Isn't it funny what reading in a group does to your bookish brain? I'd been happily reading along in Sean Manning's Bound to Last: 30 Writers on Their Most Cherished Book, dipping in and out, choosing random essays depending entirely on my mood. But then came Once Upon a Time
Returning to an installment in Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey series after many years? Never mind: Lord Peter Wimsey is still as Lord-Peter-ish as ever. (I read the previous volumes in the series, and the relevant stories, in 2003 and 2004; it's as though I just put down
In "Health and Guidance" class, the teacher goes up and down the rows, asking what the students had for breakfast. On the surface of it, she is checking to see if they are keeping to Canada's Food Rules, making solid nutritional choices. In fact, this is one more way in
Catherine Asaro's works are often recommended when this question is raised amongst readers. (Amidst all the debate and kurfufflery, ruffled readers' feathers and bleeding hearts.) When a Harvard PhD writes a series of books commonly reviewed (and awarded gold medals) in Romantic Times, that's what you get. And
The stories in Birds of a Lesser Paradise are so consistently good that I almost didn't want to read them. Beginning Megan Mayhew Bergman's collection, I had no expectations. She's been much-anthologized, and has a nice list of publishing credits, but that doesn't guarantee a good match between
