The Katzenbach Reading list...

(Or a short, very eccentric list of books I consider essential...)

Curiously, I very rarely read fiction in my own genre, and when I do, the books read tend to be written by friends, or else have some truly unique edginess about them that attracts me. So, with that caveat in mind, let me suggest the following:

Anything by Carl Hiaasen.

(He sat two desks behind me at The Miami Herald in the early 80's, and on more than one occasion we hammered the bonefish and permit in Biscayne Bay together, perched on the bow of his flats skiff. His is a wonderfully iconoclastic vision of the world, filled with a passion and integrity that lies just beneath the surface of his extraordinarily funny novels. He may seem like a dour Norwegian when you meet him, and I must report, he mutters and curses with a singular lack of originality when he blows a cast to a cruising bonefish. Still, Carl is one of the finest writers and guys around, who deserves all the success he's had.)

The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov.

The Devil and his entourage arrive in Soviet Moscow in the 1920's. Much mischief ensues in pursuit of love, art, integrity and redemption. A treatise on politics and perhaps the most engaging vision of the crucifixion of Christ any writer has ever imagined (and a whole helluva lot more compelling than that of Mel Gibson). The book Carl Hiaasen longs to write.

The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara.

Avoid the movie, which doesn't come close to capturing the brilliant evocation of the pivotal moment in American history. If you truly want to understand the genius of Shaara's prose, search out a copy of the Ernest Hemingway edited compilation of war writing, Men at War, and find the excerpt, The Stars in Their Courses. Read this in conjunction with the chapter in The Killer Angels, where Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain defends Little Round Top and, in doing so, saves not merely the Union Army, but the United States and the entire concept of democracy. These two visions together show what it was like on top of that hill, out of ammunition and with little hope, and what it was like to go up that hill, into the ferocity and determination of those hard men from the state of Maine. Unforgettable. One wishes that the poseurs and charlatans who pretend to be "leaders" in Washington would spend more time reading and less time going to fund raisers.

The Unlikely Spy, by Daniel Silva

A primer, both on how to create character, how to imagine suspense, and how to weave history all together into an incredibly satisfying novel.

Young Men and Fire, by Norman Maclean

The single greatest opening paragraph in all of non-fiction written in the past twenty years. Beautifully crafted, evocative and memorable, this book will stay with you, if only for the image of the aged Maclean, climbing the steep pitch of Mann Gulch, laboring in the heat and with exertion, every step stealing the last threads of the old man's vitality, but driven with the compulsion to understand why those smoke jumpers died.

Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry.

For many years, one of my favorites, but I have lately decided that his son James' songwriting is it's equal. Listen to "Jaws of Life," or "Melinda..."

Going After Cacciato and The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien. A Rumor of War, by Philip Caputo, Friendly Fire, by C.D.B. Bryan and These Good Men, by Michael Norman. Dispatches, by Michael Herr.

These entries are pretty self-explanatory. Two novels of depth and vision and some of the finest reporting, coupled with a pair of memoirs that remain vibrant, and actually gain in strength and intensity, as the years pass.

My Traitor's Heart, by Rian Malan.

An extraordinary book that shouts out honesty. South Africa. Probably best read in conjunction with watching Breaker Morant, a movie about that country, but not really.

Best Book I Read This Summer: Shadow Divers, by Robert Kurson. A story about two obsessed deep water scuba divers and a WW2 German submarine that is someplace is shouldn't be (250 feet under the Atlantic off the New Jersey coast). A book about discovery and the price paid for fascination. Danger. Excitement. Totally compelling from the first pages. Wonderfully written.

A fascinating mystery-thriller writer, not known nearly well enough: Philip Kerr. Try: A Philosophical Investigation.

A very well known writer who rarely disappoints: Thomas Harris. (Hell Red Dragon even scared me, and kept me up all night reading. So did John Fowles' The Magus, which, to my mind, at least, remains the alpha and omega of literary thrillers...)