INdie Book Buzz: Curbside Splendor

It's the return of the Indie Book Buzz here at TNBBC. Over the next few weeks, we will be inviting members of the indie publishing houses to share which of their upcoming 2012 releases they are most excited about!

This week's pick come from Ben Tanzer,

friend of Curbside Splendor

Chicago Stories: 40 Dramatic Fictions by Michael Czyzniejewski 
(April 2012)

I should be clear that I am uniquely biased in my great affection for Chicago Stories: 40 Dramatic Fictions by Michael Czyzniejewski the new release from Curbside Splendor. Czyzniejewski is a beautiful writer full of wit and charm, and with this collection he has not only written with great verve and flash, but he has written about any number of disparate Chicago characters whose stories you cannot help but lose yourself in because like all great writers Czyzniejewski has made it so. And then there are Rob Funderburk's illustrations, revved-up with joy and nuance, and somehow propelling these stories even farther off of the page and into your brain than they were already able to do all by themselves. No easy task that, and yet, here we are.

But while all of this is true, as true as the more recent Mayor Daley's ability to mangle syntax in a singular fashion unseen since at least his late father's reign, what I am most excited about when it comes to this book, is that as a former East Coaster and Left, and as someone who never spent any time in Chicago, much less the Midwest until moving here, I am now constantly amazed, and re-amazed, that people who don't live here can still show-up and be amazed themselves at just how wonderful Chicago is. How can't they know that already? Where have they been and what have they been doing with themselves that this wasn't already as self-evident as the fact that there was no way President Obama couldn't help but break our hearts? I can't answer this, but I don't need to, because the Chicago Stories will clear up any confusion post haste and hence forth. 

Bio:
Ben Tanzer is the author of the books 99 Problems, You Can Make Him Like You, My Father's House and So Different Now among others. Ben also oversees day to day operations of This Zine Will Change Your Life and can be found online at This Blog Will Change Your Life the center of his vast, albeit faux media empire.

So what do you think guys? See anything that catches your eye? Which of these books are you most excited to see release? Help TNBBC and Curbside Splendor spread the buzz about these books by sharing this post with others!