Thursday, February 17, 2011

What is Kelly Simmons reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Kelly Simmons, author of The Bird House.

Her entry begins:
I read novels week after week until I’m stuffed and almost queasy, so full of motivations and twists and fat paragraphs of prose, that I think if I see one more prologue I’m going to barf. Then I relieve the distress with a very select work of non-fiction or a collection of essays or short stories. Something to cleanse my palate after gorging myself on all that conflict and redemption. (Redemption alone can bloat you for days.)

Last week I found myself in such a coma after reading another big juicy tale, that I knew it was time to crack open a book of short stories: Ann Beattie’s The New Yorker Stories.

Ann Beattie is...[read on]
Among the early praise for The Bird House:
"Such crisp, tight prose I was hooked from the very first page."
--Chevy Stevens, NY Times bestselling author of Still Missing

"Smoothly shifts between past and present. Complex and poignant."
--Publishers Weekly

"A school project unlocks a Pandora's box of unsettling truths. Evocative and detailed."
--Kirkus Reviews

"A great title for book groups ... and fans of Lisa Genova's Still Alice."
--Library Journal

"A smart, simmering page turner."
--New York Journal of Books
Visit Kelly Simmons' website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: Standing Still.

My Book, The Movie: Standing Still.

Writers Read: Kelly Simmons.

--Marshal Zeringue