Day 23: Fulfilling a chocolate craving

// July 23rd, 2010 // No Comments » // Cape Town, Reviews, food

Open-plan offices are so weird, aren’t they?

Never mind that everyone can hear your conversations, and easily deduce whether you’re working or just hanging out online, there’s also the whole hearing-other-people’s-thoughts thing. Obviously, we’re not all talking out loud as much as we would be if we had private offices (I, personally, would chat to myself all day if I had a door), but there’s still definitely an element of open thought that you don’t really get anywhere else.

So when one of my colleagues said today (in a wistful and forlorn voice), “I feel like chocolate cake”, I decided to make his dream a reality

And, okay, it was a brownie and not chocolate cake, but it’s the second-best brownie in Cape Town (from the delightful Sidewalk Cafe. The Best Brownie in Town award goes to Khayelitsha Cookies). And it tastes so many million times better than it looks!

Strange Nervous Laughter is “Hot Right Now!”

// June 19th, 2009 // No Comments » // Links, Reviews, Strange Nervous Laughter

NEWSFLASH!!!

Strange Nervous Laughter has been chosen by Cosmopolitan.com (yes, that’s the US website!) as one of their Best Beach Books of 2009!

Find the review (1 of only 8 books) under ‘Secrets and Advice’.
The round-up is called ‘8 Books We’re Loving Right Now’ and you can check it out here

This is really exciting news for Strange Nervous Laughter. Cosmo is the most read women’s magazine in America… And now it has a dose of Durban gracing its website!

“A highly anticipated novel”

// May 20th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Blogs, Reviews, Strange Nervous Laughter

Check it out! Strange Nervous Laughter is on the list of Arizona Foothills’ 10 Newly Released Summer ‘09 Fictional Reads!

First on the list, nogal! What a lovely start to the day…

“Some seriously good loot.”

// May 14th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Reviews, Strange Nervous Laughter

That’s what Strange Nervous Laughter has been called in Daily Candy, a website in Atlanta all about Arts and Culture, Lifestyle, Fashion, and other delightful things.

Here’s the whole review, or you can read it online on their website.

People Are Strange

“Strange Nervous Laughter,” by Bridget McNulty

Nothing like a South African grocery store robbery to bring people together.

There. Got your attention.

Bet it’ll take a lot more to keep it. Like, say, Bridget McNulty’s Durban-based debut novel, Strange Nervous Laughter.

The whackadoo characters go something like this: garbageman with funny smell, hopelessly levitating romantic, girl who lives in her daydreams, overmothered undertaker, and whale whispering introvert. Of course, there’s also an angry man-hater. (Yah. She’s socially awkward, too.)

The story unfolds as near death brings out the best (and quirkiest) in all of them. But in McNulty’s hands, their love affairs, tiny triumphs, and secret heartbreaks are shockingly normal, hilariously meta, and delightfully sweet.

Making this some seriously good loot.

Available online at amazon.com or at your local bookstore.

The Blog Tour continues!

// May 12th, 2009 // No Comments » // Blogs, Links, Reviews, Strange Nervous Laughter, Writing, book launch

Yip, today I’ve trotted over to Book Patrol, a haven for book culture, on the second stop of my Blog Tour. Check it out at http://www.bookpatrol.net/ where you’ll find out all about capturing the essence of Durban in Strange Nervous Laughter.

Book Patrol is a fabulous site for anyone interested in books and bookish things… why not make yourself a cup of tea and settle in for some quality reading?

As if the Powers That Be on the Internet knew that today was the day my book officially hits bookshelves in the USA (or virtual bookshelves on Amazon.com – check it out!) Strange Nervous Laughter is also making guest appearances in a couple of other places today…

* The Portfolio Travel Blog has written a fabulous book review on Strange Nervous Laughter, all about how it’s a good idea to judge books by their covers (I love it!)

* The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has featured Book Patrol’s article on Strange Nervous Laughter (yes, you read right, the Post-Intelligencer online newspaper!)

* The Arizona Central website has listed Strange Nervous Laughter as one of their Fiction Books to help turn pages of Summer 2009. Great stuff!

Aaaand next month I’m going to be appearing on this lovely blog, in France! http://lafeecoriandre.blogspot.com/

YAY! What a lovely way to celebrate…

“A profound yet whimsical character study.”

// April 8th, 2009 // No Comments » // Blogs, Reviews, Strange Nervous Laughter

I’ve decided to warn you ahead if I’m posting about a book review, by putting the title in quote marks. I won’t post about all of them, I promise, but this one is just too delicious to resist…

It appeared on both Genre Go Round Reviews and The World of Romance (you can read the whole thing on either), but this is my favourite part:

“STRANGE NERVOUS LAUGHTER is a profound yet whimsical character study that takes a deep look at what is love and how we behave when we believe we are in love. Each of the key characters are fully developed so that the reader accepts their musings and misbehavior due to their conviction they are in love; they act out of character when they feel that way. Thus the audience obtains a powerful analysis of love inside an amusing tale as the cast members tend to delude themselves that this is the one and act eccentric and quirky while under love’s magical spell. Bridget McNulty provides an excellent contemporary tale that brings South Africa to life while insisting love’s behavior is universal.”

