Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls
David Sedaris
288 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
Me Talk Pretty One Day, When You Are Engulfed in Flames
SORTA LIKE:
The above
FIRST LINE:
“One thing that puzzled me during the American healthcare debate was all the talk about socialized medicine and how ineffective it’s supposed to be.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
——————————————–
Online Dating Sucks…but it’s how I fell in love
John P. Gavin
ALSO WROTE:
n/a
SORTA LIKE:
He’s Just Not That Into You meets You’ve Got Mail
FIRST LINE:
“It’s May 2001, and I’m sitting out back.”
2 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
——————————————–
Dead Ever After
Charlaine Harris
352 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
The other Sookie Stackhouse books
SORTA LIKE:
The other Sookie Stackhouse books
FIRST LINE:
“The New Orleans businessman, whose gray hair put him in his fifties, was accompanied by his much younger and taller bodyguard/chauffeur on the night he met the devil in the French quarter.”
2 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
——————————————–
Waiting to Be Heard
Amanda Knox (with probably some help)
ALSO WROTE:
n/a
SORTA LIKE:
Other Knox trial books
FIRST LINE:
“I walked into the ancient Perugian courtroom, where centuries of verdicts had been handed down, praying that a tradition of justice would give me protection now.”
2 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
——————————————–
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
180 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
The Beautiful and Damned, This Side of Paradise
SORTA LIKE:
Bonfire of the Vanities meets The Notebook
FIRST LINE:
“In my younger and more vulnerable years, my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
——————————————–
A Thousand Cuts
Simon Lelic
294 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
The Child Who, The Facility
SORTA LIKE:
Tana French writes We Need to Talk About Kevin
FIRST LINE:
“I wasn’t there. I didn’t see it.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
——————————————–
Light
Michael Grant
ALSO WROTE:
The other Gone books
SORTA LIKE:
Stephen King writes YA fiction
FIRST LINE:
“The little girl’s hair caught fire.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————–
Born Round
Frank Bruni
354 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
A Gospel of Shame, Ambling into History
SORTA LIKE:
My Footprint, Fat Girl
FIRST LINE:
“I have neither a therapist’s diagnosis nor any scientific literature to support the following claim, and I can’t back it up with more than a cursory level of detail. So you’re just going to have to go with me on this: I was a baby bulimic.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————–
Wave
Sonali Deraniyagala
ALSO WROTE:
n/a
SORTA LIKE:
Falling Man meets J.M. Coatzee
FIRST LINE:
“I thought nothing of it at first. The ocean looked a little closer to our hotel than usual.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————–
Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead
Sheryl Sandberg
ALSO WROTE:
n/a
SORTA LIKE:
Every professional self-help book — 10 Ways to Be An Effective Leader, etc. — but not as dry
FIRST LINE:
“I got pregnant with my first child in the summer of 2004.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————–
The Passage
Justin Cronin
912 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
The Twelve (sequel)
SORTA LIKE:
The Strain meets World War Z
FIRST LINE:
“Before she became the Girl from Nowhere–the One Who Walked In, the First and Last and Only, who lived a thousand years–she was just a little girl in Iowa, named Amy. Amy Harper Bellafonte.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————–
How to Be a Woman
Caitlin Moran
320 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Moranthology, The Chronicles of Narmo
SORTA LIKE:
Bossypants meets The Feminine Mystique
FIRST LINE:
“Here I am, on my 13th birthday. I am running. I’m running from the Yobs.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
———————————————————————————–
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Walter M. Miller Jr.
334 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman, Beyond Armageddon (editor)
SORTA LIKE:
The Dark Tower meets Fahrenheit 451, written by Gary Shteyngart
FIRST LINE:
“Brother Francis Gerard of Utah might never have discovered the blessed documents, had it not been for the pilgrim with girded loins who appeared during that young novice’s Lenten fast in the desert.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
———————————————————————————–
The Age of Miracles
Karen Thompson Walker
304 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
n/a
SORTA LIKE:
Under the Dome meets The Fault in Our Stars
FIRST LINE:
“We didn’t notice right away. We couldn’t feel it.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
———————————————————————————–
Watchmen
Alan Moore (Author), Dave Gibbons (Illustrator)
416 pages
ALSO WROTE:
V for Vendetta, From Hell (Moore)
SORTA LIKE:
The Incredibles meets X-Men meets V for Vendetta
FIRST LINE:
“Rorshach’s Journal. October 12th, 1985: Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me. I have seen it’s true face.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
———————————————————————————–
Warm Bodies
Isaac Marion
239 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
In his words, nothing else that’s “worth your time.”
