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."

March 2006



Taliban still rule Afghanistan

Tue, 03/28/06 9:13 A GMT-08
So, the good news is that an Afghan man who faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity has been freed from custody. The bad news is he had to go into hiding or risk getting killed by religious extremists. The United Nations app

See "V for Vendetta"

Tue, 03/21/06 10:50 A GMT-08
"V for Vendetta" works for me in this way: It's a thought-provoking movie and at the same time an entertaining action flick. This is rare. Any time you can explore the basic ideas of Geore Orwell's "1984," Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" and Harper L

Some good CDs so far in 2006

Sun, 03/12/06 7:16 P GMT-08
For reasons that aren't at all clear, I continue to acquire and listen to CDs by new bands despite no longer writing reviews for publication as I did at the Mercury. Sometimes, they are really good, often not. It would be a lot easier to simply sit b

Bush is amazing

Thu, 03/02/06 5:11 P GMT-08
President Bush registers a 34 percent approval rating, absurdly low even for somebody as absurd as Bush. And his next move is to announce a big nuclear power deal with India that flies in the face of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty and seems like
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Civil war in Iraq

Wed, 03/01/06 5:52 A GMT-08
Commentators are telling us Iraq is "on the brink" of civil war between Sunnis and Shiites. It seems a little farther along than "on the brink" to me. And if a civil war has in fact erupted between these religious factions, there isn't a whole lot U.