Book It: Three Questions with Steve Almond

Tomorrow night, Steve Almond visits the Brookline Booksmith to read from his new book of short stories, God Bless America. (You can read Steve's interview with Chuck Klosterman here.) I emailed him a couple of questions to see what's up with him.  

Why would anyone want to go to your event?
1. Homemade cupcakes
2. Free wine
3. A chance to mock the author's truly bad hair.

That's three reasons.

What's going on with you lately?
Other than the bad hair, I'm giving a lot of rides. My kids are into rides. They like to bounce on things (the bed, a chair, my kidney). So that's nice. I'm also writing a lot for the Rumpus, where I get to have my say and people pretend to care.
 

Aside from your own book, what are you reading these days?
Just finished And So It Goes, the new Vonnegut biography. Really absorbing book. And very very sad. Vonnegut was a hero of mine, so it's pretty depressing to learn how unhappy he was for so much of his career. He should have had more cupcakes. And maybe more wine. I'm also just getting into The Singular Exploits of Wonder Mom and Party Girl by Mark Schuster. It's a terrific and really unconventional look at motherhood. Peter Orner's new one, Love Shame Love also looks amazing. So much to read, so little time...

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STEVE ALMOND | Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St, Brookline | October 19 @ 7pm | free | 617. 566.6660 or brooklinebooksmith.com