Oh My, I'm A Tastemaker

Or some people are beginning to think so, anyway.

First, I'm a panelist/interviewee at the most recent edition of the LitBlogger E-Panel at Emerging Writers Forum. (Previous editions are here, here and here.) Joining the ranks of such litblog luminaries as Maud Newton, Golden Rule Jones and George Murray et al is both a flattering and humbling experience.

Second, Basic Books has sent me review copies of three of their titles: Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times, Miriam Toews' A Complicated Kindness and Asne Seierstad's A Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal. And no strings attached, per Basic's David Shoemaker:

I feel like the neutrality of bloggers is becoming an increasingly contentious issue, and so I will say it, straight out: There's no obligation here. No pressure at all. We want good readers reading our books, and we feel like you're a reasonably good bet. So read these or don't, but don't feel bad about it either way.

I wouldn't have it any other way. Up until now, I haven't commented at length on a book unless I really liked it and had something insightful to say. And I don't intend to change that stance.

Next stop, literary gadfly? I shudder to the depths of my lonely introvert soul.