What is Bruce Jacobs Reading?
Bruce founded Watermark Books
in 1977. And we're so glad that he did.
Currently reading:
Exiles by Ron Hansen.
Hansen never fails to surprise as this new novel proves with its depiction
of the life, struggles, and poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins.
August 2008
The Reserve by Russell Banks.
A new historical novel from Banks that doesn't
stray much from his typical track of well-wrought, flawed, mostly male
characters.
South of Shiloh by Chuck Logan.
From the Twin Cities, Logan has written a
successful series of thrillers featuring Minnesota ex-cop investigator Phil
Broker. This new novel creates a new protagonist, John Rane, who ventures
south to Mississippi to solve a Civil War re-enactment murder.
Palace Council by Stephen L. Carter.
Carter's novels are driven by plot and
character which is more than enough. This new one makes for a good end of
summer transition:
Read review
A Gentleman's Guide to Graceful Living by
Michael Dahlie.
This first novel risks an early yawn as yet
another New York rich man finds himself lost after divorce, but the hero
Arthur Camden is not the total oaf he appears, and Dahlie nicely writes him
into a well-deserved place of wisdom and success at the end.
The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz.
Enough about China... it is good to read again
about Japan in Schwartz's new novel about the Royal Family.
Lost on Planet Chiina by J. Maarten Troost.
The
Beijing Olympics are underway, and with all eyes on China, China books are
stacking up. This one is funny and a pleasant respite from all the talk
about pollution, repression, terrorism, and Tibet.
Blood Trail by C. J. Box.
A new Joe Pickett novel of "game warden noir"
is always welcome.
How Fiction Works by James Wood.
This is a great companion piece to Thirlwell's
"Delighted States." Both ramble episodically across modern fiction with
insight and opinion. Read both for all you need in order to have an
inexpensive equivalent to a degree in Comparative Literature.
July 2008
Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt.
Even with gas at four bucks a gallon, we love
to drive. And so, we make traffic. And so, we lament traffic. And so, we
drive differently to avoid traffic. And so on, and so on -- this fascinating
book is part history, part behavioral science, part sociology:
Read review
The
Garden of Last Days by Andre Dubus III.
This
is Dubus's follow-up novel to the very successful House of Sand and Fog.
It broadens his exploration of the Dark Side, and it's long, but I think he
pulls it off.
Man in
the Dark by Paul Auster.
It's
nice to see Auster back in the mode of his stunning "New York Trilogy."
Our
Story Begins by Tobias Wolff.
A
collection of stories, some old, some new.
Dear
American Airlines by Jonathan Miles.
I'm
sure I am not the first to call this an "airplane read," but at only 200
pages and with a very funny opening, what else could it be? Of course, it is
also ABOUT air travel -- or AIRPORT travel as it were, since it takes place
between outside smokes and bad magazines during an unplanned all-day layover
at O'Hare. This is a great little novel.
The Delighted States by Adam
Thirlwell.
A British novelist and critic,
Thirlwell rambles through a long course on the novel. It's like one of those
comparative literature courses where the professor's weekly lectures are
fascinating, but the books themselves somehow never get read. Take this one
in bites and don't give up and shelve it; it's summer reading for the
reader, but will likely last well into winter.
The Library at Night by
Alberto Manguel.
While much of the history of
libraries in this memoir has appeared elsewhere, it is Manguel's reflections
on our personal libraries that make this so interesting. We are what we read
and save (or, perhaps, what we choose not to read.)
The Prodigal Tongue by Mark
Abley.
Abley peaks into the future of
English as technology, music, slang, and culture knead it.
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by
David Wroblewski.
I'm not much of a "dog book" guy,
but the reviews of this first novel have been too good to pass it up.
How Perfect Is That by Sarah
Bird.
Bird's latest novel is funny take
on a Texas girl's problems with money: she once had it, but now she
doesn't--and having it is better than not having it.
Sing Me Back Home by Dana
Jennings.
Jennings (no relation) is a New
England, New Jersey, New York lover of country music who here chronicles its
history and importance to all Americans regardless of origin: "Just because
I like Coltrane and cabernet doesn't mean, at heart, that I'm not a beer and
Hank guy."
Save the Last Dance by Gerald
Stern.
Stern's latest book of poems has
a beautiful cover, an amusing little poem called "Before Eating," and a
wonderful, long, and lightly serious meditation on the Book of Ecclesiastes.
Judas Horse by April Smith.
Smith, a wild horse and
baseball-loving "MFA grad" and TV writer, adds to her Agent Ana Grey series
with a deep undercover dive into a whacko Oregon terrorist group.
June 2008
First Stop in
the New World by David Lida.
Bottlemania
by Elizabeth Royte.
While
everyone moans about high gas prices looks for villains in Texas,
Washington, or some other foreign place, few complain about their daily $3
bottle of water. Journalist Royte takes on the bottled water industry with a
study focused on the impact of Poland Springs operations in Maine and others
in the industry. As we like gasoline, so we Americans like our bottled
water; we use it every day, and only a major lifestyle shift will change
anything.
