NC Events: Swan Thieves & Beautiful Creatures

Elizabeth Kostova, bestselling author of The Historian, makes a two appearances in the Triangle this week with her novel novel, The Swan Thieves: tonight (Wednesday, January 13) at Durham’s Regulator Bookshop and tomorrow at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh. Officially released yesterday, the book is already getting intense review coverage, but unfortunately not entirely positive. The Washington Post noted that while the book boasts all the virtues of Kostova’s debut novel, it also suffers from all the same faults and is (the reviewer’s italics ahead) “way too long.” The Boston Globe called the novel “strangely lifeless.” And though USA Today said that the author’s “painterly descriptions of artwork are luscious” and “the 19th-century love story… is exquisitely told,” it also complained that several characters are “way too self-absorbed to gain our sympathy” and that “the novel’s ending falls flat.”

Still, who listens to reviewers when a novelist is building on the momentum of a hugely popular first book? Expect a big turnout for each of these events.

And looking ahead just slightly, mark your calendars now for a visit next week by Kami Garcia and Margie Stohl, co-authors of the supernatural, southern gothic, young adult hit Beautiful Creatures. Part Twilight and part Harry Potter with a strong dose of To Kill A Mockingbird thrown in, the Carolinas-set book was named one of the top five books of 2009 by Amazon, was optioned by Warner Brothers on the day it was released, and is continuing to generate big buzz in book-reading circles online. The authors will be at Quail Ridge Books on Tuesday evening, January 19.

For a complete calendar of events in Eastern North Carolina, check out the MetroBooks calendar here.

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