A STACK OF BOOKS, both print and digital, has been piling up on my “summer reading” checklist.  A lot of the more immediate stuff is non-fiction: essays by Lethem and Franzen, Bissell and Robinson.  I’ve got one collection of short stories to get into (by Englander) and one Stephen King novel (set in the Dark Tower sequence) to work out my fiction needs.  And then an announcement is made concerning a pending release by Dave Eggers.

Dave Eggers, of course, is the main reason why I read anything contemporary.  When I first moved to Hawaii, I joined a book group at the area Barnes & Noble.  The first book for me: Eggers’ You Shall Know Our Velocity! The book was a revelation and a blessings.  And so it’s no small thing for Eggers to release a new book.  His last few have either been rewrites of children’s stories (Wild Things) or rooted in real life (Zeitoun).  With the new book that will ship in a few weeks, Eggers returns to from-scratch fiction, which is pretty exciting.  The novel, A Hologram for the King, is a contemporary story concerning technology and Saudi Arabian royalty.  It sounds like a wonderfully odd mix.

In a world that seems short on heroes at times, Eggers is one for me.  You can order the book at Amazon or from McSweeneys, the publishing group Eggers established years ago.  And you can check out an interview with Eggers concerning the book here.