Journalism: My work has appeared in The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Globe & Mail (Canada), The Times- Picayune (New Orleans), The Oregonian, and Willamette Week, as well as in magazines including Details, Vogue, Publishers Weekly, and Portland Monthly.
Publishing: Tight Shot, my first novel, was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America. Its sequel, Hot Shot, was roundly ignored by everyone, but was a far better book. I'm also a member of the National Book Critics Circle.
Stage: I was a member of the Groundlings and Circle Repertory West in Los Angeles, and am a playwright (see "Stage" in the right-hand rail).
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Patty Friedmann: A Little Bit Ruined
One of the first post-Katrina novels, and probably destined to be one of the best. Friedmann's sequel to Eleanor Rushing finds her crazy heroine still holding everything together after the storm (after a fashion), until she has to leave New Orleans and she falls apart physically as well as mentally. Mordantly, morbidly funny.
Tom Piazza: Why New Orleans Matters
The best post-Katrina book I've read. In 150 small pages, Piazza explicates the New Orleans experience simply and beautifully. I'll be passing this one on to anyone who wonders "But why would anyone want to live there?".
I've heard of more than half the authors, and perhaps a half-dozen of the books. One correction to the list: Amis's Experience is memoir, not novel, and it's extraordinarily memorable and good
Posted by: nancy | May 29, 2007 at 06:37 PM
Thanks for posting this list. I've bookmarked it for future reference. That title "Nice, Big American Baby" is an attention grabber.
Posted by: Laura | May 30, 2007 at 01:57 PM
Thanks, Nancy - I run hot and cold on Amis, but I'll check out this one on your recommendation.
Laura: I found three of the books from Page 1 of that list on the shelves at Multnomah Public Library today (including American Baby and Suzy Zeus) - so if you're interested, the library seems to have most of the titles.
Posted by: Kevin | May 30, 2007 at 10:04 PM
Oh, man thanks. This sounds like a terrific list. I need new, and more, books in my life right now.
And props to the Multnomah County Library. It's one of the reasons I continue to live in Portland.
Posted by: lizzy | May 30, 2007 at 10:10 PM
I am, so far, always cold on Amis's fiction, and burning burning hot on his nonfiction: also check out "Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million," about Stalin and, holy shit, what a book.
Posted by: nancy | May 31, 2007 at 03:20 PM
I haven't read any of those, and have put some on my list.
Looking over the shelves (just as an aside, I have a tendency to slip "gotta keep" paper items between books, and just discovered that an ad for one of your plays is held firmly between The Happy Hooker and Xavier!), I'd throw in "The Wars" by Timothy Findley.
There's also one, "Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town", written by Stephen Leacock. Imagine a gentler version of Mark Twain. He lived in Orillia, a small town in Ontario around the turn of the 20th century, and "Sketches" is set there. You have to be fond of small-town humor, but his description of opening a bank account (and closing it during the same transaction) and of a sinking excursion boat are hilarious.
Posted by: Rabbit | June 01, 2007 at 11:39 AM