From the back cover: "Reading has always been my home, my sustenance, my great invincible companion. 'Book love,' Trollope called it. 'It will make your hours pleasant to you as long as you live.' Yet of all the many things in which we recognize some universal comfort—God, sex, food, family, friends—reading seems to be the one in which the comfort is most undersung, at least … [Read more...] about How Reading Changed My Life by Anna Quindlen: B
Nonfiction
Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss: B+
From the front flap: Through sloppy usage and low standards on the Internet, in e-mail, and now "txt msgs," we have made proper punctuation an endangered species. In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, former editor Lynne Truss dares to say, in her delightfully urbane, witty and very English way, that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful and … [Read more...] about Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss: B+
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon: A+
From the inside flap: The scene is Baltimore, the year is 1988. Twice every three days another citizen is shot, stabbed, or bludgeoned to death. And at the center of this hurricane of crime is the city's homicide unit, a small brotherhood of hard men who fight for whatever justice is possible in a deadly world. The homicide detective is an American icon, the hero of a … [Read more...] about Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon: A+
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher’s Guide 1 by Golden and Holder: C+
From the back cover: As long as there have been vampires, there has been the Slayer. One girl in all the world, to find them where they gather and to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their members. She is the Slayer. Exclusive Interviews, Totally Pointy Profiles, Behind-the-Scenes Info, and Other Buff-stuff About the Hit Show. Review: The title Watcher's Guide … [Read more...] about Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher’s Guide 1 by Golden and Holder: C+
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson: B
From the front flap: In The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson tells the spellbinding true story of two men, an architect and a serial killer, whose fates were linked by the greatest fair in American history: the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, nicknamed "The White City." Review: What The Devil in the White City excels at is evocation of time and place. One really gets a … [Read more...] about The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson: B