Second from the author of In the Woods, just as strong and fun as the first! She switches to another character’s viewpoint in this one, with great skill. I’m impressed that she so successfully transitions to a differerent first-person narrator, developing the character believably though the debut book looked at her as a friend/love interest. A definite page turner, but with quality in the writing and the story. And I was glad to have a bit more resolution at the end of this one!

Forgettable and cliched, with unappealing, poorly explained characters and pointless obstacles. Unfortunate, because the bones of the story are intriguing, but the prose is creaky and the emotion feels trite and overplayed. I probably wouldn’t have finished it if I hadn’t been under the weather and short on fiction.

I really enjoyed this novel, in part because of its picture of New York during the Second World War and the years following, but largely because of the discussion of T.S. Eliot. The two main characters are Eliot scholars; they discuss his work in-depth and their lives both parallel his in striking ways. I adore Eliot and have studied him quite a bit myself so this added a lot of depth and meaning for me, but even for an Eliot novice, this is a thoughtful and readable novel.

Pleasantly surprised by the simplicity and strength of these compared to the vaguely banal and overplayed Eat Play Love. Not brilliant, but good, with engaging characters who Re distinctive but not too eccentric to be real. I’d like to see more of this from her instead of self-aware memoirs.

Finally got around to reading this legendary novella and, of course, fell in love on the first page, when the opening description of Holly Golightly’s apartment building so perfectly matches my own tiny studio in the east 70s! It’s been awhile since I’ve read any Capote, and I always forget just how much I love him. I watched the movie ages ago but turned it off before the end in annoyance at the affectation. After reading the book, I rewatched the film and found it much more palatable, but I will never be one of those people who adores it cultishly. And the book is far, far different from the movie of course, but it was fun to experience them so close together, as a young lady who rushed to New York in high heels!

Another well-written teen book, this one confronting eating disorders in adolescent girls – an issue that is mocked and laughed off or used as a quick-and-easy device for character creation, but in reality is widespread, serious and complicated. This book was tough to read at times because the voice is so unfiltered – except when the narrator, Lia, a high school girl fighting anorexia, is filtering her own desire for food. The author creates Lia’s voice very skillfully, making the girl at once very believably teen and very relatable but not trite or juvenile. The author also accomplishes the tough requirement of revealing the roots of the girl’s problem to the reader without ruining the experience of the girl working through these issues for herself. The story also includes the even more common issues of finding your place with your friends and within a reconstructed family, showing how these hurts drove Lia into her eating disorder without limiting their meaning for kids who are using other destructive coping mechanisms. And the prose itself is stunning, with a beauty I’ve seldom seen in teen lit.

As hard as it is to find teen books worth recommending, I will be cautious with this one because the subject matter is so heavy and brutal by its very honesty. But well done and important reading, I think, for those working with adolescents or for older, sentient teens.

Counting these two as one because they’re technically teen titles, although they’re so well-crafted and gripping that they put the rest of that department to shame. I don’t want to say too much for fear of ruining the experience – skillful dystopian lit in which the philosophical point is subtle enough to be thought-provoking ather than obnoxious. Suspenseful without being sensationalist. Highly, highly recommended.

I’ve never read Amis before and wasn’t quite sure what to make of this one. The prose is intriguing and sometimes beautiful, and I really enjoyed the literary references woven into this one. But the eroticism was a little offputting – while it wasn’t actually graphic, it was pervasive without being about anything except itself and, I suppose, a vague coming-of-age existentialism, with all the vicissitudes and none of the eventual understanding. I’m no prude, but I craved more substance from such an obviously skilled writer, craved more conversation and growth out of the characters. And I was mildly disturbed that some of the more extreme sensuality, such as incest and perplexing religious fetishism, is never really resolved. I’m a little interested to read more Amis and see if this book is typical or if it makes more sense within a larger context of his work.