James Ellroy and Colin Harrison at Book Expo America

Picks of the Week

Alafair Burke: 212: A Novel
If you live in New York, you'll recognize the cases 212 is based on, but the headline rip doesn't really matter: what's more important is that this is a story that is rooted in the now, where the investigation depends on web 2.0 being used for both good and ill, and where the book's heroine, Ellie Hatcher, acts in a smart, capable manner and, even when not in control of a situation, knows what she must do to re-assert it. When I say 212 is a mystery of superior professionalism, I mean that as the highest possible compliment. Burke's territory is her own, and I'm eager to see how she carves out an even larger corner that belongs to no one else. Powell’s | Borders | Amazon | B & N | Indiebound
Kate White: Hush: A Novel
White's novels, for me, are the perfect vacation read, even when I am up to my ears in deadlines. HUSH, however, is a departure from the first person Bailey Weggins mysteries (which owe their debts to fair-play mysteries), instead a third-person femjep spiraling out from one woman's impulsive sexual decision. What follows is a broken-glass sequence of murder, workplace tension, and the growing sense that someone is going to kill Lake Warren only after she's been subject to all kinds of psychological torture. I know I felt genuine palpitations while reading HUSH; something tells me many others will, too. Indiebound | Powell’s | B & N | Borders | Amazon
Lisa Lutz: The Spellmans Strike Again: A Novel
What do you mean this is the end of the Spellman Saga? Don't we get to find out what happens to Rae in college, or whether Isabel will stay the maturity course, or if Henry can stay sane amidst the craziness of a clan perfectly happy to spy on each other and others and withhold information from each other (and themselves!) all in the purpose of greater good? Maybe we will. Maybe we won't. But this fourth and final installment perfectly encapsulates the zany sweetness and the larger ramifications of family that loves each other too much, in their own way - even if that way of demonstrating involves regular surveillance. Amazon | Borders | Powell’s | Indiebound | B & N
Sean Cregan: The Levels
It's a new name, a new style, and a new publisher for the man once and still known as John Rickards, and I think the change on all writerly fronts is absolutely the right one to make at this point in his career. THE LEVELS is dystopic without being obvious about it, instead creating a tangible, darkened world each of the seemingly doomed characters inhabits, tries to escape from and ultimately accepts in one form or another. It's the written version of the burnt out, empty buildings captured on film by Godfrey Riggio with Philip Glass scoring underneath - a landscape that repels and attracts but is too busy moving and changing to care what you think or are uncomfortable with. Indiebound | Borders | B & N | Amazon | Powell’s
Zoe Heller: The Believers: A Novel
On the one hand, I wish I had read this book when it came out in hardcover. On the other hand, I'm glad I waited because THE BELIEVERS demands total attention and now was the time for me to give it. The characters are so caustic and yet inspire such empathy. The narrative moves briskly yet embeds a considerable amount of detail. The dialogue is spot-on and hyper-literate, and Heller is catlike in her observations of family dysfunction, leftist politics and religiosity of all stripes, seeing all and asserting power over her characters, paradoxically, by giving them the floor to screw up and triumph. It is marvelous. Amazon | B & N | Indiebound | Borders | Powell’s

June 15, 2009

Click To Play

After receiving a number of requests to make the video of my interview with James Ellroy and Colin Harrison at Book Expo America readily available to the public, the kind folks at Publishers Lunch TV have obliged. So for a limited time only, you can watch the video, recorded Friday, May 29 at BEA's Uptown Stage, right here.

Posted at 12:00 AM in Personal, Publishing and Sundry, World of Mystery | Permalink

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451af9169e20115701a1bd4970c

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference James Ellroy and Colin Harrison at Book Expo America:

Comments

Terrific interview, Sarah! You rock. Thanks for posting it.

