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On Books

I find new books by skimming the book sections of NPR, the NY Times, and the Washington Post. I think it's good to skim a few different sections--because one paper may miss a major event. For example, the "Post" is great with Ruth Ware coverage. The NY Times will tell you a bit about Sarah Shun-lien Bynum.


I tend not to read the reader reviews in Goodreads and Amazon, because I find--often--that the complaint is: "This is not the book I had imagined in my head." So--it doesn't matter if the actual book is actually good. If you pick up "Pride and Prejudice" and expect to encounter a superhero battle, Goodreads empowers you to give one star to "P and P," and to complain online that there weren't any superhero battles. None of this is a reflection on the real quality of "Pride and Prejudice."


(BUT, if a book is getting really ecstatic reader reviews, I'll give that weight. That is generally a good sign. Just as a book's bestseller status is nothing to sneeze at.)


All that said, here are some extra fall titles I'm excited about right now:


*"Rage," by Bob Woodward. (We'll see.)

*"The Quiet Americans," a well-written non-fiction saga about the early years of the CIA. (If people are comparing your work to "Say Nothing," you've done something well.)

*"Stanley Kubrick," Yale University Press.

*"One by One," by Ruth Ware. Who wouldn't want to spend time with a psycho killer in a ski lodge, on the one weekend when all guests just happen to surrender their means of egress, because of bad, bad snow (or something like this)?


More soon....


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