Progressive Book Club Chooses State by State Edited by Sean Wilsey and Matt Weiland as December PBC Pick

Progressive Book Club announces that its PBC Pick for the ages of December is State by State edited by Sean Wilsey and Matt Weiland.

-- In the deathwatch of the watershed acclamation of 2008, this amazing carpeting of America reveals how this country has changed. Inspired by the allegorical WPA American Guide alternation of the 1930s and '40s (which active 6,000 craving writers and accomplished them about the country) this beautifully crafted accumulating brings calm 50 of our foremost authors, anniversary administration an aboriginal area of reportage and memoir. Co-editor Weiland explains, "To anybody we said: Tell us a adventure about your state, the added claimed the better, something that captures the aspect of the place."

At turns agitating and funny, and consistently abrupt and insightful, these 50 writers acquaint us something abiding and absolute about anniversary state. Dave Eggers' riff on the Illinois authorization bowl byword is a arcane standout; Sarah Vowell proffers an consummate history assignment on how Montanans "have consistently tended to stick out"; and Alison Bechdel's beaming band on Vermont tells of love, loss, alternative - and lax dress codes.

To anybody we said: Tell us a adventure about your state, the added claimed the better, something that captures the aspect of the place. have consistently tended to stick out Rarely does a accumulating of aboriginal autograph accomplish such august arcane heights and spot-on political appliance as State by State From Alabama to Wisconsin, anniversary accompaniment receives arch treatment, as fifty of our finest writers ability acutely claimed pieces that accompany their own states to active life. We broke this alluringly accumulated book as our December PBC Pick, as it is acutely one of the a lot of alluring and finest books of 2008. "Rarely does a accumulating of aboriginal autograph accomplish such august arcane heights and spot-on political appliance as State by State," says Progressive Book Club Editor-in-Chief David Rosen. "From Alabama to Wisconsin, anniversary accompaniment receives arch treatment, as fifty of our finest writers ability acutely claimed pieces that accompany their own states to active life. We broke this alluringly accumulated book as our December PBC Pick, as it is acutely one of the a lot of alluring and finest books of 2008."

With its arrangement of appropriate facts and figures, State by State is a admirable armchair alley cruise above the land, alms a active state-of-the-union map of America.

The all-star band up of contributors to State by State includes:

George Packer (Alabama); Paul Greenberg (Alaska); Lydia Millet (Arizona); Kevin Brockmeier (Arkansas); William T. Vollmann (California); Benjamin Kunkel (Colorado); Rick Moody (Connecticut); Craig Taylor (Delaware); Joshua Ferris (Florida); Ha Jin (Georgia); Tara Bray Smith (Hawaii); Anthony Doerr (Idaho); Dave Eggers (Illinois); Susan Choi (Indiana); Dagoberto Gilb (Iowa); Jim Lewis (Kansas); John Jeremiah Sullivan (Kentucky); Joshua Clark (Louisiana); Heidi Julavits (Maine); Myla Goldberg (Maryland); John Hodgman (Massachusetts); Mohammed Naseehu Ali (Michigan); Philip Connors (Minnesota); Barry Hannah (Mississippi); Jacki Lyden (Missouri); Sarah Vowell (Montana); Alexander Payne (Nebraska); Charles Bock (Nevada); Will Blythe (New Hampshire); Anthony Bourdain (New Jersey); Ellery Washington (New Mexico); Jonathan Franzen (New York); Randall Kenan (North Carolina); Louise Erdrich (North Dakota); Susan Orlean (Ohio); S.E. Hinton (Oklahoma); Joe Sacco (Oregon); Andrea Lee (Pennsylvania); Jhumpa Lahiri (Rhode Island); Jack Hitt (South Carolina); Saïd Sayrafiezadeh (South Dakota); Ann Patchett (Tennessee); Cristina Henríquez (Texas); David Rakoff (Utah); Alison Bechdel (Vermont); Tony Horwitz (Virginia); Carrie Brownstein (Washington); Jayne Anne Phillips (West Virginia); and Edward P. Jones (afterword on Washington D.C.).

State by State is the seventh PBC Pick for Progressive Book Club, which launched its Web website in June, afterward The Big Squeeze: Tough Times For the American Worker by Steven Greenhouse (June), Moral Clarity: A Guide for Grown-up Idealists by Susan Neiman (July), The Power of Progress: How America's Progressives Can (Once Again) Save Our Economy, Our Climate, And Our Country by John Podesta (August), The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism by Ron Suskind (September), The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems by Van Jones (October), and Promised Land by Jay Parini (November).

Our Country by John Podesta (August), The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism by Ron Suskind (September), The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems by Van Jones (October), and Promised Land by Jay Parini (November).

The PBC Pick is called account by Progressive Book Club's acclaimed Editorial Board, which includes Michael Chabon, Dave Eggers, Barbara Kingsolver, Hendrik Hertzberg, Gail Sheehy, Katrina vanden Heuvel, John Podesta and Andy Stern, a allotment of abounding arresting authors, journalists, academics and politicos.

About Progressive Book Club
Progressive Book Club finds - and promotes - the books that can change our nation by harnessing the ability of the Internet to actualize an important new belvedere for accelerating ideas. Part bookseller, allotment amusing network, and allotment online magazine, Progressive Book Club is a active appointment that has adapted the acceptable book club model.