A welcome respite from sentimentality

I'm intrigued by Amy Driscoll's review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. David Wroblewski's big fat debut novel, which also earned a starred review in Publisher's Weekly, does involve dogs that can wordlessly communicate with humans, and you know how I am about dog stories...but her assertion that the book - about a family that breeds a special sort of canine - is not sloppily sentimental is somewhat reassuring.

PWeekly calls it "a literary thriller with commercial legs." At 500 plus pages, though, I'm thinking maybe this is not the one to lug across the country with me on vacation. Maybe when I get back I'll have time to enjoy it.

The loom of fate, she is a tough mistress

  This is what I want to do every time I try to find one of my movie reviews on The Miami Herald website and fail. EVERY WEEK. But alas, I lack an arsenal.

Fortunately they do not lack weapons in the very silly movie Wanted, a Matrix wannabe that was adapted from comic books by Mark Millar, so it doesn't exactly count as being adapted from a book, but close enough. It's kind of entertaining but...silly. You can read my review here and decide for yourself if it would be worth ten bucks.

A disclaimer: I do remember Angelina Jolie took a serious role in A Mighty Heart, but besides that she seems to favor this sort of action-figure character. What the hell. She's got the lack of body fat to do it.

Shawnie came home with a mission

I love Shawn Colvin; I really do. I love her versions of Steve Earle's plaintive Someday and Bob Dylan's classic You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go and the late, great Warren Zevon's Tenderness on the Block. I think her CD Whole New You is one of the most underrated albums by a singer-songwriter, and I was happy she won a Grammy - not that Grammys matter at ALL anymore - for A Few Small Repairs and its song Sunny Came Home.

So you might think I would thrill to the news she's writing - you guessed it - a memoir, entitled A Few Small Repairs, due to be published by HarperCollins sometime in 2009.

What I wish though is she'd work on a follow-up to These Four Walls, which came out way back in 2006. Shawn! Sing for us! Please!

Get off the couch and into the pool

Good news for all you slackers who say you're too old to get in shape (or maybe it's bad news...I'm not sure): W. Hodding Carter says you don't necessarily have to lose muscle mass as you get older. (Of course, you have to get off the couch to keep it. And step away from the Doritos.) He should know: the 40something competitive swimmer and author of Off the Deep End has been training for the Olympics.

I didn't make his reading last night at Books & Books, but spy reports indicate it was another good one and that former swimmers were in abundance in the audience. Carter, who was introduced by former Olympic swimmer Gary Hall, Sr. says his book isn't so much about swimming as it is having a goal and sticking to it.

Herald writer Howard Cohen did a nice piece on Carter earlier this week; click here to check it out.

New Krakauer book on hold

Anybody who can't wait to get their hands on Jon Krakauer's latest book is going to have to wait a bit longer. Publisher's Weekly is reporting that the author's The Hero - a meditation on the nature of heroism centered on football player Pat Tillman, who was killed by friendly fire in Afganistan - is on hold indefinitely.

The book was scheduled for release mid-October, but PW writes that Krakauer "has withdrawn the title," and that he's unhappy with the manuscript. Doubleday was planning a 500,000-copy first printing; now the publisher is assuming the book won't be ready to hit shelves until 2009.

Krakauer is the author of three of the best nonfiction works I've ever read: Into the Wild (made into a mediocre movie by Sean Penn; nice job, Sean); Into Thin Air (about the Everest disaster of which he was a part) and Under the Banner of Heaven (about Mormon fundamentalists). All are absolutely riveting, and I was really looking forward to this book.

Unique insight into Florida's ugly past

Peter Matthiessen, author of Shadow Country (which used to be informally known as the Mr. Watson trilogy), joins the already-confirmed panelists for the 2009 Key West Literary Seminar, which takes place in January and will focus on the theme of "Historical Fiction and the Search for Truth."

The seminar, which fills up fast, has also signed on Gore Vidal, Russell Banks, Calvin Baker, Andrea Barrett, Allan Gurganus, Tony Horwitz, Geraldine Brooks, Barry Unsworth and Madison Smartt Bell.

