If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be? It seems to me that Barack Obama is sufficiently well read. The president might consider E. M. Forster’s “Two Cheers for Democracy” or even Tina Fey’s “Bossypants,” which would have helped him surround himself with people who don’t think they know everything about everything: being poor, being wealthy, getting sick, getting old, fighting a war.

If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be? It seems to me that Barack Obama is sufficiently well read. The president might consider E. M. Forster’s “Two Cheers for Democracy” or even Tina Fey’s “Bossypants,” which would have helped him surround himself with people who don’t think they know everything about everything: being poor, being wealthy, getting sick, getting old, fighting a war.

What book has had the greatest impact on you personally? Professionally? “Tristram Shandy” shivered my timbers as a grad student, and woke me out of my zombie state about the glorious possibilities for breaking the rules whenever I damn well felt like it. Mix first person and third person? Sure, if it helps the story. Sentence fragments? Hell, yes.

What books might we be surprised to find on your shelves? I’m not entirely sure who “we” is. Some people would be surprised, I guess, to find “Train Dreams”; “Caravaggio”; “Swerve”; “What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank”; “Poems: 1962-2012,” by Louise Glück, on my bookshelves.

What books might we be surprised to find on your shelves? I’m not entirely sure who “we” is. Some people would be surprised, I guess, to find “Train Dreams”; “Caravaggio”; “Swerve”; “What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank”; “Poems: 1962-2012,” by Louise Glück, on my bookshelves.

What books might we be surprised to find on your shelves? I’m not entirely sure who “we” is. Some people would be surprised, I guess, to find “Train Dreams”; “Caravaggio”; “Swerve”; “What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank”; “Poems: 1962-2012,” by Louise Glück, on my bookshelves.

What books might we be surprised to find on your shelves? I’m not entirely sure who “we” is. Some people would be surprised, I guess, to find “Train Dreams”; “Caravaggio”; “Swerve”; “What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank”;

What books might we be surprised to find on your shelves? I’m not entirely sure who “we” is. Some people would be surprised, I guess, to find “Train Dreams”; “Caravaggio”; “Swerve”; “What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank”;

And George Saunders’s “CivilWarLand in Bad Decline.” A troubling sidebar is that for every George Saunders found, there are a dozen others, not just overlooked, but undiscovered.

Frederick Exley’s “A Fan’s Notes” is another overlooked beaut. Also Edward St. Aubyn’s Patrick Melrose novels.

Frederick Exley’s “A Fan’s Notes” is another overlooked beaut.

Who is your favorite overlooked or underappreciated writer? Let’s assume that I’ve overlooked most of the good ones myself, but I’m a fan of “Mrs. Bridge” and “Mr. Bridge,” by the late Evan S. Connell. It was Connell, and also Jerzy Kosinski (“Steps,” “The Painted Bird”) who first made me aware of the power of short, very concise and witty chapters.

Who do you consider the best thriller writers of all time? There’s that gnatty “best” word again. Soldiering on, I love Pelecanos. Also Nelson DeMille, Michael Connelly, James Lee Burke, Dennis Lehane, Walter Mosley, Don Winslow and Richard Price, of course. As one-offs, “Night Dogs,”  “The Ice Harvest,” “Marathon Man,” “Different Seasons” and “Cutter and Bone” are among my “besties.”

Who do you consider the best thriller writers of all time? There’s that gnatty “best” word again. Soldiering on, I love Pelecanos. Also Nelson DeMille, Michael Connelly, James Lee Burke, Dennis Lehane, Walter Mosley, Don Winslow and Richard Price, of course. As one-offs, “Night Dogs,”  “The Ice Harvest,” “Marathon Man,” “Different Seasons” and “Cutter and Bone” are among my “besties.”

There’s that gnatty “best” word again. Soldiering on, I love Pelecanos. Also Nelson DeMille, Michael Connelly, James Lee Burke, Dennis Lehane, Walter Mosley, Don Winslow and Richard Price, of course. As one-offs, “Night Dogs,”  “The Ice Harvest,” “Marathon Man,” “Different Seasons” and “Cutter and Bone” are among my “besties.”

There’s that gnatty “best” word again. Soldiering on, I love Pelecanos. Also Nelson DeMille, Michael Connelly, James Lee Burke, Dennis Lehane, Walter Mosley, Don Winslow and Richard Price, of course. As one-offs, “Night Dogs,”  “The Ice Harvest,” “Marathon Man,” “Different Seasons” and “Cutter and Bone” are among my “besties.”

Acclaimed crime writer Kent Anderson's "fiercely authentic and deeply disturbing" police novel, following a Vietnam veteran turned cop on the meanest streets of 1970s Portland, Oregon (Los Angeles Times).Two kinds of cops find their way to Portland's North Precinct: those who are sent there for punishment, and those who come for the action. Officer Hanson is the second kind, a veteran who survived the war in Vietnam only to decide he wanted to keep fighting at home. Hanson knows war, and in this battle for the Portland streets, he fights not for the law but for his own code of justice.Yet Hanson can't outrun his memories of another, warmer battleground. A past he thought he'd left behind, that now threatens to overshadow his future. An enemy, this time close to home, is prying into his war record. Pulling down the shields that protect the darkest moments of that fevered time. Until another piece of his past surfaces, and Hanson risks his career, his sanity--even his life--for honor.

Also Richard Price, who seems to remember every good line and phrase he ever heard. This was even true in his first novel, “The Wanderers,” which made me sick with envy way back when I was young, carefree and more susceptible to jealousy.

It’s also the most original and imaginative fiction I’ve read since “The Invention of Hugo Cabret.”

Maybe that’s why “Where’d You Go, Bernadette” is my favorite novel so far this year. It’s funnier than a season’s worth of “Modern Family,”  “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Justified” episodes;