Hardcover Non Fiction:
There's nothing subjective about our Hardcover Fiction Category. Whichever book I think was the most fun to read wins, and that is clearly Stieg Larsson's enormously entertaining The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. As soon as I put this book down I picked it back up and reread the last half of the book two more times! The sad thing here is that Swedish author Larsson died unexpectedly of a heart attack a month after delivering all three novels of a trilogy to his publisher. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is the first book in that series so we'll be able to savor Larsson's legacy over the next few years....More

Hardcover Non Fiction:
This was kind of a photo finish with another excellent book on China, Simon Winchester's The Man Who Invented Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom, however, since degree of fun was established as the tiebreaker, Troost's highly entertaining travel narrative relating his various adventures and experiences across the length and breath of China, gets the nod here. ...More

Paperback Fiction:
Not ever reading Tove Jansson would be like not ever trying ice cream. Jansson, who died in 2001 at 86, is Finland's national literary treasure. For those of us already under her spell, this reprint of The Summer Book, is a very happy event indeed. Her unique sensibility, which has made the Moomin books so beloved, is everywhere evident here. As Ali Smith once said of The Summer Book, Jansson's "writing is all magical deception, her sentences simple and loaded; the novel reads like looking through clear water and seeing, suddenly, the depth."...More

Paperback Non Fiction:
In Crashing Through, Kurson provides an intimate portrait of a remarkable man. Mike May’s decision to have a corneal transplant in one eye was a curious one. The transplant was a new procedure with an unknown chance of success. Even if successful, the limited case histories of individuals who had gained sight after a lifetime of blindness suggested serious psychological perils, depression, exhaustion, and difficulty with interpretation. Furthermore, strong immune suppressants would need to be taken, making May vulnerable to cancer. As a successful engineer and businessman, blind skiing champion, and builder of an eighty-foot ham radio tower, May was an important member of the blind community. He loved his life and felt that nothing was lacking, why take enormous risks for the chance to see? In the end May chose to chance the operation because it was an adventure, it was something he hadn’t done before. Wrestling with the decision forced May to consider deeply who he was, and May decided that he was above all an explorer, a risk taker. “Crashing though” is May’s term for overcoming obstacles, a practice he has been engaging in his entire life. Crashing Through is at all times both intimate and tasteful. The detailed account of May’s first conjugal experience with his wife after gaining sight, for example, is at once highly detailed and extremely compelling. The reader can’t help but pause a moment and wonder how Kurson pulled that off, how anyone other than May could have written that section. Kurson’s narrative builds steadily, and ends strongly. The science component of Crashing Through, the neurological reasons for the crisis May encounters, his inability to interpret faces, or see unexpected changes in dimension, such as stairs and sidewalks, the mind-numbing weariness of sight for him, are fascinating. More importantly, May’s triumph over these obstacles, his “crashing though,” is truly inspiring....More

Young Adult:
The use of warlike sports to control futuristic, totalitarian societies is a fascinating topic. Some treatments, such as Piere Boulle's Desperate Games, have followed Orwell's notion of the "ten minute hate," namely that an outlet for restrained emotion must be provided lest it be turned on the state. Others follow the 1975 film Rollerball in portraying sport as a means to reinforce the ultimate futility of individual endeavor. The Hunger Games, a new novel by young adult fantasy author Suzanne Collins, is posited as a show of dominance by the Capital City over the twelve remaining districts. In practice, Collins combines the other two themes, however, and it is unclear as to whether, due to a rising tide of decadence, the demand for entertainment is altering the government's control of the form and content of the Hunger Games.

The Hunger Games has received a tidal wave of enthusiasm from Independent Children's Booksellers based on its hypnotically compelling quality. It is true that about a third of the way through the book it is as though the reader has walked around a corner and stepped into a water slide. All else falls away. One can't do anything but read the book.

There are a few elements of this book which Collins will have to address if she is to ultimately make her trilogy succeed. For example, the rule change introduced mid way through The Hunger Games, and the manner in which the narrator, Katniss, is able to force the Gamemakers to sustain the rule after their attempt at reversing it, doesn't entirely convince. Without question, however, with such an unusually dynamic, gripping, and highly developed opening gambit, one hopes that in the the concluding volumes Collins fully embraces the challenging issues she has so deftly raised in this outstanding first book. ...More

Picture Book:
Many readers love Bob Graham's picture books because of their warmth and humor, but his new book strikes such a strong emotional chord that anyone familiar with his earlier work will be momentarily surprised. Told largely through drawings, How To Heal A Broken Wing tells the tale of a young boy who finds an injured bird lying in the street. The few words are perfectly placed and resonate strongly with the drawings. "A loose feather can't be put back but a broken wing can sometimes heal." How To Heal A Broken Wing is a book to be treasured and shared because it so powerfully conveys the importance, and the quality of compassion. ...More