Is a picture worth a thousand words? Sometimes. To be honest, I’ve never been a big fan of graphic novels, considering them to be more expensive and lengthier cousins of comic books. I did enjoy Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis and its sequels. Satrapi’s illustrations hammered the human toll of the Shah’s overthrow in Iran. However, I […]
So what’s your favorite children’s book? This may not have been true when I was a kid, but it’s true now. My favorite children’s book is not the confidence-affirming Little Engine That Could or the aesthetic-inspiring Harold and The Purple Crayon or the didactic The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It’s The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf. The bull […]
Straying outside the New York Times bestseller list has its perils. After my painful slog with Kingsley and Martin Amis a couple of weeks ago, I was dismayed to encounter some heavy sledding at the start of Javier Marias’ A Heart So White. It wasn’t the author’s fault. This is not a book that you can […]
Second Chances 