Click on the seminar's blog for further updates.

Will gas prices kill author tours?

The folks over at PublishersWeekly.com asked an intriguing question in a recent story: Will rising gas prices affect in-store author appearances, which is often the "bread and butter" (or so the story says) of the independent bookstore?

One would imagine it would not affect appearances virtually guaranteed to draw a crowd - say, the upcoming Salman Rushdie event for Books & Books - but what about the lesser known authors? Will publishing houses still be willing to send debut authors around the country? Will they merely travel regionally - or not at all?

It would be a shame; I have never been disappointed with any author event I've ever attended. I'd hate to see them fall victim to the same thing that's plaguing us all. (Isn't the $2.33 for regular gas, as seen over here on the right, positively quaint? I paid $4.09 the other day and was thrilled, as every other place nearby was $4.15)

I carry a 700 degree fire in my hand

I don't, actually, carry a 700 degree fire around, but David Sedaris used to. Not anymore. In his new collection of essays When You Are Engulfed in Flames, he writes about how he finally quit smoking: Cold turkey on a 3 month trip to Japan. He figures it cost him at least $20,000, so you might want to stick with the patch.

Flames is, of course, hilarious, more so if you listen to Sedaris read the book than if you read it himself. The audiobook is that good. My two favorite essays in it (Solution to Saturday's Puzzle and In the Waiting Room) I had read in the New Yorker months ago, and yet hearing them again read with Sedaris' perfect comic timing was a joy.

I think my favorite essays of his out of all of them may be from his last collection, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim: Rooster at the Hitching Post (about his brother's wedding) and...I can't think of the name of the other, but it's about Dutch legends about Santa Claus, which almost caused me to wreck my car when I was listening to it. I agree, Mr. Sedaris: Santa didn't USED to do anything.

You can read my review of When You Are Engulfed in Flames here. And you can hear a clip of Sedaris reading from The Smoking Section chapter here.

What do Harry Potter and Cormac McCarthy have in common?

In its newest issue, Entertainment Weekly has listed its top 100 classics in various areas (movies, TV, style, music, etc.) and of course books. The best book in the past 25 years? They choose Cormac McCarthy's The Road, with - and this is really a strange choice - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Now I've read Goblet, and I loved it, but I'm just not sure I'm going to list it no. 2. First of all, The Prisoner of Azkaban was really when the series got rolling, so shouldn't it get a nod first? Then: Well. Harry Potter is a phenomenon like the publishing world has never seen, but is it the second best book of the past 25 years? I have to think about that one.

Of course, I'm happy to see Zadie Smith on there (for On Beauty), and Alice Munro (Selected Stories), and Possession (A.S. Byatt), and Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove, and Kate Atkinson's Case Histories, and ... well. You can see the book list for yourself by clicking here. For other lists, visit ew.com

TGIF (That "Guru" is Frightening)

It's been one of those weeks you're glad to see come to an end.

Among myriad other fun events, I reviewed four movies, which film critic Rene Rodriguez has kindly linked to on his blog. Which you should definitely check out, even if you don't care what I thought of The Love Guru or Get Smart, because he has posted this enthralling poster with Javier Bardem and, I think, some women, though I'm not sure because I'm just looking at Javier Bardem. Which almost makes up for having to sit through The Love Guru.

One of the films I reviewed was When Did You Last See Your Father?, based on the memoir by British poet Blake Morrison. The movie wasn't bad but it sure was gloomy, so be warned. I can't say it made me want to pick up Morrison's book, but then, that subject matter is rough.

Big news on The Big Read

So it happens for the fifth time: The National Endowment for the Arts announces that The Florida Center for the Literary Arts will be one of four institutions to be awarded a major grant to launch a reading program. The idea behind The Big Read (this time entitled The Big Read/Egypt/U.S. and is part of the State Department's Global Cultural Initiative) is to get communities reading by reading the same book. This year, the program focuses on The Thief and the Dogs by Egyptian Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfuz. The project culminates with this falls Miami Book Fair International. See this space for future Big Read events!

