Book Reviews

Thumbnail image for Book Review: “Swamplandia!”

Book Review: “Swamplandia!”

by Caroline December 29, 2011 Arts and Entertainment

“Swamplandia!”  is simultaneously realistic and fantastical.  The setting and many of the book’s events rest firmly on the line between the normal and supernatural, and the two realms often bleed into each other. Author Karen Russell, who also wrote the [...]

Keep Reading..
Thumbnail image for Book Review: “A Long Way Down”

Book Review: “A Long Way Down”

by Caroline December 6, 2011 Arts and Entertainment

“A Long Way Down” is the first book I’ve read by Nick Hornby that doesn’t use music as a central theme. The 2005 novel also showed me just how good a writer Hornby can be. The book tells the story [...]

Keep Reading..
Thumbnail image for Book Review: “Saturday”

Book Review: “Saturday”

by Caroline November 22, 2011 Arts and Entertainment

This is what happens when you judge a book by its cover – you get stuck reading something as boring and dense as Ian McEwan’s “Saturday.” I didn’t select McEwan’s 2005 novel solely on its cover art, although the cool [...]

Keep Reading..
Thumbnail image for Book Review: “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)”

Book Review: “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)”

by Caroline November 8, 2011 Arts and Entertainment

Just so you know where this review is headed: I was in the middle of rereading “Bossypants” when I found out Mindy Kaling wrote a book. I immediately dropped everything (I’m sorry, Tina!) and went to pick up “Is Everyone [...]

Keep Reading..
Thumbnail image for Book Review: “Love is a Mix Tape”

Book Review: “Love is a Mix Tape”

by Caroline October 25, 2011 Arts and Entertainment

Writing about the role music plays in your relationships can easily turn into a cloying mess; it’s a practice best left to diaries and LiveJournals. Unless, of course, you’re Rob Sheffield, and you’ve written the fantastic 2007 memoir, “Love is [...]

Keep Reading..
Thumbnail image for Book Review: “Let the Right One In”

Book Review: “Let the Right One In”

by Caroline October 12, 2011 Arts and Entertainment

I’m really, really tired of just about everything vampire related; I can’t emphasize that enough. I’m assuming you are, too. But you should make an exception for John Ajvide Lindqvist’s 2004 novel, “Let the Right One In.” Are you still [...]

Keep Reading..