RaveBookreporter\"Monsters is that rare breed—an important and timely book that is a joy to read ... Dederer’s skill as a memoirist contributes to the power of the essays, as she shares the political and social context of the times when she was considering each aspect of the problem ... Throughout every chapter in this compelling book, Dederer stimulates our own thinking. She doesn’t let us or herself off easily ... reading Monsters is like exploring them with a very wise and funny friend. I highly recommend it.\
Joy Fielding
PositiveBookreporterThere are a lot of balls in the air, and I couldn’t wait to see how and where they landed. Jodi is a very likable and relatable character, and the novel delivers on its promise to wrap things up satisfactorily, but not without many juicy twists along the way.
Lidia Yuknavitch
PositiveBookreporterWeaving these stories (and more) together, Thrust provides a scaffolding for a book that is part polemic, part alternate history and part science fiction, with two parts eroticism thrown in. It’s anything but linear, switching narratives and times with each chapter. Author Lidia Yuknavitch apparently subscribes to Aurora’s contention that stories gain strength where they cross each other, that there is no beginning, middle and end. I have never read a book quite like this, but I had no trouble staying intrigued.
Jonathan Evison
RaveBookreporterThe train trip is a splendid device to link them, and as the snow gathers and the train steams north, each flashback chapter further endears the characters to our hearts. Don’t worry, the chapters are headed by the year and the character’s name, so it’s easy to keep track of them all. Jonathan Evison displays a great talent for bringing a character to life with only a few words...From the frenzy of the California gold rush to the grand Chicago homes of the railroad investors, the places in this book come to life ... The risk in introducing so many intriguing stories is that some are necessarily left hanging. Yet on the train, present-day lives change for better and worse; in the past, Nora finally finds her brother. Such is a testament to Evison’s storytelling that even at 466 pages, I didn’t want to see the end of this SMALL WORLD.
T. C. Boyle
PositiveBookreporterIn the course of the novel, Sam spends some time there and makes us feel the helplessness, the despair and the rage that intelligent caged creatures feel ... You’ll be drawn into this fast-paced, unusual love story, even as you ponder the ethics of how our powerful species exploits those \'beneath\' it on the evolutionary ladder.
Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager
PositiveBookreporterIf you’re an avid reader, it’s a safe bet that at least one of your favorite authors is included. I enjoyed reading the interviews with several of my favorites: Lethem, Egan, T. C. Boyle and Amor Towles ... Perhaps only a librarian or a professor would be familiar with every author in the book, and that’s another reason to read it. I discovered authors I’d vaguely heard of ... a great concept that is wonderfully executed. It would make a great holiday gift for the literati in your life.
Peter Rock
PositiveBook ReporterThis novel has as many layers, drop-offs, storms, wrecks and submerged themes as the great Lake Michigan itself. In the afterword, Rock thanks his editor for urging him to \'make it wilder, not to tame it.\' It’s a grand chance to go along on an intensely personal journey into the mind and past of an accomplished writer.
George Saunders, Illustrated by Chelsea Cardinal
RaveBookreporterThere is no writer who gets our vanity, and our endless capacity for hope and cruelty like George Saunders does. Fox 8 is a cautionary tale rolled up in a comic romp rolled up in a fable. The way that Yumans (and Foxes) behave is hilarious and tragic, all at the same time. Saunders’ license with our language has always been part of what makes him unique and daring, and it’s in full throat in this magical book. Fox 8 may be short, but I dare you to read it only once.
