Seven Months of Book Club Books

i guess that's a pretty fair call to make. i was only mucking about too. just so you know i'm not actually putting shit on you.

I know buddy

ah, good. 'cause i was just about to send you an anxiety filled PM explanation...

...NOTTTTT!

Get a room! JESUS!

I know. I am.

i was just reading about Candy elsewhere and found out it's also a movie, but of course probably everyone here knew that. i am so out of touch.

Yet another Tietz plug, I see!

Nah, that one was all Hall and Oates.

about Knut Hamsun's Victoria, i checked a copy out today printed 1925. will it matter what translation we pick up?

I wouldn't worry about it. I doubt we'll get that deep. As long as the story is the same.

I'd offer up either the Stephen Graham Jones collection of short stories, THE ONES THAT GOT AWAY (he's a brilliant short story writer) and/or something by Brian Evenson, possibly LAST DAYS - we need to get some short story collections in here

a fwiw if GODSPEED ever comes out...on the list

I'm so happy to see that the book club is back on!! I'm going to try for this months book but I may just jump in on Oct.

Woo!

Oh you don't want to miss this month's book. It's AWESOME!

Supposedly.

heh heh heh

not as good as STAY GOD, but still revolutionary in its own way

Just because the month ends doesn't mean you guys can't still add to the discussion. The threads won't go away.

right on

How many people are reading Candy right now?

It's the next book I'm gonna read.

Shit. I'm the leader. I'm so busy right now between trying to work on major assessments for uni and pouring my soul into the Clevenger Intensive. I have read it a couple of times in the past, so if worse comes to worse and i don't get a chance to read it again, i'll have to work off memory.

I'm trying to think of some cool discussion points too. Let's see how I go. I'll probably bring up a couple to start and then let the discussion take itself where it wants to go. As in, I'm not gonna hold everyone's hand, so if you have something you want to discuss--discuss it, dammit!

Word

Anybody want to be discussion leader for March, April, May, or June?

I'll be the leader for June, for Michael's book. 'Cause I know I'll eat that up in one quick bite.

Alright buddy! Sweet shit ya cunt.

No wucking forries.

Oh, you mean this shit??

And I'm really looking forward to that one...

How about a sample?

The Velvet Podcast: http://www.welcometothevelvet.com/podcast/2011/02/the-velvet-live-%E2%80...

Have I mentioned lately how much I despise you?

Pete, I'll take May for Caleb's book.

Awesome! Thanks Brandon.

hey guys, long long time no see -- i'd like to offer up a suggestion/offer to you guys, if you'd like. we're about to publish Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat, by Andrez Bergen. He's a great guy -- an ex-patriate Australian currently living in Tokyo (and yes, he and his family are ok). His novel is fantastic, and I've spent the last few years (years!) helping him to get it ready for the world.

If I was forced to give it a 'hollywood' style summation, it'd be 'blade runner' meets 'the maltese falcon'... it's sci-fi noir, set in a post-apocalyptic Melbourne, Australia.

Anyway. If you guys are interested, we'd be willing to send a bunch of copies out to whoever needed one (up to say, 30) for a book club for a month that works for you. We'd also provide digital versions for those of you who've given up on the paper (which is actually preferable to us, for obvious reasons --- books don't grow on trees, they're made out of them).

If someone wants to test read it before committing to anything, just send along your address to me and I'll get a copy to you.

-kristopher

PS - CALEB -- awesome! congrats on Stranger Will!

Being an Aussie myself, and a mad fan of noir, Kris, I'd be so into reading this.

I'll chuck in a vote for it being a book club selection, too. And with up to 30 free copies, I mean, how could we say "no"?

Pete?

Oh, sorry. I already PM'ed Kris. I think we'll put it as the July book. I just wanted to have a chance for a few of us to at least skim through it before making it official.

But based on Kris's rec - most likely it will be July's book.

Swing a poor Aussie a freebie?

pm me your addy.

also sending one out to user abstract, who pm'd me. 3 tester copies should be good, right?

also realized i'm going to have to add a caveat to the 27 remaining free copies ---if you're outside of the country, we'd need you to cover shipping. it's like $11 to mail a book to Australia, for example, on top of the cost of the book itself... it's just not financially feasible to ship out that many copies internationally. obviously, digital copies wouldn't be an issue.

Kris - you're backing it, so like I said in the PM, we should be good. No worries!

I'm gonna go ahead and nominate Warmed and Bound for a book club pick. It's going to be a fucking epic collection. So, whenever it comes out, which won't be too far off, we should do it. And there'll be quite a few Culties in the collection too.

