Watermark Books & Cafe

What is Mark David Bradshaw reading?

Mark reads like a house on fire: He received his Master's degree in comparative literature from King's College, London, and he can generally be found with a book in his hands.

He writes Watermark’s Teacher Feature newsletter, and he leads the Shakespeare Aloud reading group (which meets the first and third Wednesday of each month), the Hot & Popular Book Club (second Tuesdays each month), and the seasonal Watermark Challenge, which is reading Proust's Swann's Way next spring.

Currently Reading

Incendiary by Chris Cleave.

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradlay

Shakespeare & the Jews by James Shapiro.

The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe.

Swann's Way by Marcel Proust.

March 2010

The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood by Helene Cooper.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson: Read review

Fancy Nancy: Poet Extraordinaire! by Jane O'Connor: Read review

Fancy Nancy: Every Day is Earth Day: Read review

Marcel Proust by Mary Ann Caws.

February 2010

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake.

Marcel Proust: A Life by Edmund White: Read review

Wichita's Lebanese Heritage by Jay M. Price, Victoria Foth Sherry, & Matthew Namee: Read review

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins: Read review

Heist Society by Ally Carter: Read review

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See: Read review

Fly Guy Meets Fly Girl by Tedd Arnold: Read review

The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare: Read review

January 2010

All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West: Read review

Elephant & Piggie: I Am Going by Mo Willems: Read review

The Blue Notebook by James A. Levine.

A beautiful, painful, captivating novel about a young girl's life on the streets of Mumbai; it's a searing, compelling-told story that grips like The Kite Runner and Little Bee.

Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel by Jeanette Walls.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & Daivd Levithan.

Food Rules: An Eater's Manual by Michael Pollan: Read review

Dragonbreath by Ursula Vernon: Read review

Mama Miti: Wangari Maathai & the Trees of Kenya by Donna Jo Napoli, illustrated by Kadir Nelson: Read review

December 2009

The Fleet Street Murders: A Charles Lenox Mystery by Charles Finch: Read review

The Lost Colony by Christie Merriman Breault: Read review

Barnyard Slam by Dian Curtis Regan: Read review

Fancy Nancy Splendiferous Christmas by Jane O'Connor:

Read review

Hoppy Hanukkah by Linda Glasser: Read review

Happy Hanukkah, Corduroy! by Don Freeman: Read review

Merry Christmas, Splat! by Rob Scotton: Read review

November 2009

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins.

I read this new teen novel in one wonderfully enjoyable itting. It's set in a magical reform school for trouble-making young witches, warlocks, werewolves, and fairies. The plot is addictive and suspenseful--with many well-placed surprises--and I adored the cast of characters and the wisecracking humor. I was immediately eager for a sequel!

The September Society by Charles Finch: Read review

Captain Britain & MI-13: Vampire State by Paul Cornell & Leonard Kirk.

Captain Britain & MI-13: Hell Comes to Birmingham by Paul Cornell & Leonard Kirk.

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren & Esther Benson: Read review

The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo: Read review

Return to the Hundred Acre Wood by David Benedictus:

Read review

Wiggle, Bounce, and Stretch by Doreen Cronin: Read review

A Beautiful Blue Death: A Charles Lenox Mystery by Charles Finch.

A fantastic, cozy mystery set in 1865 London. I adore these characters and am so thankful there are sequels. this is perfect for fans of mysteries by Will Thomas and Gyles Brandreth: Read review

Push (a.k.a. Precious) by Sapphire.

Z. Rex: The Hunting by Steve Cole: Read review

Million-Dollar Throw by Mike Lupica: Read review

Trucktown: Truckery Rhymes by Jon Scieszka: Read review

The Duchess of Whimsy by Randall & Peter de Seve: Read review

Great Tales & Poems of Edgar Allan Poe

The Big Read Wichita begins in October: come join us in Watermark's Poe Challenge!

October 2009

Three Little Words: A Memoir by Ashley Rhodes-Courter: Read review

Dog and Bear: Three to Get Ready by Laura Seeger: Read review

The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama: Read review

Charlie & Lola: I Will Be Especially Very Careful by Lauren Child: Read review

Frankenstein Takes the Cake by Adam Rex: Read review

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney: Read review

Chicken Dance by Tammi Sauer, illustated by Dan Santat:

Read review

The 13 Days of Halloween by Carol Greene & Tim Raglin:

Read review

Elephant & Piggie: Pigs Make Me Sneeze by Mo Willems: Read review

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See.

The Mysterious Benedict Society & the Prisoner’s Dilemma by Trenton Lee Stewart: Read review

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, illus. by Ryan Price: Read review

Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan by Jeanette Winter: Read review

Skippyjon Jones: Lost in Spice by Judy Schachner: Read review

September 2009

Bait by Alex Sanchez.

The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama.

The Dragon in the Driveway by Kate Klimo.

Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls: Best Friends & Drama Queens by Meg Cabot: Read review

Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls: Stage Fright by Meg Cabot: Read review

The Devil's Kiss by Sarwat Chadda: Read review

Night World: Secret Vampire by L. J. Smith: Read review

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid: Read review

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Madness, illus. by Gris Grimly: Read review

August 2009

Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan: Read review

Poe: A Life Cut Short by Peter Ackroyd: Read review

Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British by Sarah Lyall: Read review

A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson: Read review

Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Practicing the Piano (But She Does Love Being in Recitals) by Peggy Gifford: Read review

Found: The Missing, Book 1 by Margaret Peterson Haddix: Read review

My Rotten Life: Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie by David Lubar: Read review

A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban: Read review

Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Death & Dementia illus. by Gris Grimley: Read review

Ender’s Game: Battle School by Christopher Yost & Pasqual Ferry: Read review

Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life by Rachel Renee Russell: Read review

Rose (a prequel to the Bone series) by Jeff Smith & Charles Vess: Read review

The Eternal Smile: Three Stories by Gene Luen Yang & Derek Kirk Kim: Read review

July 2009

Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare: Read review

The Book of William: How Shakespeare's First Folio Conquered

the Word by Paul Collins: Read review

Emma by Jane Austen.

What Jane Austen Ate & Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool.

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen.

Jane Austen: A Life by Carol Shields: Read review

Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hiking, & Other Natural Disasters by Lenore Look & LeUyen Pham: Read review

June 2009

Elephant & Piggie: Elephants Cannot Dance! by Mo Willems:

Read review

Carter Finally Gets It by Brent Crawford: Read review

Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover by Ally Carter: Read review

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin: Read review

Static Shock: Rebirth of the Cool by Dwayne McDuffie.

May 2009

Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin.

Oscar Wilde and A Game Called Murder by Giles Brandreth.

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen.

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan: Read review

Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson: Read review

Remarkably Jane: Notable Quotations on Jane Austen by Jennifer Adams: Read review

Freckleface Strawberry & the Dodgeball Bully by Julianne Moore & LeUyen Pham: Read review

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan: Read review

In Our Mothers' House by Patricia Polacco: Read review

Oscar Wilde and A Death of No Importance by Giles Brandreth.

April 2009

Suicide Notes by Michael Thomas Ford.

In Mike We Trust by P. E. Ryan: Read review

Wisdom: The Rudiments of Wisdom by Paul Cornell.

Martha Doesn't Say Sorry! by Jeanne Betancourt: Read review

Ava Tree & the Wishes Three by Jeanne Betancourt: Read review

Barack Obama: U.S. President by Roberta Edwards: Read review

Michelle Obama: Mom-in-Chief by Roberta Edwards: Read review

Tricking the Tallyman by Jacqueline Davies: Read review

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson: Read review

The Case of the Missing Servant: A Vish Puri Mystery

by Tarquin Hall: Read review

I love this detective story. Vish Puri is so fussy and lively and fun, and the book is like a tour of contemporary India. Fans of Mr. Malik in Nicholas Drayson's A Guide to the Birds of East Africa should pick up this book!

Drinks with the Barefoot Contessa: Read the piece

We are Extremely Very Good Recyclers by Lauren Child:

Read review

Bone 9: Crown of Thorns by Jeff Smith: Read review

Song Yet Sung by James McBride: Read review

If I Stay by Gayle Forman: Read review

Fancy Nancy: Explorer Extraordinaire & The Dazzling Book Report by Jane O'Connor: Read review

The Flea's Sneeze by Lynne Downey: Read review

March 2009

The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin: Read review

This is the first Investigator Yashim mystery, and it is absolutely fantastic. Set in Istanbul, capital of the Ottoman Empire in the 1830s, it is a top-notch, literary historical mystery that is required reading for fans of The Gentle Axe.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier by Ed Brubaker.

Tamburlaine the Great by Christopher Marlowe: Read review

Just Like Bossy Bear by David Horvath: Read review

Watch Me Throw the Ball by Mo Willems: Read review

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (1948).

This timeless English coming-of-age novel is perfect for fans of Pride and Prejudice. It's funny, introspective, wildly romantic, and it speaks to adults and teenagers alike. I can't believe it was long out of print! Read this and put it in the hands of Twilight fans in want of romance and suspense. Read review

Little Bee by Chris Cleave.

This novel about a Nigerian girl and a British woman is a stunning and compassionate story that brings faraway places near and makes incredible experiences real. You'll grip the book tightly in your hands; you'll hold its characters closely to your heart: Read review

Searching for Shakespeare by Tarnya Cooper: Read review

Slam by Nick Hornby.

The 39 Clues #3: The Sword Thief by Peter Lerangis: Read review

February 2009

Runaways/Young Avengers: Secret Invasion by Christopher Yost & Takeshi Miyazawa.

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim (1922): Read review

Four persnickety English ladies rent an Italian castle for a sunny April holiday! This gem of a novel will seduce you and sublime you. It will make you put flowers on your table and want cream with your dessert. Fans of Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day should read this!

The Demigod Files by Rick Riordan: Read review

Good Evening Mrs. Craven: The Wartime Stories of

Mollie Panter-Downes (1939-1945): Read review

Panter-Downes wrote for The New Yorker for decades, and her observing eye shows us wonderfully ironic scenes from the British home front during World War II. These sharp, excellent stories are a must-read for Austen fans and readers of The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society.

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff (1970).

This was lovely. A great memoir for readers who loved Guernsey's epistolary style.

To Kingdom Come: A Barker & Llewelyn Mystery by Will Thomas: Read review

The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice by William Shakespeare.

My favorite Shakespearean tragedy. Othello and Desdemona deserve so much better from life, and their downfall is absolutely mesmerizing: Read review

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley.

Set in 1950s Britain, this clever country-house murder mystery stars a precocious eleven-year-old chemist who's simply incapable of minding her own business. Perfect for Agatha Christie fans! Read review

January 2009

The Breakthrough: Politics & Race in the Age of Obama by Gwen Ifill: Read review

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson (1938).

This 1938 novel (basis of the recent movie) is charming, funny, fizzy, fast, and perfectly pitched for fans of The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society: Read review

Essential X-Men Vol. 8 by Chris Claremont & Mark Silvestri.

Oh man, X-Men comics from the 1980s are my kryptonite.

The Tamer Tamed, or the Woman's Prize by John Fletcher.

The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family

by Annette Gordon-Reed: Read review

Come enjoy dinner and a group discussion of this National Book Award-winning work of history and biography at Watermark's KMUW Literary Feast on Friday, February 6.

Miss Crandall's School for Young Ladies & Little Misses of Color by Elizabeth Alexander, Marilyn Nelson, & Floyd Cooper: Read review

Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez.

The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield: Read review

David Inside Out by Lee Bantle.

Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating by Mark Bittman.

December 2008

Holidays on Ice (new expanded edition) by David Sedaris: Read review

Green Lantern: Secret Origin by Geoff Johns.

How to Build a House by Dana Reinhardt: Read review

Chat Pack: Read review

Ruby Lu, Empress of Everthing by Lenore Look: Read review

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie.

Watching the Watchmen by Dave Gibbons.

The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare.

Presidents Fandex: A Family Field Guide: Read review

The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J. K. Rowling: Read review

November 2008

Ruby Lu, Brave and True by Lenore Look: Read review

Heroes: Volume 2 graphic novel by Tim Sale, etc.

Bananagrams: Read review

Bella's Mystery Decks from Mindware: Read review

The 39 Clues: Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan: Read review

Blue Beetle graphic novels by Keith Giffen, John Rogers, & Cully Hammer: Read review

X-Men: Vignettes 2 by Chris Claremont & John Bolton.

Abe's Honest Words by Doreen Rappaport & Kadir Nelson: Read review

The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British by Sarah Lyall: Review

The Runaway Dolls by Ann M. Martin, illus. by Brian Selnick: Review

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow: Read review

Yes We Can: A Biography of Barack Obama by Garen Thomas: Review

Bear Feels Scared by Karma Wilson, & by Jane Chapman: Read review

Where is Home, Little Pip? by Karma Wilson & Jane Chapman: Read review

Elephant & Piggie: Are You Ready to Play Outside? by Mo Willems: Read review

Dido Queen of Carthage by Christopher Marlowe: Read review

October 2008

Revelations: A Blue Bloods Novel by Melissa de la Cruz: Read review

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman: Read review

Toy Dance Party by Emily Jenkins & Paul O. Zelinsky: Read review

Ex Machina vol. 7: Ex Cathedra by Brian K. Vaughan.

High School Musical graphic novel: Lasting Impressions: Read review

Hatter M: Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor & Ben Templesmith.

Virgil's Aeneid, translated by Sarah Ruden: Books 9 to 12: Read review

Janes in Love by Cecil Castellucci & Jim Rugg: Read review

Baby Sitters Club 4: Claudia & Mean Jeanine by Ann M. Martin & Rain Telgemeier: Read review

The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows: Read review

Blue Beetle vol. 4: Endgame by John Rogers & Rafaele Albuquerque.

Green Lantern: Revenge of the Green Lanterns by Geoff Johns & Carlos Paceho.

Young Avengers Presents by Ed Brubaker, et. al.

Virgil's Aeneid, translated by Sarah Ruden: Books 5 to 8: Read review

The Secret of Laurel Oaks by Lois Ruby.

