A winning debut

Michael Thomas recently received the 2009 International Impac Dublin Literary Award for his debut novel, "Man Gone Down." It was chosen out of a final list of eight novels from the United States, Norway, India, Pakistan and France. If this stellar novel is not on your reading table, it should be.

54 years, 54 books

To celebrate my birthday today - turning a frolicsome 54 - I compiled a list of 54 favorite books. The majority are novels, but there are also mysteries (Daphne du Maurier), memoirs (Patricia Hampl), Vietnam books (Tim O'Brien), classics (Norman MacLean), short stories (Ellen Gilchrist), Pulitzer Prize winners (Wallace Stegner) and more. Not a mere list, though, but also descriptions and commentary to help fill those summer reading totes.

He couldn’t stop

Walter Kirn's new memoir mocks the academic meritocracy that deemed him a scholarly achiever. "Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever" reveals he was a student who collected academic awards and prizes, honors and commendations, as if it were a game to be played and not an education to be gained. It's a sobering and funny book.

“The Photographer”

Photojournalist Didier Lefevre traveled into the far northern reaches of Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders in 1986. The leader of the expedition invited Didier so he could document the mission's effort to set up a small field hospital in the war-torn nation. "The Photographer" tells the mission's story in black and white photographs knitted together with prose and artwork in the style of a graphic novel. It's a visual treat.

Libby needs a happy place

"Dark Places" is Gillian Flynn's new novel set in Kansas during 1985 and the present. It's a fictional crime story about a family murder reinvestigated by the surviving daughter, Libby, 25 years after it happened. Had the author created a more convincing Libby, "Dark Places" would be a terrific story instead of acceptable entertainment.