Christopher Buckley’s latest novel, They Eat Puppies, Don’t They?, is half brutal satire of Washington politics and half quirky/absurdist indie movie waiting to happen. And it’s even pretty funny. As a basic litmus test for whether you’ll like this book, think about Thank You For Smoking. If you liked it, great, this is very similar […]

Zis book, she is beautiful. No, truly, despite ze cheesy French accent, I’m 100% serious. Sacre Bleu, A Comedy D’Art is funny (Chris Moore’s signature fare), but it’s also sweet, and loving in a way that Moore’s work … isn’t always. I love it. I really, really do. We start with Vincent Van Gogh’s murder. […]

Lyndsay Faye’s book, The Gods of Gotham, is a historical fiction murder mystery. Yeah. You heard me. A Historical Fiction Murder Mystery. Does that not sound like an answered prayer to anyone else? I mean, I’m not usually much for murder mysteries and things (there’s more interesting stuff for me to read, the re-read value […]

There are some books that are plot heavy. You know which ones I mean—the ones that could fuel two seasons worth of soapy opera all by their dark, dramatic, twisted lonesomes. And then there are the books that meander. While the plot-heavy books are racing at breakneck speed to cram everything in, these books give […]

I have mixed feelings about Sam Leith’s novel, The Coincidence Engine. The basic plot is that there’s this genius/madman mathematician named Nicolas Banacharski, who may or may not have started trying to find the mathematical proofs for an “engine” that would make the highly improbable/impossible, possible. Naturally, what exactly has happened to him is shrouded […]

Maybe it’s in the water here. I mean, mostly I’ve read that Los Angeles water is filled with parasites and toxins, but maybe it’s actually filled with a desire to spend one’s life eating strangely colored smoothies based on a vegan, plant-based, raw diet. I don’t know. Anyway, about two months after my move to […]

The Rook is a novel that I FRICKIN’ LOVE!!! (I refuse to apologize for the capslocks. I am not ashamed. This is the strength of my love). It took me 3 days to finish… but only because people insisted that I put it down to do unimportant things like … sleep, and eat, and go […]

Young adult romance is an art form like any other, and despite the lack of respect it often gets from mainstream audiences, it is certainly capable of being just as awesome as any other genre. What I’m saying is that just because it looks like Twilight and kind of smells like Twilight, doesn’t mean it […]