Hospital
by Julie Salamon.
Salamon
writes well of the world where we go to be healed discovering in her year of
on-site research that hospitals can succeed in spite of their inherent
impossible chaotic organization and bureaucracy because, in the end, healers
are driven to heal.
Rising,
Falling, Hovering by C. D. Wright.
Her new book
of poems is both personal and political, but all poetry; Wright is one of
our best contemporary poets.
City of
Thieves by David Benioff.
Dawn Patrol
by Don Winslow.
More Winslow
and more "surf noir." Nobody is doing SoCal better these days.
Netherland
by Joseph O'Neill.
Cricket as a
metaphor for life in New York City...and it works!
Hell's Bay
by James W. Hall.
A new Thorn
mystery by this South Florida master.
The Ten Year
Nap by Meg Wolitzer.
In her new
novel, perceptive novelist Wolitzer asks what happens when smart women take
a "ten year nap" from their careers to raise children.
The Flying
Troutmans by Miriam Toews.
Toews is a
Canadian novelist, and this new novel is of the weird family "road trip"
genre featuring an aunt and her eleven-year-old niece and fifteen year old
nephew as they search the USA for their father.
American
Savior by Roland Merullo.
Author of
the pretty good novel "Breakfast with Buddha," Merullo has followed with
this soon to be released novel which envisions Jesus running for President
with a band of not so capable disciples - one which asks questions of us
which we would perhaps prefer not be asked.
The White
Tiger by Aravind Adiga.
May 2008
The Finder
by Colin Harrison.
Harrison has
hit good wood with each novel, and this new one is no exception. One of
these books will clear the fences... maybe it's this one, in which Chapter
Two promisingly takes place at strike zone level behind home plate at Yankee
Stadium.
We Are Now
Beginning Our Descent by James Meek.
Another
strong novel by the author of "The People's Act of Love."
The Cure for
Modern Life by Lisa Tucker.
Tokyo Year
Zero by David Peace.
An
historical novel of Japan which is not as engaging as I had hoped.
A Welcome
Grave by Michael Koryta.
A somewhat
weak detective novel taking place in Cleveland of all places.
The Soul
Thief by Charles Baxter.
Hubert's
Freaks by Gregory Gibson.
An
interesting book by a book dealer/collector about another book
dealer/collector; but also about Howard Nemerov's sister Diane Arbus, the
American fascination with the weird, and the history of photography's
elevation to an art.
Atomic
Lobster by Tim Dorsey.
Dorsey is
not for everyone, but I always find something in the nuttiness of each of
his Florida Serge Storms books that is not just funny, but also poignant.
Shining at
the Bottom of the Sea by Stephen Marche.
Marche's
first novel Raymond and Hannah was quite good, with clever use of
e-mail as dialogue. This new one is way more clever as it invents an
entirely fictional island country with its own history and crises -- but
it's way too clever for my taste.
The Soloist
by Steve Lopez.
A veteran
journalist with three good Philadelphia novels to his credit, Lopez turns
here to telling the story of a homeless musician on the streets of Los
Angeles. Their lives became connected for the better and worse of each.
Cross by
Ken Bruen.
It is a
comfort to have a new Jack Taylor by my side although there is nothing
comforting about Bruen's world. Taylor is still fighting his demons, still
fighting evil, still fighting...and losing. Bruen is the best.
Gas Light &
Coke by Fergus Allen.
A poetry
collection by octogenarian Allen whose first collection came in his 70's,
but whose verse has a youthful, colloquial feel.
City of the
Sun by David Levien.
A kidnapped
Indy paperboy leads ex-cop Frank Behr and the boy's father to a very bad
crime boss working between Mexico and the USA.
Peace by
Richard Bausch.
This taut,
spare novel speaks of war and the men of war and the horror of war in the
way "Heart of Darkness" speaks of the soul and "A Farewell to Arms" speaks
of love. Nothing is wasted and everything builds to something. It is a
remarkable book.
April 2008
Amy, Amy, Amy
by Nick Johnstone.
The first
biography of Amy Winehouse in a sort of tabloid style complete with early
pre-tattoo, pre-rehab pictures.
The Craftsman
by Richard Sennett.
Sennett is a
serious guy who writes serious philosophical inquiries, often with a
political slant. This is the first of three texts on humankind's acts of
making, organizing, and consuming things. He often cites preceding teachers
like Heidegger and Arendt, and like them, he writes in a somewhat ponderous,
difficult style - one that's not for me.
Same Old Sun,
Same Old Moon by Howard Haden.
The End of
Baseball by Peter Schilling.
The season
is underway and the Royals are fading already; it's time for a baseball
novel, and this is my choice for 2008.
Human Smoke
by Nicholson Baker.
A great
novelist of the big picture as seen in the little picture, Baker here brings
this same approach to the "great war" by collecting brief newspaper clips
and other "primary" tidbits to support his point that no war is one of which
we can be proud.
