We polled our staff in early December, asking our more than 200 book reviewers what their favorite books of 2012 were — regardless of having reviewed the book for us. Below is what they told us. We found it interesting that there were no duplicates, which tells
Read more →I’ve been a book-lover for 70 years. I still have the very first book I ever received as a gift. For my first birthday, my teacher gave me the life of composer Franz Joseph Haydn. I’ve treasured it for all these years, and it still lives in
Read more →Let’s get this out of the way first: it’s pronounced meme, like theme. Here, listen to this:http://youtu.be/3dErjFPTarc (it’s Greek — go argue with them). Meme can mean a lot of things, like a viral pic (remember ‘ridiculously photogenic guy?’), video (the infamous RickRoll), a phrase (Eastwooding, anyone?), or
Read more →Happy and Hungover (“Without love, where would you be now?”) Book reviewers are often faced with an embarrassment of riches. They may receive dozens or even hundreds of books in a short period of time, either directly from publishers or indirectly via publications like this one. This
Read more →by Ryder W. Miller It is hard to know where to begin this personal tale, this literary tour about my perceived identity and the city of San Francisco. Was it the Loma Prieta earthquake just after I moved to San Francisco, or was it my time earlier
Read more →Let’s talk about reviews, shall we? We’ve all read instances where an author acts poorly in the face of a one or two-star review. It’s usually referred to as ‘authors behaving badly,’ usually for good reason. Writers are generally sensitive, artistic types. We slave over our computers
Read more →One of the things that book reviewers have in common is that they do a lot of typing. These days, this means that the prime tool of the trade is not a portable Smith-Corona typewriter or an IBM Selectric but, instead, a computer – generally either
Read more →Isn’t every book a travel book? There you are in your sad little living room — the rug needs a vacuum, the dog’s barking at the neighbour, and dear God who the hell’s crying for a sandwich? You scrunch down deeper into the couch, and start to
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