Aberration Nation: Books

Books

"Przekop is a skilled writer who knows her way around a piece of art, a complicated history and intriguing characters." Examiner.com, Boston

“ABERRATIONS is deftly written, very edgy, engaging, insightful, and fascinating! 5 Stars!” Small Press Bookwatch

“Przekop clearly has a gift for language.” The New Yorker

"Przekop has keen insight into the human condition." Terri Cheney, MANIC: A MEMOIR

"Never was a title so apt in correlation to a novel's theme than Penelope Przekop's debut ABERRATIONS ... heavy stuff ..." Detroit Metro Times

“I like her sideways way of the seeing the world!” Joshilyn Jackson, GODS IN ALABAMA, BACKSEAT SAINTS.

Book Blogger Top 10 for 2008: ABERRATIONS

PRINT Magazine Cover Art Winner 2009: ABERRATIONS

"Aberrations is a novel filled with gorgeous imagery, quirky characters and deep storytelling. It will stay with you long after you turn the final page!" Melissa Walker, Lovestruck Summer (HarperTeen), Violet in Private (Berkley Trade)

“Penelope Przekop is a talented emerging novelist to watch!” Marcia Layton Turner, Emeril! (Wiley), Kmart’s Ten Deadly Sins (Wiley), The Complete Idiot’s Guide to 40,000 Baby Names (Alpha)

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“Aberrations is stormy, stark and poignant--contemporary Southern fiction at its finest.” Kim Lenox, Shadow Guard Novel Series (NAL)

“Penelope Przekop's Aberrations is one of the best novels I've read in a long time. She writes as if she's been a best-seller for years. She's created a stunning page-turner packed with emotion and beautiful story-telling.” Kelly Jameson, Dead On (Indie), Shards of Summer (Indie)

“I loved this book! It's a mix of mystery, family struggles, and love. I loved the characters so much in this book, especially Angel, Mac, and Carla. Przekop's use of southern slang made me read the book in such a way that I could hear the characters voices in my head, I really liked that. It was really gratifying watching Angel succeed in her quest and also grow up in the process. This is a beautiful, touching story and I cannot give it nearly as much praise as it deserves!” Pop Culture Junkie (http://aleapopculture.blogspot.com/)

“Aberrations is an extraordinary debut novel for Penelope Przekop. This is not just a coming of age story, it is truly an awakening. Przekop has crafted some truly fascinating characters in this novel. Powerful and stirring, Aberrations is one of the best books I’ve read so far this year. Don’t miss this one!” Bookish Ruth Reviews (http://www.bookishruth.blogspotcom/)

“To tell the reader the premise of Aberrations is to diminish what is special about it. The core theme of the novel is the universal desire to define oneself. It is definitely a story worth knowing.” Random Wonder (http://www.randomwonder.com/)

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“Aberrations is rich in characterization, each character complex and flawed, beautiful and ugly. The writing is beautiful." Musings of a Bookish Kitty (http://www.literaryfeline.com/)

“I have read quite a few books this year already, but this has to be the best to date. Przekop is an immensely talented storyteller with the ability to create unforgettable characters. As a first book, Aberrations is an amazing accomplishment, and I can’t wait to see more from Przekop.” Crescent Moon Book Reviews (http://crescentmoonreviews.wordpress.com/)

“After reading the first chapter, I was instantly hooked and realized how cleverly the author uses the disorder as a catalyst that propels our main character Angel into her almost obsessive quest to discover the truth about her life. I enjoyed this novel immensely and found it a very satisfying read, which is full of detours and hidden messages - just the kind of book I love.” Front Street Reviews (http://www.frontstreetreviews.com/)

“Aberrations is an amazing book from the first words to the last. I absolutely loved this book. The storyline and characters are all so interesting and enjoyable that I didn’t want to put the book down.” Allison’s Attic of Books ( http://www.allisonsatticblog.blogspot.com/)

“Her dreamy narrative voice allows Aberrations, an almost magical fluidity of language and imagery. Positioning Angel’s narration between dream and reality allows a poetic flexibility to infuse Przekop’s storytelling. Aberrations is an entrancing, dreamlike novel of thick and excellent imagery.” Elizabeth Willse, Freelance Writer & Book Reviewer (http://elizabethwillse.wordpress.com/)

