Ben East Books

Citizenship | Literature

Select novels, short stories, and nonfiction on contemporary life.

PROFILES IN SERVICE

What began as a bold experiment in grassroots service produced future ambassadors to help guide U.S. diplomacy through seven decades of global upheaval.

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Novels

Read, Listen, Watch

  • Short, Sharp Interview: Preston Lang

    I’m a big fan of Preson Lang. Really looking forward to this release!

  • Review–The Garden of Good and Evil Pancakes

    In time for Veteran’s Day (also Armistice Day), Atticus Review posted my latest look at today’s literature with David S. Atkinson‘s The Garden of Good and Evil Pancakes. What better way to suggest the futility of the human experience than with a card game called Armistice? This game is not War, it is Armistice. Because, as…

  • Dear Bleach Garglers,

    A number of you have contacted me recently with a strange offer. “I’d drink bleach,” you say, “to get you to read a sample of my book.” Gargling it, injecting it between your toes, I’m astounded at the endless uses of bleach you’ve proposed to procure a book review from me. But far from an…

  • Dundee Book Prize Winner–Amy Mason

    Writer and performer Amy Mason of Bristol, UK today was named winner of the 2014 Dundee International Book Prize for her novel The Other Ida. Congratulations, Amy! The Other Ida, which follows an angry and depressed twenty-something daughter of famous parents, will be published by Cargo Press as part of the £10,000 prize. Amy’s other accomplishments include an…

  • CURRY PATTA, JUNGLE OATS, AND PEACE CORPS

    My wife keeps a curry plant to flavor her beautiful Indian cooking. Our boys have taken to snapping off the greenest leaves and eating them raw. Their chewing fills the air with a sharp, fresh scent. Yesterday, the plant was brought indoors—frost—to spend the night on our low kitchen table. When the boys found it…

  • The Return of Preston Lang

    Stoked to learn Preston Lang will be back soon with his second crime book, The Blind Rooster, a “crude slice of American Noir, sunny side down”. Echoes of Jim Thompson and Elmore Leonard? Bring it. Preston Lang released his discreetly funny debut, The Carrier, last spring, weaving three narrative threads into one heartless tale. Drug courier Cyril and stick-up girl Willow pursue…

  • Post Season Baseball–Guts

    To kick off Major League Baseball’s season of glory: a short story about baseball featuring steroids, breast milk, and courage. From Guts, first published by Atticus Review September 2012. That sweet curving thumb of mine put a wild spin on every ball I threw. Curveballs, sliders, pitches that dropped four inches just before the plate. Northern…

  • Review–You Can Lead a Horse to Water

    (But You Can’t Make It Scuba Dive) Queue the circus music when Sam, Muller, and Max join Max’s father Otis and mother Ruby in The Rec Room of Sound, Otis’s Internet radio broadcast, to consume pot-laced brownies and interview Bisquick the Mynah bird best known for biting nipples and repeating the phrase “Gimme some titty action”. As…

  • New York Times Responsible for Flow of ISIS Volunteers

    The hyperbole above is intended in jest, of course, an eye-catching headline to mimic today’s lead story on NYT’s home page. It’s the Times’ second such sensational headline on the subject this week. America Steps Up Fight to Stem Flow of ISIS Volunteers Click to the story, however, and a different picture emerges. Suddenly the…

  • Calling Out the Grey Lady

    Today the @NYTimes posted a teaser making it sound as if “radicalized young Muslim Americans” are “flowing” into Syria to join the fight there. Flowing? The article itself indicates that “American law enforcement and intelligence officials say more than 100 Americans have gone to Syria, or tried to so far.” Let’s do the math. In…

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