Olivia Joules is a freelance journalist for the Sunday Times. Her editor has asked her to cover a fabulous Hollywood makeup line launch party. While there, she ends up catching the eye of the sexy Pierre Feramo, who may or may not be an Al-Qaeda terrorist. What follows is her adventures around the world. She […]

I’ve always sought out stories about families – by birth or by choice – over the years. I’m talking about Shirley Jackson’s “Let Me Tell You: New Stories, Essays, and Other Writings” (paid link). I commiserated with her stories about her family and the goofy stuff they’d suffered together. Even a situation as silly as […]

I’ve been following Guillebeau off and on for a few years now. I bought the digital version of $100 Startup (paid link) when it was on sale. I decided to support him further, and get in on the ground floor by getting the ARC (advanced reader copy) of his latest book. I enjoyed the overall […]

Excellent book. I like to think of it as a post-modern film noir set in Tokyo, around two sisters named Eri and Mari. The story follows how their lives connect to each other, an old friend, an abused Chinese prostitute and the keepers of a “love hotel” that found her that way, and the abuser […]

American bookstore ninja/Darcy fangirl runs into Mr. Darcy in modern times on his turf. Hi-jinks ensue. It’s incredible the impact Jane Austen has had on literature and how many times writers have retold and redone her storylines over the years. I’m not a hopelessly obsessive fangirl, but I recognize her significance to literature and women’s […]

I first heard about the story from a Baby-Sitter’s Club book. True story. I think it was from one of Stacey’s books. So when I saw it at my used bookstore, Twice Sold Tales, I snapped it up for cheap. Patricia Ann Bergen is a 12-year-old Jewish girl living in wartime Arkansas. I guess it […]

This book chronicles the working escapades of Girl – unnamed because I am assuming the authors want us to know that she could be anybody, i.e., you and me. We follow her after graduation from college, subsisting in the Big Apple, and falling into the unemployed life predestined for us liberal arts geeks. We briefly […]

If you enjoy stories about the dark side of paradise — i.e., Disneyland, which is paradise as far as I’m concerned — this is a great read. I say that but I would that the multiple under-reported accidents at Disneyland was grating after a while. Like, really, how many accidents do we need to read […]