If You Give a Cat a Cupcake by Laura Numeroff: Read review

Troilus & Cressida by William Shakespeare.

I always root for Cressida.

September 2008

Virgil's Aeneid, translated by Sarah Ruden: Books 1 to 4: Read review

Gotham Central by Ed Brubaker & Greg Rucka.

Hit the Road, Manny! A Manny Files novel by Christian Burch:

Read review

Seeing Redd: The Looking Glass Wars, Book 2 by Frank Beddor.

Wicked: Witch and Curse by Nancy Holder & Debby Viguie: Read review

A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson.

A slim, gently funny novel of bird-watching and senior love entanglements set amid the expat community of Nairobi, Kenya. Not my usual fare, but I find myself totally charmed by it. It's perfect for fans of Wodehouse or Alexander McCall Smith: Read review

Piper Reed: The Great Gypsy by Kimberly Willis Holt: Read review

Will: A Novel by Christopher Rush.

This is a dirty, trippy, wonderful new novel about the last days of Will Shakespeare. Rush renders the playwright's streaming consciousness with a near-excess of sharp-edged imagery, verbal invention, and frequent self-allusion to his plays and poems. It's a rich treat for any reader with a love of Shakespeare: Read review

The Ruby in the Smoke and The Shadow in the North by Philip Pullman.

YA mysteries set in Victorian London and featuring a daring young girl with steady hands and a pistol in her purse? Yes, please! Read review

Wangari's Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa by Jeanette Winter: Read review

August 2008

Good Neighbors 1: Kin by Holly Black & Ted Naifeh: Read review

Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon & Dean Hale, illus. by Nathan Hale: Read review

Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls: Moving Day and The New Girl by Meg Cabot: Read reviews

What They Always Tell Us by Martin Wilson.

A fine new teen novel narrated by two brothers on opposite ends of their high school and opposite sides of a secret: withdrawn Alex made an attempt at suicide, and outgoing James just can't fathom why. It's wisely and movingly written.

Interred With Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell: Read review

Runaways: Dead End Kids by Joss Whedon & Michael Ryan: Read review

Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things by Lenore Look & LeUyen Pham: Read review

The Dragon in the Sock Drawer by Kate Klimo: Read review

Going, Going, Gone! With the Pain & the Great One by Judy Blume: Read review

Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Writing Thank-You Notes by Peggy Gifford: Read review

Two Parties, One Tux, and a Very Short Film About The Grapes of Wrath by Steven Goldman.

This teen novel is hilarious, perceptive, and perfectly narrated in the voice of a young man who recognizes that 95% of human communication is unspoken and probably misunderstood. Fans of John Green should not miss this!

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky.

Hamlet (the 1996 screenplay) by Kenneth Branagh, adapted from William Shakespeare.

To Kingdom Come: A Barker & Llewelyn Novel by Will Thomas: Read review

July 2008

Drama: Entrances & Exits by Paul Ruditis.

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson.

It's stranger and more wonderful than it has any right to be: Read review

Young Avengers: Sidekicks/Family Matters omnibus by Alan Heinberg & Jim Cheung.

Alchemyst and The Magician by Michael Scott: Read reviews

The Black Tower by Louis Bayard.

All the raves I've heard raves about Bayard are justified by this historical suspense novel. It's filled with vivid characters and perfect notes of description, and the dynamic between mild Hector Carpentier and rascally half-reformed convict Vidocq is especially fine. R. N. Morris fans should check this out. Coming in late August: Read review

Kiki Strike: The Empress's Tomb by Kirsten Miller: Read review

Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City by Kirsten Miller: Read review

Superman: Last Son by Geoff Johns & Richard Donner.

Some Danger Involved: A Barker & Llewelyn Novel by Will Thomas.

With this rollicking mystery novel, Oklahoma-based author Will Thomas launches both a stirring series of Victorian adventures and a pair of thoroughly enjoyable sleuths: Read review

Runaways: Dead End Kids by Joss Whedon & Mike Norton.

Green Lantern: Tales from the Sinestro Corps by Geoff Johns, etc.

Green Lantern: Sinestro War 2 by Geoff Johns.

Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer: Read review

Bone 8 by Jeff Smith: Read review

Sardine in Outer Space 5 by Emmanuel Guibert: Read review

Two Twin Giants by Dick King-Smith & Mini Grey.

The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels, and the Business of AIDS by Elizabeth Pisani.

This memoir and expose by an AIDS epidemiologist is dishy, bracing, and compelling. It peers into U.N. bureaucracies and plunges through gritty scenes of Asian nightlife. Pisani packs the book with a forceful, impatient humanity and writes keenly of the frustrating obstacles that money, politics, and ideology present to disease prevention.

Coraline the graphic novel by Neil Gaiman & P. Craig Russell:

Read review

Knights of the Lunch Table: The Dodgeball Chronicles by Frank Cammuso: Read review

Quantum Prophecy 01: The Awakening and Quantum Prophecy 02: The Gathering: Read review

Out of the Pocket by Bill Konigsberg.

The best teen novel I've read in ages. This book seamlessly combines two genres, the sports novel and the coming-out story, to tell of a star high-school quarterback who's coming to terms with being gay while caught in a national spotlight. Konigsberg avoids all cliches and instead fills his book with funny, fantastic, surprising characters. He also makes each football game a riveting, high-stakes event. Out in September.

June 2008

Dishes by Rich Wallace.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.

Question: The Five Books of Blood by Greg Rucka.

I'm the Best Artist in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry: Read review

Bluebloods and Masquerade by Melissa de la Cruz.

Beach reads with fangs: Read review

Trucktown books by Jon Scieszka: Read review

Airman by Eoin Colfer: Read review

The Spirit by Darwyn Cooke.

The Death of Captain America by Ed Brubaker.

Wicked Lovely and Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr: Read reviews

The Merchant of Venice adapted & illustrated by Gareth Hinds: Read review

Hedge Knight II: Sworn Sword by George R. R. Martin: Read review

Elephant & Piggie: I Love My New Toy and I Will Surprise My Friend by Mo Willems: Read review

May 2008

The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria: Read review

The Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv: Read review

Moonpowder by John Rocco: Read review

A Vengeful Longing by R. N. Morris.

A follow-up to Morris's fantastic The Gentle Axe, this literary mystery offers the intense pleasures of seeing Investigating Magistrate Porfiry Petrovich train an inexperienced new colleague in the St. Petersburg police force as he works to solve a double murder involving poisoned chocolates. Due out in early June. (I would love to pre-order a copy for you.) Read review

Pendragon: Merchant of Death graphic novel by J. D. MacHale: Read review

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull: Read review

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare.

Green Lantern: No Fear by Geoff Johns.

Checkmate: The Fall of the Wall by Greg Rucka.

Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of an Iranian American at Home and Abroad by Firoozeh Dumas: Read review

Cool Zone With the Pain and the Great One by Judy Blume: Read review

Found: The Missing, Book 1 by Margaret Peterson Haddix: Read review

United Tweets of America: 50 State Birds, Their Stories, Their Glories by Hudson Talbot: Read review

It’s Not Fair by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illus. by Tom Lichtenheld: Read review

Prisoner of Tehran: One Woman's Story of Survival Inside an Iranian Prison by Marina Nemat: Read review

Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan: Read review

City of Bones and City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare: Read review

A Dash of Style by Noah Lukeman.

One either loves punctuation or not, and I love it. This slim book by a literary agent is filled with careful thought, an elegant grasp of style, and many examples drawn from excellent writers. When I saw quotes from E. M. Forster and David Leavitt on successive pages, I was hooked.

April 2008

The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd.

This blockbuster Elizabethan play was arguably the first modern English stage tragedy. It ushered in new trends in individual characterization and started the vogue for revenge tragedy. It's a vital pre-cursor to Shakespeare's Hamlet, but I found it very enjoyable in its own right, especially in its moving soliloquies by the grief-wracked Hieronimo.

Uncle Bobby's Wedding by Sarah S. Brannen: Read review

Thoreau at Walden by John Porcinello: Read review

Atherton: Rivers of Fire by Patrick Carman: Read review

Maps & Legends by Michael Chabon.

Big Plans by Bob Shea & Lane Smith: Read review

Fancy Nancy's Favorite Fancy Words by Jane O'Connor: Read review

The Manny Files by Christian Burch.

This middle-reader novel is absolutely hilarious! I laughed, on average, four times per page. I heartily recommend this to everyone who knows children, who enjoys a good family in-joke, or who loves someone--a kid, an uncle, a male nanny--who lives life outside of the box. I can't wait for the sequel! Read review

Drama: Show, Don't Tell by Paul Ruditis: Read review

This YA series gets richer and funnier with each installment. This third book thrusts lead character Bryan further into the spotlight and starts to explore his own personal drama and relationship hang-ups. I'd be happy to read a new sequel every week if Paul Ruditis write that fast!

Shakespeare & Co: Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Dekker, Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, John Fletcher & the Other Players in His Story by Stanley Wells: Read review

New Mutants Classics, vol. 3 by Chris Claremont & Bill Sienkiewicz.

These are some of the 1980s X-Men stories of my childhood. A few are a bit iffy, but the Demon Bear Saga is a total classic with amazing and unusual art from Sienkiewicz.

Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 by David Petersen: Read review

Dog and Bear: Two Friends, Three Stories and Dog and Bear: Two's Company by Laura Vaccaro Seeger: Read review

The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers: Read review

Searching for Shakespeare by Tarnya Cooper, Stanley Wells, and James Shapiro.

This awesome oversized book records an excellent 2006 exhibit hosted by London's National Portrait Gallery: in its pages, curators and Shakespeare scholars examine contested portraits of Shakespeare; key Elizabethan and Jacobean manuscripts; period clothing; documents of births, deaths, and marriages; and more. It's a basically a visual treasury of objects and important papers from Shakespeare's world. An exciting and engrossing book for any Shakespeare lover.

Young Avengers: Family Matters by Allan Heinberg & Jim Cheung.

Young Avengers: Sidekicks by Allan Heinberg & Jim Cheung.

The Gentle Axe by R. N. Morris.

This excellent historical crime novel traipses through brothels and slums, pawnbrokers and St. Petersburg squares with splendidly jovial Russian moroseness. Morris's tone is clever and darkly joking, his plot is tight, and his period details of 1860s Russia are deeply enjoyable. This is a book for everyone who enjoys a well-made literary mystery: Read review

Dog Years: A Memoir by Mark Doty.

A lyric poet, Doty focuses this memoir on his two dogs and how their companionable animal presences helped shepherd him through the death of his partner, the September 11 attacks on New York City, and his own resulting depressions. He's always cautious of straying into sentiment, and his searching poet's eye often locks onto sharp images and fine, resplendent moments: Read review

Clementine's Letter by Sara Pennypacker, pictures by Marla Frazee: Read review

The Pigeon Wants a Puppy by Mo Willems: Read review

March 2008

The Boy Who Was Raised by Librarians by Carla Morris, illus. by Brad Sneed: Read review

The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry.

Infidel by Aayan Hirsi Ali: Read review

Thinking Straight by Robin Reardon.

Due out in May, Reardon's second teen-focused novel follows a young man into an intensive, sometimes abusive, reparative therapy camp. What starts as a brainwashing expose soon becomes a suspenseful near-thriller as the protagonist, Taylor, joins an underground circle seeking to shepherd alienated kids through damaging attempts to remake them. It's breathless, engrossing, and surprisingly devout in plotting a path toward both God and love.

Good Enough by Paula Yoo.

This is a fun and funny YA novel focused on violin recitals, first crushes, SAT-prep anxiety, church youth group rivalries, and seeking to please your highly-motivated Korean parents. It's a great laugh: Read review

A Secret Edge by Robin Reardon.

I like how this teen-focused novel approaches a cross-cultural romance between high-school athletes from India and the U.S., showing them trading thoughts on Gandhi, nonviolence, and school bullying. Reardon creates engaging characters and tells a good story in this debut.

Sweethearts by Sara Zarr.

This is a beautifully nuanced teen novel that many adults will also want to read. It addresses childhood abuse in an non-exploitative way and is clear-eyed in its honesty and in its refusal to promise tidy conclusions. With this book, Zarr has delivered a completely satisfying follow-up to her excellent debut Story of a Girl: Read review

The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall: Read review

Surprises According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney: Read review

Stink and the Great Guinea Pig Express by Megan McDonald, illus. by Peter H. Reynolds: Read review

Dear Deer: A Book of Homophones by Gene Barretta: Read review

Maybe a Bear Ate It! by Robie H. Harris, illus. by Michael Emberley: Read review

Blue Beetle: Reach for the Stars by John Rogers.

The Lodger Shakespeare: His Life on Silver Street by Charles Nicholl.

This new title is the most exciting Shakespeare book of 2008 so far, and it seems destined to stand as the year’s finest and most original Shakespeare-related work. (I would especially recommend it to readers who enjoyed James Shapiro's 1599.) Nicholl uses spare facts as a stepping-off point to paint a rich picture of street-level life in Jacobean London. This is a fantastic work of biography: Read review

William Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson.

I would recommend this slender biography to anyone new to Shakespeare who wants an entertaining and readable overview of his life. Readers interested in more detail should pick up Stanley Wells's Shakespeare: For All Time or Katherine Duncan-Jones's provocative Ungentle Shakespeare. Read review

The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare.

I have to admit that this is probably my least favorite of all Shakespeare's plays. I miss the poetry, the funny foreign accents aren't all that funny, and Falstaff seems to be flying at half mast.

Clay by David Almond: Read review

Mom & Dad are Palindromes: Read review

February 2008

Grace for President by Kelly Dipucchio and Leuyen Pham: Read review

Daredevil: Decalogue by Brian Michael Bendis.

Lady Gregory's Toothbrush by Colm Toibin.

Torchwood: Border Princes by Dan Abnett.

This second "Torchwood" tie-in novel introduces a curious new character, and the plot spins on the reader trying to figure out where he came from and why. In all, it's a fun romp with moments of really beautiful writing from Abnett on the poignancy of war and old soldiers. Good stuff.

Twelve Long Months by Brian Malloy.

