Meet My New Friend Enzo

You'll definitely want to read the previous posting, Somewhere the zebra is dancing, but today I want to clue you in on a totally entertaining novel from Garth Stein.

You may know that we get dozens of advance reader copies of upcoming books. Our publishing friends send us books that they think we will want to order and sell. Sometimes we request them, but most of the time they come in unsolicited. Depending on the source, we quickly scan the books and Mark, Sophie, Ann, and I grab up a stack to take home and read.

The Art of Racing in the Rain does not have a flashy cover. A week ago I didn't even know what the book was about. Ann had picked it up but never got around to reading it, so I threatened that if she didn't start it by the time I finished the history book I was reading, then I would start on it.

That's a real threat, too, because I am notoriously hard on books, particularly paperback galley proofs of books I may or may not plan to stock.

So, Tuesday night, before bed, I started the book. I read more the next day while walking to work, and again today. I've not quite finished it, although I must say the book has turned much darker in its second half.

In any case, that's all I'm going to say on the subject right now. This weekend I'll add some cover art and provide a few more nuggets of wisdom from my new friend Enzo. But here's a tiny taste.

Enzo watches a lot of television and he is very specific about who his favorite actors are. When you read the book (and I'm convinced you will), you'll learn why.

1. Steve McQueen
2. Al Pacino (Enzo loved the remake of Scarface, but it doesn't compare to the Godfather movies, "which are excellent.")
3. Paul Newman (partly because he purchases his palm fruit oil from renewable sources in Colombia and thereby discourages the decimation of vast tracts of rain forest in Borneo and Sumatra.)
4. George Clooney ("...because he looks a little like me around the eyes.")
5. Dustin Hoffman

The first person who can come in to the store and tell me what 1, 2, 3, and 5 have in common, according to Enzo, before buying the book, wins a BookTV t-shirt.