I Can No Longer Contain Myself

We have come to the time of the year when people start making their lists of their favorite books of the year, and so I am going to make my list, here are the FIVE best books of 2011 according to TIM JONES-YELVINGTON:

1. They Could No Longer Contain Themselves, by Elizabeth Colen
2. They Could No Longer Contain Themselves, by John Jodzio
3. They Could No Longer Contain Themselves, by TIM JONES-YELVINGTON
4. They Could No Longer Contain Themselves, by Sean Lovelace
5. They Could No Longer Contain Themselves, by Mary Miller

I had to list our book, MY book, five times because it has five authors and each of them have their own book inside this book. This book has so many authors, IT CAN BARELY CONTAIN ITSELF. Ba-dum-bum.

Hey! Did you know I published a book this year, and that it was in THEY COULD NO LONGER CONTAIN THEMSELVES, a multi-author volume from Rose Metal Press!? And did you know that my contribution was called, EVAN'S HOUSE AND THE OTHER BOYS WHO LIVE THERE? And that I never got around to posting about MY BOOK on my neglected personal blog because WELL FOR NO GOOD REASON. Did you know that we had a release party in Chicago where I attached Pizzazz, the lead singer of the Misfits (from JEM) to a hot pink feathered hat and then I WERKED that shit?

The book received a number of really lovely reviews that I should have linked here on the blog, but since I did not, I will focus on the two loveliest, which I am calling the loveliest because they focus the most on ME!!

Here's an excerpt from Amy Kates' review at flashfiction.net:

The collection’s most palpable sense of want, of stifled desire, of lightning-quick loneliness lives under the roof of Tim Jones-Yelvington’s “Evan’s House and the Other Boys Who Live There.”

...and Terri Solomon's at Lambda Literary:

If you prefer a depiction of life that’s candy-coated, yet calorie-free, I’d avoid “Evan’s House and the Other Boys Who Live There.” It’s dense with the harsh realities of adult living. In one section, Evan’s boyfriend Patrick details his frustration and disappointment with his partner; Patrick is unable to control Evan’s drinking and his general self-destructive behavior.

“As I clutch his shoulder with one hand and dab the blood from his face with the other, I think maybe this is love. Maybe love is holding another person’s potential when they’re too weak to hold it themselves,” says Patrick, as he cleans Evan’s face from a bar incident Evan can’t remember. In the world of Tim Jones-Yelvington, this is love—a little desperate and codependent, but also wonderfully human.

Click the links to read the rest.

Jonathan Messinger also did a lovely capsule review for Time Out Chicago where he called my chapbook Elizabeth Colen's "punch drunk" counterpart, and I cannot imagine a more delightful description.

This is the part where I talk about how honored I am to be in this collection with these four other authors, and how wonderful their books are, and I am, and they are, and it was also awesome to get to read w/ the two dudes when they came to Chicago for our book release and I especially liked the part where John Jodzio took off his shirt and gave us a view of his divine nips. That bitch is a silver fox.

THEY COULD NO LONGER CONTAIN THEMSELVES IS THE PERFECT GIFT FOR THAT FICTION LOVER IN YOUR LIFE.

THEY COULD NO LONGER CONTAIN THEMSELVES IS A MAGIC OBJECT OF LUSCIOUSNESS.

THEY COULD NO LONGER CONTAIN THEMSELVES IS EVEN BETTER THAN A BAG OF BATH BOMBS FROM LUSH.

THEY COULD NO LONGER CONTAIN THEMSELVES RENDERS ORGASMS OBSOLETE.

Hey! Wasn't this post, which is about six months overdue, just marvelously, hilariously self indulgent and clever?

Buy my book.