The Frozen Rabbi by Steve Stern

The July 3rd issue of The New York Times Book Review gave a full page rave for The Frozen Rabbi:

“Tradition is too modest a word for the extraordinary story behind the icebound rabbi’s journey, across several countries and a century of time … The adventure, recounted by Stern with manic virtuosity, starts in a small Polish village, where Rabbi Eliezer is so blissed out during a pond-side meditation that he doesn’t notice a storm lifting the waters around him. In one of the effortless liberties the master fabulist Stern takes with reality, the rabbi survives underwater until winter comes and he’s encased in ice. This all happens before page 7, testament to how rapidly this book chews through plot, characters, decades and continents. The voracious pace lets Stern spill a hundred years of vivid Jewish history onto the page. But it doesn’t keep him from revealing, with depth and subtlety, the yearning and agony of all the characters who are lucky (or unlucky) enough to have their fates lashed to that of the frozen rabbi … Stern’s intimacy with Jewish mysticism does not seem to come from Internet research. He writes with piercing zeal about religious concepts that are, by their very definition, impossible to describe—impossible, perhaps, even to understand … Yet Stern brings the esoteric ideas handily to life and lodges them, often hilariously, in the unlikely body of Bernie Karp, holy teenager of Memphis … Along with the difficult questions of just what is lost when assimilation is gained, Stern also raises the hope that even the most unwitting among us cannot fully escape the passions of our ancestors.”

Read the rest of Ben Marcus’s review HERE.

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

No surprise, but this best-selling novel clocked in at #4 on the Most Wanted list of “The Year’s Page-Turners.” Check out the other “Most Wanted” books, as well as TV shows, films, albums, and magazines HERE.

The Book-of-the-Month First Fiction Award is granted annually by the Book-of-the-Month Club editorial board to recognize an outstanding first work of fiction in the English language. The First Fiction Award represents the high standard of fictional writing in English, published in the U.S., that Book-of-the-Month wishes to honor in new writers.Congratulations, Robert Goolrick!

A Reliable Wife is still on the NY Times Paperback Bestseller list, this week at #5!

Visit the website for A Reliable Wife to read an excerpt, download discussion questions, and watch a video interview with Robert Goolrick.

Thanks to Phyllis Lerner, Scottsdale, AZ, for the use of her photos.

Click here to read the first chapter online, read (and hear) an interview with Robert Goolrick, and find discussion questions for your book group.

Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, VA, is hosting its first-ever Twitter Book Club tonight at 6 p.m. Everyone can participate, no matter where you live! You won’t have to leave the house–or even change out of your pajamas–to join a lively discussion about the current #1 New York Times bestseller, A Reliable Wife.

Kelly (@RVABookChik), owner of Fountain (@FountainBkstore), will be the facilitator. The hashtag is #fountainreads.

Log into your Twitter account on February 1 at 6:00p.m. to participate.

If you don’t have a Twitter account, its easy (and free) to set one up:

• Create a Twitter account if you don’t already have one.
• Go to www.tweetchat.com, sign in with your Twitter username and password
• Enter fountainreads into the hashtag search box

That’s it!  For more info, check out The Book Ladys Blog, who is partnering with Fountain Bookstore. You can also enter there to win a free copy of the book!

Newbies will be given help, so don’t be shy. And if you are local to Virginia, go to see Robert Goolrick, author of A Reliable Wife, live at Fountain Bookstore on February 11th!

If you haven’t checked ‘em out, what are you waiting for?

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart

Hard Work by Roy Williams and Tim Crothers

The debut novel A Reliable Wife is just out in paperback–which makes for a fantastic start in 2010. Click here to see a video interview with the author, Robert Goolrick.

Happy New Year from all of us at Algonquin!

-christina

Borders recently interviewed debut author Robert Goolrick–you can watch the interview here, and read the first chapter below. We’re sure you’ll be hooked from the first page.
A Reliable Wife

So grab your warmest coat, hat, and gloves, brave the frigid wind, and head out to your nearest bookstore to pick up a copy! We’d love to hear what you think.

The Algonquin elves stacked, taped, stamped and tied every package–and we got them out the door before Friday’s storm hit!

Boxes and boxes of books needed to be unpacked.

Stacks of Algonquin fleece blankets were packaged with the books and a letter.

The assembly line in action, as blankets and books were loaded into boxes and taped up.

Labeled, stamped, and out the door!

Thank you Algonkians for all of your help!

-Katie

Five Features of a “Reliable Spouse”

1) He can’t be Tiger Woods,
2) or Jon Gosselin,
3) or Mark Sanford.
4) He also needs to be dependable enough to remind me to TiVo my favorite trashy reality TV shows,
5) and the only thing he should be guilty of stealing is my heart.

Second place is awarded to Emily, and a tie for third place goes to Jen and Megan.

Thanks to everyone who responded!
Katie

The Workman Sales Director, CEO, and COO are ready to curl up with a good book in their Algonquin Snuggies.

Click here to read the first chapter. (Snuggie optional. Although recommended.) Watch for the paperback edition of A Reliable Wife in stores on January 5, 2009. (The hardcover is available  now, in case you can’t wait that long!)

-Katie