*sigh!*

My second US book review!

// April 1st, 2009 // No Comments » // Reviews, Strange Nervous Laughter

Don’t worry, I won’t be blogging about every single review I get in the States! But it is pretty freaking exciting that 6 weeks before the book hits shelves, I have two great reviews! Especially seeing as it’s a very Durban book, and there was a chance that overseas readers wouldn’t ‘get it’ like South Africans (who know the city inside out) did…
This is from the American Library Association’s Booklist magazine (ladida!):

Strange Nervous Laughter by Bridget McNulty.

McNulty’s unapologetically whimsical tale follows the intersecting lives of six eccentric characters as peculiar obsessions, unexpected romances, and isolated lives collide following a random burglary in a local grocery store.  One of the more engaging story lines follows the lovelorn Beth, a timid cashier at Handy Green Grocers, who literally floats when she is happy, especially after she becomes surreptitiously enamored of Pravesh, a brooding undertaker with a fetish for toenails and teenage pop stars.  Meryl, a tightly wound Guinness Book representative, ferociously guards every emotion until she meets Harry, an idiosyncratic garbageman who steals tips at the local diner and surrounds himself with the discarded items he finds at the dump.  The lonely Mdu is content to communicate only with whales until, after the burglary, he meets and falls in love with Aisha, a dreamy orphan whose tears turn into prismatic beads when she sleeps.  Set against a sweltering South African summer, McNulty’s heady debut twines her characters’ unusual circumstances as they construct and destruct the joy and displeasure of love’s erratic consequences.

My first US book review!

// March 31st, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Reviews, Strange Nervous Laughter

In Publisher’s Weekly, at that! And it’s lovely.

Here it is, go to their website to see it in real life!

Strange Nervous Laughter Bridget McNulty. St. Martin’s/Dunne, $23.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-312-54434-8
The lives of six people collide in McNulty’s magical realism–infused debut set in the South African city of Durban during the hottest summer on record. Beth, a cashier at a small grocery, is on duty when the store is robbed. She and the two customers, Mdu and Meryl, are unharmed but shaken. Soon after the robbery, Beth—who floats when she’s happy—begins dating Pravesh, an undertaker who can sense death by a tingling at the back of his knees and heat in his ears. Mdu, who can speak to whales, meets Aisha, who’s so caught up in her dreams that reality fails to register. Meryl, an assistant at Guinness World Records, is sent to interview Harry, who is trying to set a world record for eating only green foods. Though the characters fall in and out of love, the novel is not a romance but rather an examination of love, the ways we respond to it and how we delude ourselves about our choices. While the themes may sound weighty, McNulty’s light touch and evocative descriptions of Durban make for an absorbing read. (May)

Triple review week for Strange Nervous Laughter!

// April 4th, 2008 // No Comments » // Reviews, Strange Nervous Laughter

Well what do you know! Not one, not two, but three reviews of my novel, all in the last week or so.

First there was The Sunday Tribune feature on blogging, which mentioned this blog and Strange Nervous Laughter, and how they combine.

Then The Sunday Times did a delightful piece on Strange Nervous Laughter, the blog, and me (with a rather nice red-shoe-red-hair pic).

And then YOU magazine wrote a wonderful review of Strange Nervous Laughter! Which is really rather impressive, because methinks they’re a tough nut to crack on the bookish front!

Check them all out at http://www.bridgetmcnulty.com/content/view/36/36/

How thrilling!!

Oh happy day!

// January 22nd, 2008 // No Comments » // Publishing, Reviews, Strange Nervous Laughter

It’s been a day of nonstop good news for me (and Strange Nervous Laughter!) today.

Where to begin? I can’t even rank the good newsiness of these good newsicles, because they’re so lovely. Let’s start with bookish news, and then move into real life:
* Strange Nervous Laughter is being sent to five editors in the USA! No guarantees, but pretty exciting to think of them sipping their cawfee and reading about the hottest summer Durban has ever known.

* Big Bunch of Carrots for Strange Nervous Laughter on Book SA: (carrots mean good reviews, for those out of the know!)

http://ronaldirwin.book.co.za/2008/01/22/big-bunch-of-carrots

-for- bridget-mcnultys-strange-nervous-laughter/

* This blog has reached number 10 on Today’s Top South Africa Blogs! Check it out: http://southafrica.dailyvoices.com/community

And in personally delightful news, my insurance has decided to write off my poor wounded scooter, which means that I get to buy a new one! Yay!

I’m thinking silver (the last one was black), although I am quite tempted by the carnation (pink!) one… any words of advice, anyone? Check them out at www.vukascuta.co.za and let me know what you think!

Here’s hoping tomorrow is even more exciting!