Happy Halloween Post: Review of “Dead Until Dark” by Charlaine Harris

In general, I am wont to make scathing deprecations of vampire books. Historically, I have preferred to think of myself as sticking to a program of self-improvement suggested to me so many years ago by Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography. But really, sometimes one just wants to have fun. Michelle of Gallysmith insists that one place to [...]

Shelf Cleaning Giveaway Winners

Congratulations to the winners! J. T. Oldfield wins Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro – paperback. Trisha (Electic Eccentric) wins Testimony – Anita Shreve – paperback. Janel wins Feather Man – Rhyll McMaster – paperack. Megan (Write Meg) wins The Gargoyle – Andrew Davidson – paperback ARC. I will be sending emails to all [...]

Review of “The Bridal Wreath,” Volume I of the Kristin Lavransdatter Trilogy by Sigrid Undset and Translated by Tiina Nunnally

I signed up for the Kristin Lavransdatter Readalong, sponsored by Richard of Caravana de Recuerdos and Emily from Evening All Afternoon. As Emily pointed out, “we’ll be reading the Tina Nunnally translation, which won the PEN/Book-of-the-Month-Club Translation Prize in 2001 and apparently restored a number of the more experimental passages, which had been excised from [...]

I Don’t Know How To Rate This! Review of NERDS by Michael Buckley – Ages 8 – 12

On the one hand, this is a delightful, clever, funny book that will entertain any child who loves silly jokes, action heroes, satire, and books about nerds versus popular kids in school. I laughed aloud more than once, and I loved the many positive messages. The NERDS are a group of fifth graders made up [...]

Revisiting “A Dog Among Diplomats” by J.F. Englert and Giveaway

In my most recent giveaway, I told you that last year, I had been delighted to discover Randolph, the mystery-solving black labrador that writes his own books and even has his own blog. This year, Randolph has come out with a new book, and in order to celebrate, his human dependent, J.F. Englert, is sponsoring [...]

The Shelf Discovery Challenge

Julie, the inimitable Booking Mama, is hosting the Shelf Discovery Challenge which sounds like a lot of fun. This challenge is named for the book Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading by Lizzie Skurnick, which features books and authors that defined the youth of so many bloggers – books like Are You [...]

Sunday Salon – Review of “Sisters in War: A Story of Love, Family, and Survival in the New Iraq” by Christina Asquith

This excellent and informative book offers a unique look at the war in Iraq from the often-neglected perspective of its effects on Iraqi women. It will inspire and infuriate you, but most of all, it will teach you things you will not read in treatments of the war by men. Reporter Christina Asquith, who has [...]

Review of “Love At Goon Park” by Deborah Blum

This week’s theme is animal behavior, as you can see from Monday’s review of A Dog About Town and the accompanying giveaway. The feature today is a review of Love At Goon Park by Deborah Blum, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for her writing and reporting on primate experiments and ethics. In this [...]

The Age of The Animal

The theme this week is animal behavior, as you can see from Monday’s review of “A Dog About Town” and the accompanying giveaway (access them both here). The latest Chronicle Review (dated October 23, 2009) also highlights animal behavior as a growing interdisciplinary concern, although in truth, ethology has been gaining respect for years, from [...]

Revisiting “A Dog About Town” by J.F. Englert and Giveaway

Last year, I was delighted to discover Randolph, the mystery-solving black labrador that writes his own books and even has his own blog. This year, Randolph has come out with a new book, and in order to celebrate, his human dependent, J.F. Englert, is sponsoring two giveaways on my blog, with three winners for each! [...]