A Person of Interest by Susan Choi.
Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock.
A first book
of stories featuring hicks in Ohio in the manner of early Larry Brown.
Now You See Him by Eli Gottlieb.
Smile When You're Lying by Chuck Thompson.
Travel articles mostly about other travel articles -
the kind that are enhanced to sell hotel and restaurant advertising. Pretty
funny and useful reminders that travel is neither easy nor romantic.
Lush Life by Richard Price.
Beginner's Greek by James Collins.
God's Middle Finger by Richard Grant.
A slightly crazy white dude finds trouble on his own
in the Mexican Sierra Madres...and lives to tell about it. This could be a
Tarentino film.
Sleeping It Off in Rapid City by August
Kleinzahler.
A new
collection of old and new poems with a great title. Here is Kleinzahler in a
poem about his aging mother: "Afternoons are the most difficult. / They seem
to have no end, / no end and no one there."
Field Folly Snow by Cecily Parks.
This second collection of poems is brief, but has
its moments: "If only you could teach me / survival without sustenance,
unworried / love, how to find oneself at a window / one morning and think
nothing of what happens next."
Rowdy in Paris by Tim Sandlin.
Like his Florida namesake Tim Dorsey, Sandlin keeps
telling the same amusing tales with each new novel; but just because they
all sound a bit the same, doesn't mean they aren't worth the ride.
All Shall Be Well; and All Shall Be Well; and All
Manner of Things Shall Be Well by Tod Wodicka.
A first novel about a medieval re-enactor who goes
on the lam to Germany at age sixty and looks back and back.
March 2008
The Memory of Pablo Escobar by James Mollison.
The life and death of this notorious Columbian drug
dealer has already been well told by Mark Bowden in "Killing Pablo" (soon to
be a movie), but Mollison provides significant background to the story with
this extensive collection of photos, documents, and interviews with those
involved.
Architecture of the Absurd by John Silber.
Former president of Boston University and the son of
a Texas architect, Silber takes on some of today's "starchitects" such as
Libeskind and Gehry. For we amateurs, who marvel at what man can build, this
is a fascinating book.
The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead
by David Shields.
A quick-read compilation of data and quotations
regarding the effects of passing time on the human body, many centered on
the author's ninety-seven-year-old father.
Season of Gene by Dallas Hudgens.
A baseball novel that begins: "I had always been
fond of the bat man's wife" which, of course, leads pretty much anywhere.
A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz.
A rather incredible first novel which I am enjoying
very much: Read
review
Night of Flames by Douglas Jacobson.
Historical fiction about the German occupation of
Poland.
The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam by Chris Ewan.
Beautiful Children by Charles Bock.
A much talked about first novel by a native of Las
Vegas where "what happens in Vegas..." rarely finds its way into literature.
Military Men by Ward Just.
I recently found a copy of this book at Watermark
West and read it for the first time. It was published in 1970 at the end of
the Vietnam War and shows the journalist side of Ward Just writing
non-fiction about the waning self-confidence of many US Army professionals
following America's first defeat in war. One can see from this early book
the roots of many of the later themes in Just's excellent fiction.
February 2008
An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England
by Brock Clarke.
Blue Heaven by C.J. Box.
Box leaves behind his previous series featuring
world-weary Game Warden Joe Pickett for this fine stand-alone novel.
Matala by Craig Holden.
I've been reading Holden over the years enjoying the
variety of his five novels. This new one is a dark tale of Americans abroad.
Bleeding Kansas by Sara Paretsky.
The Rest of Her Life by Laura Moriarty.
I'm finally getting around to and enjoying
Moriarty's second novel set in Kansas.
The Bad Girl by Mario Vargas Llosa.
Edith Grossman's translation of Vargas Llosa's
somewhat lightweight latest novel.
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks.
A bit heavy going with historical rare book arcana
sometimes getting in the way of the story.
Sway by Zachary Lazar.
The 60's were all music and fun, right? ...or maybe
not. Lazar's new novel weaves the Stones, Manson, and Scorpio Rising into
something of a nightmare vision of what was happening on the dark side while
everyone else was all peace, love, and understanding.
The Senator's Wife by Sue Miller.
As always, Miller entertains (and entertains well)
with dialogue and character more than plot.
January 2008
Swimming in a Sea of Death by David Rieff.
Susan Sontag's son David Rieff, a talented and respected writer in his
own right, has crafted a short commentary on the final months of Sontag's
life. Refreshingly frank about everything from pompous doctors to filial
guilt, he brings a universality to the contemplation of mortality in the
very specificity of his mother's words and thoughts and physical
degradation.
Gas City by Loren Estleman.
This is not one of Estleman's Amos Walker mysteries but rather one of his
historical novels. While not as good as the Walker books, they are still
good.
Mongrels, Bastards, Orphans, and Vagabonds by Gregory Rodriquez.
