Saturday, August 08, 2009

What is Amy Cohen reading?

This weekend's featured contributor at Writers Read: Amy Cohen, author of The Late Bloomer's Revolution.

One paragraph from her entry:
I'm a big audio book person (I had the best time recording my own audio book), which I realize is sacrilege to some, but I'm thinking those "some" don't ride the NYC subways. I love me a good audio book. Rarely a week goes by when I don't listen to David Sedaris (I have Me Talk Pretty One Day and Naked on my i-pod). Recently I listened to two memoirs: J.R. Moehringer's The Tender Bar (about a boy in search of a father figure who finds several in his local bar) and Ruth Reichl's Garlic And Sapphires (the one where she's a critic in disguise -- just don't listen to it hungry, because her descriptions of thai noodles will leave you salivating.) I enjoyed both books a lot. I'm also a huge fan of Dylan Baker reading Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections. Lorrie Moore reading "You're Ugly Too" from her terrific collection of stories, Like Life. I love Lorrie Moore. She's so funny but also manages to punch you in the stomach on occasion. I always love listening to Meryl Streep, Blythe Danner and John Cheever reading The Collected Stories of John Cheever (his reading of "The Swimmer" is worth it alone -- he's got this great voice that evokes suburban scotch and cigarettes). But the greatest audio book has to be Jeremy Irons reading Lolita. I'd read it twice, but hearing him read it? The...[read on]
Amy Cohen was a writer/producer on the sitcoms Caroline in the City and Spin City, a dating columnist for the New York Observer, and the dating correspondent for cable TV's New York Central.

Among the praise for The Late Bloomer's Revolution:
"Late Bloomer's Revolution is a wry look at love and life. Amy's storytelling is irresistible throughout her foibles and her bittersweet triumph."
--Jeanette Walls, author of The Glass Castle

"Refreshing is too tame a word. In this world of contemporary literature, with its embarrassment of pink books featuring disembodied high heels on the cover (if only there were a name for this genre) The Late Bloomer's Revolution is a genuinely subversive work. It's also delightful. Amy Cohen is as funny and observant a writer as one could wish for, but it is her book's measured and elegant delineation of the very real difference between solitude and loneliness that will bring you up short."
--David Rakoff, author of Don't Get Too Comfortable and Fraud

Learn more about Amy Cohen and her book at her website and her MySpace page.

The Page 99 Test: The Late Bloomer's Revolution.

Writers Read: Amy Cohen.

--Marshal Zeringue