“Aberrations is a marvelous and unique coming of age story. I couldn't put this book down. The story moved so well and the writing was so beautiful, I didn't want to stop. The prose is lyrical and flowing and the story moves without shoving its way through. The characters are real, with real problems and real emotion. Aberrations is a beautiful story, and I look forward to what gems Penelope Przekop will be giving us in the future.” (Note: Aberrations was selected as his favorite book for July 2008.) From my Bookshelf ... (http://from-my-bookshelf.blogspot.com/)

“Aberrations, Penelope Przekop’s first novel was a delight to read and fascinating until the end. I know that this is a novel that I will be reading again. Most of all, I’m looking forward to watching Przekop’s career progress.” The Literary Housewife Review (http://literatehousewife.wordpress.com/)

“Aberrations, which is set in Shreveport Louisiana, shows truthfully the culture and mores of the South. I enjoyed this book and cannot wait for her next one." Adventures in Never-Never Land (http://purplemoonmyst.blogspot.com/)

“In this case, the book lived up to its cover. The story itself kept me hooked. Would I recommend this book? Absolutely.” Kathleen's Book Reviews (http://kbookreviews.wordpress.com/)

“I found Aberrations a wonderful novel. The writing is rich in images and metaphors, flowing beautifully across the page. Aberrations is a novel you won't be able to put down; a book to read and re-read, one that is becoming one of my personal favourites.” (Note: Aberrations was selected as one of her five favorite books for the year so far.) Out of the Blue (http://alessandrasplace.blogspot.com/)

“The writing draws you into the story quickly with a teaser on the very first page. You immediately want to discover what it has to do with the rest of the story. This was a good thought provoking book that forces the reader to take a look at their own personal form of narcolepsy.” Silverheron's Nest Book Reviews (http://www.silverheronsnest.blogspot.com/)

“Under Przekop’s artful care, narcolepsy and gay identity receive humorous, humanizing treatment, creating a novel that lingers in the consciousness with passion and compassion. Aberrations exposes the myth of the straight and narrow path. It is a tale filled with ghosts that ultimately invites us to celebrate life and to embrace fully the hand that we are dealt.” Lars Clausen, One Wheel, Many Spokes (Soulscapers), Straight Into Gay America: My Unicycle Journey for Equal Rights (Indie)

“Penelope Przekop has not only accurately captured the hallmark symptoms of narcolepsy and their presentation, she has also created a character that is both self-aware and self-accepting of her disorder and the way it has shaped her life and decisions.” Narcolepsy Network, a national nonprofit narcolepsy support organization

“Based on my extensive 38-year-career with the Houston Police Department, Przekop’s tale of secrets and shame accurately conveys both the short and long-term impact of violent crime. Przekop’s well-written novel, which vividly demonstrates the effect rape can have on the victim as well as the extended family, is authentic and insightful. As a result, Aberrations’ main character, Angel, experiences a thought-provoking struggle with her own selfishness, deceit, and apathy. Przekop successfully shows us how violence can twist reality in ways we never imagined.” Johnny E. Neely, security consultant, retired police officer/detective, Houston Police Department

“Extremely well done ... intelligently written and thought-provoking!” WOCA, Gainesville, FL

“It’s amazing how much you were able to pack into this book! A great, great book! You have a winner here!” KSNM, Las Cruses, NM

“A thought-provoking read!” WICO, Salisbury, MD

“A great, great book, and a great job! There is a lot of emotion in this book ... thought-provoking.” WNIC, Detroit, MI

“... interesting characters ... you respond so well in this book to people dealing with various difficulties. I find you to be a wonderful writer. I admire your ability to make images in people’s minds and also your dedication to creating a vivid picture. After reading Aberrations, I decided to create a show around friendship, so it’s all dedicated to you, Penelope.” KZRM, Chama, NM

“A great, great book! It’s a great book for folks who may be struggling! A lot of people will relate to this book!” KWKM, Phoenix, AZ

“You have succeeded in writing about some old topics in a brand new way. Your descriptions are so detailed and in-depth ... very creative.” WNTJ, Johnstown, PA