SORTA LIKE:
Shaun of the Dead with some romance
FIRST LINE:
“I am dead, but it’s not so bad.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
———————————————————————————–
Issac’s Storm
Erik Larson
323 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
The Devil in the White City, In the Garden of Beasts
SORTA LIKE:
The Perfect Storm meets The Wave
FIRST LINE:
“Throughout the night of Friday, September 7, 1900, Isaac Monroe Cline found himself waking to a persistent sense of something gone wrong.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
———————————————————————————–
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Stephen Chbosky
224 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
n/a
SORTA LIKE:
John Green gets depressed
FIRST LINE:
“Dear friend, I am writing to you because she said you listen and understand and didn’t try to sleep with that person at that party even though you could have.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
———————————————————————————–
Divergent (also Insurgent)
Veronica Roth
496 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Insurgent
SORTA LIKE:
Hunger Games meets The Giver
FIRST LINE:
“There is one mirror in my house.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
———————————————————————————–
The Broom of the System
David Foster Wallace
467 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Infinite Jest, Consider the Lobster
SORTA LIKE:
Chuck Klosterman meets Jennifer Egan
FIRST LINE:
“Most really pretty girls have pretty ugly feet, and so does Mindy Metalman, Lenore notices, all of a sudden.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
———————————————————————————–
The Big Girls
Susanna Moore
224 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
In the Cut, The Life of Objects
SORTA LIKE:
Jennifer Egan meets Lionel Shriver, minus 75% of the quality
FIRST LINE:
“Sloatsburg Correctional Institution, a walled complex of seven large stone buildings, sits on the west bank of the Hudson River.”
2 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
———————————————————————————–
Why I Left Goldman Sachs
Greg Smith
ALSO WROTE:
“Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs“
SORTA LIKE:
Liar’s Poker, except bad
FIRST LINE:
“It was June 12, 2000, and I was sitting in a conference room at 125 Broad Street, thirty stories above Manhattan.”
1 PAPERCUT: [FULL REVIEW]
———————————————————————————–
The Marriage Plot
Jeffrey Eugenides
416 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Middlesex, The Virgin Suicides
SORTA LIKE:
Leaving the Atocha Station meets The Rules of Attraction
FIRST LINE:
“To start with, look at all the books.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
———————————————————————————–
Better Off Without ‘Em: A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession
Chuck Thompson
336 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
Smile When You’re Lying, To Hellholes and Back
SORTA LIKE:
What’s the Matter with Kansas? after a few beers
FIRST LINE:
“Nothing separates the North and South like religion. Not politics, not racism, not Paula Deen’s butter popsicles.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————————————
Lost Memory of Skin
Russell Banks
416 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Cloudsplitter, The Sweet Hereafter
SORTA LIKE:
Little Children meets The Woodsman
FIRST LINE:
“It isn’t like The Kid is locally famous for doing a good or a bad thing and even if people knew his real name it wouldn’t change how they treat him unless they looked it up online which is not something he wants to encourage.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————————————
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley
225 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
The Last Man, other stuff
SORTA LIKE:
The Frankenstein you’re used to, meets Heart of Darkness
FIRST LINE:
“To Mrs Saville, England. St Petersburgh, Dec. 11th, 17–. You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————————————
The Casual Vacancy
J.K. Rowling
ALSO WROTE:
Harry Potter duhhhh
SORTA LIKE:
The Northern Clemency meets The Corrections
FIRST LINE:
“Barry Fairbrother did not want to go out to dinner.”
2 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————————————
Don Winslow
272 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Savages, California Fire and Life
SORTA LIKE:
Savages meets Face/Off
FIRST LINE:
“Here’s how Tim Kearney gets to be the legendary Bobby Z.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————————————
No Easy Day
Mark Owen (Matt Bissonnette)
ALSO WROTE:
n/a
SORTA LIKE:
The Red Circle, Lone Survivor
FIRST LINE:
“When I was in junior high school in Alaska, we were assigned a book report.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————————————
Looking for Alaska
John Green
221 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
The Fault in our Stars, Paper Towns
SORTA
A Separate Peace
FIRST LINE:
“Everybody was sitting on sleeping bags.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————————————
Paper Towns
John Green
305 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
The Fault in our Stars, Looking for Alaska
SORTA LIKE:
Looking for Alaska meets Youth in Revolt
FIRST LINE:
“With a bag in each hand, I paused for a moment outside the van, staring at her. ‘Well, it was a helluva night,’ I said finally.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————————————
The Big Short
Michael Lewis
270 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Liar’s Poker, Moneyball
SORTA LIKE:
Griftopia meets Too Big to Fail
FIRST LINE:
“The willingness of a Wall Street investment bank to pay me hundreds of thousands of dollars to dispense investment advice to grown-ups remains a mystery to me to this day.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————————————
Wallflower at the Orgy
Nora Ephron
187 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
I Feel Bad About My Neck, Heartburn
SORTA LIKE:
Time-traveling to 1970
FIRST LINE: “Some years ago, the man I am married to told me he had always had a mad desire to go to an orgy.”