Check out this cast of authors. It's intense how good it's going to be. Some pretty big names in there. Richard Thomas, for one.

Death Juggler by Axel Taiari
Click-Clack by Caleb J Ross
The World Was Clocks by Amanda Gowin
Mantodea by Matt Bell
All the Acid in the World by Gavin Pate
Crazy Love by Cameron Pierce
Chance the Dick by Paul G Tremblay
Soccer Moms and Pro Wrestler Dads by Bradley Sands
Take Arms Against a Sea by Mark Jaskowski
This Will All End Well by Nik Korpon
Midnight Souls by Christopher J Dwyer
The Tree of Life by Edward J Rathke
The Killer by Brian Evenson
Headshot by Gordon Highland
Inside Out by Sean Ferguson
Laws of Virulence by Jeremy Robert Johnson
Bruised Flesh by Craig Wallwork
Bad, Bad, Bad Bad Men by Craig Davidson
Three Theories on the Murder of John Wily by by J David Osborne
The Road Lester Took by Stephen Graham Jones
My German Daughter by Nic Young
What Was There Inside the Child by Blake Butler
Seed by Gayle Towell
They Take You by Kyle Minor
The Redemption of Garvey Flint by Vincent Louis Carrella
Blood Atonement by DeLeon DeMicoli
The Liberation of Edward Kellor by Anthony David Jacques
Act of Contrition by Craig Clevenger
Say Yes to Pleasure by Richard Thomas
The Weight of Consciousness by Tim Beverstock
If You Love Me by Doc O’Donnell
Touch by Pela Via
Love by JR Harlan
Practice by Bob Pastorella
Fading Glory by Brandon Tietz
Little Deaths by Gary Paul Libero
We Sing the Bawdy Electric by Rob Parker
In Exile by Chris Deal

That's crazy. How did all of you guys get in the same collection?

The collection is being put together by The Velvet, Clevenger/SGJ/Baer's website/forum. So, a lot of us are part of that community, and they put out a call for submission on the forums. Submitted. Accepted. And, the rest will be fucking history. This collection is going to be mental. Best anthology of the year. Easy.

Yeah - it actually does look like a sick collection. Too bad Baer isn't in it...

But, let me know the info. I think it would be a great Book Club book. Maybe we'll be able to get Clevenger and Jones (and all the rest of you) to join in.

Yeah, that'd be cool. Get a shit ton of the authors in for the discussion.

I'm a bit bummed they couldn't get Baer in it. It was even suggested that a re-print was used of an old story of his. But, the thing is, no one can find out either way because no one can get in touch with him. Clevenger even tried and the man is still hidden. Somewhere in Memphis, teaching, maybe.

I'm already too excited about being in the same collection as SGJ and Clevenger. If Baer was in there too I think I'd actually lose my shit and die of fucking cardiac arrest or something. But, you know, of course, I'm secretly hoping that someone somewhere gets in touch with Chris and he give the "okay" to use a story, or even gives The Velvet something new to use and they can slot it in just before it goes to print. That'd be perfect.

I didn't know Baer was such a recluse. Has he pulled a Thomas Pynchon yet and jumped out of a window when someone tried to interview him?

No. But, probably, only because no one can fucking find him to interview him.

Yeah, I very much wanted WCB to be a part of it, in any way, just to have the Trio anthologized together. But some of the other names we managed to get more than made up for it. Way beyond my expectations. I mean, I wouldn't wish having to follow Evenson on anyone, but am honored nonetheless.

So with regards to upcoming months and book selections, are we still allowed to make any recommendations?

Donald Ray Pollock has a new one coming out in July that I wouldn't mind heading up a discussion on for say, August?

Release Date is July 12th, and that would give me time to read it and learn it inside out.

Or, Brandon had made a general reading recommendation/gave a good review on You Can Make Him Like You by Ben Tanzer -and so I checked that out and started reading it and I have to say, it's fu#$ing hilarious so far. Not sure if it's going to stay that way, but I'm really enjoying it and my point is just that I wouldn't mind seeing That book as a selection. Would also volunteer to lead a discussion on it if no one else is already.

The Samaritan by Fred Venturini is another one -I finished that book last month and loved it. That's actually the one I would most want to lead a discussion on. It's a great book.

So yeah, those 3 books -I'm open to whatever else, too -I'm not 100 percent on how this works.

We are so unorganized that it's ridiculous. So basically, you're doing it right. lol

Yeah, any of those three would be cool by me.