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"The truth is the most desirable woman in the world and we are the most jealous lovers, reflexively denying anyone else the slightest glimpse of her. We betray her routinely, spending hours and days stupor-deep in lies, and then turn back to her holding out the lover's ultimate Mobius strip: But I only did it because I love you so much."
- from In the Woods by Tana French
 
Oates at the top of her satirical game

Likely her most controversial novel to date, My Sister, My Love reimagines the JonBenet Ramsey-esque murder of a figure-skating prodigy. Ten-years-dead "Bliss" Rampike's brother Skyler, now nineteen, narrates the unraveling mystery, a confessional-style narrative that culminates in a resolution that Tim Molloy of the Associated Press calls "heartrending, grotesque and totally believable." It's one of the summer's - and the author's - most riveting reads.

Don't miss the opportunity to score a Blu-ray copy of The Spiderwick Chronicles, an extraordinary fantasy adventure based on the beloved bestselling series of books revealing the unseen world that exists all around us. Check out our DVD review sister site at curledupdvd.com for the chance to win.
 

THIS EDITION
 ·  Oates' "tabloid hell"
 ·  Rae Meadows interview
 ·  Bengali expatriate angst
 ·  The legend of Alexander
 ·  A murder in Dublin
 ·  The Truth for girls
 ·  Graphic novel: Warrior mice
 ·  A fantastic destiny
 ·  Solzhenitsyn uncut
 ·  Chicago crime-writing contest
 ·  Win The Spiderwick Chronicles

FEATURED FICTION

*Unaccustomed Earth* by Jhumpa Lahiri
Unaccustomed Earth
by Jhumpa Lahiri

Read Ram Subramanian's review

In a departure from her earlier collection, The Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri sets these eight short stories essentially in the U.S. The protagonists are second-generation middle-class Bengali expatriates, born and brought up in a culture that, while different from their parents’, allows them to embrace the typical youthful angsts of love, friendship, responsibility, and disappointment.
Click here for more on Unaccustomed Earth.

MAY WE SUGGEST...

*Bring Down the Sun: Alexander the Great*
Bring Down the Sun
(Alexander the Great)

by Judith Tarr

Read Laura Strathman Hulka's review

Taking up the legend of Alexander the Great’s parentage, Judith Tarr delves into the romantic fantasy surrounding Polyxena, brought up to be a priestess of the “Great Goddess” and born sister to the Queen of Epiros. Set in the time of ancient Greece and Macedon, the visions of gods and goddesses surround the tale of two lovers, bound for eternity and destined for prominence both in their time and in beyond. Tarr lets the reader into the innermost family sanctum, giving us an intimate perspective on Alexander the Great’s antecedents. Click here for more on Bring Down the Sun.
 
Enter to win a copy of Tana French's *In the Woods*
In the Woods
by Tana French

Click here to learn more

When a twelve-year-old girl is found dead in the woods of a Dublin suburb in a case chillingly similar to a previous unsolved mystery, a detective's traumatic childhood may be the best clue to solving the girl's murder.

Enter to win a copy of Tana French's In the Woods
 
*The Planet Star: Unfolding Prophecy* by C.M. Chakrabarti
The Planet Star:
Unfolding Prophecy

by C.M. Chakrabarti

Click here to learn more

Seeking a new life in the Khalian Solar System, a widow unaware of her prophesied role in the destruction of a mighty empire is lured by malevolent forces determined to prevent the fulfillment of her destiny in The Planet Star: Unfolding Prophecy.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

Author interview with *No One Tells Everything* author Rae Meadows

Rae Meadows talks with Michael Leonard about No One Tells Everything, the slippery nature of memory, juxtaposing a sense of inevitability with suspense, and finding inspiration all over the place. Click here for the curledup.com interview.


IN WORLD HISTORY
*The Boys from Dolores: Fidel Castro's Schoolmates from Revolution to Exile* by Patrick Symmes
The Boys from Dolores
by Peter Symmes

Read Deborah Adams' review

When the former students of the Jesuit school known as Colegio de Dolores gather for their annual reunion, their nostalgic moments are more profound than most. In addition to lost youth, lost innocence, and lost loves, the Dolorinos mourn the loss of their homeland. “Unmoored” is how author Patrick Symmes describes The Boys from Dolores, these cubanos in self-imposed exile. Click here for more on The Boys from Dolores.
 
IN GRAPHIC NOVELS
*Mouse Guard: Fall 1152* graphic novel by David Petersen
Mouse Guard:
Fall 1152
by David Petersen

Read Douglas R. Cobb's review

A “league of scouts, weather-watchers, trailblazers, and protectors,” the Mouse Guards pass their knowledge and skills from generation to generation. In the turmoil-ridden times of the Fall of 1152, they must face and overcome an attempted usurpation of power by a mysterious mouse who claims to possess the legendary Black Axe. Click here for more on David Petersen's Mouse Guard: Fall 1152.
 
IN CHILDREN'S BOOKS
*The Truth: I'm a Girl, I'm Smart and I Know Everything* by Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein - featured young readers novel
The Truth: I'm a Girl, I'm Smart and I Know Everything
by Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein

Click for our review
It seems that too often the important questions of life are brushed off for any number of reasons. Reading the frustrations of this one girl, we can be reminded that regardless of the answers, the questioners deserve attention and respect. Click here for more on The Truth.
 

SOLZHENITSYN'S THE FIRST CIRCLE UNCUT
  CHICAGO CRIME-WRITERS COMPETITION
An uncut edition of Aleksander Solzhenitsyn's *The First Circle*, a highly praised and controversial novel published 40 years ago and heavily edited because of its story of a Soviet prison camp, is finally coming out in EnglishHarperPerennial will release the first uncut English edition of Aleksander Solzhenitsyn's The First Circle in 2009, 45 years after the original novel's completion.

The 89-year-old Nobel laureate's narrative, set in a gulag where the Stalinist regime sequestered academics for alleged subversion, was banned by Soviet officials even after the author had cut nine chapters.

Thomas Lask of New York Times says that The First Circle is "at once classic and contemporary. Reading it, we know that it has been with us for years, just as we know future generations will read it with wonder and with awe."

Source: AP/Yahoo! News

  The Chicago Crime Writers CompetitionWin publication of your crime fiction story in an upcoming issue of Time Out Chicago!

Michael Harvey, author of The Chicago Way and co-creator of Cold Case Files, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, Time Out Chicago, and Intelligentsia invite you to try your hand at crime fiction for a chance to win publication of your story in Time Out Chicago. One grand prize and two runners-up will be chosen. Entries must be postmarked by Sept. 2, 2008. Click here for official rules.



Source: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

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