http://www.toptenbooks.net Peder Zane is the author of what the Sun-Sentinal has hailed as "two power house series" featuring NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher and Portland Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid. en-us Copyright 2010 toptenbooks.net http://toptenbooks.net/blog/ Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:50:00 EST Although this blog is focused on "The Top Ten," and great books in general, from time to time I'll post some of my book reviews and essays. Here's my latest piece, which originally ran in "The Daily Caller."By J. Peder Zaneif gte mso 9>Normal0endif-->/CDATA//CDATA/ / Font Definitions / @font-face {font-family:Tahoma; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:1627421319 -2147483648 8 0 66047 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:auto; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} / Style Definitions / p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} h1 {margin-right:0in; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; mso-outline-level:1; font-size:24.0pt; font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; mso-font-kerning:18.0pt; font-weight:bold;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} p.MsoDocumentMap, li.MsoDocumentMap, div.MsoDocumentMap {margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; background:navy; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Tahoma; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} p {margin-right:0in; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;}/>//>/The dust jacket is by far the best part of David Shields’ latest work, “Reality Hunger: A Manifesto” (Knopf, $24.95, 219 pages). Wednesday, 14 April 2010 21:50:00 EST Peder Zane http://www.toptenbooks.net/blog/20100414_I_Me_Mine.html if gte mso 9>Normal0endif-->/CDATA//CDATA/ / Font Definitions / @font-face {font-family:Tahoma; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:1627421319 -2147483648 8 0 66047 0;} / Style Definitions / p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} h2 {margin-right:0in; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; mso-outline-level:2; font-size:18.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; font-weight:bold;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} p.MsoDocumentMap, li.MsoDocumentMap, div.MsoDocumentMap {margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; background:navy; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Tahoma; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} p {margin-right:0in; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} span.title1 {mso-style-name:title1;} p.author, li.author, div.author {mso-style-name:author; margin-right:0in; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} / List Definitions / @list l0 {mso-list-id:1073699793; mso-list-type:hybrid; mso-list-template-ids:1771359458 -1611250084 -1514359630 -999936224 1111553770 300430658 -1363741574 -1828804178 704693022 103472632;} @list l0:level1 {mso-level-tab-stop:.5in; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in;} ol {margin-bottom:0in;} ul {margin-bottom:0in;} -->/>//>/The world may know him as a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award Finalist, but around here Andrew Hudgins will always be known as a Top Ten contributor, a true Buckeye (by way of Alabama) and the poster child for the verb “to marry up.”Andrew’s new collection, “American Rendering: New and Selected Poems,” includes this lovely piece – click on his name and you can hear Garrison Keillor read it at the three minute mark.His WifeBy Andrew Hudginsif gte mso 9>Normal0endif-->/CDATA//CDATA/ / Font Definitions / @font-face {font-family:Tahoma; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:1627421319 -2147483648 8 0 66047 0;} / Style Definitions / p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} h2 {margin-right:0in; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; mso-outline-level:2; font-size:18.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; font-weight:bold;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} p.MsoDocumentMap, li.MsoDocumentMap, div.MsoDocumentMap {margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; background:navy; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Tahoma; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} p {margin-right:0in; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} span.title1 {mso-style-name:title1;} p.author, li.author, div.author {mso-style-name:author; margin-right:0in; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} / List Definitions / @list l0 {mso-list-id:1073699793; mso-list-type:hybrid; mso-list-template-ids:1771359458 -1611250084 -1514359630 -999936224 1111553770 300430658 -1363741574 -1828804178 704693022 103472632;} @list l0:level1 {mso-level-tab-stop:.5in; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in;} ol {margin-bottom:0in;} ul {margin-bottom:0in;}/>//>/My wife is not afraid of dirt. She spends each morning gardening, stooped over, watering, pulling weeds, removing insects from her plants and pinching them until they burst. She won't grow marigolds or hollyhocks, just onions, eggplants, peppers, peas – things we can eat. Tuesday, 13 April 2010 21:50:00 EST Peder Zane http://www.toptenbooks.net/blog/20100413_Andrew_Hudgins_Loves_His_Wife.html if gte mso 9>Normal0endif-->/CDATA//CDATA/ / Font Definitions / @font-face {font-family:Tahoma; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:1627421319 -2147483648 8 0 66047 0;} / Style Definitions / p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} p.MsoDocumentMap, li.MsoDocumentMap, div.MsoDocumentMap {margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; background:navy; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Tahoma; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} span.title1 {mso-style-name:title1;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} / List Definitions / @list l0 {mso-list-id:1073699793; mso-list-type:hybrid; mso-list-template-ids:1771359458 -1611250084 -1514359630 -999936224 1111553770 300430658 -1363741574 -1828804178 704693022 103472632;} @list l0:level1 {mso-level-tab-stop:.5in; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in;} ol {margin-bottom:0in;} ul {margin-bottom:0in;}/>//>/Tom Bissell (1974-), whose Top Ten List is featured on our home page, straddles that territory between the old literary culture and the new. On the one hand, he has the kind of resume a young John Updike would have been proud of: he’s published four books; contributes to some of the most the prestigious publications in the country including The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Virginia Quarterly Review and The New York Times Book Review and he has had his work anthologized in the Best American Short Stories, The Best American Travel Writing and The Best American Science Writing.if !supportEmptyParas--> On the other hand, his writing is marked by wondrous genre-hopping and often surprising subject matter. His first book, Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of the Empire in Central Asia (2003) is a superb travelogue of Uzbekistan, which Bissell had first visited in 1996 as a Peace Corps volunteer. Monday, 12 April 2010 21:50:00 EST Peder Zane http://www.toptenbooks.net/blog/20100412_Tom_Bissell_A_Man_of_Many_Parts.html if !mso> v\: {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\: {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\: {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} endif-->if gte mso 9>Normal0endif-->/CDATA/ / Style Definitions / p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} span.title1 {mso-style-name:title1;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} / List Definitions / @list l0 {mso-list-id:1073699793; mso-list-type:hybrid; mso-list-template-ids:1771359458 -1611250084 -1514359630 -999936224 1111553770 300430658 -1363741574 -1828804178 704693022 103472632;} ol {margin-bottom:0in;} ul {margin-bottom:0in;}/>/Stephen King is reading Blood's a Rover, by James Ellroy. Published in 2009, it is the final book in Ellroy’s Underworld USA Trilogy that also includes American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand.if !supportEmptyParas--> King calls it an “Insane novelistic history of the 1960s. Conspiracies abound. Sunday, 11 April 2010 21:50:00 EST Peder Zane http://www.toptenbooks.net/blog/20100411_Stephen_King_digs_James_Ellroy.html if gte mso 9>Normal0endif-->/CDATA//CDATA/ / Style Definitions / p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;}/>//>/Today we launch the new and improved Top Ten Books. For the first time, we have posted all 125 Top Ten Lists – from Lee K. Abbott to Meg Wolitzer. Saturday, 10 April 2010 21:50:00 EST Peder Zane http://www.toptenbooks.net/blog/20100410_All_New_Top_Ten_Books_.html The National Book Critics Circle continues its Campaign to Save Book Reviewing by featuring an interview with Top Ten contributor Roxana Robinson and a link to a terrific editorial on the subject by another Top Tenner Michael Connelly. Another list maker, G.D. Gearino, offers some smart insight into the matter at his website (which has a super cool homepage).The NBCC's mighty blog, Critical Mass, that is the hub of this heroic effort is celebrating its first anniversary today. Monday, 30 April 2007 21:50:00 EST Peder Zane http://www.toptenbooks.net/blog/20070430_Happy_Birthday_Critical_Mass.html I grew increasingly alarmed during my three years service on the board of the National Book Critics Circle by the reduction of newspaper book sections across the country. So I proposed a campaign in which we would raise awareness about this issue and make the case for why our work matters.Unfortunately, my notion became a necessity almost immediately after I left the board in March, as book reviews around the country suffered a series of cuts. NBCC board member Art Winslow chronicles this bloodbath in a recent column.Under the leadership of John Freeman and Jane Ciabattari, the NBCC has launched an impressive campaign to document this troubling trend and to fight it at its website. Friday, 27 April 2007 21:50:00 EST Peder Zane http://www.toptenbooks.net/blog/20070427_Newspaper_book_reviews.html Tom Perrotta and Gail Godwin were gracious enough to join me this morning on Minnesota Public Radio. Host Kerri Miller did a great job — and hats off to producer Chris Dall who prepared the broadcast. Have a listen.Here are their lists:GAIL GODWIN1. Wednesday, 04 April 2007 21:50:00 EST Peder Zane http://www.toptenbooks.net/blog/20070404_Top_Ten_on_the_Air.html Granta has just named "Top Ten" contributor Judy Budnitz as one of the 21 best writers under 35.Here's Judy's List:1. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov2. Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson3. Friday, 02 March 2007 21:50:00 EST Peder Zane http://www.toptenbooks.net/blog/20070302_Congratulations_Judy_Budnitz.html "The Top Ten" offers 15 Super Top Ten Lists — including The Top Ten Mysteries and Thrillers, The Top Ten Works by Living Authors — drawn from all 125 author lists. A website has come up with two more, The Top Ten Works by Women Authors, The Top Ten Works in Translation.Others? . Thursday, 01 March 2007 21:50:00 EST Peder Zane http://www.toptenbooks.net/blog/20070301_New_Top_Ten_Lists.html