If you have a thing for epistolary tales, you probably already know and love this series; but, if you don't, you will want to. Start with the first volume, Griffin & Sabine, which introduces our hero and heroine via postcard. The postcards are one of the most beautiful aspects of
"If you just read one book this year, read this one." Perhaps more than any other book I've read this year, Monoculture makes me want to say that. Which is ironic: because Monoculture is about one story. (And I know how much you all love to read stories.) The premise
Adam Gopnik begins his second lecture on winter (first, here) by asking whether we remember that Mary Shelley's Frankenstein plays out in the northern, Arctic reaches. I didn't remember that: did you? Nonetheless, I don't have any trouble conjuring up the images that he describes in opening his
Dominique Fabre's The Waitress Was New (2005) Trans. Jordan Stump Archipelago Books, 2008 It begins very simply. "The waitress was new here." Pierre is not new; he has been the barman for years and years and years. When he watches the new waitress approach, it's the perspective of a seasoned
Book-brained Who has not heard of The Life of Pi? But did you know that author Yann Martel vowed to send the Canadian prime minister books to read for the duration of his term in office. For those of you who aren't Canadian, that's Stephen Harper -- the prime
