“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…

Let the Blog Tour begin!

// May 11th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Blogs, Strange Nervous Laughter, book launch

Strange Nervous Laughter is coming out in the USA tomorrow, have I mentioned that? Have I mentioned that my novel, Strange Nervous Laughter, is going to be released in the USA tomorrow, May 12th? Is it starting to get irritating yet?

As part of the celebrations for said release in said USA this week, I’m going on a Blog Tour this week! How exciting.

Here’s the schedule, please pop by these lovely bloggy people and read my guest posts and say hi:

Monday 11th May 2009: Naturally Nina – http://www.naturallynina.com/

Tuesday 12th May 2009: Book Patrol – http://www.bookpatrol.net/

Wednesday 13th May 2009: This Ordinary Day – http://www.thisordinaryday.com/

Thursday 14th May 2009: Fiction Writers Review – http://fictionwritersreview.com/category/blog

Friday 15th May 2009: International First Love Day (various blogs, all over the blogosphere, all over the world. Read all about it here.)

Today’s post, over at the wonderful Naturally Nina’s blog (which is really rather inspiring and should be on your recommended reading list every day) is all about Growing in Love – about how our relationships make us into better people, by challenging us in ways we could never imagine. Go and check it out! (You can also win a copy of Strange Nervous Laughter by leaving a comment on Naturally Nina’s blog!)

“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)