, and Alexai Galaviz-Budziszewski on April 25th at the Seminary Co-op Bookstore and look forward to seeing you there thank you cool done.

Like totally. More here. Seriously. Nice.

This Podcast Will Change Your Life, Episode Thirty-Eight - Timbre. Or tamber.

Yo, there is new This Podcast Will Change Your Life, and in said podcast we talk to TBWCYL, Inc. favorite Joseph G. Peterson, author of the terrifical swirling noir Beautiful Piece. The conversation is most beautiful to say the least. It is also full of timbre. So please do hit it, now, or soon anyway, as it is sure to change some life, maybe even yours.

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

New joint. Ain't No Reason. Binghamton story. Full of Crow.

Quite happy we are to have a new piece Ain't No Reason in the new edition of Full of Crow, the final version of which was highly influenced by the repetitious ebb and flow of the fabulous noir novel Beautiful Piece by Joseph G. Peterson. We are also happy to share that this is the final Binghamton story to find a home in the group of stories we wrote following and in reaction to discussing the stories in Repetition Patterns, and yes we know this is a lot of repetition, during the Repetition Patterns blog tour. Those stories include among others, Goddess at Annalemma and Never Said at Girls with Insurance. Big thanks to the crew at Full of Crow and for your reading pleasure a brief excerpt below.

"I am in bed and staring at the ceiling as I always do at bedtime. I am not sleeping and I am never going to be sleeping. I am thinking about the endless things that keep me up at night, school, war, my looks, sex, being cool and my parents’ voices that I can always hear drifting up the stairs as they talk, and talk, long into the night.

I am on the little league field down by MacArthur where I go to elementary school, and it’s hot, upstate New York hot, all humid and moist, the air thick and full of gnats, endless gnats getting in my ears and nose, flying around my face, and sticking to my forehead when they get too close and their wings no longer work."

A double-dose of Joseph G. Peterson.

As we slowly emerge from our foray off of the grid and into the wilds of Wisconsin, we are quite pleased to see a double-dose of TBWCYL, Inc. favorite Joseph G. Peterson at the Orange Alert this past week, one, a fine review of the repetitiously noirish Beautiful Piece, a book we very much like, as well as, a starring role on this week's Orange Alert Podcast. Quite good stuff all-around, and quite Chicago, which couldn't make us happier now that we're home.

This Book Will Change Your Life - Beautiful Piece by Joseph G. Peterson.

On page 66 of Chicago author Joseph G. Peterson's fabulous and hallucinatory noir Chicago heatwave novel Beautiful Piece he writes, "Life is repetitious. Oh, I know. That's what I love about it." Which he then repeats several times. And that's the thing about this novel, the scenes and dialog endlessly repeat, constantly circling back and collapsing into themselves, while slowly releasing more and more details and expanding on what you think you know as the story both soars and grinds towards what will clearly be an ending that can't be good for anyone involved.