84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff: Book Review
Writer and bibliophile Helene Hanff strikes up a friendship through correspondence with the staff of a used bookshop in London. I think my expectations were too high. I remember other readers telling me, “Oh, if you liked The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, you will absolutely love 84, Charing Cross Road.” Well, I […]
The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee: Book Review
Lewis Buzbee has worked around books his entire life. He worked at the local bookstore through school, and then he worked as a publisher’s rep, and I can’t even remember what else. This slim, satisfying volume is almost a collection of essays about his thoughts on bookstores, books, readers, and publishing. I believe I was […]
The Word Made Flesh by Eva Talmadge: Book Review
I pulled this out of its mailer and my husband took one look and said, “Oh, crap. You’re going to have a tattoo soon, aren’t you?” I was a little hesitant to open it for fear of that very thing myself. I don’t have anything against tattoos on other people, they just aren’t for me. […]
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón: Book Review
Daniel Sempere’s father takes him to The Cemetery of Forgotten Books when he’s ten years old. One of the cemetery rules is that on your first visit, you choose a book, take it with you, and protect it forever. Daniel chooses The Shadow of the Wind by Julián Carax. Daniel falls in love with this […]
The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón: Book Review
David Martín is a writer of penny dreadfuls who is offered a huge sum of money to write a book for a French publisher. He can’t find any evidence that the publisher actually exists though, and violent things start happening to David’s friends and colleagues. I was rocking through the first half of the book, […]
A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly: Book Review
Mattie Gokey is an intelligent high school senior living in rural New York in 1906. As this book unfolds, we are following two different, intertwined arcs of Mattie’s life: the earlier months when she is desperate to get to college and the later months when she’s working at a summer lake resort where a young […]
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: Book Review
Most of you have probably already read The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, but it’s my very, very favorite book right now and has been for a while. Liesel Meminger is a ten-year-old girl living in Nazi Germany and being sent to live with foster parents when her younger brother dies. This is the first […]