Sep 17
2006
Marina Lewycka is a tutor at Sheffield Hallam University, the child of Ukrainian immigrants, the author of six books on “aspects of elder care” and the novel A Short History of Tractors in Ukraini...
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Sep 17
2006
The original cover of Marina Lewycka’s novel A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian was extremely tasteful. The background is a lovely grayish blue, and there’s a yellow border running down the edge, dec...
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Sep 7
2006
We held off on reviewing author K.P. Bath until we were sure that there was going to be a sequel to his first book, The Secret of Castle Cant. It’s not that we didn’t love The Secret of Castle Ca...
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Sep 7
2006
Bisco Hatori is the author of the gleefully silly manga Ouran High School Host Club. Host Club is the story of a quiet, unemotional girl named Haruhi, who is attending Ouran High as a scholarship...
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Sep 4
2006
I confess—I didn’t think that I’d like Sheila Williams’s novel Girls Most Likely, being both turned off by the cover art and actively repelled by the purple prose on the back cover, which made the story sound like something by Danielle Steel. Happily, Girls Most Likely turned out to be far superior to its packaging...
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Aug 18
2006
M. T. Anderson’s self-described “thrilling tales” are sure to delight anyone with a nodding familiarity with kids’ detective fiction. Whales on Stilts! and The Attack of the Linoleum Lederhosen p...
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Aug 13
2006
Teen literature is full of dorky main characters. Meg Cabot’s entire career is based on stories about low-on-the-social-totem-pole heroines falling in love with hot-yet-geeky Stargate fans. Loui...
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Jul 17
2006
Linda Medley is a Portland-based comic book writer and illustrator, and the author of the excellent Castle Waiting series, the subject of one of our Book of the Week reviews. Castle Waiting has b...
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Jul 17
2006
As I’ve said before, I like stories about people working. I find reading about somebody else’s labor to be deeply satisfying. I’m also a big fan of fairytales, particularly the ones that reward their characters for doing obscure tasks. (I love that one about the girl whose evil stepmother makes her hunt for fruit in the middle of winter, wearing a paper dress.) That’s why the new hardcover version of Linda Medley’s collected Castle Waiting stories had me nearly giddy with excitement...
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Jul 10
2006
Aneva Stout is the author of the highly original book The List: A Love Story in 781 Chapters, the subject of one of our Book of the Week reviews. Subject-wise, Ms. Stout’s story is B-grade Bridge...
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Jul 10
2006
Gimmick books—miniature books, books that come with soundtracks, books cut into weird shapes—usually leave me cold. But I really enjoyed Aneva Stout’s The List: a Love Story in 781 Chapters. Sur...
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May 26
2006
Margery Allingham was a skillful, stylish mystery novelist who produced the bulk of her books between the first and second World Wars. Most of her novels feature a quiet, unassuming private detec...
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May 26
2006
Mary Roberts Rinehart was a highly successful mystery novelist and playwright in the first half of the twentieth century. (She also wrote the “Tish” books, a comedic series of feminist novels abo...
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May 26
2006
James Branch Cabell had an impressively poisonous pen. His eighth and most famous novel, 1919’s satirical fantasy Jurgen, earned him a brief period in the literary spotlight when the New York Soc...
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May 25
2006
I try to avoid romance novels that feature heroines under the age of twenty-six*. There are a few books about people in their early twenties that are okay, but I prefer to read about people that have their heads on at least semi-straight before they make any major decisions about their life partners...
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May 14
2006
Playwright and lyricist Edward Eager began writing children’s books after he failed to find any suitable stories to read to his young son. Himself a huge fan of children’s literature, Eager’s boo...
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Apr 19
2006
Although I’ve seen several critics comparing Carrie Vaughn’s new werewolf series to the Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake books, I think they have more in common with Charlaine Harris’s stories or...
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Apr 17
2006
Jim Butcher is the author of The Dresden Files novels, a series about Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, a wizard-slash-P.I. who’s doing his best to save the people of Chicago from various supe...
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Apr 10
2006
Ben Edlund is the artist and writer of the cult favorite comic series The Tick. Edlund’s characters include the Tick himself, a seven-foot-tall, 300-pound, well-meaning dimwit in a blue costume w...
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Apr 2
2006
Missouri author Glenn Cook is the author of several very respectable contemporary fantasy novels, including the 'Black Company' books, the 'Starfishers' books, and the 'Dark War' trilogy, as well ...
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Apr 2
2006
Jin Kobayashi is the author of School Rumble, a cheerfully bizarre manga with the tagline “Subtlety is for Wimps!”. School Rumble is the story of a sweet, dopey girl with a good heart, the cluele...
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Mar 30
2006
Gery Greer and Bob Ruddick are the authors of Max and Me and the Time Machine and its sequel, Max and Me and the Wild West. Greer and Ruddick’s hero is a cheerful, act-in-haste, regret-at-leisure...
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Mar 21
2006
No Logo author Naomi Wolf recently published an essay in The New York Times bemoaning the current state of YA literature for girls, specifically mentioning the popular...
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Mar 21
2006
Gery Greer and Bob Ruddick are the authors of Max and Me and the Time Machine and its sequel, Max and Me and the Wild West. Greer and Ruddick’s hero is a cheerful, act-in-haste, regret-at-leisure...
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Mar 21
2006
Playwright Christopher Durang is best known for his award-winning black comedy Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You. I admit, I find large doses of Durang to be rather grating—the man is ...
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Mar 12
2006
A former teacher and freelance journalist, Allen Kurzweil is the author of two books for children, Leon and the Spitting Image and Leon and the Champion Chip, as well as two books for adults, The ...
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Feb 18
2006
Michael Buckley is the author of the Sisters Grimm books, a highly enjoyable series that has some striking similarities to Bill Willingham’s Fables series. So if you’re not old enough for Willing...
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Jan 28
2006
Obert Skye is the author of the very entertaining Harry Potter-esque YA fantasy Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo. I wouldn't recommend going to great lengths to hunt this book down, but if you...
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Jan 11
2006
Jennifer Colt is the author of The Butcher of Beverly Hills, an action-packed story about two redheaded twin sisters (one an uptight university grad, the other a lesbian ex-con with a wickedly ben...
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Jan 11
2006
John Mortimer is the author of the Horace Rumpole novels, short stories, and plays. Mortimer's Rumpole is a cheerful, obese barrister with a passionate love for cheap wine (Pommeroy's Very Ordina...
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