Recently my old paper of employ, the SF Examiner, asked 11 writers to dish on their latest reading passions. Regular readers of this site won’t be surprised (and might be a little wearied–I’m moving on, I swear!) to learn I recommended the short stories of Laurie Colwin:

?I?ve become a mad proselytizer for Laurie Colwin after hearing her story ?The Lone Pilgrim? (Harper Perennial) on the public radio show ?Selected Shorts.? Colwin died at age 48 of a sudden heart attack in 1992, but all of her 10 books remain in print thanks to ardent word of mouth. I love her because she writes about the deeply private passions of outwardly sensible, buttoned-down people. To her, it seems, part of the charm of life is how we try and fail to neatly shape it. I?ll probably read her novels and even her cooking memoirs eventually, but of the short-story collections I?ve devoured, ?The Lone Pilgrim? is best.?

Scroll down in the story to learn why Daniel Handler is fired up by Jim Shepherd, Beth Lisick is raving about the new novel by Michelle Tea, and Peter Orner is rediscovering Joseph Mitchell.

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