GEOFF SCHUMACHER'S LAS VEGAS

News, Music, Movies, Books and More

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

My profile

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 2007



My best albums of 2007

Tue, 12/18/07 8:25 P GMT-08
This is my list. I bought a hell of a lot of CDs this year and liked a lot of the new music that was produced. It seemed like a pretty good year overall. You'll notice some albums on my list that are prominent on many other 2007 best-of lists (se

For the record

Sat, 12/08/07 11:18 P GMT-08
Moby Dick finally surfaces with 30 pages to go in the book. Were the first 625 pages worth reading to get to the last 30? Well, yes. It's a gripping finale, for one thing. For another, I can see why some people consider "Moby-Dick" to b

Get to the point, Herman!

Fri, 12/07/07 6:40 P GMT-08
I have now read 555 pages of "Moby-Dick." I have just 100 pages left, and the title character still hasn't made an appearance. This strikes me as a little odd, but I can't say it's been an uneventful journey to this point. We ha

This strikes me as all too true

Mon, 12/03/07 7:13 P GMT-08
"I write because I can't do normal work like other people." — Orhan Pamuk