Recent Reads

Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci. An enjoyable book of short stories by popular authors of teen literature. Not all the stories resonated with me, but that's the best part about short stories, you can skip the ones you don't like. Highly recommended (especially if, like me, you were considered a geek or nerd in high school).   When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. Meredith recommended this kid's book to me and I am about 1/4 through it. So far it is excellent. The kind of book that I makes me wish I didn't have to come to work today, so that I could lie around and finish it.   Holly's Inbox by Holly Denham. Holly's inbox is pretty boring, actually, and she could do with a good editor.   The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larssen. I don't deny that these are very gripping thrillers, but I don't think they are quite as amazing as all the stuff I've read about them suggests. They are certainly not literary masterpieces. Other writers have created equally good damaged female characters (Carol O'Connell's Mallory's Oracle for one), and I wonder if part of the "mystique" of these books is that the names and places are very unfamiliar to us, so that adds to its cachet. Plus, not to sound cold, but let's face it -- it always helps a book's publicity when an author dies unexpectedly.