Thursday, June 11, 2015

What is Nina Berry reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Nina Berry, author of The Notorious Pagan Jones.

Her entry begins:
I’m always reading several books at once, a mix of research books and books for pleasure.

The first of my current pleasure reads is the entrancing The Bloody Chamber: And Other Stories by Angela Carter. It’s a collection of short stories that are lush, adult echoes of familiar fairy tales and tropes, like Bluebeard or Beauty and the Beast, written in sensual prose that arouses and disturbs at the same time. The stories practically vibrate in your hand as you read, while also giving you unique psychological insight into archetypes you thought you...[read on]
About The Notorious Pagan Jones, from the publisher:
Pagan Jones went from America's sweetheart to fallen angel in one fateful night in 1960: the night a car accident killed her whole family. Pagan was behind the wheel and driving drunk. Nine months later, she's stuck in the Lighthouse Reformatory for Wayward Girls and tortured by her guilt—not to mention the sadistic Miss Edwards, who takes special delight in humiliating the once-great Pagan Jones.

But all of that is about to change. Pagan's old agent shows up with a mysterious studio executive, Devin Black, and an offer. Pagan will be released from juvenile detention if she accepts a juicy role in a comedy directed by award-winning director Bennie Wexler. The shoot starts in West Berlin in just three days. If Pagan's going to do it, she has to decide fast—and she has to agree to a court-appointed "guardian," the handsome yet infuriating Devin, who's too young, too smooth and too sophisticated to be some studio flack.

The offer's too good to be true, Berlin's in turmoil and Devin Black knows way too much about her—there's definitely something fishy going on. But if anyone can take on a divided city, a scheming guardian and the criticism of a world that once adored her, it's the notorious Pagan Jones. What could go wrong?
Visit Nina Berry's website.

Writers Read: Nina Berry.

--Marshal Zeringue