Elizabeth's Books

Of the many things I liked about Bloodroot , perhaps my favorite is how the characters on Bloodroot Mountain ultimately are all interconnected.

On the heels of finding Julie Powell to be perhaps not the best friend you always wished you had, I find myself asking how important it is to like the heroine of a chick-lit novel.

Trapped under all the mischigas of Julie Powell's Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession is an interesting story about marriage, sex and butchery. Sadly for everyone involved, there's so much self-indulgence layered on top that you'll start choking, and it won't be from your luncheon meat.

After I got over my initial disappointment that Fat Cat is not the autobiography of my 16.5-pound orange tabby, I really enjoyed Robin Brande's debut young adult novel.

I can't write about Everything Changes: A Novel without a back story. About a year ago, I picked up How to Talk to a Widower: A Novel (Bantam Discovery) from my favorite local library and thought "my goodness, where has Jonathan Tropper been? What a gem!" So then I read his newest book, This Is Where I Leave You and thought "wow, this is even better than How to Talk to a Widower: A Novel (Bantam Discovery) ! Onward with reading the collected works of Tropper!"

Jane Gardam is often described as "the best novelist you're not reading." That's true, and after reading the marvelous Old Filth I think I know why.

Should you ever need to send a conversation to a screeching halt, mention you're reading a satirical book about the Holocaust. Cue crickets.

If you've ever been stuck at O'Hare Airport (and if you have lived in Chicago, that scenario probably rings a bell), you'll get a kick out the premise of Dear American Airlines: A Novel . The recently sober and barely functioning poet Benjamin Ford is trying to attend his estranged daughter's wedding when he finds himself stranded in the purgatory of O'Hare. He begins a screed to American Airlines, which evolves into an examination of Bennie's sad life.