A Year in Reading: Patrick Brown 2

Here was the reading experience I was looking for! I couldn’t wait to get back to it. I read it over breakfast, over lunch. I voluntarily took the bus to work, just so I’d have extra time to read. It was the book that reminded me what a pleasure a great book can be.

James Ross and The Agony of the One-Hit Wonder 13

James Ross published just one novel in his lifetime.  This is a rare thing because of a paradox that lies at the heart of novel writing: it demands such sustained focus, such persistence, so much raw pig-headed stubbornness that anyone who does it once almost invariably does it again, and again, and again.  Once is almost never enough.

The Millions Interview: Tom McAllister 2

McAllister became known as "the ultimate Philly guy." No wonder, considering he grew up in a row house, attended La Salle University, teaches at Temple, and even worked in a cheesesteak shop. But a person cannot be so reduced, as he explores in his new memoir.

A Year in Reading: Michelle Huneven 0

This was my year of reading alcoholically. I didn’t plan it that way. But in book after book, the disease flourished and triumphed, not a recovery in sight.

Ask a Book Question: #74 (Just One Book) 32

If you could read just one novel, what would it be?

Staff Picks: Brooks, Richler, Snow, Codrescu, Waller 0

Ask a Book Question (#59): Books for Recent Graduates 4

A Year in Reading: Ben Dooley 2