The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum illustrated by Graham Rawle book trailer
I saw this book listed several months ago when I was looking over at Soft Skull’s website and thought it looked well . . . soft skully, as they continually have a very interesting catalog of material.
Graham Rawle’s illustrated The Wizard of Oz fits right into that . . .
Exclusive – China Underground by Zachary Mexico (Chapter excerpt)
While the BSC has a team at the NY Comicon, I’ve got an exclusive excerpt for all of you to take into the weekend! This one’s from a forthcoming book from Soft Skull Press. This is a complete chapter from China Underground by Zachary Mexico. The chapter is entitled The Killers.
Synopsis:
At the beginning of the 21st century, it is hard to imagine a place more exciting than China. Westerners hear much about China’s role as the next “global superpower,” but they know less about the young people who make up China’s varied and fascinating subcultures.
Drawn by the streets humming with the energy of constant change, Zachary Mexico, who had spent two years in China, returned there in the summer of 2006 to conduct formal research on how the changing environment has affected the Chinese of his generation. Readers are introduced to a wannabe rock star from the desert of Xinjiang, trying to make it big in Shanghai; a disillusioned journalist; a budding screenwriter; a vagabond ladies’ man; a straight-A student at China’s best university; a Chinese mafia kingpin; a punk band trying their best to stay relevant; a prostitute; the world’s most polluted city; Beijing’s drug-fueled club scene; and many others.
This is an engaging firsthand account of a young American writer’s encounter with the new China and the young people who are pursuing their future there. China Underground tells their stories, and some of Mexico’s own.
The BSC would like to thank Soft Skull Press for allowing us to present the following excerpt at our venue!
Please check out all of our other exclusives for more chapters/excerpts from novels and complete short stories from collections and anthologies. BookSpot Central is the choice for publishers to bring you the goods!
I hope you enjoy!
Exclusive – Milk, Sulphate, and Alby Starvation by Martin Millar (Excerpt)
New Years Eve and the BSC isn’t taking the day off! We represent to the end! Today we have an exclusive excerpt from Milk, Sulphate, and Alby Starvation by Martin Millar being republished by Soft Skull Press in early 2009!
I’m pretty easy. All you have to do is have a line like “I like comics, especially Conan and Spiderman.” and I’m at least down for 50 more pages! Then the dude mentions the Surfer, and I’m the type of guy who automatically anointed Crimson Tide a classic just because of such a mention!
Millar, writing under “Martin Scott” won the World Fantasy Award for best novel in 2000.
Synopsis:
A re-issue of Martin Millar’s classic novel which recounts the life of Alby Starvation, the first true British anti-hero of the giro generation. A strange and wonderful story of Brixton low-life, seedy gutter violence and manic paranoia that’s as relevant now as when first published in the 1980s.
BSC would like to thank Soft Skull Press and Martin Millar for allowing us to present the following excerpt at our venue!
Please check out all of our other exclusives for more chapters/excerpts from novels and complete short stories from collections and anthologies to sample from all the best publishers in the world! BookSpot Central is the choice for publishers to bring you the goods!
I hope you enjoy!
Exclusive – How the Dead Dream by Lydia Millet (chapter excerpt!)
Who hasn’t read Oh Pure and Radiant Heart, My Happy Life or Everyone’s Pretty? If you haven’t, you probably aren’t picking up the fiction of Lydia Millet. While that in itself is an unfortunate malady to any discerning reader, it is correctable and BookSpot Central is the first response!
Lydia Millet simply writes some of the most emotional and passionate fiction out there over the last few years – it has heart. Her fiction has a thoughtful, and appreciable complexity and I’m so proud we are able to present an excerpt of one of her books as she is a must read writer for me. Oh Pure and Radiant Heart was short-listed for the Arthur C. Clarke Award and Everyone’s Pretty was the winner of the PEN-USA Award for Fiction in 2003. Today, BookSpot Central has the first chapter from her latest, How the Dead Dream, published early this year by Soft Skull Press.
Synopsis:
An only child in a typical middle-American family, T.’s first love is money, specifically the faces on the bills – Jackson, Hamilton, and Lincoln. As his peers go through teen crises, T accumulates, playing the responsible capitalist, setting up a successful real estate business.
But T’s material life begins to change as he adopts a dog, meets a girl, and takes his mother in after she splits up with his father. But when events conspire to leave T isolated again he starts to lose faith in people and civilisation and turns to nature instead, developing a strange and powerful obsession with endangered animals.
How the Dead Dream is a brilliant, moving satire about human loneliness and environmental loss, from one of America’s most exciting literary voices.
Ms. Millet has had a portion of this chapter available at her site but BookSpot Central has the chapter in its entirety.
I would like to thank Soft Skull Press and Lydia Millet for allowing us to present the following sampler.
Please check out all of our other exclusives for more chapters/excerpts from novels and complete short stories from collections and anthologies to sample! BookSpot Central is the choice for several publishers to bring you the goods!
I hope you enjoy!
Book Review – Lonely Werewolf Girl
Author: Martin Millar Cover Design: Simon Fraser Publisher: Soft Skull Binding: Trade Paperback Publication Date: April, 2008 While teenage werewolf Kalix MacRinnalch is being pursued through the streets of London by murderous hunters, her sister, the Werewolf Enchantress, is busy designing clothes for the Fire Queen. Meanwhile, in the Scottish Highlands the MacRinnalch Clan is [...]
Exclusive – Suzy, Led Zeppelin, and Me by Martin Millar (first 3 chapters)
On the 4th of December, 1972, Led Zeppelin came to play in Glasgow. If you live outside of Britain, you might not know where Glasgow is. It’s a large city on the west coast of Scotland. Scotland is just north of England. I won’t trouble you with any more geography. I know you have a [...]
Book Review – African Psycho
Author: Alain Mabanckou Publisher: Soft Skull Press Binding: Paperback Publication Date: February 2007 Gregoire Nakobomayo, a petty criminal, has decided to kill his girlfriend Germaine. He’s planned the crime for some time, but still, the act of murder requires a bit of psychological and logistical preparation. Luckily, he has a mentor to call on, the [...]
