Picks of the Week

ALIVE IN NECROPOLIS, by Doug Dorst

(originally posted on June 26, 2008)

My first thought upon finishing it is that Dorst had written a book akin to what Richard Price might have concocted had he dabbled in the supernatural. That's because Dorst's prose is highly realistic and the characters, especially young policeman Matt Mercer, ring very young and very true, but there's the added sense of unreality in the form of the cemetery town of Colma. Whatever way to classify this, the bottom line is Dorst has serious talent that I'm looking forward to seeing develop further.

KINDRED, by Octavia E. Butler

(originally posted on June 26, 2008)

This book is as old as I am but it feels as fresh, as disturbing and as incisive as it must have when it was first published. Butler takes time travel to its logical extension, showing how 26 year old writer Dana's travels back to the antebellum South of the 1800s exposes her to the brutality and the reality of slavery - and by extension, makes the reader feel it and become privy to its ugly realities. This is and should be considered a work of science fiction, but Butler's genius is how she packs so much social commentary in layer after layer.

CHASING DARKNESS, by Robert Crais

(originally posted on June 26, 2008)

Maybe it's me, but the sense I got after reading the newest Elvis Cole novel is how old-school it was. The banter is sharp, the wisecracks are back, the action is precise and fast-paced, Joe Pike is very much in the background and by and large the story is all Elvis. What's less present is the angst of previous books, the weight of flashbacks and past deeds, so that CHASING DARKNESS doesn't have the richness of LA REQUIEM but it has the spirit of FREE FALL and VOODOO RIVER.

A CHAMPION'S MIND, by Pete Sampras

(originally posted on June 26, 2008)

Not all that many years ago I went through a serious tennis obsession phase, and my favorite player then - and now - is Pete Sampras. Why? Because he had a beautiful serve, rushed the net and won Slams on his own terms without courting publicity. The seventh Wimbledon title was classic and the last matchup with Andre Agassi at the 2002 US Open was all sorts of wonderful. So of course I read this book in practically one sitting, not caring that the prose (written by Peter Bodo) is as cliche ridden as it gets. It's Pistol Pete, dammit, and I miss him on the court.

FREEZING POINT, by Karen Dionne

(originally posted on June 26, 2008)

Karen is the brainchild behind the wonderful writer's forum Backspace, and finally, her debut thriller is about to arrive this fall. The action is nonstop and the hot button issue - finding untapped resources to solve a growing drinking water shortage - is timely in light of rising populations, global warming and other signs of the economic slowdown. But just when a solution (melt the icebergs!) arrives, then things get really frightening. Dionne combines the necessary scientific background with a knack for upping the stakes as the story goes along. Others may call her the next so-and-so, but the first Karen Dionne works for me.

TWO KINDS OF DECAY, by Sarah Manguso

(originally posted on May 26, 2008)

Reading Manguso's memoir was akin to reading Elizabeth Smart's similarly poetic and affecting BY GRAND CENTRAL STATION I SAT DOWN AND WEPT, for each sentence is a marvel, put together painstakingly to extract maximum meaning. Manguso strips everything away to reveal the terror, the pain, the numbness and even the beauty of the rare disease that, years after her initial bouts, still has the power to strike when it decides, not when she does. <i>This</i> is how you write a memoir.

SEVERANCE PACKAGE, by Duane Swierczynski

(originally posted on May 26, 2008)

I've been wanting to talk about this book for a year, which is when I read it the first time, and now that it's finally, finally out amongst the masses, I can say how flat-out fantastic it is, how it was impossible to stop reading and how I found myself rooting for the most psychopathic people to kick some serious ass. This isn't an office from hell but an office in the midst of chaotic nuclear winter that proceeds to get even worse for the characters - and way better for the reader.

I KILL, by Giorgio Faletti

(originally posted on May 26, 2008)

I'm a bit surprised that this 2002 debut novel from Italian personality Faletti, a multimillion bestseller in his native country and in Europe, took so long to be published in America - and by his home publisher, too. Why? Because even though it seems like a doorstopper at 600 pages, I KILL reads ridiculously fast, the plot twists coming as fast as the Monte Carlo Formula 1 track and the development of FBI agent and expat Frank Ottobre surprisingly three-dimensional. Don't be surprised if in picking this book up you've lost a day or two to its entertaining power.

HAVE YOU NO SHAME? by Rachel Shukert

(originally posted on May 26, 2008)

Boy, can I relate to this book, a memoir in the form of a series of essays. Whether it's Shukert's description of music festival competitions, the secret goings-on at Jewish youth groups or car trips with the family, the parallels were eerie. More to the point, Shukert has an incisive eye about the foibles of human nature, of family and of learning to survive on your own, no matter how embarrassing the situation might be.

PERSONAL DAYS, by Ed Park

(originally posted on May 26, 2008)

Another example of solidifying a book I feel like I have been talking about for ages. But why not? Park's voice is controlled and giddy, measured and wild, thoughtful and exuberant, but most of all he gets that sinister, slow-moving paranoia that infects an office in the midst of cruel change and inexplicable layoffs. My first thought after reading was to personally give copies to anyone currently or recently employed by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.