The Loners: The Secret Lives of Super Heroes by Cebulski & Moline.

This comic series spun-off from the awesome Runaways (but by different creators) is enjoyable but kind of angsty and unfocused, much like the '80s movies it imitates.

52, Volume 4 by Geoff Johns, Mark Waid, Greg Rucka, Grant Morrison, and Keith Giffen.

The Groundbreaking, Chance-Taking Life of George Washington Carver and Science & Invention in America by Cheryl Harness.

Carver lived a fascinating life, both as a scientist and as an atypically religious individual with a self-made family. This new young-reader biography hits all the important points and makes connections with the larger world ongoing developments in science: Read review

Women Daredevils: Thrills, Chills, and Frills by Julie Cummins, illus. by Cheryl Harness.

This book is full of nerves and derring-do, and it more than lives up to its promise to deliver “thrills, chills, and frills.” My favorite is the story of the girl who became the world's first human cannonball: Read review

Madam President: The Extraordinary, True (and Evolving) Story of Women in Politics by Catherine Thimmesh & Douglas Jones.

This illustrated history lesson is smart, timely, and inspiring. Thimmesh and Jones take a look at many of the trailblazing American women who have advanced women’s rights and national leadership: Read review

Woolbur by Leslie Helakowski & Lee Harper.

Woolbur marches to his own drum, to his own tuba, and to his own glockenspiel: This is an affirming story about being a creative thinker who leads the herd instead of simply following it: Read review

Moral Disorder and Other Stories by Margaret Atwood.

I love Atwood's use of shifting perspectives and selective remembering in this sequence of linked short stories encompassing a woman's life from the 1930s to the present. Anyone anticipating her next full novel should relish this novel-in-stories: Read review

The Door: Poems by Margaret Atwood.

I half-seriously believe that Atwood writes poems only for me: her grim smiles, cheeky blood-thirstiness, and small flashes of hope and laughter. I love them all: Read review

New Mutants Classics, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 by Chris Claremont, Bob McLeod, and Sal Buscema.

These teen superhero comics are classic 1980s coming-of-age stories. The New Mutants are junior X-Men from diverse backgrounds, and their triumphs and tribulations fascinated a generation of young readers with their mix of heroic tragedy and complex characterization. I'm so glad to see these issues collected in a bookshelf format! Fans of The Runaways and Young Avengers should read these books; they're great stuff.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation by M. T. Anderson.

M. T. Anderson's range is astounding. Compare his previous novel, Feed, about plugged-in teenagers road-tripping to the moon to this history piece, which follows an educated but enslaved boy in Revolutionary Boston. Both are fantastic and powerful, but Octavian looks to be Anderson's magnum opus. Even readers who don't read teen literature should read this novel: Read review

The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Basil by Wiley Miller: Read review

Ordinary Basil: Attack of the Volcano Monkeys by John Wiley: Read review

Stand Tall, Abe Lincoln by Judith St. George, illus. by Matt Faulkner.

I enjoyed this picture-book look at Lincoln's youth. It offers an inspiring example of the powerful role of a mentor in a young person's lifa: Read review

The Cow That Laid an Egg by Andy Cutbill, illus. by Russell Ayto: Read review

Torchwood: Another Life by Peter Anghelides.

I love the BBC sci-fi series "Torchwood," and this first novel spin-off is good fun: wild weather, spine-biting aliens loose in Cardiff, and a bit of character development. It's perfect munchy reading for a winter weekend.

January 2008

The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy by Robert Leleux.

Long on charm and fizzy with delight, Leleux has a wicked gift for storytelling; he turns his minor childhood tragedies into glorious comedic melodrama: Read review

The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak.

The story of a colorful Istanbul family, this lovely novel explores the persistence of group memory and the resilience of family bonds: Read review

Marvel Adventures Avengers vol. 3 by Jeff Parker.

Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four vol. 7 by Fred Van Lente.

Ex Machina 6: Power Down by Brian K. Vaughan & Tony Harris.

Dramacon 3 by Svetlana Chmakova.

Third Man Out: A Donald Strachey Mystery by Richard Stevenson.

First Person Plural by Andrew W. M. Beierle.

This novel, told in the voice of a conjoined twin, is remarkably controlled in the way it depicts an individual who has spent his entire life never moving (physically or emotionally) without weighing how it would affect others. It's a fascinating exploration of brothers with a shared body and two very different hearts.

The Year of Ice by Brian Malloy.

The teenage narrator in this debut novel has an amazing, appealing voice, a confounding predicament, and perfectly handled setting in the icy Twin Cities. I loved it, and I can't wait to read more Malloy. I'm especially looking forward to his forthcoming YA novel Twelve Long Months.

When Harriet Met Sojourner by Catherine Clinton & Shane W. Evans.

This picture book from historian Catherine Clinton takes us on a tour of the lives of two heroic women--with the help of striking illustrations by Kansas City artist Shane W. Evans: Read review

Bone 7: Ghost Circles by Jeff Smith.

Tough Love: High School Confidential by Abby Denson.

This graphic novel has its heart in the right place, but the simple art and somewhat stilted story both seem to sacrifice depth in favor of stylization.

Vintage: A Ghost Story by Steve Berman.

Berman's teen story wraps a Goth aesthetic around a delightful story of first love. It has a few rough edges, but the story and characters are compulsively readable.

Split Screen by Brent Hartinger.

This is a re-read, which is rare. I admire Hartinger's ability to write smart, ethical characters, and spending time with them is always a treat: Read review

The Order of the Poison Oak by Brent Hartinger.

Another Hartinger re-read: Read review

The Shakespeare Wars by Ron Rosenbaum.

I revisited this collection of Shakespeare-centered essays for weeks and months, and I profited from every moment: Rosenbaum is an ecstatic and digressive commentator on the big questions occupying today's great Shakespeare scholars, and his interviews and reflections serve as a sturdy, inviting bridge that brings readers into the debate. He also introduced me to a host of books I should read and helped to fill up my Netflix queue: Read review

We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson.

This new book from acclaimed illustrator Kadir Nelson is an intimate, gorgeously painted account of the early-twentieth-century Golden Age of Negro League baseball. Nelson is a two-time recipient of the Caldecott Honor for children's illustration, and while "We Are the Ship" is perfect for young readers, it will also enthrall history and baseball enthusiasts of all ages: Read review

Duck for President by Doreen Cronin: Read review

Trucktown: Smash! Crash! by John Scieszka: Read review

Piano Starts Here: The Young Art Tatum by Robert Andrew Parker.

This picture books works as a simple childhood story and also as an introduction to the world of Jazz music and to the life of an African-American musician who stands among such greats as Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Charlie Parker, and Duke Ellington: Read review

The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks.

This novel is rich in empathy and opens windows into the lives of humble people living in extraordinary days. Through the fog of time, the Sarajevo Haggadah and the people who save it emerge as flawed, beautiful specimens of a humanity still yearning, learning, and moving, fitfully, in the direction of hope: Read review

December 2007

Shock to the System: A Donald Strachey Mystery by Richard Stevenson.

Ain't Nothing But a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry by Scott Reynolds Nelson & Marc Aronson: Read review

Henry VI, Part 1 by William Shakespeare & (likely) Thomas Nashe.

Death Trick: A Donald Strachey Mystery by Richard Stevenson.

How They Met & Other Stories by David Levithan: Read review

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett: Read review

Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan.

Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow by James Sturm & Rich Tommaso: Read review

An Orange in January by Dianna Hutts Aston: Read review

As You Like It by William Shakespeare.

The Age of Bronze: Betrayal, vol. 1 by Eric Shanower.

Mouse Guard 1152 by David Peterson.

How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O'Connor.

Dog and Bear: Two Friends, Three Stories by Laura Vaccaro Seeger.

November 2007

X-Men First Class: Tomorrow's Brightest by Jeff Parker & Roger Cruz.

Skippyjon Jones and the Big Bones by Judy Schachner: Read review

SHAZAM and the Monster Society of Evil by Jeff Smith.

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan.

If A Tree Falls at Lunch Period by Gennifer Choldenko: Read review

Heroes the graphic novel.

Toys Go Out by Emily Jenkins: Read review

Shug by Jenny Han: Read review

The Longest Christmas List Ever by Gregg & Evan Spiridellis: Read review

Russell's Christmas Magic by Rob Scotton: Read review

Olivia Helps with Christmas by Ian Falconer: Read review

Violet Bing and the Grand House by Jennifer Soros: Read review

October 2007

William Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson: Read review

A Yorkshire Tragedy by Thomas Middleton.

This short, topical Jacobean play was long attributed to Shakespeare and now rests in the first rank of the Shakespearea Apocrypha. It dramatizes infamous murders and might be thought of as the In Cold Blood of its day. A few scholars argue that it is, in part, written or edited by Shakespeare.

The Looking-Glass Wars by Frank Beddor.

This first installment of a new youth fantasy series re-imagines Lewis Carroll's Wonderland stories as an epic clash between Princess Alyss and her diabolical Aunt Redd; Beddor writes like Charles Dickens by way of Lemony Snicket as he weaves together moments of bright wonder and darkly funny pity. It's an awesome roller coaster ride.

Jabberwocky by Christopher Myers: Review

Judy Moody & Stink: The Holly Joliday by Megan McDonald, illus. by Peter H. Reynolds: Read review

The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies: Read review

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #4: Still Friends by Sean McKeever.

Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story From the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine, illus. by Kadir Nelson: Read review

Extreme Animals: The Toughest Creatures on Earth by Nicola Davies, illus. by Neal Layton: Read review

Poop: A Natural History of the Unmentionable by Nicola Davies, illus. by Neal Layton: Read review

What’s Eating You? Parasites—The Inside Story by Nicola Davies, illus. by Neal Layton: Read review

JSA: The Dark Age by James Robinson.

JSA: The Return of Hawkman by Geoff Johns.

Slam by Nick Hornby.

Hornby's first young-adult novel follows a fifteen-year-old London guy about to become a father. Teens will identify with Sam's funny storytelling and overwhelmed state of mind, and adults will enjoy how differently Sam and his gobsmacked mother see the world: Read review

Pericles Prince of Tyre by William Shakespeare & George Wilkins.

It's like a fairy tale with shipwrecks, nuns, and brothels.

52 (volumes 1, 2, and 3) by Geoff Johns, Mark Waid, Greg Rucka, Grant Morrison, and Keith Giffen.

This graphic novel series records an ambitious, mammoth undertaking: a real-time comic book series published weekly for one year. The short vignette structure doesn't give the myriad characters enough time to breathe, but the plotting, pacing, and surprises of the interlaced stories are pretty amazing. Definitely worth it and more than just a (very cool) gimmick.

Knut: How One Little Polar Bear Captivated the World by Craig, Juliana, & Isabella Hatkoff: Read review

Taken by Edward Bloor: Read review

Please, Louise! by Frieda Wishinsky & Marie-Louise Gay: Read review

Oscar and the Moth and Oscar and the Frog "start with science" books by Geoff Waring: Read reviews

The God Box by Alex Sanchez: Read review

Kingdom Come by Mark Waid & Alex Ross.

Artemis Fowl: The Graphic Novel by Eoin Colfer: Read review

Drama! Everyone's a Critic by Paul Ruditis.

In this sequel to the very funny high-school theatre story Drama! The Four Dorothys, it's summer vacation, and Bryan and his merry band of cutthroat thespians will do whatever it takes to give a perfect audition: Read review

London Calling by Edward Bloor: Read review

One City, Two Brothers by Chris Smith & Aurelia Fronty: Read review

September 2007

Tangerine by Edward Bloor.

This middle-school novel is wonderfully clever and filled with offbeat humor: its seventh-grade narrator moves to a strange Florida town plagued by lightning strikes and sink-holes. Everything seems a little warped there, and his fierce, scrappy soccer team is no exception: Read review

Dexter in the Dark by Jeff Lindsay.

This third installment moves more slowly than the earlier books, but Dexter Morgan remains a deeply enjoyable guilty pleasure: Read review (coming soon)

DC: The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke.

The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World by E. L. Konigsburg.

This new middle-grades novel by two-time Newbery Medal-winner E. L. Konigsburg is pure gold: strong, smart characters; fascinating situations; and intriguing uses of art and history. It’s the perfect choice for curious, precocious young readers who need books that can introduce them to big ideas: Read review

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron.

In James Sveck, Peter Cameron has created a Holden Caulfield for the new century: he's an articulate but uncommunicative teenager, passionate yet almost painfully reserved, and in him are bundled the many ill-fitting humours of adolescence. This is a remarkable book: Read review

Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree by Lauren Tarshis.

This slyly funny story follows a seventh-grade problem-solver who trips over own her selfless acts. The book’s humor and unusual protagonist owe much to Jane Austen’s comic novel “Emma,” but Tarshis scales the story perfectly for a middle-school setting, and she makes Emma-Jean a unique heroine with a great vocabulary: Read review

The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett: Read review

Bear Feels Sick by Karma Wilson: Read review

Knuffle Bunny Too by Mo Willems: Read review

From Emporia: The Story of William Allen White by Beverly Olson Buller: Read review

Cowboy & Octopus by John Scieszka & Lane Smith: Read review

Soupy Saturdays with the Pain and the Great One by Judy Blume.

This new chapter book is a funny and engaging plunge into the world of a little brother and a big sister. (I bet you can guess which one is called "The Pain" and which one is "The Great One," can't you?): Read review

Guyaholic by Caroline Mackler.

Beneath its chick-lit cover, this teen novel harbors hidden depths: it's the story of a young woman working to move past feeling abandoned by her free-spirited, absent mother: Read review

Main Street #2: Needle & Thread by Ann M. Martin: Read review

August 2007

Piper Reed, Navy Brat by Kimberly Willis Holt.

Piper Reed is a fun new chapter-book protagonist, and her story is an especially good choice for kids moving house or growing up in a military family: Read review

The Only Boy in Ballet Class by Denise Gruska: Read review

Pssst! by Adam Rex: Read review

Earthlight 2 by Stuart Moore & Christopher Schons: Read review

Sardine in Outer Space 4 by Emmanuel Guibert & Joann Sfar: Read review

Redwall: The Graphic Novel by Brian Jacques, Stuart Moore, & Bret Blevins: Read review

Drama! The Four Dorothies by Paul Ruditis.