This unfortunately titled history of Mexican immigration is in fact an
excellent primer on all of Mexico's 'mestizaje' history. Much more racially
tolerant and mixed than the United States, Mexicans with their growing
presence in the United States may do more to save us than to harm us.
Failure by Phillip Schultz.
Schultz's poems although perhaps too much about dogs and family
nonetheless touch knowingly on how and why things go south. Here's a sample:
"...he's still the boy running/all out to first base, believing/getting
there means everything..."
The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta.
Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh.
Venkatesh apparently lived the life for this study of rogue street
sociology in Chicago. I suspect it is easier to be in the gangs as an
undercover professor for "a day" than as a real, low-life-expectancy member.
White Heat by Wayne Johnson.
Novelist Johnson spent some time in Wichita as a fiction
writer-in-residence, but this latest book is a non-fiction overview of
"extreme skiing" and the crazies who do it. Johnson works ski patrol at Park
City, Utah, part time and has picked up his share of broken bodies. If you
anxiously await the release of the new documentary "Steep" about this same
subject, this book may be an antidote look at the consequences.
The Big Girls by Susanna Moore.
What You Have Left by Will Allison.
A solid first novel.
Letter From Point Clear by Dennis McFarland.
Diary of a Bad Year by J. M. Coetzee.
A more difficult novel from this Nobel Prize winner
which asks much of the reader, but gives also.
I am now half-finished and am coming to the
conclusion that this is an extraordinary book - one I wholeheartedly
recommend.
December 2007
Carrying the Torch by Brock Clarke.
Stories from 2005 which won the Prairie Schooner Prize in fiction by this
talented author of An Arsonist's Guide to Writer's Homes in New England.
Salt River by James Sallis.
What can I say; I wish I were James Sallis (well... maybe not the living
in Phoenix part.) He writes in many ways of many things, but especially of
regular folks in their regular worlds. He also knows all about jazz and
blues and race and rednecks and whiskey and humor and love and loss and
memory and grief. Nobody packs more into a small package than Sallis.
Songs Without Words by Ann Packer.
More rambling and chatty than her Dive from Clausen's Pier,
Packer's new novel needs more heft. I look forward to where she goes with
her next one.
Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin.
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo.
Not a translation, this fascinating novel is as much about language as
about love - and the sad realization that neither is of much use in learning
about the other.
Children of Jihad by Jared Cohen.
Cohen has the stuff. A Stanford grad then Oxford Rhodes Scholar then an
employee at the State Department, he went to the Middle East and actually
talked with the youth of the countries we are supposed to fear and hate.
This book tells his and their story and reinforces what we all should know:
people, particularly young people, are much the same everywhere and share
the same aspirations, thoughts, and interests.
Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo.
In the manner of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," this road
trip novel tells of a "regular guy's" enlightening cross-country drive with
his daughter's Guru.
Paying the Tab: The Economics of Alcohol Policy by Phillip J. Cook.
An interesting analysis of why prohibition and restrictive laws are less
effective than price (eg. high excise taxes) in reducing alcohol (and drug)
abuse.
Blonde Faith by Walter Mosley.
The Follower by Jason Starr.
Red Rover by Deirdre McNamer.
Free Fire by C. J. Box.
More travails and detecting from Box's hero Joe Pickett, Wyoming's best
take no prisoners Game Warden.
November 2007
Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan.
Like The Old Man and the Sea, this short novel is about a man
facing a doomed situation with dignity and perseverance.
Them by Nathan McCall.
The Makes Me Wanna Holler author tries his hand at fiction; he is
still hollerin' and we should be listenin'.
Down River by John Hart.
Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter
Cameron.
When my eighteen year old son gave this a big
thumbs-up, I figured I better take a look. He's right.
The Chicago Way by
Michael Harvey.
This first novel creates a new PI to navigate the streets and
neighborhoods of Chicago. Harvey is one to watch.
Run by Ann Patchett.
Now and Then by Robert B. Parker.
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan.
Options by Fake Steve Jobs (AKA Daniel
Lyons).
A funny novel about trouble in Silicon Valley
at Apple, written in the style of Lucy Kellaway but with more cursing and
more behavior of the male towel-snapping sort.
The Farther Shore by Matthew Eck.
This Kansan's first novel takes the setting of
Black Hawk Down
and adds sensitivity to a few soldiers caught by their small "mission"
within an historically big conflict.
Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo.
A new novel by Russo is cause for the pleasure
of anticipation
followed by the pleasure of satiety. Even when he is not great (E.G. "The
Straight Man"), he is great.
October 2007
Night Work by Steve Hamilton.
Leaving Upper Peninsula Michigan and his
ex-Detroit cop protagonist Alex Mcnight, Hamilton shifts the scene to
small-town New York and a new hero, Joe Trumbull.
Samedi the Deafness by Jesse Ball.
A little too out there for me.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by
Junot Diaz.
Volk's Game by Brent
Ghelfi.
This first novel pushes into Arkady Renko's turf
featuring a "peg-legged" Chechnyan war veteran named Volkovoy who works all
sides of the streets of Moscow in a stolen art scam.
