Thursday, September 6, 2012

Kim Kavin

Kim Kavin is an award-winning writer, editor, photographer, and website developer. She graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism in 1994 and worked as a daily newspaper editor until 2000, when she became executive editor of Yachting magazine. She has been a full-time freelance journalist since April 2003 and is now considered one of the world’s foremost authorities covering the luxury yacht charter industry. She is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, a member of the Author’s Guild, a past president of Boating Writers International, and a member of the Dog Writers Association of America.

Kavin's latest book is Little Boy Blue: A Puppy's Rescue from Death Row and His Owner's Journey for Truth.

A few weeks ago I asked the author what she was reading.  Her reply:
My Kindle’s home page resembles a disheveled library right now. I’m really all over the place.

I just finished Asylum: Hollywood Tales from my Depression by Joe Pantoliano. It caught my eye because I think he’s an interesting character actor. Now I know why: He’s living out his depression symptoms on screen. That book was a quick and interesting read if you are a fan of Joey Pants (The Sopranos, The Matrix, etc.).

Currently I am reading Attention All Passengers: The Airlines’ Dangerous Descent—and How to Reclaim Our Skies. It’s a research book for me, one that my literary agent asked me to take a look at for a book that I may ghostwrite about the cruise-ship industry. I’m looking as much at the format of that book as I am at the actual words on the page. I guess I’m not really reading. I’m more studying it and taking it apart in my mind.

Queued up and ready to go next are Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power by Rachel Maddow, which I’m curious to read because of the never-ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; The War at the Shore: Donald Trump, Steve Wynn, and the Epic Battle to Save Atlantic City, which intrigues me because I’m from New Jersey and, well, I just can’t seem to look away from Donald Trump’s personal circus; Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, which I think I first learned about on BookTV and decided it was something I should know about as a decent American and human being; and Wallace: The Underdog Who Conquered a Sport, Saved a Marriage, and Championed Pit Bulls—One Flying Disc at a Time, which is by my friend Jim Gorant, who wrote the foreword for my own book Little Boy Blue. Jim is a great writer, as anybody knows who read his New York Times bestseller The Lost Dogs. Wallace will probably bump to the top of my list as soon as it’s released on August 30.

Some recent books I really enjoyed include The Fiddler in the Subway, which I know I’m late to the party in reading because it came out in 2010, but I just am so consistently impressed with Gene Weingarten’s writing that I had to make time for it. I also recently read and liked Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis (who is one of my favorite all-time writers); Bossypants by Tina Fey, which cracked me up; and the Jeanette Walls memoir The Glass Castle, which I avoided for the longest time because I didn’t think it would be my kind of book, and then kicked myself for failing to read sooner because it was so terrific.
Visit the official site of the book Little Boy Blue and the wonderful dog who inspired it.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Kim Kavin and Blue.

--Marshal Zeringue