A Really Good Day

Ayelet Waldman suffered from severe mood swings for years. She went through a lot trying to get a diagnosis — she was even misdiagnosed as having bipolar disorder for a few years — and she dutifully participated in therapy and tried almost every medication out there. That worked to varying degrees, but it was all

Telegraph Avenue

It’s the summer of 2004, and Brokeland Records owners Nat Jaffe and Archy Stallings are fighting to keep their little corner of Oakland alive. Ex-NFL star Gibson Goode has just announced plans to open one of his Dogpile megastores in the area, which would effectively shut down Nat and Archy’s already-struggling business. With their livelihood,

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

I didn’t think I was going to like The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay when I first started it. Little did I know that it would soon become one of my favorite reads of 2011. The book had been on my TBR list for years, and I finally picked it up for my Pulitzer 1s

Favorites of 2011: Fiction

56 of the books I read in 2011 were fiction. Naturally, I had a much harder time choosing my favorites this year. After some tough decisions, here’s what I came up with. The first three are my absolute favorites of the year. I didn’t rank the rest; everything after the jump is listed in alphabetical