The Great Man by Kate Christensen.
Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson.
Apocalypse Now comes to the page -
without the soundtrack.
While perhaps the penultimate 'Nam book, Johnson's latest also echoes our
contemporary angst.
Right Livelihoods by Rick Moody.
While not exactly a "throwaway", this oddly
titled collection
of three novellas is not Moody's best.
September 2007
Coltrane by Ben Ratliff.
"Be my lover don't play no game/Just play me John
Coltrane." Lucinda Williams
Freud at Work by Bruce Bernard and David
Dawson.
This great book includes a fascinating
interview with perhaps
today's greatest living portrait artist as well as extraordinary photographs
of him at easel in his studio.
Male of the Species by Alex Mindt.
A first book collecting stories focused on
fathers... and, therefore, on sons and daughters, too.
Requiem for an Assassin by Barry Eisler.
Getting a little long in the tooth, John Rain
takes on the
world to save his buddy Dox.
The Light within the Light by Jeanne Braham.
A pretty Godine book with Barry Moser engravings
containing short portraits of four "old school" New England poets: Hall,
Kumin, Wilbur, and Kunitz.
The Line by Jennifer Moxley.
These well-reviewed poems are more meditations
than actual poems, and they rely too much on words like somatic,
mimetic, and entropic -- who cares?
Summer Reading by Hilma Wolitzer.
It's hard not to like a novel about a "summer
cottage" in the Hamptons that begins: "Lissy Snyder hated nature, especially
its lavish variety on the eastern end of Long Island."
The Overlook by Michael Connelly
The Book of Fate by Brad Meltzer.
Traveling abroad and out of books, I found this in
the pocket
of the airplane seat in front of me. It is not very good.
Blue Screen by Robert B. Parker.
Sunny Randall hooks up with fellow Parker
character Jesse Stone to right the world.
August 2007
Flower Children by Maxine Swann.
A novel about Hippie kids growing up trying
not to be as
weird as their parents.
Later, at the Bar by Rebecca Barry.
This is the book that should have received all the
raves that J. R. Moehringer's The Tender Bar got. Barry's book of
connected stories is much better written and conceived.
Throw Like a Girl by Jean Thompson.
Stories - good ones.
Jubilee City by Joe Andoe.
A dust jacket-defined "car crash," Andoe's
life was (and maybe
still is) a mess; but the telling of his story is a trip.
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan.
The Blind Side by Michael Lewis.
Falling Man by Don DeLillo.
Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him by Danielle Ganek.
A light novel about a "gallerina" with the inside
scoop on the bumpin' Chelsea gallery scene.
The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke.
The Maytrees by Annie Dillard.
F5 by Mark Levine.
Human Resources by Josh Goldfaden.
A first book-length collection of stories by a real
new talent
with a novel on the way.
Potscrubber Lullabies by Eric McHenry.
This is a first collection of poems by a Topeka High
graduate,
who celebrates the ironies of Kansas, music, cemeteries, etc. in playfully
formal lyrics.
July 2007
Dr. Rice in the House edited Amy Scholder.
A rather nasty compilation of criticism, poems, and
images of
the Secretary of State.
Filibuster to Delay a Kiss by Courtney Queeney.
A first collection of poems which is, perhaps, a bit
self-centered, but it is the sort of "self" worth hearing. Queeney often
dwells on problems with men: "There were x number of men;/I couldn't solve
for x."
Grammar Lessons by Michele Morano.
An interesting collection of essays on life,
language, and love
during the author's year in Spain.
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead by Crystal Zevon.
A pastiche of quotations assembled by Warren Zevon's
former wife by the likes of Jackson Browne, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Bob
Thornton, Carl Hiaasen, and other notables. This isn't so much a book as it
is a tribute, a well-deserved one; it led me to download his last cd "The
Wind," which is a knockout.
New England White by Stephen Carter.
Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child.
Potato Tree by James Sallis.
A collection of very good old stories with even
better cover art.
Guadalajara de Noche by Leon Leiva Gallardo.
This first novel in Spanish about a young man on the
loose in Guadalajara will take awhile; my high school/travel language skills
need some work.
The Sushi Economy by Sasha Issenberg.
The history of the speed and breadth of our global
economy in
a microcosm view of sushi - from nowhere to everywhere in twenty years, from
deep sea tuna swimming off Australia to a fresh red cut on bed of rice on a
table in Wichita.
Bangkok Haunts by John Burdett.
The third in Burdett's excellent
noir/travelogue/culinary series featuring Sonchai Jitpleecheep, Buddhist
Royal Thai cop.
The Long Road Home by Martha Raddatz.
An award-winning journalist's first book exploring a
deadly ambush in Sadr City, Iraq, and the anxious families back home in Fort
Hood, Texas, who await bad news.
June 2007
The Clarks of
Cooperstown by Nicholas Fox Weber.
A long look
at the heirs of the Singer Sewing fortune and how they fought each other,
lived large, but eventually provided several major museums with their core
holdings in art and painting.
