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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."

December 2006



Books I read in 2006

Sun, 12/31/06 4:05 P GMT-08
It's New Year's Eve, and it's time to unveil the list of books I read in 2006. I read 68 this year, four fewer than in 2005, but still a pretty decent number. I vowed to slow down a little this year, and while I have a lower total, I didn

Hilo by day

Tue, 12/05/06 4:26 P GMT-08
Day 8. Blue skies! Despite the rain, Hilo is a nice little city. It is quite a bit different from Kona, its sister city on the west side of the Big Island of Hawaii. It's older and more culturally diverse than Kona, which is more of a modern tour

Hilo by night

Mon, 12/04/06 10:48 P GMT-08
This is my seventh night in Hilo, Hawaii. This is the rainy side of the Big Island, and that has been very evident the past four days. And because it is so very wet in this area, it is a perfect environment for the coqui frog. Coqui frogs are small b