By Adam Gopnik Gopnik writes about his five years living in Paris. Somehow he managed to write about it without making me hate him. ..Mostly.

By Stephen Gould Fascinating stuff here. Stephen Gould is more often known for his natural history books aimed at casual readers (Bully for Brontosaurus and the like) — but this is not a book aimed at the general public. Wonderful Life is an exploration of the extraordinarily old, very different forms of life discovered in […]

By Atul Gawande Gawande succeeds at conveying the art that is medicine (that is much of science, really), the combination of knowledge, past experience and plain old gut feeling that goes into any decision. It’s worth reading just to get a better understanding of how people learn to be doctors — information which might be […]

by Pete McCarthy McCarthy’s Eighth Rule of Travel is that you should never pass a bar with your name on it. So for that among other more complex reasons, off he goes to Ireland. Everyone else seems to find this book much funnier than I did. That’s not to say it isn’t funny — it […]

By Guy Gavriel Kay Guy Gavriel Kay’s writing gets a little purple in spots and the drama can tend to melodrama. He’s good at both character and storyline creation, though, so his books are fun despite the occasional soppy spots. The Summer Tree is the first book in the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy, which is an […]

By Neil Stephenson Who can resist a book starring a character named Hiro Protagonist? I’m normally kind of meh on Neal Stephenson. Some of his other books, while they have wonderfully imagined alternate realities, are a little low on plot. Not a problem here. It moves. The characters are fun. The Mafia control pizza delivery. […]

By Sylvanus P. Thompson I once had a logic professor, the rumpled/ bespectacled/ round/ beaming English type, who announced in the first class of the term “it is my job to make logic as pleasant as possible.” This book (which was first published in 1910 — I notice it’s recently been updated and modernized, which […]

Edited by Lynn Crosbie I love Lynn Crosbie; she writes excellent book reviews that icily savage books she hates. Mostly I agree with her so they’re fun reading. No suckup, she. But as a book editor she could be a meaner: the word “uneven” features in a number of reviews of this book and I […]

by Diana Gabaldon Oh, this is fun stuff. There’s nothing highbrow or pretentious about Diana Gabaldon’s stuff, it’s just good, light, gripping historical fun. There’s a time every once in a while when I spend an awful lot of time for a few consecutive days sitting about waiting in doctor’s offices, and these are perfect […]

by Neil Gaiman Neil Gaiman is a wonderful writer. He makes English bend to his clever whims in ways that make me terribly jealous. But for a seemingly nice guy ( you can read his journal here) he’s awfully cavalier with his protagonists, and he comes up with some elegantly creepy ideas. Stardust, though, is […]

by Jane Jacobs Jane Jacobs died last April, shortly before her 90th birthday. I’m still sad. I really hoped she’d live forever. Ten years ago (!) when Citizens for Local Democracy was active, Jane Jacobs would give the most wonderful speeches at meetings, shuffling slowly up to the microphone in her white sneakers. I was […]

by Jim Munroe Jim Munroe’s a bit of an anarchist/anti-corporatist guy; he dropped Harper Collins to go out on his own and created No Media Kings. His books are cute, although I’m sure he’d hate that word. He has a knack for creating interesting, credible characters despite plots that veer wildly away from any kind […]

by Barbara Gowdy In The white bone Gowdy, author of the short story that was turned into the surprisingly sympathetic necrophilia movie Kissed (We So Seldom Look on Love) puts herself into the minds of elephants. The culture and language she imagines for the elephants are the book’s main successes; the story itself is heavy […]

by Inga Muscio Inga Muscio does a great job hitting all the feminist-sexual high points (um. as it were.). As well as the good stuff, she covers rape, abortion, assault… you wouldn’t think this would be an empowering series of topics, but it is. I don’t know anyone (any female anyone, at least) who hasn’t […]

(currently unavailable through Amazon, sadly) I would never have thought to buy it, but now that I have it, I love this book. It’s on the shelf above my desk in my office and I probably use it a couple of times a day. I’m a pretty good speller but even so, nothing beats this […]