Best-of-2010 Megalist Complete

After months of work, the Best-of-2010 Megalist is complete! You can download your copy of the full Excel spreadsheet here. The Megalist compiles 175 different major awards and best-of-the-year lists into one convenient, sortable list. This year, 2,279 different titles published in the U.S. received mention in these sources, and the Megalist documents each of those [...]

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Wanted, by Mark Millar

Is it possible to get hooked on a book from reading only one page? Because I think that’s exactly what happened. The initial panel in this graphic novel was just perfect, moody reds and blues and exquisitely rendered people and a one-sentence narrative box that tied it all together. So I turned the page and [...]

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This Lovely Life, by Vicki Forman

Vicki Forman, having successfully delivered her daughter Josie after an uneventful pregnancy three years prior, thought her cramps were no big deal; the twins were only six months along. But within a matter of hours, she was delivering two very premature babies, weighing about a pound each. “These babies were born at the worst possible [...]

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The Hammer, by K. J. Parker

K. J. Parker is the grimmest contemporary novelist I know. To read K. J. Parker is to lose faith in the human race. The bleakest Greek tragedies are lighthearted romantic sitcoms compared to K. J. Parker. But at least you can depend on comic relief in the midst of all the despair, like so: “Furio [...]

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Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, by Bill McKibben

Climate change has already happened. It is not a threat to our future children and grandchildren. It is not a threat at all. It has happened, it is happening, and it will continue to happen. Environmentalist author Bill McKibben sums it up succinctly: “No one is going to refreeze the Arctic for us, or restore [...]

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Enchanted Night, by Steven Millhauser

Another great storyteller is Steven Millhauser, though his stories contain even more of a sense of mystery and magic about them than Chappell’s do. Millhauser’s novella Enchanted Night is a short, lyrical collection of pieces about the inhabitants of a small Connecticut town who find themselves out under an almost full moon. There are forlorn [...]

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Farewell, I’m Bound to Leave You, by Fred Chappell

Fred Chappell is a wonderful storyteller whose novels of life in the North Carolina Piedmont can elicit both laughter and tears, often in the same paragraph. I have been rereading some of my favorite Chappell books and in doing so am reminded of why I love them so. Farewell I’m Bound to Leave You is [...]

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A Killing Kindness, by Reginald Hill

One of the common themes in police procedural crime fiction, particularly English crime fiction, is class conflict between members of the police squad. Usually this plays out as a superior officer from the upper classes has to deal with a more blue collar detective on his or her team. This theme allows the writer to [...]

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Blood at the Root, by Peter Robinson

The tribulations and pleasures of policing in a small community are not limited to American crime novels, as Peter Robinson ably demonstrates in his series set in the Yorkshire Dales. The series features DCI Alan Banks and his colleagues in the fictional North Yorkshire town of Eastvale. This is not the Yorkshire of the 1930s [...]

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The Blank Page, by K.C. Constantine

With all the hype and promotion of bestsellers in the publishing world, it can be easy to forget that there are vast numbers of writers whose books are never mentioned by Oprah, listed on the New York Times bestseller lists, or touted elsewhere in the media. Library shelves are filled with these treasures though, and [...]

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Caught in the Light, by Robert Goddard

My colleague Nancy recommended this book to me.   I’m only about halfway through — but I’m completely sucked into the story.  Here’s what Nancy has to say about the audiobook version of Caught in the Light: I thought this was going to be a simple mystery novel I could listen to while driving to work, [...]

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Casting Spells, by Barbara Bretton

Casting Spells is part cozy mystery, part paranormal, part romance, part knitting manual — and all light fun. Chloe Hobbs, owner of the very up-and-coming Sticks and Strings knitting shop,  is the mayor of Sugar Maple, a small town in Vermont.   The town has been protected for hundreds of years by a charm that makes [...]

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And Thereby Hangs a Tale, by Jeffrey Archer

This is the first work by Jeffrey Archer that I’ve read, and I was delighted with the variety of stories in this collection, several of which are based on true incidents. “Stuck on You” launches first. This is one of those whodunnit mysteries that I enjoy reading.  You just know there’s a detail you’ve missed [...]

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Flight Explorer, Volume 1

I ran across an interview with cartoonist Ben Hatke in Shelf Awareness, an emailed newsletter about the book trade.  Hatke drew pictures to answer questions about the books that influenced his life and had me laughing out loud.  I wanted to see more of his work. He is one of ten cartoonists featured in Flight [...]

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Suddenly One Summer, by Barbara Freethy

Suddenly One Summer is a contemporary romance set in the mythical California coastal town of Angel’s Bay. Jenna Davies is running from the authorities and an abusive relationship.  She doesn’t want anyone to get too close because even an innocent friendship could lead to leaks about her past and put her beloved Lexie in jeopardy. [...]

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Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters, by Natalie Standiford

It’s Christmas Day and, like most families, the Sullivans are heading to Grandma’s house.  The six Sullivan siblings, however, have a grandmother like no other.  Arden Louisa Norris Sullivan Weems Maguire Hightower Beckendorf or “Almighty” as she is called by her family, friends, and Baltimore’s elite, is this family’s matriarch.  She is the source of [...]

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The Grimm Legacy, by Polly Shulman

There are all sorts of materials that can be checked out from a library.  The most typical, of course, are books, but some libraries circulate items such as maps, art prints, even toys.  Elizabeth’s new job is as a page at a very different type of library, The New York Circulating Material Repository.  This library [...]

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The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, by Tom Angleberger

Yoda was wise beyond his 900 years, but how wise is Origami Yoda?  Or, perhaps more importantly, how wise is Dwight, the boy who wears the origami Yoda finger puppet and gives him his voice?  Because, socially speaking, Dwight seems to be pretty inept.  He is known for making a fool of himself, especially with [...]

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