This teen novel is great fun; set in a posh Malibu high school during a way over-the-top production of The Wizard of Oz, the story is equal parts High School Musical and Veronica Mars. The school's small size requires quadruple-casting for the lead parts, and that doesn't sit well with some back-biting students: very soon, Dorothies start dropping like flies: Read review

Antony & Cleopatra by William Shakespeare (Pelican edition).

There's something really winning about Shakespeare's most mature love story. Cleopatra and Antony are vain; deceitful; power-hungry; selfish; and wonderfully, hyperbolically eloquent. Yet their many flaws somehow make their capacity for love seem all the more intense and sincere.

Fairy Dust & the Quest for the Egg by Gail Carson Levine, illus. by David Christiana: Read review

Fairy Haven & the Quest for the Wand by Gail Carson Levine, illus. by David Christiana.

I was surprised by the charm and the clever characters in these middle-reader novels about Never Land fairies. Levine provides crystal moments of real storytelling power: Read review

I Am Invited to a Party! by Mo Willems: Read reviewFritz Lieber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, adapted by Howard Chaykin & illus. by Mike Mignola.

Magician Apprentice, vol. 1 by Raymond E. Feist.

The Yorkshire Tragedy by Thomas Middleton (and maybe William Shakespeare).

King Lear, the 1608 Quarto by William Shakespeare (Pelican edition).

3 Henry VI by William Shakespeare (Pelican edition).

This early history play serves as a prologue to Shakespeare's more famous work Richard III: it shows us the hard turns that make Queen Margaret into such a bitter woman and bring wicked Richard into the orbit of the crown.

Ungentle Shakespeare by Katherine Duncan-Jones.

Duncan-Jones is an Oxford professor, and her biography of Shakespeare is fascinating for the way that she writes-in the context of the poet's life: she harnesses every available fact to make logical but surprising surmises about the ways Shakespeare took advantage of the opportunities around him--his noble patrons, his player and printer friends, and his ability to divine the zeitgeist. Fantastic stuff.

Middle School is Worse Than Meatloaf by Jennifer L. Holm, illus. by Elicia Castaldi: Read review

Houndsley and Catina and Houndsley and Catina and the Birthday Surprise by James Howe, illus. by Marie-Louise Gay: Read review

There is a Bird on Your Head by Mo Willems: Read review

Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq(revised edition) byThomas E. Ricks: Read review

Bone 6: Old Man's Cave by Jeff Smith: Read review

The Baby-Sitters Club: Mary Anne Saves the Day by Ann M. Martin & Raina Telgemeier: Read review

Goosebumps 3: Scary Summer by R. L. Stine: Read review

Y: The Last Man: Motherland by Brian K. Vaughan & Pia Guerra.

Civil War by Mark Millar & Steve McNiven.

July 2007

Shakespeare in Love: The Screenplay by Marc Norman & Tom Stoppard.

The density of allusions and clever bits of wordplay in this screenplay is simply awesome. I've always loved the film, but I found even more to enjoy while reading. My favorite aspect may be the script's thorough homage to Shakespeare's poetic contemporary, the great but nearly eclipsed Christopher Marlowe.

Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend by Carrie Jones.

This new teen novel is heartfelt and very well done. Its young narrator offers endearing (and honest) descriptions of high-school life in a small Maine town where everybody knows everybody's business: the giddy, the hurtful, and the life-changing.

Tested: One American School Struggles to Make the Grade by Linda Perlstein: Read review

Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr.

This recent teen novel is a real gut-punch: it's the story of the summer when a young woman comes to grips with the experience of having had sex too young, too unhappily, and much too publicly. For her it has colored everything since, and she struggles to escape its looming shadow. It's an excellent first novel: Read review

Ice Blues by Richard Stevenson.

Doctor Strange: The Oath by Brian K. Vaughan & Marco Martin.

Here If You Need Me by Kate Braestrup: Read review

How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margaret McNamara & G. Brian Karas: Read review

Dexter Bexley and the Big Blue Beastie by Joel Stewart: Read review

Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli.

In this sequel to the beloved young-adult novel Stargirl, Spinelli fleshes out his elusive, home-schooled nonconformist into a young leading lady surrounded by a cast of odd and intriguing characters. Teenager Stargirl marches to her own drum while taking care of her friends—and of her own bruised heart. It's a winner: Read review

The Shakespeare Wars by Ron Rosenbaum.

I revisited this collection of Shakespeare-centered essays for weeks and months, and I profited from every moment: Rosenbaum is an ecstatic and digressive commentator on the big questions occupying today's great Shakespeare scholars, and his interviews and reflections serve as a sturdy, inviting bridge that brings readers into the debate. He also introduced me to a host of books I should read and helped to fill up my Netflix queue. Good fun.

The Cave of the Dark Wind: a Neverland Adventure by Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson: Read review

Where I Live by Eileen Spinelli: Read review

The Girl's Like Spaghetti by Lynne Truss: Read review

Woe is I Jr.: The Younger Grammarphobe’s Guide by Patricia O’Conner, illus. by Tom Stiglich: Read review

Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande.

This upcoming teen novel takes on the embattled subject of teaching evolution in a high school biology class. The narrator, Mena, tries to find a way to embrace both her Christian faith and her newfound love of science—inspired by an exceptional and creative teacher—all at once. Brande’s writing is funny, authentic, and sweet, and Mena’s quest to think her own thoughts is quietly—and kindly—challenging: Read review

June 2007

The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare.

This quick comedy has a reputation for being slight, but its farcical plot contains sweet, sad moments to stop the heart: Antipholus #1's wooing of Luciana is a jeweled, brilliant conversation shot through with dark hopes and bright pain.

The Saints of Augustine by P. E. Ryan.

This teen novel hits on a rarely-seen subject: friendships between young guys. Charlie and Sam used to be best friends, but their bond broke just as each was headed for a crisis. The mutual loss has left them un-brothered and flailing. P.E. Ryan treats their experiences with humor and heart that makes their story completely involving. (It's happily reminiscent of Brian Sloan's very funny recent novel A Tale of Two Summers): Read a review

Clementine by Sara Pennypacker, pictures by Marla Frazee.

Eight-year-old Clementine’s debut adventure contains many hilarious mishaps with scissors, permanent markers, pigeons, bologna, and hair. It’s a gut-buster chapter book with an outstanding 3rd-grade hero: Read a review

(The sequel is just as awesome, and a third book is due in January!)

Dogku by Andrew Clements: Read review

Bad Dog, Marley by John Grogan: Read review

Red Prophet: Tales of Alvin Maker by Orson Scott Card.

This graphic novel for adults and older teens tells a rich, dense alternate history story of a frontier America where magic works and the future of the world rests in the powerful hands of a young settler-boy and an enigmatic Native holy man. Fans of The Hedge Knight should check it out.

Dreamquest by Brent Hartinger.

This middle-grades fantasy novel includes several funny nods to classics by Roald Dahl, L. Frank Baum, and C. S. Lewis; it features a young heroine who delves into the land of her dreams to halt the Hollywood-style nightmares being filmed there: Read review

Runaways, vol. 3 by Brian K. Vaughan, Adrian Alphona, and Mike Norton.

Vaughan and Alphona bring their Runaways run to a close in this third big hardcover graphic novel, which collects three twist-filled super-teen adventure stories: old friends (and enemies) return, good friends are lost, and nothing will ever quite be the same again for the world’s coolest pack of delinquent super heroes: Read review

Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck.

Planck is all about butter, which means that I am all about Planck. Her surprising argument: that red meat, dairy, eggs, and saturated animal fats really, really good for us—not just delicious.

Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little by Peggy Gifford, pictures by Valorie Fisher.

This photo-illustrated book for young readers is a riotous look at one fourth-grader's struggle with her summer reading assignment: all 144 pages of E. B. White's classic Stuart Little. Moxy is a stellar character full of cleverness and distractions, and her story is a gem: Read review

The Talented Clementine by Sara Pennypacker.

Clementine is the 3rd-grade hero of a new series of chapter books, and she's awesome! She's full of smart, oddball observations and good-hearted worries, and her talent-show woes are laugh-out-loud funny. Clementine is the answer to the boring-chapter-book blues! Read review

Stink & the World's Worst Super-Stinky Sneakers by Megan McDonald.

In a world of Junie B. Jones and Judy Moody, boys need a funny, goofy chapter-book character to call their own, and Stink steps in with his comic books, candy binges, and very smelly sneakers: Read review

Main Street: Welcome to Camden Falls by Ann M. Martin.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this first book in a new series by the author of the Baby-Sitters Club books. Martin really understands young people's attentiveness to the small details of family and neighborhood life, and her story handles big subjects like loss, illness, and social divides with a light touch. This series should be a favorite of crafty young girls and their mentoring grandmothers: Read review

Henry VIII, or All is Well by William Shakespeare & John Fletcher.

Centuries before The Tudors, Shax captured all the intrigue, power games, and flirtatiousness of English court life. This history play is unusual for not having a military war at its center but rather a sort of matrimonial war between Henry and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.

Gordon Yamamoto and the King of the Geeks and Loyola Chin and the San Peligran Order, both by Gene Luen Yang.

Beige by Cecil Castellucci.

Castellucci writes excellent, non-cliche teen characters: in this young-adult summer-vacation story, straight-laced Katy learns to appreciate her punked-out father's rock-music-scene lifestyle without ever giving up her own views or tastes. It's an affecting story of a girl finding her voice and learning about her parents' past--warts, addictions, and all.

Hero by Perry Moore.

This first novel follows the teenage son of a great but disgraced super hero as the young man comes to terms with his own newfound powers and sexual identity. Moore uses his compelling cape-and-mask characters as clever metaphors for family secrets and coming-of-age heartaches while delivering big-league action and an epically heroic climax that’s set to kick off an engaging young-adult series.

Interred with Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell.

This smart, well-written thriller novel takes a shadowy run through the world of Shakespeare conspiracy theories and delivers a breathless, twisty story about a present-day hunt for one of the poet's lost plays. I'm a bit of a Shakespeare snob, and yet I loved it. It reminded of Sarah Smith's Chasing Shakespeares. Read review

May 2007

Naomi & Ely's No-Kiss List by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan.

Levithan & Cohn follow their rock-out urban fairy tale Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist with this story of two joined-at-the-hip best friends who need to learn to stand apart as they go through their freshmen year of college. It's a funny, irreverent story of fierce friendship and boyfriend-stealing teen romance that’s told in multiple voices with equal parts wistful hurt and hopeful eagerness: Read review

Houdini: The Handcuff King by Jason Lutes & Nick Bertozzi.

I find most overtly "educational" graphic novels to be bland, ugly, and shoddily made.But not this one. The gray-toned artwork is sharp and perfectly paced, and the story is one exciting, informative day in the life of a fascinating and uniquely famous American: Read review

(I eagerly anticipate Hyperion's next graphic biography: Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow; it's due in December.)

Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire by Rafe Esquith: Read review

Evoking (and Forgetting) Shakespeare by Peter Brook.

This tiny volume records a speech the great director gave in Berlin on the subject of the mind and characters of Shakespeare. It's a quick read well worth revisiting.

All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely.

John Donne: Poems by John Donne.

Richard III by William Shakespeare.

Rich is such a malignant little hedgehog! No wonder he was one of Shakespeare's most popular characters. Who doesn't love a good villain?

I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry: Read review

The Incredible Book-Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers: Read review

Runaways: Live Fast by Brian K. Vaughan & Adrian Alphona.

Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways by Zeb Wells & Stephano Caselli.

Karma and Other Stories by Rishi Reddi: Read review

Batman: The Arrow, the Ring, the Bat by Denny O'Neil & Greg Land.

Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez.

Mars Needs Moms! by Berkeley Breathed: Read review

An Egg is Quiet and A Seed is Sleepy by Dianna Aston & Sylvia Long: Read review

Birds of Prey by Chuck Dixon.

April 2007

Bossy Bear by David Horvath: Read review

The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare.

I may be this early play's biggest fan. It's a little rough and threadbare in spots, but it still has power to move the spirit: "If ever danger do environ thee, / Commend thy grievance to my holy prayers, / For I will be thy beadsman, Valentine."

Atherton: The House of Power by Patrick Carman.

This well-written, well-thought-out new youth fantasy novel tells of a stratified society situated on a floating island; one plucky young boy sets out to uncover the mysteries of this world, and his discoveries unfold as both a gripping adventure story and as a clever parallel to our very real world of unequal wealth and opportunity. This book has the all-ages appeal of Chris Paolini’s “Eragon” and “Eldest” books or T. A. Barron’s “Great Tree of Avalon” series--and with even better writing and more original ideas.

In Search of Mockingbird by Loretta Ellsworth.

The Portrait of Mr. W. H. by Oscar Wilde.

Wilde's slim volume is a fictive piece of literary criticism centered on the identity of the man to whom Shakespeare dedicated his sonnets. Despite its imaginative flights (or maybe because of them), it's an oddly enrapturing work.

Batman: Haunted Knight by Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale.

A.L.I.E.E.N by Lewis Trondheim.

Tiny Tyrant by Lewis Trondheim & Fabrice Parme: Read review

Pantheon High by Paul Benjamin, Steven Cummings, Megumi Cummings.

Green Arrow: The Sounds of Violence by Kevin Smith & Phil Hester.

Green Arrow: Quiver by Kevin Smith & Phil Hester.

Today I Will Fly and My Friend is Sad by Mo Willems: Read reviews

Water and Energy: Look for Youself from D.K. Publishing.

These kids' science titles are seriously cool and filled with clever facts: like, one reason babies cry so much is that their bodies are composed of a higher percentage of water, and so they dehydrate much faster. Fascinating. Read review

District and Circle: Poems by Seamus Heaney: Read review

Ex Machina 5: Smoke Smoke by Brian K. Vaughan & Tony Harris.

Boy Girl Boy by Ron Koertge.

