Book description: Welcome to the story of Despereaux Tilling, a mouse who is in love with music, stories, and a princess named Pea. It is also the story of a rat called Roscuro, who lives in the darkness and covets a world filled with light. And it is the story of Miggery Sow, a slow-witted serving girl who harbors a simple, impossible wish. These three characters are about to … [Read more...] about The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo: A
Books
Interior Desecrations by James Lileks: B+
From the back cover: Warning! This book is not to be used in any way, shape, or form as a design manual. Rather, like the documentary about youth crime Scared Straight, it is meant as a caution of sorts, a warning against any lingering nostalgia we may have for the 1970s, a breathtakingly ugly period when even the rats parted their hair down the middle. What does this … [Read more...] about Interior Desecrations by James Lileks: B+
The Pact by Jodi Picoult: C-
From the back cover: The Hartes and the Golds have been neighbors for 18 years and are very close. So when Chris and Emily's friendship reaches the next level, nobody is surprised. Then one night, the hospital calls. Seventeen-year-old Emily is dead—shot in the head by a gun Chris took from his father's cabinet. One bullet remains in the chamber, and Chris tells of his … [Read more...] about The Pact by Jodi Picoult: C-
The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers: B+
From the back cover: The body was on the pointed rocks alongside the stream. The artist might have fallen from the cliff where he was painting, but there are too many suspicious elements—particularly the medical evidence that proves he'd been dead nearly half a day, though eyewitnesses had seen him alive a scant hour earlier. And then there are the six prime suspects—all of … [Read more...] about The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers: B+
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury: B
From the front flap: The carnival rolls in sometime after the midnight hour of a chill Midwestern October eve. Ushering in Halloween a week before its time, a calliope's shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. Young boyhood companions James Nightshade and Will Halloway are the first to heed its call. From a place of safety, … [Read more...] about Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury: B