The past few weeks more than two dozen writers have banded together to talk about a great book and its talented author. In the virtual biker rally that lasted two weeks and caused irreperable damage to the blogosphere (those stains will never come out, and that smell will never quite go away), we kicked up a storm of dust, laid down an inch of rubber, got into dozens bar fights and never really did stop talking about Hogdoggin’.

Because I had an advance copy of Hogdoggin’, I understood what all the fuss was about.

In Anthony Neil Smith’s follow up to the enthralling Yellow Medicine, we once again join up with Billy Lafitte, a former crooked cop whose worldclass cocktail of misfortune and bad deeds have earned him a reputation as one of the country’s most dangerous men. It’s also earned him a following of individuals who will do just about anything to bring him down.

With nowhere to go, Lafitte has found himself  ‘roided up in a biker gang that makes the Hells Angels look like the Sesame Street cast. Lafitte is now the No. 2 badass, behind the gang’s leader, Steel God, who rules the outtfit,  literally and figuratively, with a sledge hammer.

Lafitte’s new life comes to a screeching halt when he learns that his estranged family needs him — and needs him badly. Now.

It’s when  he attempts to make it home that we get a front-row seat to Smith’s talent — his ability to treat violence with a musky weight and yet with insight into all its dimensions, to expose us to the humanity beneath bad deeds, to suck us in with a cast of characters that most authors only handle with indictment, and to force you to keep turning the pages.

Turn the pages, I did. And the more I turned, the more sucked-in I became. It’s a book that sticks with you.

If you haven’t already surmised it’, this book enjoys a ton of grassroots support. There’s a reason — the pages pull you in, take you to a world you haven’t experienced before. So you can understand why all of us are asking you make today Hogdoggin’ Monday –meaning you join us in buying the book today, either online or at your favorite bookstore, with a mind to make the suits and bean-counters take notice.

All you gotta do is kick-start that bike of yours, and join us in making the ground shake.