This teen novel tells the story of three best friends perched at the edge of high school graduation. For years, they’ve planned and plotted to abandon their small hometown together, but as the fateful date approaches, each one begins to wonder if there isn’t more to life than
rejection and rebellion. Together, in rotating narration,
they tell a quick story about how sometimes growing up means staying put: Read review

The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future by Vali Nasr: Read review

Beowulf a graphic novel adaptation by Gareth Hinds: Read review

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, Volume 1 by Sean McKeever & Takeshi Miyazawa.

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane 1: Super Crush by Sean McKeever & Takeshi Miyazawa.

Mary Jane 2: Homecoming Sean McKeever & Takeshi Miyazawa.

Mary Jane 1: Circle of Friends by Sean McKeever & Takeshi Miyazawa.

Sentinel 1: Salvage by Sean McKeever & Udon.

March 2007

JLA: Year One by Mark Waid & Barry Kitson.

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson.

Anderson's newest is written in a teen guy's voice, and it follows the thread of adolescent guy-ness from her acclaimed book Speak and Chris Lynch's excellent Inexcusable: Read review

Pronouncing Shakespeare by David Crystal: Read review

The 51% Minority: How Women Still Are Not Equal and What You Can Do About It by Lis Wiehl.

Hellboy: The Right Hand of Doom by Mike Mignola.

Astronauts of the Future by Lewis Trondheim & Manu Larcenet:

Read review

The Queen of Cool by Cecil Castellucci.

Acme Novelty Library #17 by Chris Ware.

Hellboy: Seed of Destruction by Mike Mignola & John Byrne.

Feed by M. T. Anderson.

This is an outstanding dystopian novel for teens and adults alike.

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo.

My Dead Girlfriend by Eric Wight.

Hidden Talents by David Lubar: Read review

Charlotte in Giverny and Charlotte in Paris by Jean McPhail Knight, illus. by Melissa Sweet: Read review

Wolf! Wolf! by John Rocco: Read review

King Dork by Frank Portman.

Rules by Cynthia Lord: Read review

This recent Newberry Honor book is narrated by a young girl whose little brother has autism: she translates the unspoken codes of everyday life into clear "rules" for him to follow. It's a must for everyone who liked Gennifer Choldenko's book Al Capone Does My Shirts.

Aya by Marguerite Abouet, illus. by Clement Oubrerie.

The Edge of Disaster by Stephen Flynn.

Rainbow Road by Alex Sanchez.

Now It's My Turn: A Daughter's Chronicle of Political Life by Mary Cheney.

True Talents by David Lubar: Read review

Sardine in Outer Space 3 by Emmanuel Guibert & Joann Sfar:

Read review

February 2007

Who's Got Game? by Toni Morrison & Slade Morrison: Read review

The Professor's Daughter by Emmanuel Guibert & Joann Sfar.

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

This memoir surpasses the author's previous essay collection The Caged Virgin and gives context for her controversial views on Islam and the suppression of women's human rights.

Lucky by Gabrielle Bell.

The P.L.A.I.N. Janes by Cecil Castellucci & Jim Rugg.

I love this teen graphic novel's focus on making art as an act of hope and survival; its school setting is convincing, but it's the theme of resilience in the face of terrorism and tragedy that really makes it something special. Castellucci writes quirky characters who feel like old friends, and Rugg's illustrations make the whole thing swing: Read review

The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, illus. by Michael Phelan: Read review

The Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge.

Koertge sets this teen novel at a horse track in Tucson, where a Missouri boy spends his summer growing up, meeting girls, finding himself, and forming a bond with the gay uncle he's never known. It's funny, suspenseful, and full of heart: Read review

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.

Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet.

Castle Waiting by Lisa Medley.

Love as a Foreign Language by J. Torres & Daniel Kim.

This English-language romance manga depicts the sharp pains of culture shock through the story of young Americans and Canadians working as English teachers in South Korea. It's quick and fun, and offers an easy introduction to Korean food and culture. Read it with Guy Delisle's graphic travelogue Pyongyang.

The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak.

A surprisingly funny familial story that conjures the ghost of the Armenian genocide in WWI Turkey. It has some language & editing flaws, but it's an enjoyable novel with quirky characters and fascinating historical context.

Welcome to the Homeland: A Journey to the Rural Heart of America's Conservative Revolution by Brian Mann.

This book (by an author who grew up partly in Wichita) is an engaging response to Thomas Frank's bestseller What's the Matter with Kansas? It argues that the stalemate in America's culture wars isn't due to a near-even ideological split; rather, it results from a minority of conservative rural voters wielding disproportionate electoral power.

Moses by Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Kadir Nelson.

This picture book just won the Coretta Scott King Illustration Award: Read review

Jazz by Walter Dean Myers, illus. by Christopher Myers.

And this one received the Coretta Scott King Illustration Honor: Read review

The Hedge Knight by George R. R. Martin: Read review

Ten Things I Hate About You by David Levithan.

This is a pretty standard movie novelization, but Levithan's usual knack for hitting the perfect notes of emotional description add an extra layer to the teen romance plot.

Goosebumps Graphix 2: Terror Trips by R. L. Stine: Read review

Boy Proof by Cecil Castellucci.

Castellucci writes an atypical teen novel with a prickly, fascinating main character self-nicknamed "Egg," who is obsessed with solitude and sci-fi movies. I can't wait to see the author's upcoming graphic novel The P.L.A.I.N. Janes.

Dramacon 1 and Dramacon 2 by Svetlana Chmakova.

I'm enjoying this new shojo manga series thrice as much as I expected: it follows characters during their yearly trips to a manga & anime conference, and amid the affecting main romance plot, it deals out many fun tidbits about the lives of manga creators.

American Fascists by Chris Hedges.

The Fountain graphic novel by Darren Aronofsky & Kent Williams.

Anatomy of a Boyfriend by Daria Snadowsky.

This is Judy Blume for the 21st Century: Snadowsky writes teen characters who are totally frank about the confusion and curiosity they feel in their first sexual relationship.

Bone 5: Rock Jaw by Jeff Smith.

Bone is great: a funny, exciting fantasy-adventure graphic novel series for the whole family. (The quiche-eating monster is my favorite.) Read review

Rose by Jeff Smith, illus. by Charles Vess.

Rose is to Smith's Bone series what The Hobbit is to The Lord of the Rings: a plot prequel, but also an introduction to the larger story's underpinning themes of courage, duty, and sacrifice. It's darker and less comedic than Bone, but it delivers a lion's share of resonant fantasy adventure. Tolkien fans should read this.

Split Screen by Brent Hartinger.

Hartinger creates two awesome narrators in this flip-book teen novel (sequel to The Geography Club and The Order of the Poison Oak); each struggles with a difficult decision, and their intertwined stories show great respect for a young person's yearning to live to high ideals: Read review

January 2007

Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar.

This is an awesome young-adult novel that plays up the joys of reading and creative writing in very warm and clever ways. It's a great pick for young bookworms!

The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham.

The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan.

This multi-voiced free-verse novel contains some really interesting (and often affecting) experiments in youth writing.

The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks: Read review

Gordon Parks: No Excuses by Ann Parr: Read review

A Really Nice Prom Mess by Brian Sloan.

Breakpoint by Richard A. Clarke.

Poorly written yet filled with mad near-future possibilities for science and technology, including the threat of cyber-war between advanced nations.

Tweaked by Patrick Moore.

It's a gripping and confessional memoir of addiction and recovery with lots of gruesome descriptions of the "filthy alchemy" of methamphetamines.

Rainbow High by Alex Sanchez.

Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen, illus. by Kevin Hawkes.

This kind-hearted picture book splices the joys of friendship and reading: Read review

Alia's Mission: Saving the Books of Iraq by Mark Alan Stamaty.

Illustrated with comic-book style panels, this non-fiction picture book tells how a Read review

Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller.

This darkly psychological novel has a captivating and deceitful narrator, who unveils the titular scandal with an elegant mix of neediness and venom.

The Sweet Potato Queens' First Big-Ass Novel by Jill Conner Browne with Karin Gillespie.

I intended to read just a chapter or two, but after three laugh-out-loud hours, I found I'd devoured the whole book. It's like Steel Magnolias with added (and inspired) cursing.

The Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez.

The Stone Light by Kai Meyer.

The Children of Men by P. D. James.

This book, the basis of the new Alfonso Cuarón movie, is a thinking-person's thriller about a near future in which humans have become infertile. James writes to measured, chilling effect, and she builds a dystopian world filled with fascinating details.

The Racketty-Packetty House by Frances Hodgson Burnett, illus. Wendy Anderson Halperin.

From the author of The Secret Garden, this newly reprinted young-readers' book tells the utterly charming story of a family of raggedy dolls who live in a run-down dollhouse. It's timeless, poignant, and quite funny, like a less dire Velveteen Rabbit: Read review

Breaking Up: A Fashion High Graphic Novel by Aimee Friedman, illus. by Christine Norrie.

This new title from Scholastic's Graphix imprint is a pretty endearing friends-and-romance story about teens who attend a N.Y.C. high school for the arts. Friedman's script is solid, but it's really Norrie's great black-and-white art that sells it: Read review

Runaways, Vol. 2 by Brian K. Vaughan, illus. by Adrian Alphona, Takeshi Miyazawa, and Skottie Young.

I love this teen comic series, and this second oversized hardcover collection is awesome: Vaughan is at his most hilarious, and Alphona's already great art takes a quantum leap, producing amazing linework and beautifully detailed crowd scenes. The book even includes a rare, hard-to-find free issue of the comic as well as pages from Alphona's sketchbook: Read review

Owen & Mzee: The Language of Friendship by Isabella & Craig Hatkoff: Read review

December 2006

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon.

Chabon infuses daily life with mythic, heartbreaking wonder, and his first novel (from the 1980s) captures summer and youth and post-graduation drift in mighty strokes. (Read this with While England Sleeps, and it's hard not to see Leavitt writing, at least partially, in response to Chabon. He's an avowed fan.)

While England Sleeps by David Leavitt.

This historical novel's writing and central character (a callow Oxbridge graduate named Brian) are both delightful, yet the book's big drama never fully kicks in. It's as though Brian's story can't quite wrap itself around the Spanish Civil War. Still, Leavitt is always fascinating, and this book reads like an E. M. Forster novel set in 1936.

Green with Envy by Shira Boss.

This financial expose is a page-turner: Boss looks behind America's polite hedges to uncover how people of all income levels are living beyond their means in a vicious race to have more of what they cannot afford.

Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay.

This second chronicle of Dexter's dark, bloody, and hilarious escapades as an upstanding serial killer (he only slices up the bad guys) made me laugh and laugh... and feel a little bad about myself. Then I laughed some more. I eagerly await the arrival of Dexter in the Dark in August.

What Jesus Meant by Gary Wills.

Fascinating. Wills presents an radical image of Jesus that is challenging, unsettling, and... oddly familiar.

The Jesus of Suburbia by Mike Erre.

Disappointing. Erre purports to be an anti-church, anti-religion crusader, but his book ends up being very safe and uninteresting. It's as though the picket fences of suburbia are too high for him to hurdle.

Ex Machina: The March to War by Brian K. Vaughan & Tony Harris.

The Iraq Study Group Report by the Iraq Study Group.

The Pursuit of Happyness by Chris Gardner.

It's a pretty forgettable memoir. I hope Will Smith adds some car chases to the movie.

Blue Lash: Poems by James Armstrong.

I can't get over the poem "Prayer." It's breathtaking, and it has a fantastic shape.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boynton.

Clever and well-written, but with a plot too flawed to ultimately hold together. Because the young hero never changes or becomes self-aware, his journey ends up being meaningless rather than instructive or affecting.

The Truth About Stacey: A Baby-Sitters Club Graphic Novel by Anne M. Martin and Raina Telgemeier.

This middle-readers graphic novel series is sweet and so much fun. I love Telgemeier's cartooning; she draws great emotions and packs the story with energy: Read review

Runaways: Parental Guidance by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona.

No one is funnier than Vaughan, and no one writes plots with best twists and cliffhangers. Alphona's illustrations have a completely unique character that conveys teenagers perfectly. Also, colorist Christina Strain is amazing: Read review

November 2006

Y: The Last Man: Kimono Dragons by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra.

Getting It by Alex Sanchez.

This teen novel plays "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" as young Carlos asks classmate Sal to make him over so he can get the girl. In the process, they find trust and friendship and realize they're not so different after all.

Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter.

Carter picks great topics; I just wish he were a more engaging writer. The timeline at the front is the best part of the book.

Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall by Bill Willingham and various artists.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay.

I'm not big on crime fiction, but the new Showtime series hooked me on the character Dexter, a lovable serial killer who preys on murderers. This novel is blackly funny and addictive. I'm so glad there are sequels.

Come Back to Afghanistan: A California Teenager's Story by Said Hyder Akbar and Susan Burton: Read review

Extraordinary Ordinary People: Five American Masters of Traditional Arts words and photographs by Alan Govenar: Read review

Escape!: The Story of the Great Houdini by Sid Fleischman:

Read review

To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel by Siena Cherson Siegel, illus. by Mark Siegal: Read review

Owen & Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship:

Read review

Unbowed: A Memoir by Wangari Maathai.

The Tale of Desperaux by Kate DiCamillo.

I resisted DiCamillo's books for the longest time (do we really need more tiny mouse heroes with sewing needle swords?), but now I'm a believer. This book is a perfect read-aloud story.

My Pet Virus: The True Story of a Rebel Without a Cure by Shawn T. Decker.

A lightweight, irreverently funny memoir by a young man living with AIDS.

Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris.

Bold. This thin little book is frank in a way seldom heard in American talk about religion's influence on public policy.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson.

This National Book Award nominee in the young people's literature category has the best title, ever. It's a finely-written novel telling the strange and beguiling story of a young prince raised in seclusion by ruthless philosophers. The thick mystery and many details of 18th-century thought are entirely captivating. Clever teens and precocious readers need this book!

October 2006

The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama.

The Confession by James E. McGreevey.

Earthlight by Stuart Moore: Read review

A teen manga that's set on the moon; how cool is that?

The Eternal Flame by T. A. Barron.

