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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 2009



A historic day

Tue, 01/20/09 10:07 P GMT-08
More than enough words have been posted on the Internet already about the inauguration of Barack Obama. I just wanted to mark this historic event on this blog, which supported Obama's candidacy from a very early stage of the campaign.Now the hard

Two great movies: ‘Slumdog Millionaire' and ‘Revolutionary Road'

Sat, 01/17/09 5:17 P GMT-08
I saw these two critically acclaimed movies over the past two days and was blown away by both of them."Slumdog," ostensibly about a street kid who wins on the Indian version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?," is darker than I as

NBC bans Coulter ‘for life' — good

Mon, 01/05/09 8:30 P GMT-08
Here's how The Daily Beast summarizes the story:"The conservative pundit Ann Coulter’s media tour has hit a brick wall over at 30 Rock: Matt Drudge is reporting she’s been banned from NBC for life. Coulter was scheduled to appea
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My favorite CDs of 2008

Fri, 01/02/09 8:18 P GMT-08
Here's my list, in all its glory:Neil Young, Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House 1968Drive-By Truckers, Brighter Than Creation’s DarkThe Hold Steady, Stay PositiveHank Williams, The Unreleased RecordingsWaylon Jennings, Waylon ForeverA

My 2008 reading list

Thu, 01/01/09 2:28 P GMT-08
It's that time of year again when I publish the list of books I read in the previous year. I completed 63 of them in 2008 — not bad. It's far more than last year but not close to the record (since records started being kept in 2002). I
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