But (and you knew there was a but) I always wonder, when I peruse these reading initiatives, if there is any way to quantify success. Is the idea to get more people reading? Because I suspect that nonreaders don't respond at all; why would they suddenly want to read a book by an unfamiliar writer? A previous book used in this project was written by Tolstoy, not exactly the most accessible author.

I suppose the more pertinent idea is to introduce those who already read to someone new, and that's a a helpful and useful thing. I just can't help but consider whether or not the grant money would be better off spent donating books to a local library or school. We all know schools are so desperately short on supplies that teachers have to buy them with their own money. I'd be happy to have someone set me straight on this. Come on. I can take it.

Leave your Blackberry at home, but bring your steady character

Longing to revisit a time of corsets, carriages and crippling sexual repression? The Governor's House in Hyde Park, Vermont, (NOT London) has a series of vacations that will knock your high-button boots off.

Starting in August and running through January, the bed and breakfast is hosting a series of four Jane Austen weekends, during which guests will discuss Persuasion (the book and the movie) and also get a chance to attend high tea and take carriage rides. Presumably there will be no trips to Bath or Captain Wentworth, but there are some modern activities (fly fishing, horseback riding) for anyone dragged there against her will. And I say her confidently. Can you imagine a guy  agreeing to this?

Not a Persuasion fan? (If you're not, you should be). Next year's Austen weekends will center on Pride and Prejudice.

Ever notice how no B&Bs host Mary Wollstonecraft weekends?

Jack Reacher is a bad ass

If you read Lee Child's explosive, action-packed thrillers, you know this about Reacher, the ex-military cop who roams the country getting himself into all sorts of ugly situations.

Child has been on quite a roll lately. His new Reacher novel Nothing to Lose is more of what he's given us in his series: pure escapism (with plenty of violence thrown in). This time he stumbles across some mysterious goings-on at a company town in eastern Colorado.

There are few suspense novels I read as quickly as a Reacher novel; they're well-paced and perfect for summer. But they do get violent, so if you're inclined to the cozies they may not be for you.

You can read my review of Nothing to Lose here.

Making things better, one book at a time

Can the market for liberal progressive books still thrive as the Bush era comes to a close? The creators of The Progressive Book Club are betting it can. A blend of book club, blog, political grassroots movement and online social network, the website offers works at a discount every month (somewhere between 10 and 40 percent, and on occasion 80 percent according to AP) and donates $2 per book to different environmental, educational or other organizations.

Board members include Dave Eggers, Barbara Kingsolver and Michael Chabon, and started up with about 200 books, from President Clinton's memoirs to Thomas Paine's Common Sense. I also couldn't help but notice Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle figures prominently on the website at the moment. There are also novel recommendations (Toni Morrison, Sherman Alexie). The staff pick at the moment is Rick Perlstein's Nixonland; the "partner pick" from the "Vote Vets" group is Jim Webb's A Time to Fight.

Elizabeth Wagley, club founder and CEO, says the plan is not to just rag on Republicans. That's fun and all, sure, but she hopes the club will "look toward the future."

When do you find time to read?

Remember when you had time to settle down for a couple of hours and just read? I do - I just did it yesterday afternoon, out by the pool once it got shady enough, once all the errands were done and the house was clean and I worn myself out at the gym (it doesn't take much). And again this morning, with a  fresh cup of coffee (or two or three) with one of my dogs snuggled up next to me. I'm lucky in that my job allows me time for this pursuit - though there's a difference between reading for pleasure and reading for work - but I always make sure to carve out a couple of hours on the weekend to do nothing but read.

It's not always that easy to find the time, though. Leonard Pitts has a great column on this very subject in Sunday's paper; if you're a reader, you'll relate in some way. Though I do take issue with one of his premises, that the Internet is making us read less. It's making some people read less, sure. But committed readers always find a way to sneak in a few chapters. At least that's been my experience. I've heard people say, "I don't have time to read," but it seems to me unless you're the mother of young children, you find a way to do it because you can't live without it.