The Unknown
Terrorist by Richard Flanagan.
The new
novel by the Tasmanian novelist best known for Gould's Book of Fish.
Nervous
Systems by William Stobb.
A young poet
about whom August Kleinzahler says: "Here comes the 5:19 Express out of La
Crosse, Wisconsin. And right on time."
Duende by Tracy K. Smith.
This second collection of poems is better than
her
award-winning first, The Body's Question.
The Body's Question by Tracy K. Smith.
The House of Mondavi: the Rise and Fall of
an American Wine Dynasty by Julia Flynn Siler.
Five Skies by Ron Carlson.
Scoring from Second: Writers on Baseball by
Philip F. Deaver
Priest by Ken Bruen.
The latest Irish noir story of the continuing
struggles of
Jack Taylor: alcoholic ex-Guard detective-philosopher.
Beat by Christopher Felver.
A great picture/scrapbook history of the Beats,
which confirms
that if smoking disappears in public bars and cafes, so will art and
literature.
Magic City by James W. Hall.
Lost City Radio by Daniel Alarcon
A first novel about the "desaparacidos" lost in
endless civil
war in Latin America.
Lights Out by Jason Starr.
Baseball and Brooklyn form the backdrop for this
crime novel of childhood rivalry.
Wish You Were Here by Stewart O'Nan.
Flight by Alexie Sherman.
May 2007
Black & White by Dani Shapiro.
Still Life with Husband by Lauren Fox.
Last Harvest by Witold Rybczynski.
Heyday by Kurt Andersen.
American Detective by Loren Estleman.
This is number 19 in the consistently intriguing
Amos Walker series.
The Second Child by Deborah Garrison.
New poems from the author of the collection A
Working Girl Can't Win.
The Human Touch by Michael Frayn.
Playwright and novelist, Michael Frayn tries his
hand at philosophy in this attempt to understand insignificant man's role in
an insignificant world... yet it is our world nonetheless.
The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver.
April
2007
The Father of All Things by Tom Bissell.
The Beautiful
Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu.
The Birthday
Party by Stanley N. Alpert.
What the Dead
Know by Laura Lippman.
Life Lessons
by Sherry Chayat.
A study of
the art of Jerome Witkins: big art, big ideas, big life.
The
Collaborator of Bethlehem by Matt Bevnon Rees.
When the
Light Goes by Larry McMurtry.
Nature Girl by Carl Hiassen.
Remainder
by Tom McCarthy.
A
challenging first novel in a manner similar to that in which Paul Auster's
New York Trilogy makes us think about memory and consciousness.
Life is Meals
by James and Kay Salter.
This writing
couple turns out to be as resourceful in contemplating the art of food as in
addressing the human condition in fiction and theater.
March
2007
Blackbird and
Wolf by Henri Cole.
New poems
from an awarding-winning, somewhat academic, Japanese born poet now living
in Boston.
Letters to a
Young Artist by Peter Nesbett.
Family
Romance by John Lanchester.
L.A. Rex
by Will Beall.
House of
Meetings by Martin Amis.
The Curtain
by Milan Kundera
Reflections
on The Novel in the context of its history and mostly from a Euro-centric
perspective.
Traveler by
Ron McClarty.
Valentines by Olaf Olafsson.
Paper Trails
by Pete Dexter.
Man Gone Down
by Michael Thomas.
Edwin
Arlington Robinson: A Poet's Life by Scott Donaldson.
Finally a
comprehensive biography of a favorite poet of mine. As the author
Introduction begins: "...Edwin Arlington Robinson was a great American poet
and an exceptionally fine human being. The story of his life deserves
telling and has not been told."
Hurricane
Punch by Tim Dorsey.
Serge Storms
and Tampa Bay buddy Coleman take on hurricanes and serial killers in
Dorsey's eighth rocking novel of madness and delusion in Florida.
February
2007
Head for
Mexico by Don Adams.
A useful and
entertaining guide to living a good life in an extraordinary country.
Oil on the
Brain by Lisa Margonelli.
What The
Omnivore's Dilemma did for the food chain, this fascinating book does
for the oil pipeline.
Magic Time
by Doug Marlette:
Read review
The City is a
Rising Tide by Rebecca Lee.
Returning to
Earth by Jim Harrison.
A Trout in
the Sea of Cortez by John Salter.
A debut
novel, and perhaps one of the few North Dakota novels (how many are there?)
that doesn't come off like yet another version of the movie Fargo.
For the
Confederate Dead by Kevin Young.
Young's
latest is a strong collection of poems. An example:
"...No one
raises
glasses or
hell-
just kids,
well-
behaved, who
walk
home old
ladies
refusing
tips.
No thanks.
What
are we
coming to?"
January
2007
Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty
by Tim Sandlin.
A fun complement to Stone's rather more earnest
memoir of the 60's "Prime Green."
Prime Green:
Remembering the Sixties by Robert Stone.