Barron spins out an intricate web of Tolkien-influenced fantasy in this conclusion to his "Great Tree of Avalon" trilogy. Young readers with a love for maps, quests, and a thousand splendid names will be delighted: Read review

Truck: A Love Story by Michael Perry.

This is a hilarious slice-of-rural life memoir from a young author who will visit Watermark in November. If you like Elizabeth Gilbert or Garrison Keillor, you should give Michael Perry a try: Read review

Agnes Quill: An Anthlogy of Mystery by Dave Roman & various artists.

This interesting indie collection of graphic short stories follows a young heroine in a fictional cemetery city, where she talks to spirits and solves gothic crimes. It's a little bit Sherlock and a whole lot Buffy and Veronica Mars.

Stormbreaker: The Graphic Novel by Anthony Horowitz, illus. by Kanako & Yuzuru.

Based on the novel (and recent movie) of the same name, this youth graphic novel has a quick-moving action story and unusual manga illustrations colored in digital colors that make it look like an odd hybrid of Japanese and American comics: Read review

The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke.

Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea by Guy Delisle.

Delisle is a Canadian animator who followed outsourced French animation work to North Korea in the late 1990s. During his stay, he created this graphic novel travelogue about all the strange repressions and unspoken words he witnessed. It's a gem.

Logan West: Printer's Devil by Christie Merriman Breault, illus. by Matthew Archembault.

Local author Breault sets this young-readers' book in Wichita during its days as a cow town, and it's filled with interesting period details: Read review

Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean.

At last! Read this fine middle-readers novel, and you will believe--both in fairies and in the great powers of British children's writer Geraldine McCaughrean. I highly recommend this instant classic, especially to anyone who loved The Penderwicks. Read a review of Peter Pan in Scarlet.

Sardine in Outer Space 2 by Emmanuel Guibert and Joann Sfar: Read review

This French graphic novel series for kids (of all ages, natch) is pure, dirty-fingered joy: space pirates! super-villains! monsters and goofy fun! It has them all.

Goosebumps Graphix: Creepy Creatures by R. L. Stine: Read review

G is for One Gzonk by Tony DiTerlizzi: Read review

Charlotte in New York by Joan MacPhail Knight, illus. by Melissa Sweet: Read review

Fragile Things: Stories and Wonders by Neil Gaiman.

Some great fantasy/horror stories mixed with a little too much filler.

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang.

This excellent graphic novel was just nominated for a National Book Award in the Young People's Literature category. It tells three interwoven stories: a young boy trying to fit in at school, a mythical Monkey King trying to conquer heaven, and a sit-com stereotype exploding negative images of Chinese Americans: Read review

Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi.

Another excellent family-story graphic novel from a young Iranian working in the French cartooning tradition.

I Have Heard You Calling in the Night by Thomas Healy.

"Dog book" meets "addiction memoir" in this slim and surprisingly affecting new volume from Scottish author Thomas Healy. He had drunked his way through most of his Glaswegian days before he adopted a Doberman named Martin and formed a bond that helped him to turn his life around. Unconditional love is a rare and cagey animal, but it can be an individual's best friend.

Best American Comics 2006, edited by Anne Elizabeth Moore and Harvey Pekar.

This new hardcover collection is another marker of comics' move into the mainstream. The strips and excerpts here represent the "literary" end of the pool (i.e., no superheroes or pulp characters need apply), but the selections and the total package are so good that I can't really hold a grudge. (Though Brian K. Vaughan was robbed by not being included!)

Pride of Baghdad Brian K. Vaughan.

Moral Disorder by Margaret Atwood.

These linked short stories are full of Atwood's wry humor and her uncanny observations about the small moments of power in one woman's everyday life: sisterly rivalry, spousal spats over mornings and newspapers, the teenage tug-of-war between a smart girl and her less brilliant boyfriend. There's hilarity and gothic introspection here, and every line brings a dark second of joy.

September 2006

Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughan.

This new graphic novel uses a real-life incident as a clever allegory for Iraqi society: when American bombs rock Baghdad, four lions escape from the city zoo to try their luck in the newly "liberated" streets. Each one gives voice to a mix of canny fear and an improbable hope that their new lives might be better than the ones they lived in cages.

A Particular Cow by Mem Fox: Read review

The Beatrice Letters by Lemony Snicket.

A very oppressive book of puzzles and red-herring clues intended for taciturn, shut-in children. Just as appalling as the "Series of Unfortunate Events." I love it: Read review

Monsters are Afraid of the Moon by Marjane Satrapi: Read review

Flotsam by David Wiesner: Read review

Dooby Dooby Moo by Doreen Cronin, illus. by Betsy Lewin: Read review

Akimbo and the Snakes by Alexander McCall Smith: Read review

Reading like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose.

I'm enjoying Prose's text examples drawn from Woolf, Chekov, and Babel, but this book isn't as electric as I'd hoped. I think what I really want is to have this same topic covered by Margaret Atwood or, better yet, Annie Dillard. A book like that could take your head off: Read review

Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance by Ian Buruma.

I'm oddly obsessed with Dutch politics and the raging debate in Europe over immigration and Islam. This is great to read alongside Aayan Hirsi Ali's The Caged Virgin.

Wide Awake by David Levithan.

The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future by Vali Nasr.

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: Stories by Haruki Murakami.

Once again, Murakami is surprising and awesome.

Identity Crisis by Brad Meltzer.

It's a super hero comic that's also a murder mystery thriller, and somehow Meltzer pulls it off.

Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb.

A Toronto-based author, Gibb sets this quiet, beautiful ache of a novel in the urban spaces of Harrar, Ethiopia, and London in the 1970s and 1980s. It's the story of Lilly, a young woman raised by Muslim mystics, enfolded in the dry embrace of Northern Africa, and then torn away to seek refuge in her father's England. If you loved The Kite Runner, read this book. It's my favorite novel this year: Read review.

August 2006

47 by Walter Mosley.

I haven't read Mosley's adult mysteries, but this young adult novel amazes me: it's a historical novel set in the pre-Civil War South that describes slavery through the eyes of a young boy, but partway through it also takes on a dazzling sci-fi element that mixes African legend with futuristic adventure. It's original and wonderfully done.

Mecca and Main Street: Muslim Life in America after 9/11

by Geneive Abdo.

This new book looks at the past five years to document a strengthening sense of Muslim identity in young people, new forms of Islamic teaching geared toward modern life, and broader feelings of suspicion and intolerance from other Americans. Also, it offers a brief introduction to the new phenomenon of Islamic hip-hop.

The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation by Sidney Jacobson and Ernie Colon.

Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America - and What We Can Do about It by Juan Williams.

NPR regular Williams stands up with Bill Cosby to criticize self-interested, ineffective, and criminal leaders and to urge a renewed emphasis on education and family for young black Americans.

Gay Marriage: Why It is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America by Jonathan Rauch.

Rauch argues that legislated same-sex marriage would be a stabilizing force in American culture and would strengthen the institution of marriage rather than undermine it. His tone is easy and jocular, letting logic take the place of stridency.

The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History by Jonathan Franzen.

Franzen's memories of growing up in St. Louis in the 1970s will be right up the alley of readers who enjoy David Sedaris's painfully funny essays of awkward youth. Franzen is more subdued, but he looks just as deeply into his own foibles: Read review

Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq by Thomas E. Ricks.

Though his book is full of finger pointing, Ricks remains staunchly even-handed while counting out the many war-time sins of America's civilian and military (but mostly civilian) leaders: Intelligence failure. Scandal. No plan for securing the peace. He covers each in solid detail.

The Caged Virgin: an Emancipation Proclamation for Women and Islam by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Hirsi Ali is a Somali-born Dutch politician who collaborated on edgy projects with filmmaker Theo Van Gogh before his murder by a radical. She has strongly critical opinions on the status of Muslim women and how Western nations should respond to Islamist violence. It's fascinating reading her essays alongside Sweetness in the Belly, because they share geography but the perspectives are 180 degrees apart: Read review

Just in Case by Meg Rosoff: Read review

A Tale of Two Summers by Brian Sloan.

Sloan writes this teen novel in the authentic voices of two best friends: Chuck, who's off to summer drama camp and Hal, who's stuck in driver's ed. They chronicle their severed summer in a private blog that turns personal, raunchy, supportive, hilarious, and... hopeful, that friendship is worth the work. Their blogging, like the novel itself, rises above triteness to become a surprisingly affecting portrait of two young guys with dreams: Read review

Why the Fundamentalist Right is So Fundamentally Wrong by Gerald Paske.

Paske sets out to explain how "modern morality" isn't a lack of morals but rather a rational system, based on the Golden Rule, which society has created in response to giant leaps in technology: Read review

July 2006

Wolf Boy by Evan Kuhlman.

This first novel tells of a family's grief over losing a son. The main character, thirteen-year-old Stephen makes comics to chew through his anger, producing an alter ego called Wolf Boy, who fights to hold together his own super hero family. The novel uses the innovative device of comics panels inserted in the text far better than Jodi Picoult's The Tenth Circle, and Kuhlman has a way with quirky youthful observations and pop culture references. Twenty-somethings will enjoy the early 1990s setting: Read review

Fray by Joss Whedon and Karl Moline.

This comics collection is a far-future continuation of the Slayer myth Whedon began on television in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Highlights include convincing sci-fi world-building and Whedon's trademark snappy dialogue. For a petty thief who gets in a lot of fights, Melaka Fray is a surprisingly good role model for teen girls.

Capote in Kansas by Ande Parks, illustrated by Chris Samnee.

Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War by Anthony Shadid: Read review

Akimbo and the Elephants, Akimbo and the Lions, and Akimbo and the Crocodile Man by Alexander McCall Smith.

Best known for his cozy mysteries, Smith has also written strong beginning chapter books for young readers. These feature a young boy growing up in Kenya on the edge of an immense wild-animal reserve and carry strong messages of conservation and conscience: Read review

Bone 1: Out of Boneville, Bone 2: The Great Cow Race, Bone 3: Eyes of the Storm, and Bone 4: Dragonslayer by Jeff Smith.

Bone is an excellent series of graphic novels for readers of middle-school age and older; the animation-style comic follows three young cousins (bald, Casper-like little guys) as they get caught up in a grand adventure with dragons, monsters, and a laugh-out-loud humor. Good stuff.

Ghosthunters and the Incredibly Revolting Ghost by Cornelia Funke: Read review

The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult.

I read a Jodi Picoult novel... and I won't need to do that again. Her story idea is fine and interesting, but the characters are just too thin. When the big familial Greek-style tragedy kicks in, they just bend under it like watered cardboard. Her use of an inset comic book narrative is a neat idea (and well-drawn by Dustin Weaver), but instead of adding depth, it just recapitulates the lead character's shallowness: more cardboard. Plus, the Dante stuff just feels tacked on.

Queen Bee by Chynna Clugston.

This light comic book novel for teen girls has some nice stylistic touches, but its middle-school story owes far too much to the movie Mean Girls. And Mean Girls is better.

Swimming in the Monsoon Sea by Shyam Selvadurai.

Selvadurai is a Sri Lanka-born Canadian author, and his first young-adult novel is the achingly sensitive coming of age story of a young boy in 1980s Sri Lanka. The characters and setting are excellent - muggy, perfumed, familial - and Amrith's growth is a wonderful tumult. It won a 2006 Lambda Literary Award for Children's and Youth Literature: Read review

Sardine in Outer Space by Emmanuel Guibert and Joann Sfar.

This French comic for children (and sly adults) is a riot: space adventure with gooey, quirky laughs. It's fun, clever stuff: Read review

Olivia Forms a Band by Ian Falconer.

A picture book about a little pig who becomes a one-man band. What's not to adore? Read review

June 2006

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel.

THE graphic novel of the summer (though it's really a memoir, not a novel), illustrated in muted green-greys that seem comforting and sickly by turn. Bechdel airs her father's and her own laundry together, hashing through his love of concealment and her own compulsion toward self-revelation: Read review

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green.

Not quite to the standard of Green's awesome Looking for Alaska, yet still a very engaging, very funny teen novel about a young prodigy (despairing that he's not a genius) who sets out on a road trip that lands him in the South among a cast of oddball characters. I'll happily read anything John Green writes: Read review

Murder Mysteries by Neil Gaiman and P. Craig Russell.

The Great American Mousical by Julie Andrews Edwards.

Yes, it's that Julie Andrews, and this middle-readers' book about mice on Broadway is pretty cute, a great pick for kids interested in theatre. It even has a glossary of theatre terms in the back! Read review

Russell and the Lost Treasure by Rob Scotton: Read review

Hippo, No Rhino by Jeff Newman.

A very simple picture book with crunchy, wildly colored watercolors: Read review

Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow by Faize Guene.

A first novel by a young French woman of Moroccan descent: teenage Doria tells of immigrant life in the Paris projects in a voice that is sharp, mouthy, and melancholy. It's a great pick to give an older teen a broader view of the world: Read review

When It Happens by Susane Colasanti.

Kristy's Great Idea by Anne M. Martin, adapted and illustrated by Raina Telgemeier.

This is the first graphic novel adaptation of the popular Baby-Sitters Club books. It has excellent, charming cartoon work by young talent Raina Telgemeier, and is a perfect comic for middle-school girls: Read review

Dear Max by Sally Grindley, illustrated by Tony Ross.

This middle-readers book is made up of a series of letters between a fictional children's author and an aspiring young writer named Max, who is too short, sickly, and fascinated with bears. It's due out in July.

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier.

One word sums up this Civil War Odyssey of walking and waiting: meat. Frazier writes with an aesthetic of famine, gore, bodily longing, and tearing discomfort. His characters are deprived of, in Melville's phrase, "all that's kind to our infirmities," and their every breath whistles with the hunger to be fed and not to fail, not to be reduced to unliving meat.

Abadazad: The Road to Inconceivable and Abadazad: The Dream Thief by J. M. DeMatteis and Mike Ploog.

This new series of middle-reader adventures plunges into an Oz-like wonderland called Abadazad, a land of talking plants and other wonders. DeMatteis and Ploog tell the stories with a mix of straight text and comic-book panels: Read review

The Amazing Life of Birds by Gary Paulsen: Read review

Grand and Humble by Brent Hartinger.

