Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

This book took me by surprise. It shouldn't have. I'm not a newcomer to young adult fiction. I know about "problem novels": Kid has a problem - a very serious problem - but can't tell anyone about it. Kid tries all kinds of dodges, but none work. Kid aligns self with a fellow quirky outsider. Kid finds an unlikely mentor. Circumstances implode and explode. Resolution achieved. More...

A Timbered Choir by Wendell Berry

The tale of my first encounter with the works of Wendell Berry has been told elsewhere, but it bears noting again if for no other reason than that it honors the most natural link between friendship and good reading. More...

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

About two years ago I couldn't decide on a Christmas present for one of my nieces. This book had been getting some fairly astonising raves over at adbooks, so I decided to give it a try. But I wouldn't have time to read it myself before Christmas. Would she like it? More...

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

I couldn't help thinking about Dickens when I jumped into this nearly 600-page novel. It even begins, "I was born..." In her introduction to the Everyman edition, Anita Desai cites Cervantes, Rabelais, Smollet and Fielding as Rushdie's likely literary ancestors. More...

The Autobiography of Alice B.Toklas by Gertrude Stein

Christmas 1968. End of my first semester at Marquette in Milwaukee. Charlie Langton from Atlanta joined me and my family for the holiday in Joliet. This book was his present to me... It was a used book, only a little less worn than it is today. Charlie assured me that I would love it. He was not wrong. What an extraordinary Christmas gift that continues to shimmer on my bookshelf 33 years later. More...