An interview with Kevin Murphy and Dark Sky Books

Dark Sky is a fine new publisher from the Pacific Northwest whose books are strange and stunning and uncommonly good. Their most recent release, Ryan Ridge’s kinetic collection of short stories, Hunters & Gamblers,  further cements this reputation, while their regularly published literary journal, Dark Sky Magazine, offers an illuminating mixture of bold new voices [...]

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Summer Booknotes from Our Staff – Fiction

The Upright Piano Player by David Abbott (Nan A. Talese) Few circumstances are as suspenseful as the quiet brutality of a stalker. Nor are there many trials harder than the loss of a loved one. Entwined with the life of one so unassuming as Henry Cage, the jolting events in David Abbott’s debut novel are [...]

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Kids-A-Palooza!

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve marveled at the enormous scope and variety of children’s picture books. And even after five years in the book business, I’m still fascinated by the process of creating those little gems. Which comes first, an image or the words; how do a few vivid ideas collate to become [...]

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Summer Booknotes from Our Staff – Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror

Millennium People by J. G. Ballard (Norton) What if the middle class decided it was the new proletariat—became a group so oppressed and restless that they refused to pay their mortgages, set their BMWs ablaze, and pulled their kids from private school—rioting in the streets over the price of parking, and the incessant mendacity of [...]

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Summer Booknotes from Our Staff – Fiction

Orientation and Other Stories by Daniel Orozco (Faber and Faber) From start to finish, Orozco’s stories unfold in brisk and thoughtful patterns. Like the accelerated time-lapse photography of millions of cells coming in and out of existence, they are mesmerizing. The reader is held rapt from the hyper-detailed, twisted delivery of an office worker’s first [...]

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Sleepwalking with Mikey B

You can turn a blog into a book. The material has proved itself; and, judging by the popularity of Awkward Family Photos, once you’ve found the nerve, there’s certainly no sense in quitting it. Then again, if you’re someone like Tina Fey (Bossypants), you’ve proved yourself already and will merit a few weeks in the [...]

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