Andre Dubus III's The House of Sand and Fog was probably THE saddest, most wrenching book we ever read. We were hoping his latest, The Garden of Last Days, would be similar in its delicious soul-killing-ness. But Janet Maslin doesn't think so! In her Books of the Times review, she notes that:

“The Garden of Last Days” explores the cultural chasm between Bassam’s world and Spring’s.

In the NYTBR's Summer Reading supplement, some famous writers suggested a few books they thought the Presidential candidates ought to read in between all the flesh-pressing and promise-making. (When this ran, Hillary Clinton was still in the picture. Er, technically.) Anyway, Loorie Moore and Junot Diaz had some excellent ideas.

William Grimes wrote in the New York Times last Friday about the 2006 book 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (Universe). He offers a realistic take on said list, pointing out its merits while acknowledging that any such catalog should be taken with several grains of salt (perhaps sea salt of the Moby Dick variety?).

Sylvia Plath loved her thesaurus so much that she called herself “Roget’s strumpet.