Sherlock (2010)

I feel a little guilty, actually, like I’ve been cheating on Jeremy Brett, but over the course of three 90-minute episodes, I have fallen head over heels for another actor’s Sherlock Holmes. This latest BBC production stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the iconic consulting detective and updates his Edwardian surroundings to modern-day London. (Watson has a [...]

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Kraken, by China Miéville

The squid’s been nicked, to begin with. But curator Billy Harrow has more to worry about than the theft of a 28-foot Architeuthis from London’s Museum of Natural History. He’s being interrogated by members of the extremely unorthodox Fundamentalist and Sect-Related Crime unit. He’s being followed by squirrels. And then he’s recruited by an underground [...]

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Somebody’s Daughter, by Marie Myung-Ok Lee

Slanted eyes, straight, black hair, yellow skin. These are the features of a Korean girl growing up American in Minnesota. Adopted at 18 months old, Sarah Thorson does not know the land of her birth or her birth mother. Her family does not speak about how Sarah is different. She was chosen. Sarah is not [...]

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Girl in Translation, by Jean Kwok

“‘They enter at this table as children and they leave from it as grandmas,’ Aunt Paula said with a wink. ’The circle of factory life.’” This is the world Kimberly Chang finds herself in when she and her mother emigrate from China to America, and so begins her new life as a sweatshop worker in New [...]

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A Step from Heaven, by An Na

Four-year-old Young Ju is going to heaven. She’s going to take a plane and live in America, “Mi Gook,” the land where her parents will smile again and stop fighting. Her father won’t be so angry and life will be good. But Young Ju soon learns that America is not heaven. Instead it is a country where her father [...]

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Private Arrangements, by Sherry Thomas

Today’s post is contributed by Ceilidh from Circulation Services. In the eyes of the ton, Lord and Lady Tremaine have the perfect marriage—they never argue, embarrass each other, or disagree on anything. How? He lives on one continent and she on another, as they have done since the day after their wedding.  But now Gigi, [...]

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The Way Home (2003)

This week’s posts feature four novels written by Chinese- and Korean-American authors. The first is a romance written by Sherry Thomas, a Chinese author who learned English by reading romances with the help of her dictionary. The second is a young adult story of one girl’s immigration to America from Korea, a land just “A [...]

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The List: Williamsburg setting

It’s fun to read a book set in your own backyard — so I’ve compiled a short list of fiction that takes place (or supposedly takes place) in or around Williamsburg, Virginia.  Choose a romance, mystery, or historical fiction: Patriot’s Dream, by Barbara Michaels (available in LP only) Thanksgiving, by Janet Evanovich Secrets, by Jude [...]

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Dante’s Divine Comedy, adapted by Seymour Chwast

Mandy Malone ends the Circulation Services week with a new look at an old classic: For the sake of this review, let’s suppose you’ve been meaning to read Italian poet Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, but you’re not sure you have the time (or the stamina) to read all 100 cantos chronicling a journey through hell, [...]

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In the Name of Honor and Exile, by Richard North Patterson

Alan Bernstein writes about Richard North Patterson’s work: Richard North Patterson, besides being one of our best and most intelligent novelists, is arguably the current master of the suspense novel as an exploration and dissection of contemporary political, geopolitical, moral, and ethical issues. Originally a trial lawyer, he uses his deep knowledge of the law, [...]

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The Devil’s Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among America’s Great White Sharks, by Susan Casey

Elisabeth Murray of Circulation Services provides this mid-week review: Shark! I bet that one word got your attention and quite possibly your pulse sped up as your instincts about this predator kicked in.  Now imagine you had heard it yelled while you were swimming in the ocean!  There are few animals that conjure such immediate [...]

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American Wife, by Curtis Sittenfeld

John Livecchi from Circulation Services shares this review. A confession is in order. I wanted to read Curtis Sittenfeld’s American Wife because I had heard that it was a gossipy look at the Bush White House. I was hoping for amusing and slightly scandalous “behind the scenes” glimpse of people in powerful positions. What I [...]

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Regency House Party

This week we are delighted to have back folks from the library’s Circulation Services division. This first post comes from Ceilidh Mapes. Twelve footmen. Seventeen maids. Thirty-two chamber-pots. Twenty suckling pigs. Ten thousand candles. Don’t forget to add a dash of intrigue, a splash of scandal and a generous helping of matchmaking, and what do [...]

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The Girl in the Song: The True Stories Behind 50 Rock Classics, by Michael Heatley and Frank Hopkinson

The girl from Ipanema never saw a dime from the song. Heloísa Eneida Menezes Paes Pinto really was tall and tan and young (fifteen years old) and lovely, and she really did walk each day to the sea, or at least to the stores along the beachfront. Among those she passed were lyricist Vinicius de [...]

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Packing for Mars, by Mary Roach

Mary Roach needs to stop writing about topics like sex and death and instead start writing entire science textbooks. Seriously. Her writing is so engaging that she could be enthralling whole generations of schoolchildren. She is the rare sort of author whose books will suck you in, even if you typically avoid science writing or [...]

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The Long Ships, by Frans G. Bengtsson

The Long Ships: It’s the best classic work of literature you’ve never heard of, 504 pages published in the 1940s and ignored by everyone outside Sweden ever since. I exaggerate. The novel has been widely translated over the years, and there was even a 1963 screen adaptation with Sidney Poitier (!), but it nonetheless remains [...]

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Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, by David Sedaris

There’s a scene in this collection of short stories, just a few pages from the end, where an owl and his date discuss mammalian breastfeeding and its bearing on sexual orientation. I wish I could reproduce it here, as it is very, very funny, but unfortunately I can’t because it is completely inappropriate for general [...]

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Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen

There has been rampant speculation in the literary world about whether Jonathan Franzen’s new book might be the Great American Novel. Oprah is selecting it for her final Book Club pick, despite how the author once scorned her praise. Michiko Kakutani, the famous (and famously hostile) New York Times literary critic, calls it “an indelible [...]

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