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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

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."

August 2007



UNLV wins! Don't get too excited . . .

Thu, 08/30/07 7:06 P GMT-08
The UNLV football team won at Utah State tonight by a score of 23-16. This is a good thing, because it broke a long road losing streak for the Rebels. It also was a big lift for UNLV's freshman quarterback, Travis Dixon, who played pretty well in
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"Moby-Dick" under way

Tue, 08/28/07 8:48 P GMT-08
At long last, I have begun reading "Moby-Dick." Of course I should have read America's greatest novel years ago. But I think it's a more enjoyable experience now than it would have been when I was much younger. The edition I am read

Greedy, gutless on the web

Mon, 08/27/07 7:40 P GMT-08
I find it reprehensible and, frankly, un-American that web companies such as Google. Yahoo and MSN are so eager to submit to censorship so they can get their greedy hands on the Chinese market. Are any of the big web companies going to stand up to th

Fox News is a menace

Mon, 08/27/07 7:32 P GMT-08
Of course, you already knew that. But check out a three-minute video at www.foxattacks.com suggesting that Fox News wouldn't mind at all if the United States launched a war against Iran. It's not simply an ideological position. War is the per

Something that is true

Thu, 08/23/07 8:28 P GMT-08
Gay Talese, "A Writer’s Life," describing his experience as a reporter:“Eighty percent of the information I have collected from people ends up in the wastebasket. Nonetheless, I could not have discovered the useful 20 percent wi

Eli Manning

Tue, 08/21/07 9:26 P GMT-08
In some ways, it would really suck to be Eli Manning. You're a good professional quarterback, but your older brother is a living legend. People are always comparing you to him. As a result, people's expectations are perhaps unfairly high.On t

"Superbad"

Mon, 08/20/07 8:09 P GMT-08
Extremely funny movie. Very coarse — not for those of a prudish nature — but hilarious.

The collection

Fri, 08/10/07 10:26 P GMT-08
When does a collection of books qualify as a "book collection"? This actually is a serious question, one that I often ask about my collection of books. Do I have a "collection"? I may be a collector, but am I what anyone would con
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