2 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————————————
The Rules of Attraction
Bret Easton Ellis
326 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
American Psycho, Less Than Zero
SORTA LIKE:
American Psycho meets I Am Charlotte Simmons
FIRST LINE:
“and it’s a story that might bore you but you don’t have to listen, she told me, because she always knew it was going to be like that, and it was, she thinks, her first year, or, actually weekend, really a Friday, in September, at Camden, and this was three or four years ago, and she got so drunk that she ended up in bed, lost her virginity (late, she was eighteen) in Lorna Slavin’s room, because she was a Freshman and had a roommate and Lorna was, she remembers, a Senior or a Junior and usually sometimes at her boyfriend’s place off campus, to who she thought was a Sophomore Ceramics major but who was actually either some guy from N.Y.U., a film student, and up in New Hampshire just for The Dressed to Get Screwed party, or a townie.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————-
Savages
Don Winslow
302 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
The Kings of Cool, The Power of the Dog
SORTA LIKE:
Chuck Pahlaniuk writes Scarface
FIRST LINE:
“Fuck you.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————-
Helter Skelter
Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry
679 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
And the Sea Will Tell, Outrage
SORTA LIKE:
A better version of other true crime books
FIRST LINE:
“It was so quiet, one of the killers would later say, you could almost hear the sound of ice rattling in cocktail shakers in the homes way down the canyon.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————-
The Psychopath Test
Jon Ronson
272 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
The Men Who Stare at Goats
SORTA LIKE:
Mary Roach meets Se7en
FIRST LINE:
“This is a story about madness.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————-
Ready Player One
Ernest Cline
ALSO WROTE:
n/a
SORTA LIKE:
Second Life meets The Matrix meets Surrogates
FIRST LINE:
“Everyone my age remembers where they were and what they were doing when they first heard about the contest.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————-
Eat, Pray, Love
Elizabeth Gilbert
335 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Committed, The Last American Man
SORTA LIKE:
Under the Tuscan Sun
FIRST LINE:
“I wish Giovanni would kiss me.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
——————————————————————-
Gone Girl
Gillian Flynn
ALSO WROTE:
Dark Places, Sharp Objects
SORTA LIKE:
Room meets The Likeness
FIRST LINE:
“When I think of my wife, I always think of her head.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
——————————————————————-
Case Histories
Kate Atkinson
310 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Behind the Scenes at the Museum, One Good Turn
SORTA LIKE:
Tana French
FIRST LINE:
“How lucky were they? A heat wave in the middle in the school holidays, exactly where it belonged.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
—————————————————————————–
Leaving the Atocha Station
Ben Lerner
184 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
The Lichtenberg Figures
SORTA LIKE:
The Ask meets Tropic of Cancer
FIRST LINE:
“The first phase of my research involved waking up weekday mornings in a barely furnished attic apartment, the first apartment I’d looked at after arriving in Madrid, or letting myself be woken by the noise from La Plaza Santa Ana, failing to assimilate that noise fully into my dream, then putting on the rusty stovetop espresso machine and rolling a spliff while I waited for the coffee.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
—————————————————————————–
The Tiger’s Wife
Téa Obreht
338 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
n/a
SORTA LIKE:
The Historian meets Life of Pi
FIRST LINE:
“In my earliest memory, my grandfather is bald as a stone and he takes me to see the tigers.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
——————————————————————–
This Is How
Augusten Burroughs
230 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
Running with Scissors, Dry
SORTA LIKE:
Augusten Burroughs writes The Prophet
FIRST LINE:
“Several years ago when the relationship I assumed was both nearly perfect and my last turned out to be neither and ended car-off-cliff style, I experienced an unexpected and profound personal awakening.”