Am I off-base here, or what?

David Guterson strikes out - again

It's been a long time since Snow Falling on Cedars was published, hasn't it? Herald reviewer Gigi Lehman is less than enchanted with David Guterson's latest novel, The Other. Read her review here.

I haven't read The Other - and chances are I won't after reading this review, because I trust Gigi - but I did review his last novel, Our Lady of the Forest, which was so promising. It was about a girl who claims to see the Virgin Mary in one of the forests of the Pacific Northwest, and it was moody and atmospheric, but ultimately the story petered out, leaving me ambivalent to the fates of all involved.

I'm pretty sure that's not what a writer strives for in a novel.

Dancing for a 9/11 hijacker

Andre Dubus III originally believed that his latest novel , The Garden of Last Days, would be a short story. Five hundred-plus pages later, it was something else entirely. Set in a Sarasota strip club in the days before Sept. 11, 2001, the book throws together a group of people - one of whom is going to be on an American Airlines flight out of Boston in a couple of days - in a strip club and piles on the drama.

Dubus, who wrote House of Sand and Fog, says he wanted to write about what it would have been like to be one of the dancers who performed for the 9/11 hijackers - some did go to a strip club before their heinous acts, just like some others had a few drinks at the now-gone Shuck 'Ems right here in Hollywood. The idea of monsters in our midst is an unsettling one, isn't it? I remember thinking: Why couldn't those bastards have gotten in a bar fight that night and ended up in the hospital? As if that might have changed what happened.

Dubus apparently had similar thoughts. He's an entertaining guy to talk to, and funnier that you might expect if you'd only read his books (I get the impression he's a great teacher, though I suppose we'd have to check in with his students at UMass-Lowell to find out for sure). Garden has its share of wrenching moments, but ultimately Dubus sees it as a hopeful book: No matter what terrible events shape our lives, we have a way of going on.

You can read my interview with him here. And you can see him at 8 p.m. Thursday at Books & Books in Coral Gables.

How the Irish saved civilization, or at least literature

Now that's what I call a literary award: $155,000. And it goes to Beirut-born Rawi Hage, recipient of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, for his debut novel De Niro's Game. Amazingly enough, the award is run by the Dublin Public Library system, according to AP, though it's financed by a Connecticut-based management consultancy.

Hage beat out Yasmina Khadra (The Attack); Sayed Kashua (Let It Be Morning); Andrei Makine (The Woman Who Waited); Yasmine Gooneratne (The Sweet & Simple Kind); Gail Jones (Dreams of Speaking); Javier Cercas (The Speed of Light) and Patrick McCabe (Winterwood).

Here's what Herald reviewer Rayyan Al-Shawaf, who lives in Beirut, had to say about the novel:

Shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award in Canada, De Niro's Game does for Christian East Beirut what Ziad Doueiri's much-acclaimed film West Beirut did for the predominantly Muslim half of the Lebanese capital. Narrator Bassam and his best friend George -- nicknamed "De Niro" -- were kids when the war erupted and have seemingly grown inured to its effects. Most of their neighbors, however, remain foolishly preoccupied with dodging death. Hage eerily conjures up the paralytic terror experienced by densely populated neighborhoods when pummeled by indiscriminate shelling: "There was that silence, that quietness before bombs fall and teeth chatter and kids piss in their older brothers' shorts, and young girls menstruate before their time, and windows shatter, and glass slices our dark flesh wide open."

Increasingly, Bassam and George view the war as a means to make money. They concoct a scheme to siphon off funds from a militia-run casino where George works. This proves lucrative, but soon George joins the militia and is drawn into mindless violence. While George sinks ever deeper, Bassam contemplates emigration and eventually makes his way to France. The final third of the novel features a pretentious mix of fantasy and existential philosophizing -- Bassam borrows Camus' L'tranger from an Algerian hotel clerk in Paris -- and generally proves a disappointment.

