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Amelia Gray

Books

10 Eclectic Reading Recommendations From Amelia Gray

By Amelia Gray on

Earlier this month, a swarm of authors, editors, booksellers, and miscellaneous book people snuck into Boston for the annual AWP Conference, which boasts one of the biggest book fairs in the country. Our friend Amelia Gray (kick-ass Millennial writer, PEN/Faulkner award nominee, and author of the divine Threats) kept a tally of the books she picked up, loved, and was recommended, so that she could recommend them to you. Here’s what she had to say:

At the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference, which Steve Almond called ‘the vast roving capital of American literary anxiety;’ if you’re not running into that ex who is always a dick to you (‘you look like a real bitch in your author photo’), you’re in full-on faux-pas mode with table keepers who stand unwittingly (or worse, wittingly) as symbols of your current or future rejection. Happily, AWP also serves as an easy and fun place to connect with people whose work I love, a time to hang with old friends at the hotel bar, and a great place to pick up a few books. Here’s what I found. … Read More

Books

The 10 Best Millennial Authors You Probably Haven’t Read (Yet)

By Emily Temple on

Recently, we came across an article focusing on the Millennial authors — that is, writers born in 1980 or later — who are “poised to take the literary world by storm.” While we have no qualms with the writers name-checked in the article, they’re all pretty well known voices, and from where we’re sitting (to shift the metaphor) their storms are already in progress. After the jump, we nominate ten lesser-known writers who we think are likely to be the next big literary voices of the “Millennial” generation — check them out, and let us know who we’ve missed in the comments. … Read More

Books

‘Threats’ Author Amelia Gray on Being Nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award

By Emily Temple on

Yesterday, we were thrilled to see Flavorwire favorite Amelia Gray’s first novel, Threats, among the (also very good) 2013 nominees for the storied PEN/Faulkner award. The novel is so strange, so mischievous, so daring, that we have to admit our (pleasant!) surprise that it found its way onto such a high-profile shortlist. With a few notable exceptions, in our experience these things tend to stick a little closer to the mainstream. That said, Threats is definitely worthy of the honor — and the entire list skews a little left of center, so bravo to the judges for that. We pounced on Amelia to ask her thoughts about her nomination, and here’s what she told us: … Read More

Books

The Best Books Flavorpill Staffers Read in 2012

By Emily Temple on

Year-end best-of book lists can be tough. After all, if you’re anything like us, you’re still catching up on the best books of 2010 — or 1910 — and only sneaking a few brand new hardcovers into the mix. So when sitting down to contemplate our collective year in reading, we decided to include everything, not just the new stuff. After the jump, your humble literary editor and a few other Flavorpill staffers expound on the best books we read this year — whether they be books that came out this year, or just the ones we finally (finally!) got around to reading. And inquiring minds want to know, dear readers, what was the best book you read this year? Let us know in the comments. … Read More

Books

The 10 Best Debut Novels of 2012

By Emily Temple on

This year, all are agreed, was a pretty great one for books — but it was a particularly good one for debut novelists, which impressed us over and over again with their ingenuity, seriousness, and talent. This year’s debuts ran the gamut from sci-fi masterpieces to realistic war novels, with several magic-tinged worlds floating around in between. Looks like the novel/this insufferably ironic generation/reading itself isn’t a lost cause after all. Read on for our favorite debut novels of the year, and since we already had to tearfully eliminate quite a few from our list of loves, feel free to add them back on for us in the comments. … Read More

Books

Stereotyping You by Your Favorite Book of 2012

By Emily Temple on

It’s December, and you know what that means: it’s time for everyone — from your mom to your coworkers to every media outlet under the sun — to tell you what their favorite book was this year. There’s no escaping it, but at least you can use the information to totally stereotype whoever’s talking to you (or turn the lens on yourself). Click through to read our (tongue-in-cheek, mind you) breakdown of what your favorite book of the year says about you, and in case you were wondering, our pick is on here too, and hey, we can cop to it. … Read More

Books

25 Notable Books Unfairly Overlooked by ‘The New York Times’

By Emily Temple on

Earlier this week, The New York Times published their annual year-end list of the “100 Notable Books of 2012,” as chosen by the editors of The New York Times Book Review. As usual, the list is filled with very predictable (though often very worthy) choices, but this year we were surprised not only by the amazing, under-the-radar books the Times ignored, but by the equally amazing but high-profile and relatively commercial books that also got snubbed. To that end, we’ve compiled an alternative, or an addendum, if you will, to the Times’ list, including both lesser-known books we loved this year, and some big name books we can’t believe didn’t make the cut. Click through to read our list, and if you so desire, register your own addendums to our addendum in the comments. … Read More

Books

The 10 Best Books of the Year (So Far)

By Emily Temple on

As you may have noticed from the boiling temperatures, it’s the last day of June, which means we’re pretty much halfway through the year. To mark the year’s midpoint, Amazon put together a list of their picks for the best books of the year so far, but of course we have our own ideas about which books have made the biggest splash so far. It’s been a great six months in the book world, but we’ve got some heavy-hitters coming up this fall (new books by Michael Chabon, Zadie Smith, Junot Diaz and Paul Auster, just to name a few), so we’ll be interested to find out which of the books below hold on to their rankings when the year-end lists come around! Click through to read our picks for the ten best books of the first half of 2012, and let us know which you would have chosen in the comments. … Read More

Books

The Future of American Fiction: An Interview with Amelia Gray

By Emily Temple on

If you haven’t noticed, we spend a lot of time thinking about literature here in the Flavorpill offices, digging through its past, weighing its current state, and imagining its future. Take a look at our bookshelves and you’ll find us reading everything from Nobel Prize winners to age-old classics to paperbacks printed at the bookstore down the street. Call it Chick-Lit, Hysterical Realism, Ethnic-Lit, or Translit — if it’s good fiction, we’ll be talking about it. So this summer, we’re launching The Future of American Fiction: an interview series expanding on that endless conversation about books we love, and yes, the direction of American fiction, from the people who’d know. Every Tuesday from now through August, we’ll bring you a short interview with one of the writers we think is instrumental in defining that direction. … Read More

Books

The Official Flavorpill Bookshelf: February Staff Reading Picks

By Emily Temple on

Here at Flavorpill, we like books. It seems like every person in the office has a paperback stashed somewhere for lunch breaks and rainy days, and we often erupt into loud cross-office conversations — for good or for ill — about things we’ve been reading. Yes, it’s fun to work here. Inspired by the folks at Out of Print, and in an attempt to give our readers an insider’s view into our collective consciousness, we surveyed our staff and put together a virtual bookshelf full of the books that we’ve recently finished (and loved), that we currently can’t put down, and that we’re itching to get our hands on next. Click through to check out our aggregated staff bookshelf, and hear what a few members of the Flavorpill family have to say about their reading lists, and then let us know what’s piling up on your own bookshelf in the comments! … Read More