“The novel is a great combo of thrills, things that make you want to turn the page, and lessons in life. Aberrations packs in a lot! It’s wonderful ... a real page turner!” KUGR, Green River, WY / Salt Lake City, UT

“Centerpieces is a bold story filled with dramatic scenes--one of the most striking of which is the 1897 burning of the Ellis Island Immigrant Station by quite unexpected hands. Highly recommended to those who enjoy their historic fiction with a twist.” Barry Moreno, Historian, Ellis Island Immigration Museum and author of The Encyclopedia of Ellis Island

“Centerpieces is an intriguing story that I could not stop reading once I started. The idea and concept is awesome! Przekop's writing is fluid and has tremendous imagination. She knows how to keep a novel interesting until the last page. Brilliant and impressive!” Esther Barend, Artist

"The characters in Przekop's Centerpieces, including Vincent and Theo van Gogh, are both engaging and stimulating. Each seems to dance to a unique rhythm of color, style, and imagination." Bob Hogge, Director/Owner, Monkdogz Urban Art, NYC

"Vincent van Gogh and Corporate America--an unimaginable combination--unless you're Penelope Przekop. In Centerpieces, Przekop has written a book that probes the clash of these two completely different value systems and has done it with an intensity that does justice to Van Gogh himself." Sandra Carey Cody, Consider the Lily, By Whose Hand (Avalon)

"Centerpieces is a clever novel! I was so drawn in by Przekop's characters. She is terrific at creating distinct personalities and voices. And her plotting is spot on. The different story threads were so compelling and she tied them all together in such a satisfying way. I found the writing to be the most amazing aspect of all. There is so much poetic beauty here. She truly captured the artist sensibility. Boy, this lady can write!" DeAnna Cameron, The Belly Dancer (Berkley)

"Ellis Spencer and Holly Carter expose the complicated synthesis of science and art while challenging us to consider that which truly prolongs our lives. Centerpieces’ alternating first-person narrative offers literary reflection as well as suspenseful tension in this unique novel." Scott Heydt, O.Y.L (Helm)

Novel Passages: Cool Lines from Recommended Books

In actuality I wouldn't have minded sharing the Object's toothbrush. I wouldn't have minded being the Object's toothbrush. I was already well acquainted with the splendors of her mouth. Smoking is good for that. You get a full display of the puckering and the sucking. The tongue often makes an appearance, licking form the lips any stickiness imparted by the filter. Sometimes bits of paper adhere to the bottom lip and the smoker, pulling them away, reveals the candied lower teeth against he pulpy gums. And if the smoker is a blower of smoke rings, you get to see all the way in to the dark velvet of the inner cheek.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
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In the novels nothing ever seems to get by him, so how come when he's here, he's not? Perhaps so much assails him that he has to close down ninety percent of himself to phenomena in order not to explode. Though then again, I thought, maybe he's just out to lunch.

The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth
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... impulsively, with the tip of my tongue I began to lick the ink of the signature, patiently as a cat at his milk bowl I licked away until there was no longer the "0," the "l," the "i," the "v," the second "i," the "a"--licked until the up-swept tail was completely gone. I had drunk her writing. I had eaten her name. I had all I could do not to eat the whole thing.

" ...This girl is full of tears. You see that the moment you look at her. Inside she is all tears. Can you stand up to her tears, Marcus?"

Indignation by Philip Roth
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"No writer ever hits a slump. As Algis Budrys (who is a helluva writer, and who taught me about half of what I know) once said to me: You don't slump, you just reach a plateau. Then you have to get your wind, and readjust your thinking and your synapses, and get set to write better, with more maturity, with greater passion and purpose. He was right."

Harlan Ellison, On Being a Writer
______

"You have not whipped me, whittled me down, or scared me enough to make me quit."

A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School by Carlotta Walls LaNier
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"They are crying intensely, the dependable father whose center is the source of all order, who could not overlook or sanction the smallest sign of chaos--for whom keeping chaos far at bay had been intuition's chosen path to certainty, the rigorous daily given of life--and the daughter who is chaos itself."