Though a number of Arabic words and expressions are incorrectly rendered, Hage skillfully evokes the contradictions of Lebanese culture and the madness of wartime Beirut through arresting visual imagery and a sensitive probing of communal sentiment. Haunting descriptions of Armenians who survived the 1915 Turkish massacres and found refuge in Lebanon, passing references to neighborhoods populated by Syriacs and one character's stark reminder that Christians in Lebanon should remain vigilant lest they end up like their counterparts in Egypt all provide readers with a glimpse into the siege mentality of East Beirut.

Life is a mystery

So the secret is out: Madonna's brother Christopher Ciccone is writing a tell-all about her for a Simon & Schuster imprint, Simon Spotlight Entertainment.

What? You don't CARE? How is it possible that you have no interest in the pop icon, who for decades has cashed in on the fact that music consumers are suckers, despite the fact she hasn't recorded a decent song since Like A Prayer?

You know what? I don't care either. Never mind.

Summer reading with Yahoo

Yahoo.com reports that it has seen an increase in searches on specific books over the past 30 days. Guess everybody is trying to find something to read over summer vacation. Here are the top book-related searches on yahoo. I guess I can understand why Scott McClellan's tell-all rates no. 2; I've heard stores are having trouble keeping it in stock. But one of those James Patterson books that shares a byline? Really? Doesn't that mean he didn't really write it but just sold his name to the product?

Top Book Related Searches on Yahoo!

1. James Patterson’s “Sail” (To be released: June 9)
2. Scott McClellan’s “What Happened” (Released: May 28)
3. Barbara Walters’s “Audition: A Memoir” (Released: May 6)
4. Meg Wolitzer’s “The Ten-Year Nap” (Released: March 27)
5. Karen Tack’s “Hello Cupcake" (Released: April 24)
6. Douglas R. Andrew’s “Millionaire by 30" (Released: April 30)
7. Kathy Freston’s “Quantum Wellness" (Released: May 20)
8. Terrance Dean’s “Hiding in Hip Hop” (Released: May 13)
9. Sharon Mehdi’s “The Great Silent Grandmother Gathering" (Released: March 1)
10. Randy Pausch’s “The Last Lecture” (Released: April 8)

Marlee's writing again

Actress Marlee Matlin, who washed out on the most recent version of Dancing With the Stars, will publish a memoir, according to the Associated Press. Matlin, who also co-starred on The L Word and won an Academy Award in 1987 for the film Children of a Lesser God, is working on I'll Scream Later - that's a tentative title - due to be published sometime in 2009.

Matlin has already written a novel, Deaf Child Crossing, and two books for kids (she's a mother of four).

Man, I used to LOVE Children of a Lesser God. That was back when William Hurt had hair and was actually kind of attractive.

Keeping her promise

Joyce Wagner does not call herself a writer, though she has written a book. She calls herself a survivor, because that's what she truly is. Out of nine brothers and sister, parents and grandparents, she is the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust, surviving two years in the death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Wagner brings her remarkable tale to the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center in Hollywood, at 2031 Harrison St., as part of the organization's Author Series. She'll speak at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 15. The appearance is free, but reservations are required.  Call 954-929-5690 or email regina@hdec.org to RSVP.

Praise for paperbacks

Quality Paperback Book has named its 2007 winners of the New Voices and New Visions awards: New Voices goes to filmmaker Miranda July for her quirky short story collection Nobody Belongs Here More than You. New Visions goes to Ishmael Beah for A Long Way Gone, his memoir about being a child soldier in Africa.

I reviewed both books and liked them both, though I will say July's narrators all tend to sound alike, so if you value diversity in a story collection, this may not be for you.

Last year's winners were Marissa Pessl for her debut novel Special Topics in Calamity Physics and Joan Didion for her memoir The Year of Magical  Thinking. Winners earn a $5,000 cash prize.

