A thriller about public relations? And for teens? It sounds improbable, and The Doubt Factory by Paolo Bacigalupi is an improbably terrific book. Marrying a somersaulting plot with heart-pounding suspense…
The ancient Egyptians, when preparing a body for mummification, carefully preserved the heart, liver, lungs, and other vital organs in special canisters, now known as canopic jars. The brain was…
I’ve recently read three books by Kent Haruf: Plainsong, Eventide, and Benediction, also known as the Plainsong Trilogy. These novels are set in the rural US west, in the fictional…
Revolutionary thought of the day: Scargill’s got the megaphone and he launces intae one ay his trademark rousin speeches that tingles the back ay ma neck. He talks about the…
I’ve just finished two truly excellent works of nonfiction: Wild and Zeitoun. Both books read like fiction, with clean, clear writing and page-turning suspense. Both document almost unbelievable, out-sized events,…
In the prologue to Fallingwater Rising: Frank Lloyd Wright, E. J. Kaufmann, and America’s Most Extraordinary House, author Franklin Toker writes, “Put this book down now if you can’t live…
“Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.” Recognize it? For me it’s one of the most memorable final sentences ever written. I just finished re-reading…
My desire is to get the reader, well, first of all to read it. That story was hard to write because I had to wonder how long can I keep…
Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss is an excellent addition to a bookshelf that includes works by Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser, Marian Nestle and…
I’ve been meaning to read Richard Ford for years – actually, for decades. Both the 1986 novel The Sportswriter and 1995’s follow-up Independence Day have been languishing on The List…
The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman, has been on my to-read list since it was first published in the mid-1990s. Although I generally don’t read fantasy fiction, after reading an…
Hoarding is a hot topic these days, and often approached through a lurid, sensational lens – eccentric recluses and their hoards of junk are exposed for public entertainment. You’ll find…
Readers over a certain age may remember Pat Conroy as the author of “The Great Santini,” the novel and later, a movie for which he wrote the screenplay. The movie…
Despite the increased attention given to graphic novels in recent years, many readers don’t consider graphic novels when thinking about what to read next. In this “what i’m reading” post,…
Lost Memory of Skin, Russell Banks’ 2011 novel, begins with an impossible paradox. A group of men are living in an encampment under a highway. It is, in fact, the…
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate, by Naomi Klein, is incredibly difficult to write about. I’ve been putting sticky notes beside important paragraphs as I read, and my copy…
Swamplandia! caught me by surprise. At first, Karen Russell’s debut novel seemed like a quirky family story, a strange and somewhat sad tale told with great wit and humour. Then…
Last week I attended “R.A. in a Day,” an annual one-day mini-conference on readers’ advisory – that is, finding books for readers. It happens that the manager of my own…
Revolutionary thought of the day: Hunger isn’t about the amount of food around. It’s about being able to afford and control that food. After all, the U.S. has more food…
Revolutionary thought of the day: …if there is a reason for social movements to exist, it is not to accept dominant values as fixed and unchangeable but to offer other…