American Pastoral by Philip Roth
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"That people were manifold creatures didn't come as a surprise the Swede, even it if was a bit of a shock to realize it anew when someone let you down. What was astonishing to him was how people seemed to run out of their own being, run out of whatever the stuff was that made them who they are and, drained of themselves, turn into the sort of people they would once have felt sorry for. It was a s though while their lives were rich and full they were secretly sick of themselves and couldn't wait to dispose of their sanity and their health and all sense of proportion so as to get down to that other self, the true self, who was a wholly deluded fuckup."

American Pastoral by Philip Roth
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"She had worked like a great artist; for a time--indeed, for years--she had been meaningless, but at the end there was presented to the girl the complete picture of a cheerless, loveless world in which the young rush to destruction until they learn better--a shamefaced world of precautions and barriers which may avert evil, but which do not seem to bring good, if we may judge from those who have used them the most.

A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
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"It has seemed like the beginning of happiness, and Clarissa is still sometimes shocked, more than thirty years later, to realize that it was happiness; that the entire experience lay in a kiss and a walk, the anticipation of dinner and a book."

The Hours by Michael Cunningham
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"Sometimes I fear to write, even in fictional form, about things that really happened to me, about things that I ready did, or about the numerous unattractive, cruel, or embarrassing thoughts that I have one time or another entertained. Just as often, I find myself writing about disturbing or socially questionable acts and states of mind that have no real basis in my life at all, but which, I am afraid, people will quite naturally attribute to me when they read what I have written. Even if I assume that readers will be charitable enough to absolve me from personally having done or thought such things--itself a dubious assumption, given my own reprehensible tendency as a reader to see autobiography in the purest of fictions--the mere facts that I could even imagine someone's having done or thought them, whispers my fear, is damning in itself."

Maps & Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands by Michael Chabon
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"But how will I get out?" And all at once the door was open--and there was Seldon and behind him his mother. "How'd you do that?" I said. "I opened the door," he said. "But how?" He shrugged. "I pushed. I just pushed. It was open all the time." And that was when I began to bawl and Mrs. Wishnow took me in her arms and said, "That's okay. Things like this happen. They can happen to anyone."

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
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"Let's formulate our manifesto, gentleman," said Zola. "First, we think all truth beautiful, no matter how hideous its face may seem. We accept all of nature, without any repudiation. We believe there is more beauty in harsh truth than in a pretty lie, more poetry in earthiness than in all the salons of Paris. We think pain good, because it is the most profound of all human feelings. We think sex beautiful, even when portrayed by a harlot and a pimp. We put character above ugliness, pain above prettiness, and hard, crude reality above all the wealth in France. We accept life in its entirety, as good as the countess, the concierge as good as the general, the peasant as good as the cabinet maker, for they all fit into the pattern of nature, and are woven into the design of life."

Lust for Life by Irving Stone
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The anticipation and dread he felt at seeing her was also a kind of sensual pleasure, and surrounding it, like an embrace, was a general elation--it might hurt, it was horribly inconvenient, no good might come of it, but he had found out for himself what it was to be in love, and it thrilled him.

Atonement by Ian McEwan
______

What really counted was the possibility of escape, a leap of freedom, out of the implacable ritual, a wild run for it that would give whatever chance for hope there was. Of course, hope meant being cut down on some street corner, as you ran like mad, by a random bullet. But when I really thought it through, nothing was going to allow me such a luxury. Everything was against it; I would just be caught up in the machinery again.

The Stranger by Albert Camus
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He wished he had inhabited more of his life, used it better, filled it fuller.

The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler
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It was more dangerous not to go; I was running the risk of becoming trapped in my own fantasies. So I was doing the right thing by going. She would behave normally, I would behave normally, and everything would be normal again.

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
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How can a novelist achieve atonement when, with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also God? There is no one, no entity or higher form that she can appeal to, or be reconciled with, or that can forgive her. There is nothing outside her. In her imagination she has set the limits and the terms. No atonement for God, or novelists, even if they are atheists. It was always an impossible task, and that was precisely the point. The attempt was all.

Atonement by Ian McEwan
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"Do you call yourself an artist?"
"Yes"
"How absurd. You never sold a painting in your life."
"Is that what being an artist means--selling? I thought it meant one who was always seeking without absolutely finding. I thought it meant the contrary from 'I know it. I have found it.' When I say I am an artist, I mean 'I am seeking. I am striving. I am in it with all my heart."

Lust for Life by Irving Stone