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I seem to gravitate toward books about books. Several quite good ones have appeared recently. My latest discovery is about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, the cornerstone of words and their definitions. Before you nod off at the idea of reading a dictionary, be aware that this novel…

Anyone who thinks history is a dull subject has never read one of Erik Larson’s books. The Devil in the White City is my third. It certainly won’t be my last. I’m hooked. Larson’s enthusiasm for research shines on every page, and he weaves suspense into his histories in ways…

Few novelists bring such depth of experience to their writing as does Herman Wouk in The Caine Mutiny. The author, who served aboard a Pacific minesweeper during World War II, speaks in gritty, authoritative detail that makes a feast of this 1951 Pulitzer-Prize winner. Wouk’s main character, Willie Keith, is a…

In her lush yet efficient prose, Ursula Le Guin needs less than two hundred pages to create a planet on which Earth refugees have settled, only to make the same mistakes as their forebears. The difference is that some have preserved humanitarian values and are putting them into practice. Victoria…

Jonathan Ferry teaches kids the fundamentals of chess by giving personalities to the pieces. Prunella, a humble little pawn, wishes she was a queen. Norry, a knight, explains how important pawns can be in defending the other characters on the chess board. Nyella, the benevolent queen, demonstrates this principal by…

It is a testament to Shirley Jackson’s talent that she could pack so much power into such a short book. Consuming a mere one hundred forty-six pages (in my edition), she deftly sketches a village, its inhabitants, and a peculiar family with a dark legacy. Merricat Blackwood and her older…

Although this novel is complete in itself, I highly recommend that you first read its predecessor, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Both bring a unique perspective to a subject that has inspired mountains of literature: Nazi Germany. Gretel Fernsby, a 91-year-old widow, lives in an exclusive London apartment building where…

Two cultural advents, health spas and breakfast cereals, get the laugh treatment in The Road to Wellville. Employing detailed research and an astonishingly rich vocabulary, author T. C. Boyle takes us on a tour of Battle Creek, Michigan in 1907, where John Harvey Kellogg battles to rescue his wealthy clients…

What a unique mixture of characters! An elevator inspector who senses mechanical flaws without seeing them. A man who claims to have designed an elevator based on the mechanism’s point of view. Manufacturers warring over documents that could revolutionize or destroy their industry. Not to mention a labor union campaign…

Take away the mermaid, the side-kick ghost, the enterprising ex-orphan, and you’re left with an ordinary detective story. But where’s the fun in that? Things in Jars, Jess Kidd’s third novel, manages to be both horrific and humorous. Set in nineteenth-century London, it’s a tale Charles Dickens would have been…