Exit A by
Anthony Swofford.
Instant Love by Jami Attenberg.
What is the What by Dave Eggers.
Ooga-Booga
by Frederick Seidel.
Contemporary
poetry with an amusing bite.
The Road
by Cormac McCarthy.
Blacktop Cowboys by Ty Phillips.
A wonderful saga of the 2004 rodeo season in which
Luke Branquinho finished as top money-winner in steer wrestling, beating out
second-place Jason Lahr of Emporia. "Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to
be cowboys" and all that.
The Notebooks of Robert Frost, ed. by Robert
Faggen.
A fascinating look into the thinker behind Frost's
thinking, the poet behind his poetry, the teacher behind his teaching, the
seer behind his seeing.
December 2006
Echo Park by Michael Connelly.
The Cleansing by George Rabasa.
This relatively unkown novelist writes well about
the entangled destinies of those whose lives involve cross-border Mexican
pasts.
A Stolen Season by Steve Hamilton.
The Flamenco Academy by Sarah Bird.
Echo Maker by Richard Powers.
Four Kinds of Rain by Robert Ward.
Thanksgiving Night by Richard Bausch.
November 2006
Spring and Fall by Nicholas Delbanco.
The Eagle's Throne by Carlos Fuentes.
The Winter of Frankie Machine by Don Winslow.
What Winslow did for the Mexican carteles narcos
in Power of the Dog, he now does for the mobbed-up wise guys in San
Diego, especially "retired" Frankie Machine.
Hundred-Dollar Baby by Robert B. Parker.
The Book of Samson by David Maine.
Breakable You by Brian Morton.
The Girl With the Gallery by Lindsay
Pollock.
A portrait of Edith Halpert and her influential
Downtown Gallery.
Exile on Main St. by Robert Greenfield.
One marvels at how the Stones (particularly Keith) are still alive
and rockin' after reading Greenfield's account of their 1971 summer of exile
in France.
The Lay of the Land by Richard Ford.
Getting Wet by
Eric Talmadge.
The history, culture, and protocol of the Japanese bath.
October 2006
A Disorder Peculiar to the Country by Ken Kalfus.
The Mystery Guest by Gregoire Bouillier.
Dead Cat Bounce by Norman Green.
Paperback original New York noir by the author of Shooting Dr. Jack.
The Dissident by Nell Freudenberger.
Atomic Sushi by Simon May.
Life in Japan under Western eyes.
Smonk by Tom Franklin.
Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor by Sudhir
Alladi Venkatesh.
Everything Else in the World by
Stephen Dunn.
His latest book of new poems.
September 2006
Ready, Fire, Aim by John Fennell.
A history of the Milwaukee company Quad/graphics.
Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell.
Paint It Black by Janet Fitch.
To a Fault by Nick Laird.
Laird's novel Utterly Monkey was recently published in the United
States, and now this first collection of poems has appeared. It is not fair
to say, I know, but without his spectacularly successful wife Zadie Smith, I
wonder if these poems would have found Norton as a publisher. They are ok
and have their moments (and this collection includes "On Beauty" which Smith
slipped into her novel of the same title,) but on the whole, they don't move
much.
Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose.
A smart writer and intellectual is always fascinating when she talks
about the books in her life and profession. Prose moves in and out of the
great books with knowledge and ease.
Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen.
I've been looking for something light and well done; this appears to be it.
The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos.
Pelecanos' fiction has never failed to deliver. His characters are barely
afloat in the streets of Washington D.C., and through them, Pelecanos tells
us much about ourselves and our country. His recent well-earned,
boot-strapped success has not pulled his eyes from the truth.
Night Draws Near by Anthony Shadid.
As Mark's
review pointed out, this collection of profiles of the ordinary people
of Iraq tells more about the war than our headlines do. I pick it up for as
much as I can take at a sitting and then come back later for more.
Forgetfulness by Ward Just.
A new Ward Just novel; short but dense, as usual...and wonderful. The
rest of life will just have to wait while I read it:
Read review
5 Kick-ass Strategies Every Business Needs to Explode Sales, Stun the
Competition, Wow Customers, and Achieve Exponential Growth by Robert Grede.
This book is written by my mother's cousin's son, so of course I need to
give it a try. Once one gets past the title (which, as can be seen, takes
some time to get past,) one will find a pretty easy-to-read summary of
generally good business ideas. I'm not sure how "kick-ass" they are, but
they are sound... and that is more than can be said for many business book
ideas.
August
2006
Gallatin Canyon: Stories by Thomas McGuane.
It's been awhile since I last read McGuane, and he hasn't done
stories for twenty years. He's one of those authors whose published work
hasn't really lived up to the early hype, but I hope these stories exhibit
the old crazy magic.
In Plain Sight by C. J. Box.
This is the next in the Wyoming noir series from Box featuring Warden Joe
Pickett - a real straight shooter whose family troubles always seem to
complicate the simple poaching and shooting cases he investigates.
The Highly Effective Detective by Rick Yancey.
