It’s not an easy feat to carry off slangy dialect, an authentic voice for your narrator, and a surprise ending all in your first novel. Gautam Malkani’s Londonstani does all that, for which it should be commended. As a bonus, it also read a little like the bastard lovechild between Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting and David Mitchell’s Black Swan Green. Perhaps with a little Martin Amis and Zadie Smith in the lineage. Not bad sires, all......

I went to hear David Mitchell read from his new book the same day I cracked the spine and started reading it. I highly recommend doing this with your favorite authors, too – hearing them read their own work gives you a great sense of how it was written. But look, this is a city of writers, so there wasn’t a single writer in the room who could decide between hugging Mitchell and strangling him.......

It's not quite the lusty month of May yet, but spring fever is already gripping the denizens of the city. So for your monthly dose of sexy scribes, head down to Happy Ending Lounge (302 Broome St.) for the monthly In The Flesh Erotic Reading Series. This month's theme is True Confessions, featuring comedian Dan Allen, blogger and novelist Jessica Cutler (The Washingtonienne), Columbia Spectator sex columnist Miriam Datskovsky, among others, and hosted by the......