Wolves of the Calla (Dark Tower #5)

Wizard and Glass was primarily concerned with showing us an important part of Roland’s past: the “girl at the window,” Susan Delgado, Roland’s friends, and the evil pink ball from Maerlyn’s Rainbow that caused so much trouble in Mejis. Wolves of the Calla brings us back to the present — whatever that means in this [...]

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Black Water Rising

It’s summertime in Houston in the early 1980s. A middle-aged small-time lawyer wants to give his wife a birthday gift, something nicer than he gave her last year: a “moonlight cruise” on the bayou. But the boat is small and dingy, slapped together, and he’s choked with disappointment. Jay stands beneath his city, staring at [...]

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The Enchanted April (audio)

I’m about to commit an act of book-blogger sacrilege. I’ve just finished the audiobook of Elizabeth von Arnim‘s The Enchanted April, and I’m afraid I must confess that, well, I liked the movie better. This admission is particularly galling when I know that so many people were nonplussed by the film, and that’s putting it [...]

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Sunday Salon: Spoiler Warning?

I’ve been thinking for the last several weeks about spoilers. I couldn’t quite get my mind in gear yesterday to write a post, but when I woke up this morning and read and commented on Nymeth’s thoughtful post on the topic, I realized that I had the beginnings of a post in her comments. So [...]

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Dancing Backwards

I can’t remember now if it was Litlove or Rohan who caused me to put Salley Vickers’s Dancing Backwards on my reading list, but I’m glad one of them did because based on this cover and the premise I never would have accepted a copy of this to review, and it would have been my [...]

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Shades of Grey

Sometimes, it seems that certain authors have all the writing power they need, but not enough ideas: either they stop after one or two tries (I’m looking at you, Harper Lee) or they circle around and around the same idea without ever getting much further. Sometimes, it seems that certain authors have the ideas and [...]

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High Rising

My mother has a charming habit. Whenever she’s in a hub of human activity — say, an airport, or Paris — she looks around and says, “Why don’t I see anyone I know? I know lots of people. Why don’t I know anyone here?” As I’ve gotten older, and the stack of books-I’ve-read has become [...]

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The Plague of Doves

I wish I’d known from the beginning that nine different chapters of The Plague of Doves had been originally published as standalone short stories. I don’t know whether Louise Erdrich had this complete novel in mind when she wrote the stories, but it’s the pieces of the novel that work, not the whole. First, let [...]

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After Midnight

This short 1937 novel by German author Irmgard Keun is an odd little book, possibly more interesting for its historical setting than the actual story, although the actual story has its small pleasures. Keun, whose previous novels had been banned in her native Germany, wrote this, her third book, while in exile. The main character [...]

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Gobsmacked

Last year we were flabbergasted. This year, gobsmacked, to be chosen for Best Literary Fiction Book Blog from a shortlist including The New Dork Review of Books, The Picky Girl, Roof Beam Reader, and Reading on a Rainy Day – all fine blogs with good writing, smart insights, great book lists, and strong followings. To [...]

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