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Mailbag Reading: 'The Stylist'
September 25, 2007
From time to time authors contact me directly and ask if they can send me their books. I'm learning how to say no, since it's not helpful to say sure, yes, send it along... and then allow the book to languish at the bottom of my stuffed-to-the-gills galley/ARC/review copy closet (I try not to, I really do, but if you could SEE this closet... ). I prefer to get books directly from publishers, naturally, since that means there's no question of impropriety, favoritism, etc., etc. (You may have noticed I rely a little too heavily sometimes on the "etceteras." Please forgive me.)
However, sometimes authors are polite, demonstrate that they read my blog regularly,
and pique my interest with a quick pitch for why I should put their books on top of my pile. All of which is terrific, and will get me to read their books. But if a book isn't worthwhile, I'm not going to waste precious blog real estate or my limited daily blogging time to write about it.
Cai Emmons is an author who is polite, a reader of my blog, and a very, very interesting writer to boot. Her second novel,
The Stylist, is due out next Tuesday from the
HarperCollins P.S. Series. Emmons emailed me out of the blue and asked if she might have her publicist send me a copy of her book. In this blog-tastic age of random requests, I thought that was most civilized. However, it was the cover of the book that hooked me:
Something about that green, that hairdryer, and that wonderful uneven font made me want to crack the book open immediately. (Cai Emmons, please send chocolate to your book designer. If you'd like a recommendation, I think
Vosges Haut Chocolat caramels are the bomb.) I was not disappointed.
The Stylist is the freshest take on family drama I've read in a long, long time. While I thought that the two halves of the book needed better integration (the first takes part in a Mid-Atlantic hair salong, the second in Costa Rica), that mismatch echoes the book's central theme and one of its central characters so well that it might not matter. The first few pages convinced me that I was in the hands of an author who not only cared about her characters, but knew them through and through -- and that she would take care of her readers.
I don't even want to tell you more about this book, because I don't want you to approach it with any preconceived notions. I just want to tell you to read it.
Posted by Bethanne Patrick on September 25, 2007 | Comments (6)
