By M L  Van Valkenburgh

1. Best Book by a First-Time Author
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
David Wroblewski
HarperCollins
$25.95
The haunting tale of young Edgar Sawtelle, born mute but getting by on his family’s farm where “Sawtelle Dogs” are born, raised, and trained, is a masterpiece. Reminiscent of Leif Enger’s Peace Like a River in its gentle telling, it grips you without spectacle from page one and keeps your attention through good times, tragedy, murder, and revenge. Especially beautiful are the scenes where Edgar goes to live in the woods with a lively young pack of dogs. A perfect reminder of how man’s best friend can be the most comforting thing when you’ve lost everything.

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Posted on December 16, 2008

By Connie Nardini

“It’s not a sign. Kate refused to let it be a sign.”
Kate Flynn, the opening character in Tessa Hadley’s 2008 novel The Master Bedroom, was involved in a auto accident at the end of a long and frustrating drive. And it seemed to contain a sign – “In the dim light something fell from the sky; at first Kate thought it was a bundle of dirty washing wrapped in a sheet.” But it turned out to be a swan that bounced off a truck and hit a car in front of Kate. After the ensuing pile-up, no one was really found to be hurt but everyone involved was confused and upset. The Swan from the Sky drew a long trail of consequences behind it that seem very believable and ordinary, but who can tell a real omen from a fake one? Should omens come “wrapped in a dirty sheet?”

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Posted on December 15, 2008

By The Beachwood Blago Books Affairs Desk

Unless Rod Blagojevich has a sudden moment of sanity and confesses, it will probably be at least a year – and probably two – before he actually sees the inside of a prison cell. Nonetheless, we here at the Beachwood Blago Books Affairs Desk would like to offer up some jailhouse reading for the gov.
1. The Man Who Emptied Death Row: Governor George Ryan and the Politics of Crime. By James Merriner.
At least Ryan emptied Death Row and kept the wheels of government turning. Your clumsy schemes, Mr. Blagojevich, are a disgrace to corrupt politicians everywhere. In prison, you’ll be Ryan’s bitch.

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Posted on December 9, 2008

By Steve Rhodes

“It’s a little-known fact that the Virgin Mary was fond of creamed spinach,” Paul Collins writes an essay titled “The Oddball Know-It-All” in the New York Times Book Review. “And did you know that sauerbraten was invented by Charlemagne? That the geneticist Gregor Mendel spent much of his time developing a recipe for fried eggs? Or that “people who use considerable red pepper in their foods are almost immune to atomic radiation”?
“If you’re nodding in recognition, you’re a lucky owner of George Leonard Herter’s farrago Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices – one of the greatest oddball masterpieces in this or any other language. A surly sage, gun-toting Minnesotan and All-American crank – the kind of guy who would take his own sandwiches to Disneyland because the restaurants were No Damned Good – Herter wrote books on such disparate topics as candy making, marriage advice, African safaris and household cleaning.”
Who knew?
Well, these guys did.

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Posted on December 9, 2008

By Steve Rhodes

An occasional look through the magazines laying around Beachwood HQ.
Teen Scream
Sociologist Mike Males pretty much rules. Every journalist in America ought to get a lecture from him to find out why nearly everything they write about teens, for example, is wrong. The great thing about Males is that A) he bases his conclusions on hard facts and B) he doesn’t perceive teenagers as irrational aliens.
In the New Yorker, Males responds to an article about teenage pregnancy with a letter to the editor that opens this way:
“Margaret Talbot, in writing about teen-age pregnancy, focuses on sex and abstinence education, religion and media messages (‘Red Sex, Blue Sex,’ November 3rd).
“The main reason that the United States has the highest rate of teen pregnancy among comparable nations, however, is that youth here suffer the highest rate of poverty.”
As usual, he has the research to back him up, which, curiously enough, is far more dependable than the ready-made narratives of journalists projecting their own family problems on their readers.

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Posted on December 5, 2008

By Steve Rhodes

1. Deborah Solomon vs. Studs Terkel.
From an interview of Studs Terkel by the Reader’s Michael Lenehan.
*
TERKEL: For example, you said that you cut your questions out and you make it sort of a soliloquy. Well that’s what I do, you see. I keep the question in when it’s necessary, as a transition moment, or when a humorous or whimsical aspect can be revealed in an exchange. But generally speaking, I shift things around. An interview is not written in stone. You can adjust the sequences. But never altering the words – the words are the words of the person, that’s clear.
LENEHAN: But you’re the guy who set the form, Studs. I think it will be useful; writers are going to be interested to know what your rules are. So, for example, I would take a paragraph from the end and put it at the beginning, if that made the story go better.
TERKEL: Right. That’s right.

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Posted on December 2, 2008