If any of you, my beloved readers, are among the 1.7 million who live in the greater Austin, TX area, I hope you’ll come out to the Texas Book Festival this Saturday morning to hear my panel. Historian Jacqueline Jones and I will be talking about different approaches to recreating history. My session is at the same time as Richard Russo’s, so come on out and help me punk his turnout.
Speaking of audiobooks, which is what I am now doing, today is the official release date of The Copper Bracelet. This is (for the time being) an audio-only multi-author thriller which includes a chapter by this humble blogger. It’s a sequel to a multi-author thriller called The Chopin Manuscript, which you don’t have to listen to first because (a) it is not a necessary prerequisite; and (b) I didn’t have a chapter in that one, so why bother? The way it works is swell pal Jeffrey Deaver wrote the opening chapter, and then it got passed from author to author, each of us having two weeks to write our part and then pass it along to the next sucker. At the end it goes back to Deaver for the final chapter. Other contributors include many of my friends, friendly acquaintances, and people I’ve heard of, including Joseph Finder, Lee Child, John Gilstrap, Jim Fusilli and plenty more. Head on over to Audible to find out more, listen to the first chapter for free, and slap down your hard earned cash. It’s also available at the iTunes store.
This is the ’04, which looks a lot like the ’05 except for one small detail. Can you guess what it is?
And it’s been a while since I’d done a wine review, so I’m happy to report that good values in ’05 Bordeaux are still trickling in to Costco. I picked up the Château Haut-Faugeres St. Émilion Grand Cru the other day for $20.99, and I’m here to say that this is an excellent value. Those of you know me know that my inclination is usually toward Margaux and St.-Estephe, but if you’ve got a hankering for some beautifully structured, right bank action, this is your pup. A big, enticing nose of blueberry, vanilla and cream. Blueberry also dominates the taste, with undertones of prune, black cherry, cedar and floral and mineral notes. I decanted for an hour before drinking, and at first sip I was impressed with great structure and balance. Medium-bodied, good length. I give it 90 points. As always, my wine reviews and habits can be voyeuristically observed via my CellarTracker page.
Also, I’m having dinner with Junot Diaz tonight.
Dear Mr. Liss, I know you want a Kindle, but I did something better than write to Amazon. I wrote to Barnes and Noble instead. Their Nook is, according to several reviews, a superior device, and they wouldn’t want to give it out to the same authors who have Kindles, would they? It would be smarter to give the device to the authors Amazon neglected, thus introducing a whole new set of readers to e-reading. If their device is truly superior there is no need to compare. I hope it all works out for you. I have greatly enjoyed your books and can think of no more worthy recipient of a brand new Nook.