A tome to take to the beach! Really! It's Mailer at his story-spinning best: convict Gary Gilmore's all-too-true existential, death-row struggle NOT to live actually makes for something page-turning--it's artfully investigative, and incredibly affecting. Will draw you in to these very real (and imagined by Mailer) characters' stories, and will force you to ask yourself some big questions.

In the desolate Turkish town of Kars, strange things are happening: young Muslim women are inexplicably committing suicide; events are written in the newspaper before they happen; poems appear as if from nowhere (from God?); the poet Ka searches for any tangible form of identity...and it snows, and snows, and snows...the perfect summer read to beat the heat! (And it's brilliant!)

This genre-bending book is laid out like one man's personalized version of the World Book Encyclopedia, in elegant vignettes from Ancestors to Ziplock Bags. McCartney associates selected words with--memories? fantasies? musings?--which weave throughout the book into a cohesive portrait of both the story-teller and of the (somewhat apocalyptic) state of things. Some of the most unique and inspiring new fiction I've read recently.

Both novellas are dark and strange and funny and moving, and full of sick scenes of old L.A. (and New York)--and together in one attractive volume! What more could you ask?

Local author/scholar Aslan gives an introduction to Islam--for those of us who don't know a whole lot to begin with--in incredibly concise and well-written story form, from the time of Muhammed to the present...and potential future. It's the best possible introduction to the history and evolution of Islam, as well as a well-balanced look at how it's interpreted and (mis)understood over time and of course particularly nowadays.

Greene's big thing is incorporating his favorite themes--religion, colonialism, and moral ambiguity--into simply-told and thrilling stories (often having to do with shady foreign politics). I recommend most highly: "A Burnt-Out Case" for dark/funny (lepers in Africa), "Our Man in Havana for funny/dark (political satire), and "The Power and the Glory" for pretty much one of the greatest modern novels ever written.