Eyes Like Stars, by Lisa Mantchev

All the world’s a stage, literally, in this fun romp for stagestruck teens.
ENTER Beatrice (Bertie) Shakespeare Smith, a foundling and a born troublemaker. She has grown up in the Théâtre Illuminata, a fantastical, metafictional theater housing all the Players from all the works of the stage. Bertie gets her clothes from Wardrobe, and her bedroom [...]

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Generation A, by Douglas Coupland

In 1991, Douglas Coupland published Generation X. The novel defined–and parodied–my generation: people who reached adulthood in the late 80s and early 90s. The book is about three young people who live together in California’s Mojave Desert. As in classics like The Decameron or The Canterbury Tales, they share stories, some fictional and some about [...]

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The Office

Apparently, I’ve been hiding under a rock for the past five years, because I completely missed this uproarious series on NBC, which finished airing its fifth season in the spring. Admittedly, I was aware of the show. I heard a few mentions about it, but no one extolling its virtues at length. I knew that [...]

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Lead So I Can Follow, by Harold Adams

Times are tough now, and lots of folks are suffering through economic problems. In his Carl Wilcox series, Harold Adams does an excellent job of depicting life in the last big economic downturn, the Depression of the 1930s. Wilcox is a fascinating character study. He served in the Army, did time in prison, occasionally helps [...]

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City of Thieves, by David Benioff

As City of Thieves opens, an American screenwriter is paid to write an autobiographical essay. He can’t find anything of interest in his immediate background, but he has always suspected that his Floridian grandparents have more to tell about their experiences in Leningrad during WWII. When he asks them, they’re finally ready to tell. So [...]

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Gun, with Occasional Music, by Jonathan Lethem

It’s another day at the office for PI Conrad Metcalf. The timid and ineffective Orton Angwine has been accused of murder and wants Metcalf to clear his name. But Angwine’s obviously a fool:  in trouble with the law, with the criminals he claims have set him up, and with several women who may be femme [...]

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Welcome to the Jungle, by Jim Butcher

I have not read Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera series—I’ve heard it’s good, I’ll get to it someday—but I don’t like it, and here’s why: time spent writing Codex Alera is time not spent writing the Dresden Files. (If you’re not up to speed on Dresden, Melissa can give you the background).
One new Dresden book per [...]

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Confessions of a Shopaholic, by Sophie Kinsella

One of the pleasures of reading books in series is the chance to enjoy spending more time with characters that you really enjoy. This is true whether you are reading crime fiction, literary fiction, or any other genre. Sophie Kinsella’s Shopaholic series has many of the same appeals as the chick lit fiction of Meg [...]

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God Knows, by Joseph Heller

This week I’m looking at books that I think are worth rereading – and that I’ve reread more than once. These stand up to my tests, and I’ll try to articulate what it is I like about them. If any of them intrigue you, I hope you’ll give them a shot. [...]

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The Marriage of True Minds, by Stephen Evans

There’s probably a reason why screwball comedy has more history as a film genre than it does as a subset of fiction. All that witty repartee is more fun to hear than it is to read, and the behavioral hijinks that work on the screen can come off as just a little too precious on [...]

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