A young-adult suspense novel with a watertight plot: two high-school guys begin having visions and unsettling dreams that hint at something dark hidden in their pasts. The fun comes in piecing together exactly what connects the two, and why their families have kept it secret. Good fun: Read review

Dubrovsky and Egyptian Nights by Alexander Pushkin.

These unfinished fictions by the great progenitor of Russian literature are immediately enjoyable. Dubrovsky has a thrill-a-minute quality to it, like something out of a novel by Dumas.

Middlesex by Geoffrey Eugenides.

This big, verbose epic follows a Greek immigrant family that lands in Detroit in the 1920s. It chronicles their lives through three generations of factory work, upward mobility, and awkward love affairs. The narrator is a wise, funny, forgiving observer of human life, able to encompass us all. If you like David Sedaris's humor, you should give this novel a go.

Up in the Tree by Margaret Atwood: Read review

May 2006

Stuart: A Life Backwards a biography by Alexander Masters: Read review

The Lost Colony, Book 1: The Snodgrass Conspiracy by Grady Klein: Read review

Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda by Jean-Philippe Stassen: Read review

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan: Read review

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin.

This classic youth fantasy novel shows the life of a young girl dedicated to dark, nameless gods. It's a perfect illustration of Woolf's line that in order for humankind to progress, we must seek "freedom from unreal loyalties."

March by Geraldine Brooks.

It's not The Known World, but thankfully it's not Gilead, either. I like this new Pulitzer-winning Civil War novel much more than I had expected. Mr. March becomes tangled in the American South during its limbo time as a territory occupied - but not quite liberated - by the Union army. The portrayal interesting for history's sake and also invites comparison to the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq. March's voice is stately, Transcendental, foolish, and appealing throughout. If you like stories set in 19th-century America, I think you would enjoy this short novel: Read brief review

X-Men: The Last Stand by Chris Claremont.

My excuse for reading this "novelization" of a summer action movie is that I have loved the X-Men comic books since I was a wee nine year old, and Claremont was always my favorite writer. I'm wicked chuffed for this flick (as my hip street scat no doubt indicates).

The Final Solution by Michael Chabon.

This novella features a famous retired sleuth in the English countryside who pursues a case involving a mute German boy and one quite talkative parrot. It is comfy, bedtime-reading bliss: Read brief review

Looking for Alaska by John Green.

This young adult novel (and recent Printz award winner) is fantastic, head and shoulders above the crowd. Set in an Alabama boarding school, it's a story about testing limits and asking the big questions about life and death. Truly superior, it's a particularly good choice for teen guys: Read review

The Wright 3 by Blue Balliet.

Set in Chicago, it's a middle-readers mystery centered on a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright; sequel to Chasing Vermeer. For a mystery, its events are awfully... convenient and coincidental. Kind of disappointing, since the art & architecture theme was so promising: Read review

So Hard to Say by Alex Sanchez.

This young adult story of middle-school dating and friendship is told by two great narrators: brash Mexican-American Xio and shy Wisconsin transplant Frederick (not Freddy, not Rick), her best friend and maybe boyfriend.

Noisy Outlaws, Angry Blobs, and Some Other Things That Aren't as Scary, Maybe... Lemony Snicket and the Editors of McSweeney's.

This quirky anthology for middle-readers has an intro by Mr. Snicket himself and stories by the likes of Kelly Link, Neil Gaiman, Jeanne DuPrau, and Jonathan Safran Foer. If I had a giant float in a parade, it's what I'd toss to the crowd. And the crowd would love it: Read review

Coraline by Neil Gaiman.

This is a delightful, creepy book for young readers about a girl who wanders through a door and into a cracked reflection of her home (complete with an "other mother" who doesn't have Coraline's best interests at heart). It's lovely and full of shivers: Read review

Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko.

This Newberry-honored middle-readers novel makes great use of its unique setting: Alcatraz Island during its prison days in the 1930s. Twelve-year-old Moose just wants to play ball and fit in, but he has to watch out for his sister, who is autistic. It's top-notch historical fiction for kids: Read review

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon.

This novel is a joy and a thrill: Chabon knows how to write appealing characters and a strong plot without ever losing his grip on the music and the giant ideas. The book feels personal and epic at once, and its themes of liberation, escape, and the limits to the imagination are arresting. I love it. The audio book is very well done.

April 2006

Ocean by Warren Ellis.

In this new sci-fi graphic novel, a U.N. weapons inspector investigates surprising findings on Jupiter's moon Europa: the artifacts appear human yet alien, and they're one billion years old. The book is filled with mad science imaginings: Read review

The Geography Club and The Order of the Poison Oak, both by Brent Hartinger.

Hartinger's teen novels are light and engaging, and they have a really good heart; these two show high-schooler Russ taking up after school activities (sometimes for the wrong reason, e.g., a big crush) and working as a summer camp counselor. Both are solid stories with likable characters. David Levithan fans should check these out: Read reviews

Between Mom & Jo by Julie Anne Peters.

Peters's teen novel follows a young boy who grows up with two moms and shows how he copes when his parents split up. It's a great topic, but her characters are so unlikable that they make the book an endurance test.

The Liberation of Gabriel King by K. L. Goings.

An accomplished middle-readers story about facing fear and hatred in the South in the 1970s, this book boasts two great main characters: best friends Frita and Gabe. Think "To Kill a Mockingbird": Read review

The Great Good Thing by Roderick Townley.

The first of a completed middle-readers trilogy by a Kansas City author, this book tells the story of Sylvie, who knows she's the heroine of a book and wants to see more of the world outside of its page: Read review

The Full Spectrum: A New Generation of Writing about Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, and Other Identities, edited by David Levithan and Billy Merrell

Due out in May, this non-fiction anthology by young writers is a snapshot of teen life: brave, funny, confused, devout, and angry. Many strong pieces.

Chew on This! Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food by Eric Schlosser: Read review

A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass.

Thirteen-year-old Mia narrates this young adult novel with a strong, humorous voice and a very special perception. Mia is synesthetic: she sees many sounds as colors and also relates letters and numbers to color. It's a rare and interesting way to experience the world, and Mass handles the subject and her characters with perfect aplomb: Read review

Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir by John McCain.

The Arizona senator's memoir from 2000 provides a look inside the Vietnam POW experience that seems quite pertinent to the recent debates over use of torture methods on terror suspects. It's a solid audio book, too, narrated by McCain himself.

How I Live Now, a teen novel by Meg Rosoff.

Set in a present-day war, it has a young narrator with a brilliant voice: tender, selfish, and raw: Read review

Hadji Murat, a novella by Leo Tolstoy, with a foreword by Colm Tóibín.

Seduction and Betrayal: Women and Literature, essays by Elizabeth Hardwick: Read review

Ex Machina 3: Fact vs. Fiction by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Tony Harris.

Set in the New York City mayor's office, this comic spins together politics, crime, and the nature of heroism in America. It's clever, funny, and beautifully drawn: Read review

Gossamer, a young-readers novel by Lois Lowry.

A gentle story about dream-givers and a young boy in foster care, that displays Lowry's customary ability to create a puzzling, thoughtful world: Read review

March 2006

Maurice, a novel by E. M. Forster.

Man, I love Forster. He's the king of character.

Absolutely, Positively Not, a teen novel by David LaRochelle: Read review

Totally Joe, a middle-readers novel by James Howe: Read review

Elsewhere, a teen novel by Gabrielle Zevin: Read review

Monday or Tuesday, short fictions by Virginia Woolf: Read review

War and the Iliad, essays by Simone Weil and Rachel Bespaloff, translated by Mary McCarthy.

Classic essays on reading Homer's epic poem in the shadow of World War II. Bespaloff has some especially good insights into characters: Read review

My Sister, Guard Your Veil; My Brother, Guard Your Eyes: Uncensored Iranian Voices edited by Lila Azam Zanganeh

An anthology that conveys the literary and artistic diversity of contemporary Iran, with pieces by Azar Nafisi, Reza Aslan, Marjane Satrapi, Azadeh Moaveni, Shoreh Aghdashloo, and others: Read review

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare.

This Elizabethan play seems oddly timely in these days of foreign wars and an unpopular administration.

The Pilgrim Hawk: A Love Story by Glenway Wescott, with an introduction by Michael Cunningham.

This tightly crafted novella is lost treasure from 1940 - now resurrected in the New York Review of Books Classics series. In a French parlor and a garden in the 1920s, two Americans and an Irish couple embody all the paradoxes and slavish freedoms of love. Lovers of Henry James or The Great Gatsby should pick it up: Read review

Brokeback Mountain: Story to Screenplay by Annie Proulx, Larry McMurtry, and Diana Ossana: Read review

On Writing Well by William Zinsser.

February 2006

Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping by Judith Levine.

Much more political than financial, but pretty entertaining. What would you call a "necessity?" Read review

The Almond Picker: a Novel by Simonetta Agnello Hornby.

A completely entertaining Italian-novel-in-English-translation. Set in Sicily, it follows all the people whose lives intersected that of a deceased woman, a servant called Mennu who was a devil to some but a hero to others who knew her.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. Read review

Beasts of No Nation: a Novel by Uzodinma Iweala: Read review

Money, a Memoir: Women, Emotions, and Cash by Liz Perle: Read review

The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life by Steve Leveen.

This small book from a co-founders of Levenger (the reading accessory purveyors) encourages readers to become more active in their reading choices, to make notes, reflect, and join book clubs, etc. Good advice: Read review

The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde: An Intimate Biography by Neil McKenna.

This detailed biography explores the great wit's intimate relationships: with his wife, with Lord Alfred Douglas, and with scores of clever and beautiful young men. It can be a bit exhausting at times, but it's also a captivating exploration of politics and identity in Victorian society: Read review

Runaways, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan, Adrian Alphona, and Takeshi Miyazawa.

The best comic series for teens. The American Library Association has named the first big Runaways collection to its annual list of top ten books for young adults: Read review

Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas.

This is a seriously funny little book, a memoir that explores the immigrant experience and touches on international relations with great good humor: Read review

A Season in Mecca: Narrative of a Pilgrimage by Abdellah Hammoudi.

This book just about broke me. Despite its promising subject matter - a firsthand account of pilgrimage to Mecca in 1999 - it was so grindingly dull, so full of aimless introspection that I completely lost interest.

January 2006

Night by Elie Wiesel, in translations by Marion Wiesel and Stella Rodway: Read review

The Tent by Margaret Atwood.

I love Atwood's wicked humor, and these little "fictional essays" on writing and tragedy are the sweetest kind of bitter: Read review

No God But God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam by Reza Aslan.

I'd recommend this succinct, incredibly readable history of Islam to everyone. Aslan does a great job of answering questions and telling the story of his faith through the ages: Read review

Midwinter Nightingale and The Witch of the Clatteringshaws by Joan Aiken.

Aiken is a classic British children's writer who's a great hand at plotting. Here are more of her edge-of-the-seat, faux Victorian treats: Read review

On Beauty and Being Just by Elaine Scarry: Read review

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.

Wow. Disappointment. I thought Robinson's Housekeeping was a bit slow but really beautifully written; this new novel - Pulitzer and all - stretches a good kernel of story to an attenuated 250 pages and gains little strength from all its theological pew-shuffling. I hope it's not a bad omen for the new year.

December 2005

Arctic Summer by E. M. Forster.

This unfinished novel by Forster was recently published by Hesperus Press as part of its series of short works by great authors. It's a gem of antithesis, pitting a forward-thinking modern liberal against a chivalrous, traditional youth: Read review

The Promise of Happiness by Justin Cartwright.

This new novel by Whitbread Award-winner Cartwright is a portrait of a middle class English family trying to re-align itself as the father goes through a mid-life crisis and the eldest daughter finishes a prison sentence for art theft. Excellent and involving; recommended for Ian McEwan fans: Read review

Airball: My Life in Briefs by Lisa D. Harkrader: Read review

The Lost Language of Cranes by David Leavitt.

An intricate, closely observed novel from 1986. Excellent stuff. Read review

Water Mirror by Kai Meyer.

This young-adult novel, recently translated from German, is set in a 19th-century Venice where captured mermaids, living stone lions, and mysteries haunt every canal. Great for fans of Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" series: Read review

Luna: a Novel by Julie Anne Peters.

A National Book Award finalist from 2004, this teen novel is a tremendously well-written, page-turning, and affecting story of a young girl and her transgender brother, who has chosen to transition permanently and live as a girl: Read review

Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles.

I'm on a kick to read all of this year's National Book Award nominees in the young people's literature category. This is #4, a story of a young Southern girl growing up inside her family's mortuary business. It's funny and clever, but it's no "Six Feet Under": Read review

Inexcusable by Chris Lynch.

National Book Award finalist in Young People's Literature: It has very well-drawn narrator, a young athlete named Keir whose self-image - all rosy and likable - is miles removed from the reality of his actions: Read review

Where I Want to Be by Adele Griffin.

Another National Book Award finalsit, it had too much drifting angst and no real plot for ballast: Read review

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall.

A charming adventure story that won the 2005 National Book Award in the Young People's Literature category. 'Sgood stuff: great characters and storytelling. It's the best of the bunch: Read review

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan: Read review

Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx.

Flawed but interesting. I think Proulx is better at images than she is at storytelling: Read review

A Short History of Myth by Karen Armstrong.

Disappointing. Atwood's contribution to the "Myth" series was way better: Read review

November 2005

The Trouble with Islam by Irshad Manji.

An open letter by a Canadian journalist who is a Muslim and an out lesbian feminist. She's admirably blunt about her problems with - and fierce attachment to - Islam. Her book is thoughtful, provocative, clear-eyed stuff: Read review

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann.

A fascinating overview of the archaeological and anthropological discoveries about Native America that have been made in the last few decades. A great read, especially for one with an interest in environmental history: Read review

Decreation: Poems, Essays, Opera by Anne Carson: Read review

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood: Read review

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin: Read review

Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land by John Crowley: Read review

A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599 by James Shapiro.

