'05 Stimulation Resolution: Mag Picks Books

by Staff, PW Daily for Booksellers -- Publishers Weekly, 12/23/2004

Want to improve your life? Read a book.

So says this week's U.S. News & World Report in a "special report" on how to improve your life.

In the section called "stimulation," the magazine writes: "Don't read because it will improve the inner workings of your brain, nor because it will make you seem more cultured to other people. Don't read just because it will give you a greater understanding of the world outside your immediate experience. Read because it is one of life's great pleasures."

Among "titles to look out for in 2005":

• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer (Houghton Mifflin). "The much awaited second novel from the author of Everything Is Illuminated."
• Collected Stories by Carol Shields (Fourth Estate). "This collection features the late author's previously unpublished final story and an introduction by fellow Canadian Margaret Atwood."
• The Position by Meg Wolitzer (Scribner). "What happens if your parents write a bestselling sex manual? In the hands of Wolitzer (Surrender, Dorothy), you know it's going to be something good."
• Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown). "New Yorker writer Gladwell has made it his business to examine why people act the way they do. This time, he turns his eye to the quick decision-making process."
• Dear Senator by Essie Mae Washington-Williams and William Stadiem (Regan Books). "Memoir by the long-concealed African-American daughter of Strom Thurmond."
• Ponzi's Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend by Mitchell Zuckoff (Random House). "Portrait of the man behind the mischief."

For the full list of recommended titles, including, for extra spice, some cookbooks, go to U.S. News & World Report's Web site.