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Screenshot of Spokesman.com article on "The Financial Lives of the Poets" author Jess Walter

Today is the release day for “The Financial Lives of The Poets” by Jess Walter.  Apparently, he’s getting love from well-known British author Nick Hornby, author of the novels “High Fidelity,” “About a Boy” and “Fever Pitch.”  The Daily Beast lists it among This Week’s Hot Reads.

My hometown paper and former employer, The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Washington, published a Q&A with Jess Walter on spokesman.com:

Jess Walter’s new novel, “The Financial Lives of the Poets,” hits bookstores Tuesday and is already getting plenty of excellent critical attention. British novelist Nick Hornby chose it for his “Recommended Reading” list in People magazine this week, calling it “a laugh-out-loud and desperately painful account of an economy and a marriage in meltdown.”

Here are some other references on the Web to Jess Walter:

Library Thing | Wikipedia | Amazon.com | Publisher’s Weekly | HarperCollins

Jeff Bunch/2006

Everyone remembers where they were eight years ago, on 9/11/01, a day which undeniably changed our world (at least in America).  My personal story of that date is typical: It started as a normal day, a horrific scene unfolded on the news, then I continued to watch most of the morning as the aftermath ensued.  I was uncertain about the predictions of those who stated there would forever be a pre-9/11 world and a post-9/11 world, but it has largely proven to be true. Watch the news, attend a political town hall, travel through an airport.  You will see permeations of those events everywhere in our lives today.

I think of my kids, ages 9 and 10 at the time of the attacks, and their innocence as they prepared for another day of Catholic school in Spokane, Washington.  I called them into the bedroom where I was watching the events on TV and they appeared, smiling, in their wonderfully simple red and blue uniforms.  I wanted them to see what was going on, to explain it to them, to give them some context and reassurance as a parent.  I told them “It’s going to be alright.  You’re probably going to be talking about this at school today and it’s probably something that you’ll always remember in your life.”

As they get ready for school today, as wonderful young adults, it may only be in the back of  their minds. But it’s there. I know it’s in my mind, as I watch TV news and recall my visit to Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan as part of my honeymoon in 2006.  I captured some indelible images that day on a point-and-shoot camera.  See them on my flickr photostream.

We remember – all of us – and may we never forget those who lost their lives on that day in such a sudden and tragic fashion.

See today’s NewYorkTimes.com coverage.