GEOFF SCHUMACHER'S LAS VEGAS

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Schumacher Literary Hall of Fame

Here is a list of fiction writers who are among my personal favorites (with a representative book listed alongside). These are not the usual suspects, but some of the lesser-known writers I like. Richard Yates, "Revolutionary Road"; John Fante, "Ask the Dust"; Nelson Algren, "The Man with the Golden Arm"; Frederick Exley, "A Fan's Notes"; Charles Portis, "The Dog of the South"; John Williams, "Stoner"; Patrick Hamilton, "Hangover Square"; Richard Russo, "Empire Falls"; Richard Ford, "The Sportswriter"; Don DeLillo, "White Noise"; Jim Harrison, "True North"; Raymond Carver, "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?"; Willy Vlautin, "The Motel Life"; Michael Chabon, "The Wonder Boys"; Ian McEwan, "Atonement"; Colson Whitehead, "John Henry Days"; Orhan Pamuk, "Snow"; Junot Diaz, "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao"; Avram Davidson, "Vergil in Averno"

Recent reading: recommended fiction

The Secret of Lost Things (2006), Sheridan Hay; Absurdistan (2006), Gary Shteyngart; Five Skies (2007), Ron Carlson; Citizen Vince (2005), Jess Walter; On Chesil Beach (2007), Ian McEwan; We're in Trouble (2005), Christopher Coake; Returning to Earth (2007), Jim Harrison; The Lay of the Land (2006), Richard Ford

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Geoff Schumacher

What's a dogsbody?

It's British slang for "a worker who has to do all the unpleasant or boring jobs that no one else wants to do."

January 2008



Book release buildup

Sat, 01/19/08 10:40 P GMT-08
My new book, "Howard Hughes: Power, Paranoia & Palace Intrigue," comes out Feb. 1. Things seem to be coming together for a big local launch. It will start with the publishing of an excerpt in the Feb. 3 issue of the Las Vegas Review-Jou

Heresy!

Thu, 01/10/08 10:12 P GMT-08
Two albums released in 2007 were not considered in my best-of list posted a couple of weeks ago: Radiohead's "In Rainbows" and Arcade Fire's "Neon Bible." Based on the praise for these CDs gushing from critics around the w

2007 reading list

Wed, 01/02/08 6:52 P GMT-08
It was not a terribly prolific book-reading year for me. Forty-seven books. This compares with 68 in 2006, 72 in 2005 and 63 in 2004. I didn’t get lazy. There were legitimate reasons. First, I spent much of the year writing a book of my own. An