They said what?

I attended one of my first literary award dinners this past weekend. I will not bore you with the details of which famous author’s hand I got to shake or details of the other guests at my table, aside from saying that the odd assemblage of said characters bluster was reminiscent of a zany Preston Sturges film. While a fine time was had by all, I walked away (albeit slowly in ill-chosen “black tie appropriate” stilettos) wishing that I had a better sense of what the nominated books were about. The one to two line critical praise and author bios did little to pique my interest beyond my silent vow to Google the authors later. Four days later and no Googling or book purchasing has taken place. Damn the middle(wo)man.

That said, I was very excited to see that our friends over at GalleyCat have done the heavy lifting for the lazy reader who lurks inside all of us by assembling links to free samples of the PEN 2012 Literary Award winners works.

Speaking of lazy readers and the kind souls that connect us to our books, feel like a superior reader after checking out the Christian Science Monitor’s chuckle-worthy list of strange bookstore customer comments. A personal favorite: "I'm looking for some books on my kid's summer reading list. Do you have 'Tequila Mockingbird'?"