More end-of-summer-last-vacation light reading. This got a good review or
two so maybe it will transcend the awful title.
Try by Lily Burana.
A fun first novel about Cheyenne, rodeo, and the "buckle babes" who
follow the stampedes.
The Ruins by Scott Smith.
I enjoyed Smith's first novel A Simple Plan; this one is getting
poor reviews but popular support. It is a "thriller" set in the jungles of
the Yucatan, and since I am taking a short summer vacation, it may be just
the thing with which to sit on the dock of the bay.
Red Weather by Pauls Toutonghi.
Recent Watermark visitor Toutonghi makes a strong effort with
this first novel about an immigrant family and growing up in Milwaukee.
Alas, maybe it is too close to home for me, but i found the book slow and
unimaginative.
Across a Hundred Mountains by Reyna Grande.
This short, well-done first novel is a touching story of two
Mexican women's stories of family tragedy in the face of all that entices
Mexicans to want so desperately to taste the life on el otro lado.
The Driftless Area by Tom Drury:
Read review
The Adventures of Johnny Vermillion by Loren Estleman.
Estleman writes great both contemporary Detroit Noir and historical
Cowboy Noir; unfortunately this lightweight fluff of a western isn't one of
his best - or even one of his good ones. The annoying voiceover connecting
things and the weak character work make this a kind of "Prairie Home
Companion" version of the West.
July
2006
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel.
Mark steered me to this graphic novel of growing up in the 70's
and discovering ambiguous sexuality, literature, and family secrets. While
I still think the right word is worth a thousand pictures, Bechdel's story
seems to be enriched by the discipline of illustration. I was pleasantly
surprised.
Talk, Talk by T.C. Boyle.
Off to a great start, Boyle's new novel allows him to wander even
wider into the roles of language and identity as he creates the story of a
deaf woman busted for a rap sheet of crimes someone else did under the
"identity theft" of her name. Boyle can really write.
The Possibility of an Island by Michel Houellebecq:
Read review
The Last Assassin by Barry Eisler.
I have liked all Eisler's books featuring the professional assassin John
Rain. Once again Rain is globetrotting, and Eisler gives us plenty of urban
detail to accompany the killing detail. Fast and well done.
The Book of Joe by Joe
Coleman.
This is a full-color exploration
of the amazing art world of "outsider" artist Joe Coleman. His work is
meticulous, gross, political, outrageous, and fascinating. Owned by
collectors from Leonard DiCaprio to Ann
Nathan (well-known Chicago art dealer,) Coleman's paintings are so rich in
detail that he paints them wearing a jewelers loupe sort of thing. In
addition, he is something of a performance artist, shaman, weirdo whose
wedding (pictured in the book) was a piece of work all by itself.
Sequence by Lori Andrews.
Coming after several non-fiction books about genetics, this first
novel from an acclaimed science lawyer in Chicago is a surprisingly
tight,
well-made thriller set in the research laboratories of the National
Institutes of Health.
The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig.
This is another leisurely Doig novel of growing up in Montana.
His first book, the memoir This House of Sky, was stunning and one of
my first "handsells" as a bookseller. Doig is a master craftsman but has
never quite recaptured the magic of that first book.
The King of Lies by John Hart.
Hart is being thrown into the Turow/Grisham camp with this first
"legal thriller," and I suppose that is where he belongs. It's a very
competent first book, but the Southern lawyer with a messed up family past
routine gets old.
Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler.
A New Yorker correspondent in Beijing, Hessler attempts in 400
pages or so to take us behind today's China Syndrome to the gazillion years
of history that make China what it is. While his look at both the big and
little pictures of China is fascinating, one can't help but think no one can
quite get it all in just one book - no matter how many pages.
Let Me Finish by Roger Angell.
Nobody does baseball quite as well as long-time New Yorker
editor/writer Roger Angell. Not surprisingly, nobody does Angell better
either. This is a great autobiography that only touches on baseball (there
is a fine paragraph on "Neat's foot oil" that only baseball boys of the
right age will love) and instead touches on a certain life in a certain
time. Without arrogance or exaggeration, Angell talks of his divorced
parents, The New Yorker, writers and writing, and of course some
baseball.
Clemente by David Maraniss.
Maraniss did Vince Lombardi. He did Bill Clinton. He did Al Gore. Hell,
he even did the Vietnam War. Now he has written the full story of the
remarkable baseball star Roberto Clemente. Maraniss is thorough, perhaps too
thorough. Unless one is a baseball junkie, there are too many statistics and
game details in this book. The good stuff about this great player is better
found in his thoughts and philosophy... like, the way to beat a hitting
slump is to swing at strikes - not take them.
Black Lab by David Young.
Young is an Ohio poet new to me. Black Lab is his tenth book, and
I now want to go back to see what came before. He speaks of mortality and
getting on in age, but without melancholy or despair. His structured poetry
comes from a tradition of those who find clarity in the moments when nature
and man meet, but his moments are contemporary and even subu
