September 2011

Not many writers manage to elevate their characters to mythic status. Shakespeare did it with Romeo and Juliet. Everyone knows the story of the doomed lovers without ever seeing it staged. That's power. Finally caught up with the actual play after years of knowing the legend.

Beijing to Kashmir. A woman crossing Central Asia in 1935. Ella Maillart was wrapping up a journalism gig in Manchuria when she decided to go home the hard way. What follows is one hell of a journey through territories nobody was supposed to enter.

The pope dies. Cardinals gather for conclave like kids on the first day of school, each secretly praying they won't get picked. Then the power goes out. Ominous. What happens when the chosen one has a full-blown panic attack? Moretti explores spiritual crisis with his trademark wit.

My friend Sylvie says I only read expensive hardcovers. Fair. So here's what caught my eye in the paperback aisles this fall. Literary season doesn't have to break the bank. Some solid past reads now available cheap.

Cheyenne is an aging rock star holed up in an Irish mansion. Doesn't make music anymore but still rocks the full goth look: wild hair, smudged eyes, lipstick, painted nails. Married to a normal woman somehow. Then his past comes calling.

Seasoned traveler Sylvain Tesson decided to try motionless travel. Six months in a cabin in the middle of nowhere Siberia. It's both a dream I share and a challenge I'd never attempt. What do you find when you stop moving?

Juliette meets Romeo at a party. Love at first sight. They're young, happy, full of plans. They have a baby named Adam, buy an apartment, paint it while singing. Then everything changes. When your child gets sick, it's war.

Picture this: countryside manor, woman who loves gothic novels, husband questioning if his wife is actually his wife, murder without a murderer in a locked room. Set it all in good old London. Carr delivers the locked-room mystery goods.