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Book Nook provides readers with insights into the world of books. Vick Mickunas takes you into the center of the publishing world with the latest book buzz, book reviews, and exclusive chats with authors..Home > Blogs > Book Nook > Archives > 2007 > September > 10 > Entry
put these books on your radar
THE ELEPHANTA SUITE by Paul Theroux (Houghton Mifflin). I’ll never forget the first time I heard Paul Theroux. I didn’t read him, I heard him on the radio-(not him, actually-I’ll explain). Back in the mid-70’s I was living in Des Moines and working at the post office. I listened to the public radio station at Iowa State University in Ames (WOI-fm) on headphones while I sorted mail in an attempt to maintain some semblance of sanity amidst that postal hell. They broadcast a LOCAL program called The Book Club. The host, Doug Brown, would read from the same book for an hour each day until the book was finished. He was a marvelous reader. In 1975 he read The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia by Paul Theroux. I fell in love with Theroux’s writing and I have loved every one of his books that I have read. This new book consists of 3 short novellas. (Sept. 26)
THE USED WORLD by Haven Kimmel (The Free Press). Creative people can be eccentic. Writers are among the most bizarre artistic types you’ll ever meet. I could tell stories all day. But I won’t. A few years ago I interviewed Haven Kimmel. This writer from Indiana is best known for her memoir A Girl Named Zippy. She’s a bit eccentric but man, can she write! This latest novel is set at the Used World Emporium in Jonah, Indiana. (Sept. 18)
OTHER COLORS—Essays and a Story by Orhan Pamuk (Knopf). Pamuk is a Turkish writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature last year. Turkey is not an easy place to express “unpopular” opinions. Pamuk has taken some heat from the Turkish government for speaking out on some controversial issues. His selection for the Nobel hopefully will immunize him from some of that scrutiny. His essays are brilliant. Improve your mind. (Sept. 24)
Vick Mickunas
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