I really didn’t know what to think about “Beatrice and Virgil” by Yann Martel. I didn’t like it yet didn’t hate it either.

I was impartial to the book,

The detail Nesbø brings to his characters & to Oslo is riveting and compelling. Nesbø takes the reader into nooks of the city where tourists rarely venture

This book is certainly worth reading, there are some faults but it is a wonderful first effort by Mr. Lukas who certainly has a story telling capability

While Lisa Napoli’s take on Bhutan is strictly of an outside observer, I still found the window she opened to the country fascinating

Today I debut a new feature I have been working on for some time. If you take a look at the menu bar on top you’ll see a new category “In a Glance”. Underneath you’ll be able to gain easy access to book reviews either by title or author’s last name as well as the author Q&A feature. I hope this feature will help you (and me to be honest) navigate the blog. After all, we are still reading books from the 1800’s so I figure these posts will never go out of style (I hope). Let me know how you like the new features, if something is not working correctly or if you’d like to see anything else implemented.

There is great insight on how Jews were persecuted and the struggles they faced. However, the author uses these adversities to highlight the Jewish spirit

This isn’t a great work of fiction, the adjectives are numerous and sprinkled around generously – but it’s a fun, cheesy and quick read, albeit corny

Like many bibliophile I am also somewhat enamored by book covers. I don’t judge a book by its cover, but I certainly pre-judge it as many of us do (but that’s the topic for another post). I am also a comic art collector (well, before kids that is) and have about 10 reviews of graphic novel in my “draft” folder (at the time of this post) – so yes, I like pretty pictures.

This is a delightful book and I thought it was thoroughly entertaining. Neil Gaiman has been writing modern fairy tales for years filled with magical moments

“The Death Instinct” by Jed Rubenfeld is a fictional thriller set in the 1920’s. The book centers around the historical Wall St. bombing of 1916.