"Hands are the window to a man's soul"

Today is clearly video link day, so here's another suggestion for you: Click here to watch a video interpretation of a slice of The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. This is the novel narrated by Enzo the dog that I keep flirting with reading, only I worry it will cause me to weep. My fear proved well-founded when I got a little teary watching the video. God, dog people are nuts, aren't they? They'll like this website for sure: You can send e-cards with Enzo's sayings on them (like the one in the title here) and download photos of your own dogs to share. I hope I'm too busy to do this, but I wouldn't count on it.

Stein appears at 8 p.m. Monday June 16 at Books & Books in the Gables, and you might want to get started on the book ASAP - there will be an Enzo trivia contest.

At home with Andre Dubus III

Cool video link here to a short interview with Andre Dubus III, whose latest novel, The Garden of Last Days, takes place in Sarasota area and involves a 9/11 hijacker who spends a night in a strip club (as well as other desperate characters, including a stripper who has to bring her child to work for the night, a bouncer and a troubled construction worker who finds solace amid the naked women, as so many do).

It's interesting to hear Dubus (son of the great short story writer Andre Dubus) talk about his work, but even more so to check out the house he built in northern Massachusetts. Love that open kitchen! That spaghetti sauce doesn't look half bad, either.

A powerful way to start

Nam Le's debut short story collection The Boat has earned rave reviews from most critics, and Herald reviewer Amy Driscoll is no exception. His stories, she reports, are masterful, and she's not alone in her assessment. I haven't read them yet, but the book is on my stack of wistful "Somedays."

Click here to read her review.

Don't miss "Dogfessions"

I came across an absolute must for dog lovers the other day: Dogfessions, a book compiled by Nikki Moustaki, who is the host of MSN.com's web TV show Celebrity Pet Dish and also created dogfessions.com. The concept: owners send in their confessions ("Sometimes I eat their biscuits") or their dog's confessions ("I am about to do something you're not going to like...but know I feel bad about it") on elaborately decorated postcards. Moustaki has compiled the best submissions, but you can see more at the website. They're funny, and more than a few will make you choke up. Proceeds from the book benefit petfinder.com and Sabbath Memorial Dog Rescue Center in Miami.

You can also read Herald reporter Georgia Tasker's entertaining story on Moustaki here.

Baxter and Frank Black make their own dogfession:

"You think we're posing like good boys, but really we just want you to throw that nasty old tennis ball you're holding up. And then we will fight over it."

Barack on the bookshelves

The publishing world wasn't about to wait for Sen. Hillary Clinton's concession speech. There's a big push on for books about presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, reports AP. A BIG push. Though the consensus seems to be that none of these will be as compelling as Obama's own books (The Audacity of Hope and Dreams From My Father) several works are planned for release this summer and later in the fall, including reporter Liza Mundy's book on Michelle Obama, several children's books and a collection of the candidate's speeches and screeds from the left and the right.

My favorites, based on titles alone: Matthew Honan's Barack Obama is Your New Bicycle: 366 Ways He Really Cares. Can someon explain why a bicycle cares? Because mine doesn't seem to care about me. Also I like the crazy paranoia of the ominous-sounding Obama - The Postmodern Coup: Making of a Manchurian Candidate by Webster Griffen Tarpley. Can I get a few more clauses with that title?

Proof I have wasted my life

Just in case you thought all I did was sit around and read high-brow literature, click here. You'll see how I spend my free time.

To be fair, some of the movies listed here I saw for work in my capacity as back-up film critic. But I can't act like I didn't watch Billy Madison just for fun. I did. God help me, but I did.

More literary posts coming soon to counteract this confession.

Rose wins Orange

Rose Tremain's The Road Home won Britain's Orange Prize, awarded to fiction by women. The book, about an Eastern European migrant in London, is Tremain's 10th novel, and it comes out in the U.S. in August.

Tremain gets $60,000, a bronze statue by artist Grizel Niven and bragging rights for a year.

