ThreeGuys1Book has 1605 followers | By Jason Rice  I am a building, but I am more or less than a building. I was conceived during the 1938 World Fair exposition and born in New York City four decades later. I was raised in scaffolding. During my gestation, I grew until I saw people from the north, south, east, west, a compass of my makers in a high rise nest of people. Later, I was the sum of destructions, as Picasso said, but I began as the sum of constructions. Soon, the first terrorists – birds — flew into me. Continue reading Paul A. Toth – Airplane Novel By Jason Chambers  HZ refused me when I offered to grab his bag for him – back when non-fliers could still go to meet a plane at the gate – and when we climbed in my little blue Geo Metro, he was as personable and friendly as anyone could have hoped, but even more, he was interested. He was instantly invested in the situations of the university, its students, and the surrounding community, asking pointed questions about race relations, about the state of the recently proposed grad student union, and about the social state in the local community. Continue reading Howard Zinn 1922-2010 By Jonathan Evison  We had just moved to our house in rural Pennsylvania, which would make me about nine or ten years old, when I stole my brother’s copy of Where the Red Fern Grows off his bookshelf—I have no idea where he got it, or if he’d read it, but I do know that I’ve never forgotten it. I can even remember the tactile sense of holding it and staring at the foxed and fouled cover; the image was so haunting I was compelled to pick it up and give it a read. Continue reading When We Fell In Love – Keith Dixon By Jason Rice  I was a sophomore in high school when I first discovered Kurt Vonnegut. I read BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS on the advice of a librarian, and I developed an immediate crush on both the novel and the woman. I had never come across anything quite like that book, and I read it twice in a row, which is something that I never do. Continue reading When We Fell In Love – Riley Michael Parker By Dennis Haritou  Two years out of college (publishing job dispensed with) I was doing an MFA at Columbia and our teacher asked us in workshop one day who some of our influences were. I gushed over Laurie of course; my devotion was very fresh in my mind as Colwin had, unexpectedly and in middle age, died 18 months previously. Julie and I had attended her jammed, uptown memorial at Symphony Space . Continue reading When We Fell In Love – Caitlin Macy By Dennis Haritou  My first reading of White Noise took place outdoors, in a reclining deck chair with my feet up against the log railing outside of a friend’s parent’s log home built onto a mountainside in Summit County, state of Colorado. I mention this for two reasons. First, to clarify that I was then, as I had been all of my life, plugged neatly into a world of American wealth and wasteful consumption, which made the big red DeLillo target on my back all the bigger and redder. Continue reading When We Fell In Love – Kyle Beachy By Jason Rice  The Imperfectionists, or the people who I assume to be imperfect, are in fact that real gems of this story. Characters like Lloyd Burko, who gets this story off the ground, and becomes a beacon for the entire cast, and someone I looked back to every few chapters. What makes this story so engrossing is the different narrators Mr. Rachman deftly weaves together to form a larger tapestry (despite the fact that every editor and agent I’ve ever come across has told me that connected stories don’t sell). Continue reading The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman By Jason Chambers  A common babysitting method was to drop me at a bookstore, library, or even a flea market (in the bookstall) where I would while away the hours without much concern. In the 70’s and 80’s you could apparently do that kind of thing and not worry about child abductions and the like. From grades 4 to my senior year in high school I spent most of my time in school trying to conceal a book under my desk. I would bring several so I had spares when they were confiscated. Continue reading When We Fell In Love – Matt Bondurant By Jason Rice  Unable to answer my questions—or at least not to my satisfaction—the pastor subsequently avoided me, and I took up the hobby of scowling at him. As a distraction, I read John Updike’s Rabbit, Run in church, camouflaged it inside a Bible. I had found the book in my mother’s bookshelf next to a biography of Lauren Bacall, and I was intrigued by the title, which seemed like a kid’s book akin to Peter Rabbit, even though I knew it was for adults. Continue reading When We Fell In Love: Victoria Patterson By Jason Rice  I first saw Matt Logue’s photographs in an email from Very Short List, (if you aren’t signed up to that service, you should). There isn’t a whole lot that can be done with photography anymore, now that digital imagery has taken hold of the process. I recently went back to a 35mm film camera after years working with digital. There’s sharpness with film that is somehow missing from digital, it’s hard to explain, and I’m not trying to be a snob here, just a realist. Continue reading Empty LA by Matt Logue By 3G1B  Speaking as a bookseller, I don’t think most Southern fiction sells well outside of the South. A novel taking place in the Midwest is going to sell best in that part of the country. The prominent exceptions to this rule are just that…exceptions. But my guess is that novels taking place in London or NY sell everywhere and the Londoners and New Yorkers are reading each other…hell, the two cities might as well be joined together at the hip…New London York City. Continue reading On Regional Literature By Jason Chambers  I guess this is kind of like that, but somewhat more amorphous. I don’t know if these are the best, and I’m not asking the guys for a specific number (hell, they don’t even have to be from 2009 – we’re rule-breakers here), but here are a few of the books I’m particularly glad to have read this year, that may or may not have been mentioned here on the blog. Continue reading A Few Belated Thoughts on 2009 | |
Recent Comments