I just read "The Preservationist" by my friend David Maine. It's a startlingly convincing, funny, beautifully written imagining of the story of Noah and his family and, you know, that big adventure with the flood. I love his writing style--it's spare, yet still very expressive. And he has a neat narrative framework in which he alternates chapters told in the first person by various family members with chapters in the third person focusing on Noah's perspective. It was a great read; I'm typically quite a slow reader and I just breezed through this because of the lovely, clear prose and the suspense. I know "suspense" sounds strange since we all pretty much know what happens in the end of the Noah story, but it really was a page-turner. Naturally I'm proud of Dave because he's my pal and I'd be happy he got published in any case, but I'm even happier that I like the book so much! Margaret