All subjects you can contemplate at this week’s thrilling selection of readings and talks.
Friday, September 5
We, The Outsiders Opening Reception We, The Outsiders is an art exhibition that explores several perplexing questions: “Can it be said that art has a consciousness of its own? And if such a consciousness were independent of us, where would it place us in relation to itself?” I have no idea what that means, but I do know that the exhibition revolves around a gigantic egg—which probes, like the classic chicken-and-the-egg conundrum (I prosaically assume), where consciousness begins and ends when it comes to art. More →
Novelists Jon McGoran and Linda Davies will be reading from recent work. McGoran has written about food and sustainability for many years, but has a burgeoning book-writing business on the side. His recently released second novel Deadout, injects his passion for environmental issues into a deftly-handled detective story, complete with genetically modified super bees and dastardly biotech corporations. “McGoran fluidly blends science and suspense in his outstanding second eco-thriller,” according to Publisher’s Weekly. Davies, meanwhile, is a former investment banker, whose debut novel Nest of Vipers has now sold over 2 million copies. Vipers is a financial industry thriller, driven by a risk-taking female foreign exchange trader stuck between a rock (the Mafia) and a hard place (the British SIS). The evening will be hosted by Richie Narvaez.
Who says girls can’t be crime writers? Well, no one actually, because that’s clearly not a valid argument. But just in case some loser out there is preparing his talking points, let me present a succinct rebuttal: Megan Abbott and Chelsea Cain. Abbot is author of recently released The Fever(“a chilling story about guilt, family secrets, and the lethal power of desire” set in a small town whose female teenage inhabitant are in the throes of a mysterious plague), while Cain has produced numerous best-selling books. Her latest, One Kick, is the first in a new series featuring protagonist Kick Lannigan—famously kidnapped as a child, and now called upon to help solve a new missing child case. These ladies are clearly queens of suspense: The Guardian called One Kick “a dark, dangerous journey into evil to find the vanished children, and entirely hide-away-until-you-finish-it gripping,” while the New York Timesfound The Fever “a gripping and unsettling novel.” See the terrible two in conversation at The Strand.
