Picks of the Week

WRESTLING WITH MOSES, by Anthony Flint

(originally posted on August 11, 2009)

After reading this book, horrible images remain in my brain of a New York City with an expressway running through Lower Manhattan, Greenwich Village destroyed and car culture prevailing over the joys of city living. Jane Jacobs was an awesome human being, Robert Moses a complicated figure who did good but lost himself to power, and now I want to read much, much more about these two - and about urban planning as it's going on right now.

BLOODROOT, by Bill Loehfelm

(originally posted on August 11, 2009)

I'm hoping to have more to say on this a little closer to its September publication date, but Loehfelm is one of the most talented newcomers to crime and urban fiction, and he pretty much owns Staten Island noir after two books. Read and be riveted by this tale of two brothers bound to each other despite drugs, secret and the nasty stench of a stand-in for Willowbrook, where countless children suffered degrading abuse in appalling conditions.

LIES MY MOTHER NEVER TOLD ME, by Kaylie Jones

(originally posted on August 11, 2009)

Kaylie Jones has always been a beautiful, heartbreaking writer, but never more so with her attention focused upon herself and the passionate yet destructive relationship of her parents, James and Gloria Jones. This is a cautionary tale of the downside of literary life, the catastrophes wreaked upon loved ones by alcohol, and how Jones stepped into the brink multiple times and got herself back. This, quite frankly, puts a lot of recent memoirs to shame - that is how good it is.

LOSERS LIVE LONGER, by Russell Atwood

(originally posted on August 11, 2009)

I was far from the only one who would venture into the late, lamented Black Orchid Bookshop, see Russell working behind the counter and ask when the hell there would be a sequel to EAST OF A. Ten years later, thanks to Hard Case Crime, it's here - and not only is it a terrific PI mystery, it's a thoughtful commentary on how gentrification and technology have affected Payton Sherwood's livelihood and life in his East Village stomping grounds. I wouldn't be surprised to see this on a lot of Best Paperback Original award lists.

E, by Matt Beaumont

(originally posted on August 11, 2009)

I've recommended this book before here, but it bears repeating because even though the characters listen on Walkmans and haven't heard of instant messaging yet (this is 2000, after all) it is, bar none, the funniest office satire I've read, and somehow the all-email approach makes the zingers sting that much more, the humor pierce that much deeper. And there's to be a sequel, E SQUARED, published in the US in January (but out now in the UK.) I so cannot wait to read it.