Callie Miller, editor staff writer of the LAist and proprietor of the litblog Counterbalance is looking for a few good minds to discuss Marisha Pessl’s novel, Special Topics in Calamity Physics, next week for a forthcoming roundtable discussion. Drop Callie a line if you’ve read the book and you’re interested in talking Pessl.

Independent: “The trouble is, her new book is the last thing anyone seems to want to discuss with Lionel Shriver right now. We meet within a week of the Virginia Tech shootings, and Shriver has unwillingly been thrust into the role of an expert. Four years ago, she published We Need To Talk About Kevin, a bold and shocking novel with one of the most chilling endings since Don’t Look Now. It was a very early example of what she now, guiltily, calls the ‘campus shooting’ genre. Which means that, since Virginia Tech, her phone has not stopped ringing.”