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The Chicago Tribune’s Julia Keller offers this year’s thoughts on the Great American Novel (“The Great American Novel was written by:“). And chooses American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis. I’m thinking she was swayed by the fact that the word American is in the title. Last year, Bill Ott asked us to vote for the [...]

Ever since men first discovered fatherhood (when was that, the Sixties?), they keep on discovering it. Now “cool guys” have discovered it: Alternadad, by Neal Pollack (Pantheon) Punk Rock Dad: No Rules, Just Real Life, by Jim Lindberg (Collins) “No Rules, Just Real Life”? Hey, this parenting manual has attitude — just like me! Awesome! [...]

My favorite trend in titling continues: Blogistan, by A. Srebeny and G. Khiabany (Holtzbrinck) Richistan, by Robert Frank (Crown) Londonstani, by Gautam Malkani (Penguin) Prisoner of Trebekistan, by Bob Harris (Crown) Dispatches from Blogistan, by Suzanne Stefanac (New Riders) Londonistan, by Melanie Phillips (Encounter) Absurdistan, by Gary Shteyngart (Random) Absurdistan, by R. Lee Wright (Cocolalla) [...]

Reading Read Roger this morning, I found a link to a helpful list of controversial children’s books in The New Yorker (“Inappropriate,” by Paul Rudnick). For example: "The Pretty Little Bunny" Melissa, the pretty little bunny, woke up one morning in May and said, "I think I’ll hop-hop-hop over to the carrot patch. I’m so pretty that all [...]

My recent post about McGoorty Day made me think about my other favorite books about pool and billiards. I’ll save the how-to books for another list, but this mix of narrative nonfiction, biography, and fiction should satisfy anyone who wants to steep in the seedy milieu of poolrooms. The Bank Shot and Other Great Robberies, by Minnesota [...]

I’ve been lamenting the rise of the celebrity-authored picture book often and loudly enough to have finally realized that I’m part of the problem. Even if I’m only mentioning these books only in order to criticize them, I’m still contributing in a small way–very, very small–to the media hype. Jessmonster was the first to answer [...]

George Eberhart, a senior editor at American Libraries (and an author himself), e-mailed a contribution to the war books project before I went on vacation and, sluggard that I am, I let it sit in my in-box until now. A few of the titles stray from my “wars with American involvement” criterion, but rules were made to [...]

A little while ago, while reading Jarhead, I started a list of books that “say something about the experience of war and its aftermath.” It’s not a subject area in which I’m well read, but I received some helpful suggestions both in the comments to that post and via e-mail. Brad Hooper, who studied history [...]

I’m nearing the end of Jarhead. Operation Desert Storm has finally started but the men are still waiting to go into combat. The waiting reminds me, in a way, of the waiting in trench warfare, like All Quiet on the Western Front, except that, in today’s wars, the enemy is not waiting just a few [...]

I stayed up far too late last night reading Jarhead. I think part of the reason I’m so absorbed in it is that I’m not reviewing it. When I’m reviewing a book, I rarely surrender entirely to the writing – there’s always a part of me that stands back, taking notes and thinking about how [...]