The Salon.com Reader's Guide to Contemporary Authors

"The Salon.com Reader's Guide to Contemporary Authors" is edited by Laura Miller, with Adam Begley. It consists primarily of alphabetically-arranged entries on selected writers. Each entry contains a list of books by the author, as well as a critical essay. This collection of writers is international and multicultural, although the selection is (as noted in the preface) limited to authors who write (or wrote) fiction in English and who have had major works published since 1960.This is a book that I use both to "discover" authors I'm not familiar with, as well as to get new perspectives on authors I already know (either passingly or thoroughly). Each entry is about 1 to 2 pages long. A very short sampler of some of the authors covered: Chinua Achebe, Sherman Alexie, Saul Bellow, Charles Bukowski, Ian Fleming, Allegra Goodman, Ursula K. LeGuin, Amy Tan, Gore Vidal, etc.The critical articles contain some questionable statements, but that's half the fun of this book: it's a reference work with which an intelligent reader can disagree.In addition to the main entries, there is a series of sidebar book lists compiled by various individuals. Examples: "Five Contemporary Noir Classics," listed by David Bowman; "A Walk on the Wild Side: Very Original Novels," by Peter Carey; "Smart and Sexy," by Erica Jong; etc. The books are listed with short descriptive paragraphs.There is also a series of interspersed literary essays: "Every Novel Is a Lesbian Novel," by Dorothy Allison; "Of This World: Why Science Fiction Can't Be Dismissed," by John Clute; etc. If you love contemporary literature, you may find "The Salon.com Reader's Guide" to be a wonderful resource.

Coming at this book from the angle of someone who hasn't read a great deal of contemporary fiction, I found this book well worth the investment. While some seasoned readers may complain that specific authors didn't make the final cut, for me the book offered a wide selection of styles and genres to pick from. Furthermore, the "See Also" dialogues give several jumping-off points once you've exhausted a specific author's entire bibliography. For people who live and breathe by the New York Times Book Review, this probably won't provide much additional information. But if you've always enjoyed the contemporary literature you've read and want to find out a bit more, you can't go wrong with the two hundred authors listed here.

this is what I needed! and so many other people too... a place to run when someone talks glibly about some author... you want a basic, opinionated take on them, and you want a list of the person's books -- but with a sub-list of the ones that are notable and should be read. AND you want the word on "what is the ONE book by them that you should read if you were only to read one?"I just wish to god they had this for popular music. and maybe they're doing it. would be a harder task.LOVE this book.

I eagerly took this book home, and quickly flipped through the pages to see how many books I've read by the 225 authors listed in this guide. I've got a lot of work ahead of me. What I appreciated the most about the book is that along with literary giants such as Margaret Atwood, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Toni Morrison, and Robertson Davies, the contributors to this guide also mention commercial success stories such as Stephen King, Tom Clancy, John Grisham, and Michael Crichton. For each entry there is a bibliography given, a summary of the authors works, and a 'see also' paragraph that leads you to other great authors with similar writting styles as your favourites. In between entries there are essays and suggestions given by the said authors themselves which are enlightening and entertaining. I don't know much about salon.com, but I've learnt that they're capable of producing a top notch reference that I'll will use frequently.

In true Salon.com form, this book offers readers wonderful insight into contemporary literature. A great resource, a wonderful guide for any book lover! The folks at Salon continue to amaze me with their irreverant, wonderfully fresh writing. I challange anyone to find a better content site. More importantly, Salon writers, lead by Ms. Miller, translate beautifully from web to print, as seen in The Salon.com Reader's Guide to Contemporary Authors.