Monthly Archives: July 2010
The Lotus Eaters
by Tatjana Soli Two superb debut novels about the Vietnam War were published earlier this year. The first, Karl Marlantes’s Matterhorn, definitely deserves the wide readership that made it a New York Times bestseller and a library top-circulator. (As I … Continue reading
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Under Heaven
by Guy Gavriel Kay Guy Gavriel Kay’s Under Heaven (Roc, 2010) is, in a word, superb. Like many of his earlier novels (including The Lions of Al-Rassan, The Last Light of the Sun, Sailing to Sarantium, and Lord of Emperors), this is historical … Continue reading
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Skating Shoes
by Noel Streatfeild I have a new friend—she’s nine years old and her name is Sydney Armstrong. She loves to read (of course—how could I ever have a friend who didn’t love to read?). She told me (and her teacher) … Continue reading
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World Cup Fever
The 2010 World Cup (the international soccer tournament, spanning an entire month, held once every four years) is now over. New librarian and soon-to-be world traveler Andrea Gough describes herself as ‘the obsessive kind of fan who fills out competitive … Continue reading
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Don’t Be Afraid of the Passive Voice
I love books about punctuation and usage—Karen Elizabeth Gordon’s The New Well-Tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed and The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: A Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed … Continue reading
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The Good Son
by Michael Gruber The Good Son, by Michael Gruber (Holt, 2010), is one of those few and far between complex, intelligent, and insightful thrillers. The main character, Theo Bailey, is a Special Operations soldier who decides to take a more-or-less … Continue reading
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