What to Read this Fall

Here are three new books I'm reading, in bound galleys because of review assignments, as the leaves begin to fall in Columbia, Missouri:

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, A.J. Jacobs, Simon & Schuster. I cannot think of any contemporary author who combines humor and life lessons any better than Jacobs, an editor at Esquire magazine. His previous book, The Know-It-All, made me think on almost every page while causing me physical pain from prolonged, heavy laughter.

Trashed, a novel by Alison Gaylin, Obsidian/New American Library. For more than 30 years, I have collected novels with journalists as protagonists. The collection, housed at the University of Missouri library tops 3000 books, of which I have read a significant percentage. This one ranks in the top one percent in terms of plotting and verisimilitude.

The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters, edited by Charlotte Mosley, HarperCollins. Jessica Mitford is one of my investigative reporting heroines. Her five sisters became famous/infamous, but for reasons different from superb investigative reporting. The letters exchanged by the sisters over a 78-year span are mostly fascinating and frequently disturbing.

Steve Weinberg is an NBCC director. His dual biography of Ida Tarbell and John D. Rockefeller is scheduled for publication by W.W. Norton during Spring 2008.