Truthiness.

Truman Capote deserves credit for pretty much single-handedly inventing literary journalism. And re-reading In Cold Blood is reminding me of all the other books in this form that I love. I think authors like Joe McGinnis owe TC a huge debt. I very highly recommend McGinnis' The Miracle of Castel di Sangro. (A big shout out to Ivar Johnson, not a regular reader of 'novels and the like' who picked this up on a whim in an airport and broke down in tears over it-and it's mostly about soccer-on the flight. He gave me his copy.)

The same visceral vibe crosses over into a lot of historical fiction and a couple of my favorites in that realm include Pulitzer-prize winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Michael Chabon), Devil in the White City (Erik Larson), and a fabulous book based on the life of Virginia Woolf whose title is completely escaping me at the moment. (I just know this will be keeping me up tonight.) I had a copy signed by the author which in my excitement (and like an idiot) I lent to someone I didn't know very well; and alas... No doubt the title will hit me in the wee hours and I'll be up editing.

(And yes I was watching Stephen Colbert and blogging at the same time. I must earn some kind of special nerd patch for that, no?)