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I watched Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009), the movie based on the first two Shopaholic novels by Sophie Kinsella, and I was pleasantly surprised. Truthfully, I hadn’t expected much. Isla Fisher seemed a good choice for Becky Bloomwood, the financial writer with a serious shopping addiction, but I wasn’t thrilled they were transplanting the books [...]

Before the Harry Potter books—and after them, too—there was the Redwall series (The Sable Quean, 2010), over 20 books set in different eras and different parts of the Mossflower woods and featuring the robust cast of characters who inhabited them. Jacques’ death on February 5th (“Brian Jacques, Writer of Redwall Series, Dies at 71,” by [...]

Those who read this issue of REaD ALERT last fall know that I am no expert in romance (the genre, I mean, not the art of)–in fact, a couple of them sent me e-mails, strongly worded, decrying my lack of expertise. There are, of course, many holes in my reading knowledge, but for my New Year’s resolution, [...]

Nearly a year ago, I was in a public library for a class on online research tools, searching a site for biographies. On a whim I typed in the name George Edwin Taylor. I happened to have the galley of the book, For Labor, Race, and Liberty: George Edwin Taylor, His Historic Run for the White House, [...]

I’m not often in the room when awards are announced, but I was there this time. On Saturday, at the Love Is Murder conference in Chicago, the winners of the Lovey Award received their very substantial (weapons-grade?), green marble columns. Shortly before the banquet, I had picked up a copy of the Best First Novel winner [...]

I finally had a chance to catch the first season of The Walking Dead on AMC. Engineered by three-time Academy Award nominee Frank Darabont, the series is based on the comic book series created by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore. The Walking Dead, if you’re not familiar with it, follows Kentucky deputy sheriff Rick Grimes [...]

I just finished writing my review of Lawrence Block’s latest Matt Scudder novel–yes, there is another one! It’s called A Drop of the Hard Stuff and my review will run in the March 1 issue of Booklist. Just for fun, here’s a snippet of dialogue that made me smile. “If that crazy bastard doesn’t wind [...]

An update to my original post regarding last week’s webinar “Battle Bullying with Books,” which is now available as an archived video. The Misfits author James Howe has weighed in on some of the excellent questions attendees asked during the presentation. Below are the questions and his thought-provoking responses. Question: These books are fine as far [...]