Book review: “His Dark Materials,” by Philip Pullman

Editor’s note: It might seem drastically early to some, but our research shows that winter holiday shopping has already started. If you’d like to give a surefire reader pleaser, you can’t miss with the His Dark Materials series (which we originally reviewed in May).
Let’s see, I’ve recently reviewed something suspenseful, something mysterious, and something literary. […]

Book review: “No Country for Old Men,” by Cormac McCarthy

Editor’s note: Cormac McCarthy’s new book, The Road, was released last week. If you haven’t yet discovered his last book, No Country for Old Men, we highly recommend reading it too. This review (originally published in May) explains why we love it.
I’m sometimes a sucker for a stark, suspenseful western. Well, I mean “contemporary westerns,” […]

Book review: “Beyond Black,” by Hilary Mantel

Editor’s note: Today we’re featuring one of our most popular book reviews from our archive. Enjoy!
I first heard of Beyond Black while enjoying the Guardian’s list of author-picked best books of 2005. That’s where this year’s Man Booker Prize–winner John Banville gushed that Beyond Black author Hilary Mantel should have joined him on the […]

Al Gore wants to save your kids (and their planet) with “An Inconvenient Truth”

Al Gore is the de facto president of the planet, at least with regard to its vanishing glaciers and drowning polar bears. Since the divisive 2000 election, Gore has hunkered down in his role as champion of the earth’s environment. Of course, with An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We […]

“Manhunt” stalks and surveys Lincoln’s assassin

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln is one of the most revered and remembered events in United States history. It is murder made hallowed and ubiquitous. From your local grade school to your favorite bookstore, the ghost of Lincoln is there. So is the apparition of John Wilkes Booth. Read about, discuss, or ponder the slain […]

Love triumphs over cruelty in “Water for Elephants”

At the height of the Great Depression, when Cornell veterinary student Jacob Jankowski finds himself destitute after the accidental death of his parents, he blindly walks away from his life and jumps a traveling circus train. As small, hardscrabble, train circuses teeter on the brink of extinction, Jankowski makes himself a living by caring for […]

“Slaughterhouse-Five” champions peace and endures censorship

Burned, banned, and challenged in numerous U.S. states, Slaughterhouse-Five: Or, the Children’s Crusade, a Duty-Dance with Death is both a powerful anti-war protest piece and an exceptional work of satirical science fiction. Author Kurt Vonnegut introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, the novel’s star-crossed protagonist, time traveler, and optometrist. This classic’s approachable narrative leads the reader […]

Challenged books depict challenging young lives

Lois Lowry’s The Giver, Robert Newton Peck’s A Day No Pigs Would Die, and Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War are three extraordinarily well-written young adult books with strong plots, healthy protagonists, and compelling themes. These three books are similar in another way: According to the American Library Association, they have all been challenged, which means […]

“Fractured Fairy Tales” enchants tired old fables

A steady diet in childhood of golden eggs, witches, trolls, enchanted frogs, dragons, elves, evil queens, good fairy godmothers, and other strange beasties is enough to put most folks off fairy tales forever. The traditional stories are ancient: They creak; they moan; they gasp; they totter; and sometimes they fall flat. Sliced, diced, animated, illustrated, […]

Terri Jentz hunts her attempted murderer in “Strange Piece of Paradise”

Imagine that you’re a 20-year-old Yale student, celebrating the summer of 1977 by attempting to cycle across the United States with a friend. You’re one of two young women beginning an audacious adventure in the vast American West. You’re eager to soak up the country that just celebrated its bicentennial. But you’re almost murdered before […]