Posted by: Sean Chercover | June 15, 2009 at 09:40 AM

Great interview. If you can handle Ellroy you can handle anybody. I'd loved all of Ellroy's stuff up through "American Tabloid", but "The Cold Six Thousand" seemed to take to unreadable extremes the style that started with "White Jazz", and it defeated me pretty quickly. I'm hoping "Blood's a Rover" will be a return to form.

Posted by: Michael Padgett | June 15, 2009 at 10:33 AM

Wow, that Colin Harrison guy is a nutjob.

Posted by: Guyot | June 15, 2009 at 11:45 AM

So glad you posted this. Great job, Sarah. Even though I caught the interview at BEA, it's insightful to hear it again.

Posted by: Cara | June 15, 2009 at 12:48 PM

Great job with Mr. Ellroy, Sarah. "Interviewing" doesn't begin to cover the experience or demands of going toe-to-toe with that author.

Posted by: Craig McDonald | June 15, 2009 at 02:16 PM

Brava. Well done.

Posted by: Vince | June 15, 2009 at 03:24 PM

Never saw Ellroy in an interview before. Tough guy to interview, especially when there is another very different author right beside. You did a wonderfully balanced job, Sarah.

Posted by: Cine Cynic | June 21, 2009 at 10:38 AM

What a fabulous job you did, Sarah! Bravo, bravo! You made it look easy.

Posted by: Kathleen Givens | June 30, 2009 at 06:38 PM

Ellroy is an amazing monster. So excited about Blood's a Rover.

Posted by: PS | August 27, 2009 at 11:25 AM

Colin Harrison didn't strike me as a nutjob. He's very eloquent and intelligent. James Ellroy, on the other hand, is very strange. I'm a big fan, but his giant ego is a turnoff. And he is awfully weird in an interview. He keeps getting stranger and stranger the older he gets. And sometimes, his telegraphic writing style gets bothersome. But I still love the guy.

Posted by: Andrew Hunt | August 31, 2009 at 03:10 PM

Impressive interview. Five espresso-hopped rounds with the self-contained Colin Harrison at one end and his (bi?)-polar opposite the Demon Dog at the other. Fire and rain. Plot-spoiler: interviewer withstood the onslaught and lived to tell the tale. Better than that: went toe-to-toe and still standing tall.

Thoughtful questions elicited engaging answers from both authors. Memo to other bystanders: with Harrison you focus and listen and with Ellroy you distill the whirlwind. Great stuff!

One or two bottom-feeders are demanding an encore. Ménage-a-trios, anyone? Just joking.

Posted by: Philip Spazzapan | September 05, 2009 at 10:26 PM

Ellroy's giant ego is, I suspect, like his professed far-right political bent: largely exaggerated, almost entirely performance-driven, and completely belied by his writing. I don't buy it for a second as something serious . . . and I'm not sure that he expects us to, either.

Posted by: Tom Sutpen | September 06, 2009 at 01:07 PM

Got a review of Rover up at ChuckPalahniuk.net

http://chuckpalahniuk.net/reviews/bloods-a-rover#comment-2322106

Hope you don't mind I linked to this vid.

Posted by: Joshua Chaplinsky | September 18, 2009 at 05:04 PM

I was there in the front row. Out of all the publishing industry conferences I've been to, this was the most entertaining panel I've seen. Also, Colin Harrison is one of my favorite authors, so that was a real treat.

Great job, Sarah!

Posted by: Jeremy Wagner | September 30, 2009 at 09:52 PM

Sarah,

I am just catching up with this now. Oh my gosh! A tremendous performance.

You rock.
~mb

Posted by: Mark | November 08, 2009 at 06:58 PM

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

Posted by: |

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Your comment could not be posted. Error type:

Your comment has been posted. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind

Crime fiction, and more.

About

Follow Me

Picks of the Week

Archived Picks

Archives

Categories

The Harem of Cabana Boys

...And Cabana Girls, Too

Crime Fiction

They Write, They Blog

The Lit Brigade

The Idiosyncratic Part

Stats

June 15, 2009