What we learned about Leif Enger

We already knew he was a personable guy and an evocative writer. Here's the other important stuff:

1. He's an excellent reader, adding a lot of humor to the passages he read from So Brave, Young, and Handsome (the one he read about Hood Roberts' wild ride is one of my favorites in the book).

2. He's a swooning fan of Cormac McCarthy. No surprise there, really. Says he came to McCarthy through All the Pretty Horses, but that No Country for Old Men is his favorite. Loved the movie, too. Was proud his son read the book at age 13 (he's now 17). Say, here's an idea: Stop force feeding teenagers some of those boring moldy classics and set them up with No Country for Old Men.

3. He is a big fan of TV's The Deadliest Catch. He claims it's this same son who prompts him to watch it, but I don't know...he seemed awfully interested in what the fishermen brave on that show. Fair enough, though - he said an older brother used to work on that sort of boat, so he's intrigued by what they go through. Frankly just looking at the waves makes me queasy.

House of misery and depression

Is it gloomy today, or is it just me? Yes, I'm gazing out the window at a blue and fluffy white cloud sky  and all that, but I still feel the weight of House of Sand and Fog, the novel by Andre Dubus III that I finished this morning. Good Lord. I mean, I knew it wasn't going to have a happy ending, but was not expecting what happened. Somehow I missed the movie version (which I hear is quite good, with Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly and that actress who kept screaming "BEY-ROOOOOOOOOOOSE!" a few seasons ago on 24).

It's a compelling novel, and the alternating points of view are perfectly rendered, both the recovering drug addict/alcoholic Kathy, who loses her house through a bureaucratic mistake, and the Colonel, formerly of the Iranian Imperial Army, who buys her house from the county and won't sell it back (it's not his fault the county screwed up, is it?) All this leads to a dark place, with the tension escalating with every paragraph and deliberate, atmospheric prose. I recommend the book for any book club (though most of you have probably read this already); there's plenty to discuss, and you won't forget it anytime soon.

"Pancho Villa crossed the border in the year of aught '16"

You'd need to be Lewis and/or Clark to find my Q and A with author Leif Enger on the website, so here's a handy link, should you want to read it. It occurs to me that if Enger's latest novel, So Brave, Young, and Handsome, had a soundtrack, it would be Tom Russell's Indians Cowboys Horses Dogs, in particular the songs Tonight We Ride, narrated by a drunken cowboy riding with Black Jack Pershing after the evil Pancho Villa ("He killed 17 civilians, you could hear the women scream...") and Bucking Horse Moon, kind of  broken-heart look back at a rodeo romance ("I lost my youth on the dusty fairground.") Russell is known for his cowboy songs, and what with Enger's novel referencing what happened in Columbus, New Mexico, in 1916...it just seems fitting somehow.

Spare us your life story

More bitchy goodness from EW.com: Kate Ward's piece on the tiresome nature of memoirs. Really, we're sick of all your family issues! Leave us alone. Ward blames Mary Karr for the endless onslaught of family confessions we've endured since 1995. I wondered who I should complain to.

But click here to read her "exhaustive" guide, which is a lot of fun.

Dive in

I don't know why finding a handful of books was so hard this year for the summer reading package, but it seems like I started 15 or so and couldn't get past the first 10 pages or so. When you try to make it through such unfortunate attempts at fiction you start to believe you understand why the book market is suffering.

The books reviewed here are Child 44, Tom Rob Smith; The Writing Class, Jincy Willett; So Brave, Young, and Handsome, Leif Enger; The House on Fortune Street, Margot Livesey; Breath, Tim Winton; The Dark of Day, Barbara Parker; A Case of Exploding Mangoes, Mohammed Hanif; This Charming Man, Marian Keyes.

Anyway, click here to read the story, and remember, there are other intriguing books coming out ,too. We've just saved some so we'll have something to write about the rest of the summer.

Someone pointed out that the woman in this lovely illustration by Ana Lense Larrauri is not reading, which is true. I like to believe she's going to come out of the pool, settle down with the adult beverage of her choice and pick up The Writing Class or This Charming Man. Even the most avid reader needs a break sometime.