Don’t Sleep, There are Snakes.  By Daniel L. Everett.
 
Daniel L. Everett spent years in the Amazon studying the Pirahã, a tribe of about 300 people who live in several villages along the Maici river.  He was funded by SIL, the Summer Institute of Linguistics, a Christian m… Read full post »

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.  By Junot Diaz.
 
Oscar is a sweet, fat, clueless, science-fiction reading nerd from a place, the Dominican Republic, where nerdiness is an affront to the culture.  He desperately loves women, and is astonishingly bad at attracting them or dea/… Read full post »

The Cracker Queen: A Memoir of a Jagged, Joyful Life.  By Lauretta Hannon.
 
Lauretta Hannon grew up in a chaotic, dysfunctional, loving Southern family.  She graduated from college, moved to Atlanta, and began a successful career as a college Public Relations officer. 
 
After… Read full post »

Can you write hint fiction?  Stories of 25 words or less that hint at a bigger story? 

It's like writing haikus - although some say it's harder.

If  you think you'd do it well, try submitting to WW Norton's new anthology.

  Read full post »

Just Like Family: Inside the Lives of Nannies, the Parents they Work for, and the Children They Love.  By Tasha Blake.

 It’s not a good thing when a book on child care causes you to reflect on the high rate of mental illness in our society.  
 
Honestly, if you’re… Read full post »

Pretties.  By Scott Westerfield.  (Sequel to “Uglies”)

Young adult fiction. 

“Getting dressed was always the hardest part of the afternoon.”  This is Tally Youngblood, former tricky Ugly, reflecting on the woes of her new Pretty state.
 
Tally has… Read full post »

Want to visit Mars?  You - or at least your name - can do it, courtesy of NASA.

When the Mars Science Laboratory leaves for Mars in 2011, it will carry a list of names. Anyone, from any country, can sign up to be included on the microchip list.

The URL… Read full post »

The Secret Speech.  By Tom Rob Smith.
 
In 1956, Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev denounced former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin for mass murder, abuse of power, and a long list of other crimes.  This speech was never officially published outside the party, but news of its contents spread… Read full post »

Bellwether by Connie Willis.

What causes fads? How do you turn them on and off?  How does information diffuse through a population?  

You wouldn’t think that would be the basis for a thoroughly entertaining sci-fi novel.  It is, though.  In “Bellwethe/… Read full post »

The Hunted, By Wayne Barcomb.   The Various Haunts of Men, By Susan Hill. 
 
The enemy of the good is the perfect, and the enemy of the OK book is the really good one.  So I’m probably not going to be entirely fair to “The Hunted”, because I read it just befo… Read full post »

Learning to Bow: Inside the Heart of Japan.  By Bruce Feiler. (1991).

Imagine this sight on your first day teaching at a new school:  Several dozen junior high school students are waiting by the side of the road near the school. As you drive past, they bow in unison and… Read full post »

"Rivers And Tides" - By Thomas Riedelsheimer, 2001/2003, DVD

An excellent documentary about Andy Goldsworthy, a sculptor who uses rocks, water, driftwood, snow and other elements of nature to create ephemeral art.

You don't need to be a fan of modern art to enjoy this.  You just need t… Read full post »

Regenesis.  By C.J. Cherryh.

Was it a good idea to pick up a book in the middle of a series, when I hadn't read the previous books?   Perhaps not. 

"Regenesis" is at least ten books into Cherryh's Alliance-Union universe, and I've read none of the previous works, like… Read full post »

Hunger Games. By Suzanne Collin.

This may be the best book I've read this year. 

It's a Young Adult novel, but most adults who enjoy science fiction will like it, too.

"Hunger Games" is set in a future North America.  The population has been divided up into the Capitol and the… Read full post »

Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa.  By R. A. Scotti

Sometime between August 20 and August 22, 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre.  

Who took her?  A lone madman obsessed with the painting?  A gang of international art thieves?  Pari… Read full post »

The Killing Way, by Tony Hayes.  In a Gilded Cage, By Rhys Bowen. 

I read historical fiction, and one of my pet peeves is "Valley Girl Victoriana" - the writing about historical characters as if they were moderns, as if how people thought about the world, and how they  expected to… Read full post »

Uglies. By Scott Westerfeld.
 
Young Adult book.

 Want to be Pretty?  Tally does, and she's going to get her wish.  On her sixteenth birthday, she'll be given the operation, the one that will make her beautiful.  And she'll be able to join her older friends in New Pretty Town,… Read full post »

Revelation.  By C.J. Sansom

Series mystery.  Detective Matthew Shardlake. Set in 1543 London.

The narrator and detective of this series is Matthew Shardlake, a barrister who has been appointed to be the equivelent of Legal Aid - free legal council for the poor.  When his good friend, a… Read full post »

Yesterday Morning. By Diana Athill.

It's sad when you find the critic's blurbs on the cover more amusing than the book inside.

This is Diana Athill's memoir of an Edwardian girlhood.   There are some lovely scenes in "Yesterday Morning".   I thought, as I read it, that i/… Read full post »

Living Witness.  By Jane Haddam.

Series mystery.  Detective: Gregor Demarkian.

A near-fatal assault in a Pennsylvania small town appears to have been triggered by a lawsuit over intelligent design and evolution.  Gregor Demarkian is called in because the town police chief is a possible… Read full post »

"Of all sad words" and "Murder among the OWLS."  Both by  Bill Crider. 

Series mysteries.  Detective: Sheriff Dan Rhodes.

My friends and I often joked that our gravestones would read "It seemed like a good idea at the time."  Texas Sheriff Dan Rhodes considers that the… Read full post »

Bodies.  By Susie Orbach.

Orbach begins this book with the story of a man who wanted his two healthy legs amputated.  He squeezed them into a single support stocking and packed them in dry ice, damaging them so that surgeons would have to remove them.  His legs had caused him no… Read full post »

Seeking Peace:   Chronicles of the Worst Buddhist in the World. By Mary Pipher.

Mary Pipher hit the best seller lists in 1994 with "Reviving Ophelia".  It was a mixed blessing; she describes it as being "avalanched by roses."  The pressure of  her success caused a… Read full post »

Bone Song.  By John Meaney.

I’ve already read the second book in this series, “Dark Blood”.  The first book is as good and original as the second. 

In “Bone Song” we meet Donal Riordan, Lieutenant of the Tristopolis police.  He’s b/… Read full post »

Darling Jim. By Christian Moerk.
 
Two sisters and their aunt are found dead.  Investigators realize that the older woman had imprisoned and poisoned her nieces, and they had killed her in a doomed attempt to escape. 
 
A few weeks later, a package ends up the local post office&rsquo… Read full post »