Linda Castellitto
About The Author
by John Colapinto
Protagonist Cal Cunningham will seem familiar to many of us: He's a wannabe novelist who lives in a big city (Manhattan), works in a bookstore, and dreams of literary fame and fortune...but never seems to get around to actually writing anything. Then suddenly, the forces of fate collide in such a way that Cal magically has in his hands a fabulous manuscript, an agent panting to represent him, and no witnesses to his daring and morally decrepit act of fraud. Or so he thinks. Incredibly, inevitably -- and most important, believably -- Cal becomes wealthy, married, and famous. Alas, there is no rest for the ethically unsound, and Cal finds himself having to do ever-more-hideous things in order to keep his secret. And you? You will find yourself enjoying this fast-paced, wild, bloody, and funny read.

Jay Gesin
Ella Minnow Pea
by Mark Dunn
Nollop is a tiny island country that idolizes the creator of the famous pangram, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." The islanders have even gone so far as to construct a monument to this sentence (which uses all 26 letters), but disaster strikes when one letter falls from the monument. Nollop's leaders decide it's an omen and issue a decree that no one can use the fallen letter in written or verbal communication. The townspeople adapt until another letter falls, and then another. Young citizen Ella Minnow Pea (say it three times fast) struggles to restore freedom of speech to the island. Like Orwell's Animal Farm, the themes of authority and censorship are hidden here, inside a very absurd story. When a letter falls, the author stops using the letter in the story as well. Great fun for linguists, libertarians, and language-lovers anywhere!

Eric Wallenstein
Invisible Cities
by Italo Calvino
"We've lost our compass" is a phrase I've heard so many New Yorkers say in the last several weeks as they deal with the destruction of The World Trade Center towers. The city is not only coping with fear and loss, but also with the profound change that the attack has made on our urban space. All of this got me thinking about Invisible Cities, Calvino's fragmentary catalogue of surreal urban imagery. It's pretty difficult to describe the book itself. I wouldn't call it a novel (although it's certainly as readable and engaging as a good one), but calling it a lyrical meditation, or a collection of prose-poems may do an injustice to the narrative(s) that are involved. Regardless, after reading it, you can't help but examine your own relationship to the public spaces you inhabit, and the blurry line between the real and imaginary city or town that you call home.

Patti Neske
Tales of a Female Nomad
by Gelman, Rita Golden
Rita Golden Gelman was living a very nice life. She was married, had two grown children, wrote successful childrens' books, attended the academy award ceremonies, ate in the finest restaurants and had many friends among the rich and famous. Then, in 1985, her husband requested a divorce. Faced with the need to earn her own living she made an adventurous decision. She was studying anthropology at UCLA at the time, and dreamed of visiting the cultures she studied, so she did. Having no permanent home, and only the possessions she could carry, she set off the explore the world. As she puts it: "I have lived with people in thatched huts, slept in their gilded palaces...and cooked with women on fires all over the world." She remained in each place for about six months, long enough to truly live and be among the natives. This book is a testament to the grand adventure that Rita's life became.

Gavin J. Grant
Diet for a New America
by John Robbins
John Robbins famously turned his back on his family fortune (the Baskin Robbins ice cream company...I can only imagine!), and chose a simpler life. He is somewhere between a precursor to, and a cause of, the voluntary simplicity movement. In Diet for a New America, Robbins summarizes the things he learned about the diet of the average American, the methods and practices used in producing food in America, and the moral, economic, and consequences of the diet and the production practices. It isn't the easiest book you'll ever read, but it is one that any thoughtful person should be familiar with. It takes a lot of guts to take on the entrenched food industries and, 15 years after this book, Robbins is still at it; his latest book, which I also recommend, is The Food Revolution.

Len Vlahos
The Fellowship of The Ring
by J.R.R. Tolkien
With the big Book Sense promotion going on (http://lotr.booksense.com), and with the imminent release of the film, this seemed like a good time to re-read The Fellowship of the Ring, the first installment in Tolkien's classic Lord of the Rings trilogy. If you're not familiar with it, Fellowship brings you into the imagined world of Middle Earth where the most unlikely of heroes -- Frodo, the Hobbit -- is charged with an adventure that will do no less than save the world form an age of darkness and evil if he is successful. Traveling with his companions, Frodo's task is to bear a magical and powerful ring that belongs to the dark lord Sauron. Pursued by all manner of Sauron's minions, Frodo must find the courage and will to bear the ring to it's final resting place. Lord of the Rings is a towering achievement that defined a genre and influenced fifty years of literature. The tale is a classic struggle of good vs. evil that I think many -- both newcomers to the series and those rereading it -- will find comforting in these uncertain times. But be warned, if you read Fellowship, I can guarantee that you're going to want to read The Two Towers and Return of the King to see how it all ends up. A marvelous group of books for ages 10 to 100.