Maverick Jetpants in the City of Quality

Last updated
Maverick Jetpants in the City of Quality
Maverick Jetpants in the City of Quality by Bill Peters.jpg
Cover of Maverick Jetpants in the City of Quality by Bill Peters
AuthorBill Peters
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Literary fiction
Publisher Black Balloon Publishing
Publication date
October 9, 2012
Media type Print (Paperback)
Digital (EPUB)
Pages280
ISBN 978-1-936-78702-9

Maverick Jetpants in the City of Quality is a novel by American author Bill Peters, published on October 9, 2012 by Black Balloon Publishing.[ citation needed ]

Contents

Synopsis

Set in Rochester, New York in 1999, Maverick Jetpants in the City of Quality revolves around narrator Nathan Gray coming to terms with adulthood while trying to catch an arsonist who is burning down his hometown. Nate struggles with securing full-time employment and forming meaningful relationships with family and romantic interests as his childhood friend, Necro, grows distant, becoming involved with local Neo-Nazis and possibly being responsible for the mysterious fires.

The story is told from Nate's point of view and in the idiosyncratic language he uses with his friends — a mixture of colloquialisms and inside jokes, which offer insight into the characters' histories, hopes and fears.

Reception

The book was an editor's choice in The New York Times Sunday Book Review, which claimed "... Bill Peters belongs in the ranks of serious literary artists." [1] The book was also praised by Publishers Weekly as "by turns funny and moving ... richly captures life in a decaying American city." [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dime novel</span> Type of cheap popular fiction in the U.S.

The dime novel is a form of late 19th-century and early 20th-century U.S. popular fiction issued in series of inexpensive paperbound editions. The term dime novel has been used as a catchall term for several different but related forms, referring to story papers, five- and ten-cent weeklies, "thick book" reprints, and sometimes early pulp magazines. The term was used as a title as late as 1940, in the short-lived pulp magazine Western Dime Novels. In the modern age, the term dime novel has been used to refer to quickly written, lurid potboilers, usually as a pejorative to describe a sensationalized but superficial literary work.

The New York Times Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. Since October 12, 1931, The New York Times Book Review has published the list weekly. In the 21st century, it has evolved into multiple lists, grouped by genre and format, including fiction and nonfiction, hardcover, paperback and electronic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Historical mystery</span> Literary subgenre

The historical mystery or historical whodunit is a subgenre of two literary genres, historical fiction and mystery fiction. These works are set in a time period considered historical from the author's perspective, and the central plot involves the solving of a mystery or crime. Though works combining these genres have existed since at least the early 20th century, many credit Ellis Peters's Cadfael Chronicles (1977–1994) for popularizing what would become known as the historical mystery. The increasing popularity and prevalence of this type of fiction in subsequent decades has spawned a distinct subgenre recognized by the publishing industry and libraries. Publishers Weekly noted in 2010 of the genre, "The past decade has seen an explosion in both quantity and quality. Never before have so many historical mysteries been published, by so many gifted writers, and covering such a wide range of times and places." Editor Keith Kahla concurs, "From a small group of writers with a very specialized audience, the historical mystery has become a critically acclaimed, award-winning genre with a toehold on the New York Times bestseller list."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">City Lights Bookstore</span> Bookstore and publisher in San Francisco

City Lights is an independent bookstore-publisher combination in San Francisco, California, that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. It also houses the nonprofit City Lights Foundation, which publishes selected titles related to San Francisco culture. It was founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin. Both the store and the publishers became widely known following the obscenity trial of Ferlinghetti for publishing Allen Ginsberg's influential collection Howl and Other Poems. Nancy Peters started working there in 1971 and retired as executive director in 2007. In 2001, City Lights was made an official historic landmark. City Lights is located at 261 Columbus Avenue. While formally located in Chinatown, it self-identifies as part of immediately adjacent North Beach.

