I'm a big fan of Agatha Christie's murder mysteries, though I read them in my pre-blogging days and have never tried to ensure that ...

I went into this book knowing nothing and expecting nothing. Well, that's not entirely true; Sam had read it before and told me it was d...

I read this essay due to the  power of suggestion . And because it sounded worthwhile, and because it is super-short. (Much like life itself...

I broke my rule and didn't blog about this book before starting a new one. I've probably explained this before, but that rule is mai...

 Maggie O'Farrell is one of my favorite female authors, along with Ann Patchett and Geraldine Brooks. They all write flawlessly, and com...

  Funny that I'd been talking about my interest in more stories of Hemingway's women when I posted about Love and Ruin  back in June...

This is a weird little story that I'd never heard of before, but its title caught my eye (helped along by the presence of the little pen...

This is a really good book, and I'm not just saying that because I'm sleeping with the translator. I wouldn't have thought a st...

Once again a book caught my eye that seemed to be a guide for making good conversation, and once again the book wasn't what I expected. ...

It is possible, if shameful, that this is the first book I've read by Kurt Vonnegut. I mean, I've been *aware* of  Slaughterhouse Fi...

Ghost Wall  is my kind of book. It was weird--really weird--without being quirky just for the sake of quirkiness. It was suspenseful and ten...

I think I would have been more forgiving of this story if it had been a movie instead of a book. (I'm thinking about Final Analysis , wh...