Brady Udall’s novel The Lonely Polygamist is one of those pieces of fiction where you stare at the jacket summary and think: “Okay, Big Shot. You mean to tell me that you have written a story about a man, his four wives, 28 children and mistress? I dare you to pull off this circus stunt without burying me beneath a [...]

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet is as beautiful as a symphony, hitting all the right notes and sweeping the audience into a novel as complex as it is entertaining. David Mitchell’s writing functions like a well-oiled machine and the intricacy of his description is entrancing. While it is apt to say the story starts out a little too [...]

I tried really hard to hate Super Sad True Love Story. My past experiences reading Gary Shteyngart have left me feeling vaguely offended and greasy. So when I dove into this new novel, the darling of just about anyone who dares open its cover (including Christa), I was extra wary and hyper vigilant. But try as I might, I could [...]

It might be fair to say that Daphne du Maurier wrote the book on suspense novels. That book would be Rebecca her 1938 romantic mystery that set the bar for its many predecessors. It embodies many of the genre’s tropes – twisted love affairs, a sprawling manor, breathlessly rendered settings – and proves that in literature, as in the rest [...]

It has probably been two years since I read  In the Miso Soup, which I consider more than just Ryu Murakami’s flagship novel, but one of the few pieces of literature that I still draw on regularly when I want to ush and gush about fiction. I can still conjure what it feels like to read that book: Dreamy, terrifying [...]

I think I came at Christopher Isherwood’s A Single Man with the wrong approach. I saw the movie adaptation before I read the novel (I know. I know!) so I was expected some sort of eulogy, a soft and mournfully worded ode to a life about to end. What I did not expect was a polemic, a collection of vehement [...]

Unable to read Mockingjay until three days after its release, I stayed off Twitter and Facebook to avoid spoilers. I ignored emails with Mockingjay thoughts or links to book reviews. I didn’t even read the book jacket. When I’m looking forward to a book, especially the last in a series, I want to dive in with a blank slate. If [...]

Nathaniel is an eleven-year-old apprentice to a mediocre magician. Thinking he isn’t be taught fast enough, Nathaniel trains himself on more difficult spells well beyond his abilities. When an accomplished adult magician humiliates Nathaniel in front of a huge crowd, he skillfully summons a powerful djinni, Bartimaeus, to help him enact revenge. Djinnis have been summoned by magicians for thousands [...]

About a month ago I stumbled on a sidewalk sale where, between cheese curd vendors, a 5-year-old magician with a stunning vocabulary, and hippies juggling sticks, I found some castoffs from the public library: $1 for trade paper; $0.50 for mass market. I was in a rush. There was an Italian sausage calling my name half a block away. (“Meat [...]

Mix the small town sweetness of Fannie Flagg’s novels, some mysterious strangers from Neil Gaiman’s tales, a little bit of Charlie Daniels, and some great writing, and you have a fabulous story by Kate Milford. That’s right, I said Charlie Daniels, as in “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” You just started singing that, didn’t you? “He was looking for [...]