Doubleday is an American publishing company. It was founded as the Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897. By 1947, it was the largest book publisher in the United States. It published the work of mostly U.S. authors under a number of imprints and distributed them through its own stores.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Golisano</span> American businessman (born 1941)

Blase Thomas Golisano is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonia Manzano</span> American actress

Sonia Manzano is an American actress, screenwriter, and author. She is best known for playing Maria on Sesame Street from 1971 to 2015. She received a Lifetime Achievement Daytime Emmy Award in 2016.

Jeffrey A. Krames is an American author whose books have been translated into more than 36 languages. Before 2020, Krames established his own "publishing and literary agency", JK Literary Services. Krames is the former editor-in-chief of Portfolio, the business book imprint of The Penguin Group and the former Vice President and head of the trade division of McGraw-Hill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lincoln Peirce</span> American cartoonist (born 1963)

Lincoln Peirce is an American cartoonist and animator, best known as the creator of the successful Big Nate comic strip and as the author/illustrator of a series of Big Nate novels for young readers. He has also written a number of animated shorts that have appeared on Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. Peirce is the creator of the animated series based on his aforementioned book and comic strip series. The series premiered on the Paramount+ streaming service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lee Goldberg</span> American writer

Lee Goldberg is an American author, screenwriter, publisher and producer known for his bestselling novels Lost Hills and True Fiction and his work on a wide variety of TV crime series, including Diagnosis: Murder, A Nero Wolfe Mystery, Hunter, Spenser: For Hire, Martial Law, She-Wolf of London, SeaQuest, 1-800-Missing, The Glades and Monk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edgardo Vega Yunqué</span> Puerto Rican writer

Edgardo Vega Yunqué was a Puerto Rican novelist and short story writer, who also used the Americanized pen name Ed Vega.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Leonhardt</span> American journalist and columnist (born 1973)

David Leonhardt is an American journalist and columnist. Since April 30, 2020, he has written the daily "The Morning" newsletter for The New York Times. He also contributes to the paper's Sunday Review section. His column previously appeared weekly in The New York Times. He previously wrote the paper's daily e-mail newsletter, which bore his own name. As of October 2018, he also co-hosted "The Argument", a weekly opinion podcast with Ross Douthat and Michelle Goldberg.

<i>Skim</i> (comics) Canadian graphic novel written by Mariko Tamaki

Skim is a Canadian graphic novel written by Mariko Tamaki and drawn by Jillian Tamaki. Set in 1993, in a Toronto Catholic girls high school, it is about an outsider girl called Skim.

<i>Amnesia</i> (Cooper novel) 1994 novel by Douglas Anthony Cooper

Amnesia is a 1994 novel by Douglas Anthony Cooper and is his debut novel. The book was published in March 1994 by Hyperion Books and is the first entry in the Izzy Darlow series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Federle</span> American author, actor, director and screenwriter

Timothy Michael Federle is an American author, theater librettist, director and screenwriter whose best-known works include the novel Better Nate Than Ever, the cocktail recipe book Tequila Mockingbird, the Golden Globe Award and Academy Awards nominee Ferdinand, and Disney's High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.

BOA Editions, Ltd. is an American independent, non-profit literary publishing company located in Rochester, New York, founded in 1976 by the late poet, editor and translator, A. Poulin, Jr., and publishing poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.

Pronoun was a New York–based company that provided free book publishing, marketing, and analytics services to authors. Pronoun was launched in 2015.

The Daily Messenger is an American daily newspaper published weekday afternoons and on Sundays in Canandaigua, New York. It is owned by Gannett.

Bancroft Press is a small, general interest book publishing company which publishes 3-6 books per year. It was founded in 1992 by Bruce Bortz. Operating in Baltimore for 29 years, it moved to Los Angeles in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chelsea Green Publishing</span> American book publisher

Chelsea Green Publishing is an American publishing company which specialises in non-fiction books on progressive politics and sustainable living. Based in Vermont, it has published over 400 books since it was founded in 1984, and now releases between 25 and 30 titles each year.

References