There's a harvest of seasonal treats coming into bookstores this time of year. Some are primed for big holiday sales. Other bright-colored offerings are perfect for the equinox when the dark and   

Peering into the crystal ball to pick this fall's hits, the eager reader quickly finds himself in a fix: how to single out anything as being super special for ALL readers, or instead gather up a  

His and hers. Unlike cocktail dresses and athletic supporters, most books defy obvious gender bias. Similarly, girls don't write always for girls, nor guys for guys. In my conversations with au  

The sun has shone now for five days in a row. Like a fevered dream, this luminous apparition in the sky has left us in a swoon. Like a Buster Poindexter meets Elvis Costello album, Fine Print salu  

Remember when you were a kid and you were torqued off about some injustice done to you by your overbearing, uncaring parents so you notified them you were going to run away to join the circus? Re  

What's extraordinary about the human condition is the pull to leave the dysfunction, strife and emotional conflicts of our physical world and plunge into the dysfunction, strife and emotional confli  

Fine Print seldom gets to carry breaking news. There's no recently discovered alternative ending to Cat in the Hat to trump, nor any case of forgery with Catcher in the Rye. No scandal, no expos  

Looking back isn't nearly as exciting as looking forward. Perhaps it's the numbers -- with that nearly-incomprehensible avalanche of 50,000 new books published every year, which translates to 1  

Everyone's got their own heroes -- folks whose actions have made our lives and world better, whose words continue to inspire us. One of the great things about books is that there are always a fe  

While timing may not be everything, it can be key. Walking around in white satin and a purple boa might land you in the pokey unless you time your fashion assault for trick-or-treat. Closing in on  

Ah, delicious indulgence. Midnight Snacks; 150 Easy and Enticing Alternatives to Standing by the Freezer Eating Ice Cream from the Carton by Michael J. Rosen and Sharon Reiss. It's impossible no  

Bel Canto has won a fistful of awards, each richly-deserved, each heralding a lyrical, enchanting talent not to be missed. Ann Patchett writes of normal, everyday people wrapped into situations   

Let's begin. American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Mad Max meets Dogma meets Road to Perdition. Wildly imaginative. Very dark. Dramatically upping the ante, Gaiman takes off from British castles and atm  

Not long ago, book-bent folks spent their summers slogging through a single epic tome, like Gravity's Rainbow or War and Peace, approaching their insufferable allegiance as if literacy was a deb