The whole rise of ground therefore lay like a cape, a rounded headland of earth, thrust into an ocean of death. Men, the lords of that small earth, dominated it. The folklore of…

A man steps from a bedroom out to the landing and finds himself on a precipice. Looking down, he sees an endless chasm. Looking up, he sees a tiny circle of sky high…

After I closed  A Thousand Splendid Suns , I sat speechless, trying to come to terms with what I’d just read. “This is the reason books exist,” I realized. By turns, this story…

By turns, The Hunger Games reminded me of “The Most Dangerous Game,” Gladiator, Ender’s Game, and The Truman Show. “The Most Dangerous Game” involves a big game hunter preying on another man for…

Brother, I’m Dying chronicles the lives of two Haitian men. Bookmarks Magazine summarizes the tale this way: Edwidge Danticat’s father and uncle chose very different paths: the former struggled to make a new…

Kathryn Stockett’s novel The Help was a bargain at the recent publisher’s book sale in my locale, but it would be a bargain at any price. It leaves me with plenty to think…

I was familiar with the title of Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), but that’s about all. Though it took me two tries, I found it to be a…

Everyone else has read The Kite Runner already. I haven’t, perhaps because I suspected that it would break my heart. I was right. But it was worth it. It’s about boys growing to…