Welcome to 30 Authors in 30 Days!!
30 Authors in 30 Days is a first of its kind event aimed at connecting readers, bloggers, and authors. Hosted by The Book Wheel, this month-long event takes place during September and features 30 authors discussing their favorite recent reads on 30 different blogs. There are also some great prizes provided by GoneReading.com and BookJigs. Click here for the full schedule of participating authors and bloggers. or join the Facebook group. You can also follow along on Twitter: #30Authors and last but definitely not least, do not forget to enter the Giveaway!
I'm excited to be featuring Marie-Helene Bertino discussing Ted Thompson's "The Land of Steady Habits." Be sure to also check out my review of Marie-Helene Bertino's "2 A.M. at the Cat's Pajamas" featured on The Glory Tree Herald
Anders Hill, the successful Connecticut businessman at the heart of Ted Thompson’s gorgeous “Land of Steady Habits,” has lived his life as a practitioner of reason. He’s never taken a risk or lived outside his financial means. It is no wonder that, on the verge of retirement, he goes a little crackers. His coming of age, at 60 years old, composes the unraveling, compelling heart of the book. A few of the many things I marveled at while reading is the structure—Thompson skillfully balances the point of view of Anders and his long-suffering wife, Helene--and the pitch perfect sentence construction, the latter being a feature very close to my heart. Though he is mostly fighting a losing battle against time, Anders still manages to be winning and, in his own specific way, warm. His desire to live more deeply chucks the lives of those around him (who have their own secrets) out of their own steady orbits, as the plot hurtles toward its heartbreaking apex.
I half-worry that readers will overly compare “Land Of Steady Habits” to the “great commuter novels.” That would be unfair. Though the novel does contain the smart, sexy, plot movement of “Rabbit, Run” by John Opdike and the cold gaze of neighborhood akin to a John Cheever story, there is a refusal to give in to easy, stodgy pessimism that more than distinguishes it. So my concern is only a half-worry, not bright enough to light even the smallest room. Once you read the first few pages, you can’t help but be swept happily along.
Marie-Helene Bertino's debut novel 2 A.M. AT THE CAT'S PAJAMAS, a Barnes & Noble Fall '14 Discover Great New Writers pick, will be published in August 2014 by Crown. Her debut collection of short stories SAFE AS HOUSES received The 2012 Iowa Short Fiction Award and The Pushcart Prize. She was an Emerging Writers Fellow at New York City's Center for Fiction and lives in Brooklyn, where she was the Associate Editor for One Story for six years. She teaches at NYU, The Center for Fiction, and The Sackett Street Workshops. For more information, visit www.mariehelenebertino.com.More Info for Ted Thompson:
Ted Thompson's website Check out "The Land of Steady Habits" on Goodreads and buy it on Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Twitter: @tednotedward
More Info for Marie-Helene Bertino
Marie-Helene Bertino's website:
Buy it on Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Twitter: @mhbertino
No comments
Post a Comment