Scanning the Bookshelf

"Bookish" is sometimes used to describe a shy, retiring, quiet person.

The best books, though, can transform mild-mannered readers into outgoing, noisy apostles, eager to spread someone else's words.

Each week, the Arts section will check to see what readers are pressing on friends and strangers. This week, we asked four prominent local writers — and two non-writers with strong literary ties — about their choices.

These volumes are old and new, long and short, fiction and nonfiction. But all share the power to recruit advocates who insist, "You must read this!"

CHARLES HARRINGTON ELSTER

His latest book: "The Accidents of Style: Good Advice on How Not to Write Badly" (St. Martin's Press, August 2010).

He recommends: "Middlesex" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002), by Jeffrey Eugenides.

Why? "A completely original book. I've never read anything like it, a great story — as a narrative, it's gripping. But a story about a hermaphrodite and his Greek-American heritage? The amazing thing is that on the surface you may think there is no way you can connect with this story. But it touches any reader, certainly any American reader, at any number of levels: the immigrant experience, the assimilation of communities, the sweep of American history in the first half of the 20th century."

DEBRA GINSBERG

Her latest book: "The Grift: A Novel" (Three Rivers Press, 2008).

She recommends: "Blind Descent: The Quest to Discover the Deepest Place on Earth," (Random House, 2010) by James Tabor.

Why? "It's about 'supercave' exploration. I have this fear of suffocating. Never, ever, on pain of death would I choose to do this. It is written so well and is so thrilling. You say to yourself, 'Why do these people do this?'_"

What's the answer? "One, they are crazy, and two, it really is the last frontier of 'super exploration.' The poles have been discovered, Everest has been climbed, we've gone into space. Every place has been gone to, except the center of the Earth.

"Read it with the lights on."

STEVE KOWIT

His latest book: "The First Noble Truth: Poems" (University of Tampa Press, 2007).

He recommends: "Where Horizons Go" (Truman State University Press, 1998), by Rhina P.

Espaillat.

Why? "I just discovered a woman who is one of the best American poets that I know of, absolutely wonderful, our best formal poet: Rhina P. Espaillat. I came upon her in a contemporary American anthology. I was really shocked at how good she is. But she's one of those people who isn't very well known.

"She's charming, delightful, a brilliant craftsman, a formalist in the best possible way."

BILL KOWBA

His latest book: Kowba's not a published author, but his life — the retired rear admiral who just became the San Diego Unified School District's superintendent — may make a good book.

He recommends: "The Death and Life of the Great American School System" (Basic Books, 2010), by Diane Ravitch.

Why? "As I was going through the district's superintendent selection process, I enjoyed reading this book, which offers a broad overview of the various educational reforms during the last 20 years in our country. The author offers insightful perspectives about what has worked and what has not worked in education. There is also an interesting chapter about San Diego Unified and the reforms of the Alan Bersin era."

JOSEPH WAMBAUGH

His latest book: "Hollywood Moon: A Novel" (Little, Brown and Co., 2009).

He recommends: "A Mountain of Crumbs: A Memoir" (Simon & Schuster, 2010), by Elena Gorokhova.

Why? "This is a poignant account of a Russian girl coming of age during the last years of the Soviet Union. It provides more insight about those years of fading empire than any history written about the period."

BETTY WAZNIS

Latest book: All books are "her" books — Waznis is the director of the Chula Vista Public Library.

She recommends: "The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite" (Rodale Books, 2009), by David A Kessler.

Why? "The former FDA commissioner describes how the confluence of marketing, cheap food and the exponential effect of fat, salt and sugar in layers on layers makes for an addictive food atmosphere. As a person with a food problem, I completely related to his description of the psychological states of moving from a random external food cue to the irresistible urge to eat something you know isn't good for you and you don't really want, in his case a struggle with a chocolate chip cookie.

"Good accessible science writing on a topic that everyone is talking about. Could we be heading for a scenario where unhealthy food has the same social profile as tobacco?"

To find out more about Peter Rowe and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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