Joan Bauer's Squashed Putnam - Penguin, 1992 Ellie Morgan, sixteen years old, is our main character in Squashed: "A funny fast-paced book about an ordinary girl with an extraordinary ambition." That's what the New York Times Book Review says about the novel. And here's a taste of Ellie, as created by
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) Signet-Penguin, 1992 In Dracula, you might expect to find a traditional tale of fright, narrated by the guy sitting next to the campfire, who's holding the end of the flashlight (er, torch) so that his face is illuminated in the spookiest way possible. But, no. Bram
Gustav Flaubert's Madame Bovary (1857) Trans. Alan Russell Penguin, 1987 Emma Bovary and I have met before, but we were not long acquainted. I started to read Flaubert's novel in between high school and university, but I never finished it. Not even close, actually. When we last moved house, I
Richard B. Wright's Mr. Shakespeare's Bastard Phyllis Bruce - Harper Collins, 2010 I was so annoyed with myself as a reader for not properly appreciating Richard Wright's October; I knew it was very well-done and it was simply my preternatural attachment to his earlier novel, Clara Callan, that interfered with
Anita Silvey's 500 Great Books for Teens Houghton Mifflin, 2006 As the reading year stretches on, I can't help but start thinking about the reading-year-to-come. (I'm not proud of my wandering reader's eye. But I've accepted it because there are more serious flaws to eradicate first!) So this time of
