>Valerie Plame’s announcement that she is embarking on a series starring a female spy reminded me of one of my favorites, Evelyn Anthony’s books from the 1980s about Davina Graham, starting with The Defector. Subsequent titles include The Avenue of the Dead, Albatross, and The Company of Saints, and while they were reissued with new [...]
>You probably think this book is about you.
November 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment
>Scholastic editor and YA novelist David Levithan (whose latest collaboration with Rachel Cohn, Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares, will be reviewed in our January issue) has a new novel out for adults. PW and Booklist both like it but can’t quite agree on what or who it is about. Of The Lover’s Dictionary (FSG), [...]
>We have liftoff
May 5, 2010 By 11 Comments
>Two questions about mystery writing
April 1, 2010 By 11 Comments
>I’m reading (listening to) Lisa Scottoline’s latest Bennie Rosato mystery, Think Twice. It’s too preposterous for its own good (Bennie’s evil identical twin Alice buries alive and then impersonates our heroine), but like many a mediocre book it makes me think about how good books get written. My first question is about suspense, and I’m [...]
>Presents
March 4, 2010 By 8 Comments
>We’re working on a feature for the May issue, “What Makes a Good Graduation Gift Book?” and it’s causing me to think about how complicated gift-giving can be. As Betty Carter says in the article, any gift of a book comes with an agenda: here’s what I like or think is important and/or here’s what [...]
>Infer this.
December 9, 2009 By 10 Comments
>We skipped the maple candy, too
November 16, 2009 By 5 Comments
>I hope it isn’t ALL Ben & Jerry’s
November 11, 2009 By 5 Comments
>Going to Vermont for a few days; hoping to see Katherine Paterson and HB reviewer Joanna Rudge Long (who lives not near but ON the Appalachian Trail) but otherwise just r&r, Roger and Richard, and Buster, who at twenty is too old for any trailwalking but we hope will enjoy the fireplace. Lots of reading [...]
>If you liked The Lost Symbol . . .
October 14, 2009 By 4 Comments
