Karen Kleckner Keefe is the director of the Hinsdale (IL) Public Library, a Booklist reviewer, and one of Library Journal's 2009 "Movers and Shakers." Follow her on Twitter at @KarenKleckner.
In her latest, The Identicals, queen of coastal women’s fiction Elin Hilderbrand focuses on twin sisters who learn about their other half when they pull a Parent Trap-style swap one summer. Readers who love books about the bonds (and bruises) of sisterhood will get great ideas of what to read next from Rebecca Vnuk’s “Core Collection: Sisters […]
Following the success of The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins’ second novel, Into the Water, was an instant bestseller. Fans can’t get enough of Hawkins’ twisty, secretive suspense. Fortunately, you can tide them over until her third book with these dark domestic thrillers, linked to their Booklist reviews, where things—and by that, I mean people—are not always […]
Whether its appeal is supernatural or surreal—or both—Twin Peaks captured the imagination of an entire generation of television viewers. Showtime’s new limited-event series picks up 25 years after the original left off. These novels share some of the absurd and arresting qualities that made David Lynch’s mesmerizing show so delightfully off-kilter. American Gods, by […]
In these gripping tales of detectives, deception, and domestic life, women are much more than damsels in distress. These fictional females—each created by a male author—are out for justice and won’t let glass ceilings or thick heads get in their way. Before I Go to Sleep, by S.J. Watson Bleeding Edge, by Thomas Pynchon Celine, […]
Between his newest bestseller Norse Mythology and the recent premier of the American Gods TV series on STARZ, fans of Neil Gaiman are having a field day. Help his devoted readers keep their love for epic lore alive by recommending these other mythical tales. Achilles, by Elizabeth Cook An Arrow’s Flight, by Mark Merlis The Centaur, by […]
Book buyers love Bianca Bosker’s Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste. Nine-to-fivers can live (and drink) vicariously through the 18 months this former Huffington Post editor spent preparing for the Certified Court of Master Sommelier exam. Oenophiles aren’t the only ones willing […]
Admit it. You binge-listened the S-Town podcast and now you don’t know what to do with yourself. Who would blame you? You could—and should—read our weekly analyses here on The Booklist Reader, and in-between, you can read these titles, linked to their excerpted Booklist reviews, and acquaint yourselves with other yarn-spinners, outcasts, fanatics, fools, and chimerical characters. A […]
The popularity of The Crown and Victoria has revived interest in some of the women who shaped our modern world while managing their own personal dramas behind palace doors. What better time than Women’s History Month to celebrate the lives of some of history’s most compelling leaders with these recommended books? Catherine the Great, by […]
Though I can’t prove it, this long list of Irish-American poets seems to indicate that a gift for storytelling is in the genes. Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with poetry by these descendants of the Emerald Isle. The Best of It: New and Selected Poems, by Kay Ryan The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara, by Frank […]
This year’s pool of Oscar nominees is notably diverse. “In a sharp contrast to the previous two years, when the academy put forward all-white rosters of acting nominees, voters chose the largest number of black candidates ever,” the Times reports, including six films and a record number of black actors and filmmakers. Two of the Best Picture-nominees in […]