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Can you guess what question I get asked the most?

The answer is "yes." Sometimes I interview as many as three authors in a week, which leaves me with a very packed book schedule. Most of my weekends are spent lost between the pages — or in deep concentration with my e-reader.

Here are three books I currently have on my pile, which I can't wait to dig into:

I love Ron Rash. His stories are set in the looming mountains of North Carolina, where the oppressive isolation of the setting works its way into his characters. He told me recently, "It's this sense of always being aware of how small and insignificant you are within the landscape."

"Waterfall" explores a small Appalachian town, ravaged by meth and facing new troubles. If Rash captures your interest, check out his earlier books as well, starting with "Serena."

Ron Rash on "Something Rich and Strange"

"Black Man in a White Coat" by Damon Tweedy

Tweedy's memoir is The Thread Book Club pick for September. It's a provocative reflection on race and medicine. 

Tweedy attended Duke University's medical school in the mid-1990s, when African-Americans accounted for only seven percent of medical students nationwide. He received a scholarship to encourage more people of color to study medicine.

He writes about how he struggled with self-doubt, and how the academic atmosphere was less-than-welcoming. At one point, a professor mistook him for a janitor and thanked him for showing up to fix the lights.

The book charts his path to becoming a physician, and also touches on some of the greatest health challenges communities of color confront today.

"Black Man in a White Coat"

 on Sept. 15, and I have so many questions about this novel that we may still be talking when the curtain comes down that night. 

The novel is about young Pip Taylor, a recent college graduate with $130,000 in student debt. She falls in with some anarchists in Oakland, and then snags an internship in Bolivia, but the secrets surrounding her childhood follow her wherever she goes. 

My questions for Franzen are many: What is he saying about privacy?  And personality cults?  And feminism?  It's going to be a great conversation.

It's an 'escape from everything'

Arts and Culture

The Thread® - Books and Literary News

Kerri Miller

Author

In the publishing world, fall is known as "big book" season. This mix of fiction and non-fiction are at the top of my must-read stack.

Fall reads: Three new books not to miss

Go Deeper.

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