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Passion and Rapture, by Lauren Kate
I reviewed Lauren Kate's novel Fallen in 2010, its sequel in 2011, and then waited nearly two full years to bother reading books three and four, despite the fact that they've been sitting on our To Be Read shelf for ages. That says a lot about my feelings about this series—the premise was too promising to set aside entirely, but...
The Passion of the Hausfrau: Motherhood, Illuminated, by Nicole Chaison
Nicole Chaison is the creator of the website Blog-o-Hausfrau and the tri-annually published 'zine Hausfrau Muthazine, which launched in 2003. Her experiences—everything from giving birth in a hosp...
Peace: 50 Years of Protest, by Barry Miles
Like many of the articles in National Geographic, Barry Miles's book Peace: 50 Years of Protest features a fascinating subject, overflows with amazing photographs, and appears to have been organiz...
The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, by Jeanne Birdsall
Jeanne Birdsall’s National Book Award-winning novel The Penderwicks, the story of four sisters' summertime adventure at a Massachusetts estate, is the literary equivalent of Disney’s Celebrat...
The Penderwicks, by Jeanne Birdsall
I have long avoided reading Jeanne Birdsall's National Book Award-winning The Penderwicks, mostly because of its tastefully retro cover (which I felt was shamelessly derivative of the silhouette i...
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (film review), by Rick Riordan
Picture this, dear readers—One day, you walk to the store and buy a chocolate chip cookie. You've noticed in the past that this store's baker isn't very good, so you worry that maybe the cookie will...
Perpetual Check, by Rich Wallace
Rich Wallace's novel Perpetual Check is set at a regional chess tournament. Two brothers—sports star Zeke and chubby, retiring Randy—are competing, and the idea of playing against each other has p...
Persuasion: An Annotated Edition, edited by Robert Morrison
Before I get started, let me clarify something: this isn't a review of Jane Austen's Persuasion. It's more an extended hissyfit about the annotations featured in this particular edition of Persuasion, and therefore I'm going to assume it's only going to interest my fellow hardcore Austen nerds. (Sorry, non-hardcore-Austen-nerds. Try again tomorrow.) Anyway: VAGUE SPOILERS AHOY.
Pharmakon, by Dirk Wittenborn
Well-written but fundamentally bleak, Dirk Wittenborn’s Pharmakon traces the downfall of a unique American family. As the novel opens in the early 1950s, Dr. Will Friedrich, a Yale psychopharmaco...
The Physics of the Buffyverse, by Jennifer Ouellette
I'm no physicist, but I like to keep an eye on the science news, lest I end up sounding like an idiot when chatting with my in-laws, who are all science teachers or geotechnical engineers. Th...
The Pillow Book of Lotus Lowenstein, by Libby Schmais
The Pillow Book of Lotus Lowenstein, the debut YA novel from author Libby Schmais, is a collection of journal entries written by Lotus Lowenstein, a fifteen-year-old Brooklynite who is convinced—d...
The Pinball Theory of Apocalypse, by Jonathan Selwood
Jonathan Selwood obviously worked very hard on making his debut novel, The Pinball Theory of Apocalypse, equal parts amusing and appalling. Too many of his attempts to be shocking fall flat,...
The Pinhoe Egg, by Diana Wynne Jones
I was thrilled to learn that Diana Wynne Jones was writing another book for her Worlds of Chrestomanci series. Her previous effort, 2005’s Conrad’s Fate, was funny and surreal, a tongue-in-cheek Upstairs/Downstairs farce with some dreamlike fantasy thrown in...
Plain Kate, by Erin Bow
When it comes to YA literature, the current trend towards dystopian stories boasting loads of hardcore violence is so widespread it's actually gotten boring—no matter how creative the backstory, it's hard to be shocked by yet another novel centered around some far-fetched excuse for futuristic kids to kill one another. This is why I found myself approving of Erin Bow's novel Plain Kate—sure, it was dark and sad and creepy...
Please Ignore Vera Dietz, by A.S. King
It is no coincidence that the promotional blurb on the cover of A.S. King's darkly funny novel Please Ignore Vera Dietz was written by Crank author Ellen Hopkins—King's story doesn't actually revel in its grim subject matter the way Hopkins's books do, but it's aiming squarely for the same audience...
Pleasure for Pleasure, by Eloisa James
With her nods to Shakespeare, fondness for lofty literary quotations, and unsentimental dialogue, Eloisa James clearly wants to stand out from the bodice-ripper pack. Unfortunately, she seems less interested in coherent plot structure. Her most recent novel, Pleasure for Pleasure, isn’t totally unreadable, but it’s damn close...
The Poem I Turn To: Actors and Directors Present Poetry That Inspires Them, edited by Jason Shinder
Today is the last day of National Poetry Month, so here’s a last-minute offering: a review of The Poem I Turn To: Actors and Directors Present Poetry That Inspires Them, edited by poet Jason Shind...
Poetry Speaks Expanded, edited by Elise Paschen and Rebekah Presson Mosby
Poetry Speaks Expanded, edited by Elise Paschen and Rebekah Presson Mosby, is an updated version of the 2001 collection Poetry Speaks. This remarkable book features poems from 47 of the greatest ...
Poetry Speaks Who I Am, edited by Elise Paschen
Poetry Speaks Who I Am is the latest anthology to come from Sourcebooks' Poetry Speaks line, and the first—perhaps only?—poetry collection aimed specifically at middle-school-age readers. This ...
Poltergeist, by Kat Richardson
Kat Richardson’s Poltergeist (sequel to 2006’s Greywalker) is a sharp, sinister urban fantasy that blends storytelling with Seattle history. Painstakingly researched and intelligent, this series is perfect for fantasy/horror fans looking for something more than a spine-tingling cheap thrill...
Pride and Prejudice (Annotated Editions), by Jane Austen
A few months ago, I wrote a short post about DK Publishing's "Illustrated Classics" edition of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, calling it "not the annotated Pride and Prejudice of my dreams", but praising it for its information, art direction, and extremely reasonable price...
Pride and Prejudice (Marvel Comic), by Jane Austen
Well, I just got the second issue of Marvel's Pride and Prejudice comic book, and I think it's even worse than the first one. I'm not sure where to start with my complaints, so I'll just type 'em up as they come to me...
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: the Graphic Novel, by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
To misquote Jane Austen, it is a truth universally acknowledged that an unexpectedly successful book will force its creators to keep milking it like a cash cow until it falls over dead. That's wh...
The Prince of Midnight, Seize the Fire, and Midsummer Moon, by Laura Kinsale
If you like your romance novels high on action, low on plausibility, and full of darkly tormented heroes and heroines, check out Laura Kinsale’s books: they’re imaginative, they’re well-written, and every one of ‘em features a full soap opera’s worth of hardcore drama...
The Princess and the Unicorn, by Carol Hughes
If you think the pink-and-gold cover art for Carol Hughes’s The Princess and the Unicorn is the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen, chances are good you will really like the book...
Princess Ben, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Catherine Gilbert Murdock’s new novel Princess Ben is a major departure from her earlier works, Dairy Queen and The Off Season. While Dairy Queen and The Off Season focused on the trials of a dairy-farming teenager with dreams of playing high school football in small-town Wisconsin...
The Project, by Brian Falkner
If you're in the market for a book for a ten- to twelve-year-old boy who finds even the tiny smidgen of romance featured in the 39 Clues series too embarrassing, Brian Falkner's novels may be the answer to your holiday gift-giving prayers...