Last week I asked her what she was reading. Her reply:
This summer, I stood in front of a friend's enormous bookshelf and asked him to loan me something. He put David Rakoff's Fraud in my hands, and I love him for it. I had seen David Rakoff in a Q&A at the LA Times Festival of Books, but I had never read him before. He definitely has my sense of humor, sort of a quizzical "What the hell is going on here?" curiosity, but what struck me most was how empathetic he was in his observations. He doesn't just poke fun at people the way some essay writers do--he portrays situations as three-dimensional. I'm a fan.Read an excerpt from Audrey, Wait!, and learn more about the book and author at Robin Benway's website and MySpace page.A few weeks later, I found myself in a mammoth bookstore in the middle of the desert, so I texted another friend and said, "In bookstore. Recommend something." Two minutes later, she wrote back, California Crossing. It's by Adam Langer and takes place in a Chicago neighborhood around 1979-80, and I can't believe I've never read it before. I love when authors can take multiple characters and plotlines and weave them together so beautifully that it looks effortless. I'm about halfway through it, but I don't want to finish it yet.
Other books on the "Read Now" pile that I'm trying to get to before summer ends: The Children's Hospital by Chris Adrian, Anagrams by Lorrie Moore, and Laurel Canyon by Michael Walker. For every book I finish, it seems that three more take its place.
Check out the Audrey, Wait! website.
--Marshal Zeringue
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