Simply the best Shakespeare book of the year. It delves into the realities of England and the London theatre world in a year of monumental change for Shakespeare's writing: Read review

Shakespeare: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd.

... and the worst Shakespeare book of the year: unsupported theories, weird ideas, and a stultifying knack for missing everything that is great and energizing about Shakespeare. I think Ackroyd needs a vacation. I definitely need a break from him: Read review

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman.

A great non-fiction book of amateur anthropology observing a clash of world views in the treatment of a young girl; I was prompted to re-read it by a recent episode of "Grey's Anatomy": Read review

October 2005

Julie & Julia 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell.

A funny and irreverent book by an amateur food writer who decided to cook her way through Julia Child's first cookbook and master the art of French cooking - or bust! - in one year: Read review

Melville: His World and Works by Andrew Delbanco.

A biography of American novelist Herman Melville that fully unpacks what made him a writer of genius: Read review

On Beauty by Zadie Smith.

A new novel from the Booker Prize-winning author, it's set in a college town and delves into race, middle-aged relationships, and the importance we place on art. Fans of E. M. Forster or Barbara Kingsolver should check it out.

Ex Machina, Vol. 2: Tag by Brian K. Vaughan.

Second volume of one of the best adult comic series on the market, a political thriller with sci-fi elements. A great gift for that twenty-something guy who's hard to shop for: Read review

Are We There Yet? by David Levithan.

This teen novel is a humorous treatment of American sibling rivalry set in the tourist haunts of Italy: Read review

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan.

A fresh, funny, and ground-breaking teen novel: Read review

Amalee by Dar Williams.

A first novel - for middle readers - from a talented singer-songwriter. It deals with single parent families and grief: Read review

The Complete Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson.

This awesome brick of a book is the first item penciled at the top of your inner child's Christmas list: Read review

September 2005

From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting the Middle East by Bernard Lewis.

Concise Gastronomy of Italy by Anna del Conte.

August 2005

Amsterdam by Ian McEwan.

I like McEwan a lot, but I'm not crazy about his plot twists.

At Swim, Two Boys by by Jamie O'Neill.

Heart-breaking novel following two young Irish men in Dublin in the months before the 1916 Easter Rising; it's written with an amazing use of sound, image, and language reminiscent of Melville and Joyce.

The Maze by Panos Karnezis.

A first novel by a Greek author writing in English, it chronicles a trek by Greek soldiers through Anatolia in 1922 with a sly Catch-22 flavor: Read review

Not the End of the World by Kate Atkinson.

I had two incentives to read this book: Sarah's review of Atkinson's Case Histories and a rumor that it contained many references to "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer." Dear reader, they did not steer me wrong: Read review

The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life by Tom Reiss.

The best non-fiction book I've read this year, a literary biography scavenger hunt through the early 20th Century by a writer from The New Yorker: Read review

Ali and Nino by Kurban Said.

A novel by Lev Nussinbaum, a.k.a. Kurban Said, the subject of The Orientalist, set in Baku, Azerbaijan in the 1910s. Exotic, Romantic, and affecting.

The Master by Colm Tóibín.
A fictional account of the life of novelist Henry James written with great force and subtle feeling. Tóibín is my favorite author-find of the year. Spread the word: Read review

Negotiating with the Dead: a Writer on Writing by Margaret Atwood.

Atwood is a pistol, and her essays on what it means to be a writer are both funny and profound: Read review

Morning in the Burned House, poems by Margaret Atwood.

Atwood depicts Helen of Troy as a bar dancer and describes the inevitable loneliness of military historians. Sharp and darkly funny.

The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler.

A light, funny book that made me want to read Austen: Read Beth's review

Strangers by Graham Robb.

A witty and well-researched social history of homosexuality in 19th-Century Britain Europe and America: Read review

The Age of Bronze, volumes 1 and 2 - A Thousand Ships and Sacrifice by Eric Shanower

An unusual comic adaptation of the story of the Trojan War that draws on scores of literary and historical sources and aims at archaeological realism. It's faithfully written and wonderfully drawn: Read the full review

The Double: a novel by Jose Saramago: Read review

The Portuguese Nobel prize-winner's most recent novel.

July 2005

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001.

A Pulitzer winner from this year, its cinematic narrative is addictive, following the movements of spies and the growth of radical Islamism: Read review

The Persian Puzzle: The Conflict Between Iran and America by Kenneth M. Pollack.

An in-depth review of the tense relations between two countries over the past century, especially interesting in light of Iran's recent election and nuclear tensions: Read review

Golden and Grey by Louise Arnold.

A funny ghost story about a boy with tangible problems and an intangible friend from a young British writer hailed as the next J. K. Rowling: Read revie

French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano.

What could have been a ridiculous diet book turns out to be a guide to enjoying good food and savouring life: Read review

Housekeeping: a Novel by Marilynne Robinson.

Robinson won the Pulitzer this year with Gilead. Housekeeping is her acclaimed 1981 debut novel set in Idaho. It has an amazing atmosphere and a thick, distilled language of loss: Read review

Naked in Baghdad: The Iraq War and the Aftermath as Seen by NPR's Correspondent by Anne Garrels.

I'm on a bit of a Baghdad reading kick lately, and Garrels's account of her time in Iraq in 2002 and 2003 sheds some interesting light on the ongoing insurgency: Read review

June 2005

The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra.

A novel of Afghanistan that depicts the distorted lives of men and women under the Taliban regime: Read review

Ex Machina: The First Hundred Days written by Brian K. Vaughn and illustrated by Tony Harris.

This is a great new comic series following fictional New York City mayor Mitchell Hundred, elected in the wake of September 11. It's perfect for fans of The West Wing or Yes, Minister: Read full review

Magic for Beginners, a short story collection by Kelly Link.

A collection of weird and wonderfully fantastic stories by one of the best short story writers around, a great follow-up to her previous Stranger Things Happen: Read full review

Dom Casmurro by Joaquim Machado de Assis.

A classic Brazilian novel of the late 19th century: Read review

One Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal by Asne Seierstad.

A intriguing double portrait of the invasion of Iraq and the lives of a foreign correspondents reporting in a war zone, written by the author of The Bookseller of Kabul: Read full review

Love's Labours Lost by William Shakespeare.

Four scholarly noblemen swear off women and rich food for three years of intense study... just as four elegant ladies show up at court. As one would imagine, word play and hilarity ensues. (It's especially fun to read aloud with

friends as we take turns trying to seduce one another.)

May 2005

Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi.

A quick, funny read about Iranian women gossiping over tea. It's on Sarah's Summer Reading List. Check it out.

Broken As Things Are by Martha Witt.

This debut novel tells an engrossing coming-of-age story of a 14-year-old girl and her unusual brother, who share a sibling language of secret words and private stories. The gradually unfolding characters are riveting: Read review

Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney: Read review

The June selection for the Classic Book Club.

The Winter's Tale (Penguin edition) by William Shakespeare.

Leontes' tangled dialogue makes this play a masterpiece of jealous emotion. It also contains the best, most unexpected, stage direction in all of Shakespeare. From out of nowhere: "Exit, pursued by a bear."

April 2005

Portrait of Yo Mama as a Young Man, by Andrew Barlow and Kent Roberts.

A very funny (and wickedly mean) book about the kind of mama you only hear about on playgrounds during recess. And it's just in time for Mother's Day! Read review

Pericles (Arden edition) by William Shakespeare.

Another read-aloud experience with a friend, this time we used inappropriate Southern accents. The princess is just a lot more fun if she sounds like Blanche Dubois crossed with Mike Tyson.

Lost in the City, stories by Edward P. Jones.

Excellent short stories, set in Washington, D.C., by the author of The Known World: Read review

Love in a Dark Time, essays by Colm Tóibín: Read review

The Tempest (Arden edition) by William Shakespeare.

March 2005

Antony and Cleopatra (Pelican edition) by William Shakespeare.

I read it out loud with a friend, and we did our best to swoon and rage in all the right places. And there's a lot of swooning and raging, let me tell you.

Kafka on the Shore, a novel by Haruki Murakami: Read review

Dream-like and captivating, Murakami's writing is magical realism minus the realism: it's fever dream of strange happenings.

Transmission, a novel by Hari Kunzru: Read review

A fast, funny satire of global culture by an up-and-coming British writer.

Paradise Lost by John Milton.

February 2005

A Tale of Love and Darkness a memoir by Amos Oz: Read review

A fascinating portrait of a book-saturated Jewish family in Israel during and after WWII, it's a clear window onto turbulent politics.

Venus and Adonis (Pelican edition) by William Shakespeare.

An oddly funny love poem (how often do you see the goddess of love comparing herself to a affectionate wild boar?) that was perhaps Shakespeare's most popular work during his lifetime.

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Pelican edition) by William Shakespeare.

Cutty, One Rock a memoir by August Kleinzahler: Read review

Jazzy, bluesy autobiographical essays from a fantastic poet.

January 2005

Birthday Letters, poetry by Ted Hughes.

Titus Andronicus (Arden edition) by William Shakespeare.

'More mutilation, per capita, than any other Shakespearean play.' How's that sound for a cover blurb?

Troilus and Cressida (Pelican edition) by William Shakespeare.

Danger and heartbreak during the Trojan War. I find myself totally taking Cressida's side. That girl had it rough.

Coriolanus (Arden edition) by William Shakespeare.

It's political intrigue in ancient Rome. With bread riots. Reading the the less-famous of Shakespeare's plays is great: since I don't already know the stories, the endings are a surprise! (Of course, these are tragedies, so it's not really that much of a surprise, is it?)

Speaking Shakespeare by Patsy Rodenburg: Read review

We need to speak Shakespeare to read Shakespeare, and Rodenburg teaches us how.

December 2004

The Merchant of Venice (Norton edition) by William Shakespeare.

If Shylock were around today, you just know he'd be signing

college students up for high-interest credit cards: Read review

Burial at Thebes by Seamus Heaney: Read review

Gilgamesh: A New English Version by Stephen Mitchell: Read review

The Storyteller's Daughter by Saira Shah: Read review

An engaging memoir by an Afghan-Briton war correspondent.

November 2004

The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst. Read a review

It won this year's Booker Prize, and its language is pretty fantastic.

My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin.

A classic Australian novel from 1901 that's part Jane Eyre, part frontier story; call it "Little House in the Outback."

The Sappho Companion by Margaret Reynolds.

It's a collection of texts that show how the works of the Greek

poet Sappho have been re-interpreted, re-written, and responded

to over the centuries. She's a genius, she's a madwoman: take

your pick.

October 2004

Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill by Jessica Stern. Read review

Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt: Read review

Looking for Sex in Shakespeare by Stanley Wells: Read review

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susannah Clarke: Read review

Virgil's The Aeneid, the Allen Mandelbaum translation.

September 2004

The Known World by Edward P. Jones: Read review

This is definitely the best novel I've read all year.

Crimes Against Nature by Robert Kennedy, Jr.: Read review

Dreams From My Father by Barrack Obama.: Read review

Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi: Read review

Army of Roses: Inside the World of Palestinian Women Suicide Bombers by Barbara Victor: Read review

August 2004

Inside the Mirage by Thomas W. Lippman: Read review

(Slow month. I had a graduate thesis to write.)

July 2004

Shakespeare's Language by Frank Kermode: Read review

My favorite book on Shakespeare. Insightful and accessible.

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch: Read review

Sunday at the Pool in Kigali by Gil Courtmanche: Read review

June 2004

Brick Lane by Monica Ali: Read review

The Iraq War by John Keegan: Read review

Virgil's Aeneid, the David West translation.

May 2004

Songs of the Kings by Barry Unsworth: Read review

This darkly funny novel by a Booker Prize-winner revisits the pre-Trojan War events of Euripides' Iphigeneia at Aulis from a cynical modern viewpoint.

Howard's End by E. M. Forster.

April 2004

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini: Read review

One of my favorite books of the year, it's the first novel of a talented Afghan-American writer, and it tells a truly gripping story of childhood and the ties of brotherhood.

The Future of Freedom by Fareed Zakaria: Read review

March 2004

Eats Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss: Read review

Proper punctuation is no laughing matter, but Truss is seriously funny.

The World of Odysseus by M. I. Finley: Read review

An absolutely stellar 'anthropological' look at the fictional world of Homer's epic poems. It's a must-read for increasing one's enjoyment of the Iliad or Odyssey.

Greeks and the Irrational by E. R. Dodds.

A classic scholarly work on elements of irrationality, ecstasy, and shamanism in ancient Greek culture. Strong stuff, but great reading for folks who love the Greeks.

February 2004

Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link: Read review

Wonderfully dark, quirky short stories about the truly unexpected from a great and as-yet undiscovered author.

Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter by Thomas Cahill.

The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton.

January 2004

If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho by Anne Carson: Read review

The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad: Read review

Shakespeare by Michael Wood.

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Watermark Challenge:

The Spring Challenge:

Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

The Summer Challenge:

The Bronte Sisters

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The Racketty-Packetty House by Frances Hodgson Burnett, illus. Wendy Anderson Halperin.

From the author of The Secret Garden, this newly reprinted young-readers' book tells the utterly charming story of a family of raggedy dolls who live in a run-down dollhouse. It's timeless, poignant, and quite funny, like a less dire Velveteen Rabbit: Read review

Breaking Up: A Fashion High Graphic Novel by Aimee Friedman, illus. by Christine Norrie.

This new title from Scholastic's Graphix imprint is a pretty endearing friends-and-romance story about teens who attend a N.Y.C. high school for the arts. Friedman's script is solid, but it's really Norrie's great black-and-white art that sells it: Read review

Runaways, Vol. 2 by Brian K. Vaughan, illus. by Adrian Alphona, Takeshi Miyazawa, and Skottie Young.

Agnes Quill: An Anthlogy of Mystery by Dave Roman & various artists.

Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America - and What We Can Do about It by Juan Williams.

NPR regular Williams stands up with Bill Cosby to criticize self-interested, ineffective, and criminal leaders and to urge a renewed emphasis on education and family for young black Americans.

Gay Marriage: Why It is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America by Jonathan Rauch.