1 PAPERCUT: [FULL REVIEW]
———————————————————————————-
The Art of Fielding
Chad Harbach
PAGES:
512 (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
n/a
SORTA LIKE:
Last Days of Summer meets A Separate Peace
FIRST LINE:
“Schwartz didn’t notice the kid during the game.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
———————————————————————–
Gone
Michael Grant
ALSO WROTE:
The rest of the Gone series
SORTA LIKE:
Lord of the Flies meets X Men meets Under the Dome meets Desperation
FIRST LINE:
“One minute the teacher was talking about the Civil War. And the next minute he was gone.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
—————————————————————-
11/22/63
Stephen King
849 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
Other Stephen King books
SORTA LIKE:
Stephen King meets Robert Ludlum
FIRST LINE:
“I have never been what you’d call a crying man.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
—————————————————————-
Suddenly, A Knock on the Door
Etgar Keret
188 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
The Nimrod Flipout, The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God
SORTA LIKE:
Miranda July meets Jonathan Safran Foer
FIRST LINE:
“‘Tell me a story,’ the bearded man sitting on my living-room sofa commands.”
2 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
———————————————————————-
Modern New York: The Life and Economics of a City
Greg David (I know him!)
217 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
TBD (I’m sure he’ll strike again.) Also, this blog.
SORTA LIKE:
An almanac of Crain’s New York Business, with Greg David flair
FIRST LINE:
“On a wet and depressing winter day in February 2009, over 1,000 New York executives crowded into the ballroom at the Grand Hyatt in Midtown.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————————
Deadlocked
Charlaine Harris
327 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
All those other Sookie Stackhouse books
SORTA LIKE:
All those other Sookie Stackhouse books
FIRST LINE:
“It was hot as the six shades of Hell even this late in the evening, and I’d had a busy day at work.”
1 PAPERCUT: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————–
The Post-Birthday World
Lionel Shriver
517 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
We Need to Talk About Kevin, A Perfectly Good Family
SORTA LIKE:
Zadie Smith meets Jonathan Franzen
FIRST LINE:
“What began as a coincidence had crystallized into tradition: on the sixth of July, they would have dinner with Ramsey Acton on his birthday.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————-
The Fault in Our Stars
John Green
313 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns
SORTA LIKE:
Special Topics in Calamity Physics meets A Long Way Down
FIRST LINE:
“Late in the winter of my seventeenth year, my mother decided I was depressed, primarily because I rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book over and over, ate infrequently, and devoted quite a bit of my abundant free time to thinking about death.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
——————————————————————-
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Jonathan Safran Foer
326 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Everything is Illuminated, Eating Animals
SORTA LIKE:
Falling Man meets About a Boy
FIRST LINE:
“What about a teakettle?”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
—————————————————————————–
Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? What it Means to Be Black Now
Touré
243 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
Soul City, Never Drank the Kool-Aid
SORTA LIKE:
Tavis Smiley and Cornel West had a baby
FIRST LINE:
“Once, I went skydiving.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————————————–
Just Kids
Patti Smith
288 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Auguries of Innocence, The Coral Sea
FIRST LINE:
“I was asleep when he died.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
——————————————————————————–
The Wolves of the Calla (Dark Tower Book V)
Stephen King
925 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
The other Dark Tower books
SORTA LIKE:
The Village meets The Wizard of Oz
FIRST LINE:
“Tian was blessed (though few farmers would have used such a word) with three patches: River Field, where his family had grown rice since time out of mind; Roadside Field, where ka-Jaffords had grown sharproot, pumpkin, and corn for those same long years and generations; and Son of a Bitch, a thankless tract which mostly grew rocks, blisters, and busted hopes.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
—————————————————————————-
Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker, Fifty Shades Freed
E L James
ALSO WROTE:
n/a
SORTA LIKE:
X-rated Twilight
FIRST LINE:
“I scowl with frustration at myself in the mirror.”
1 PAPERCUT [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————————
My First New York: Early Adventures in the Big City
Compiled by New York magazine
239 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
n/a
SORTA LIKE:
A Woody Allen movie
FIRST LINE:
“This book started out as a magazine feature that, like the city it celebrated, soon grew a bit crowded for its size.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————————-
Griftopia
Matt Taibbi
299 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
The Great Derangement, Smells Like Dead Elephants
SORTA LIKE:
Lewis Black writes Too Big to Fail
FIRST LINE:
” ‘Mr. Chairman, delegates and fellow citizens…’ “
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
—————————————————————————–
Room
Emma Donoghue
321 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Slammerkin, The Sealed Letter
SORTA LIKE:
Life of Pi meets Flowers in the Attic
FIRST LINE:
“Today I’m five.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
——————————————————————–
Outliers
Malcolm Gladwell
285 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
The Tipping Point, Blink
SORTA LIKE:
Proofiness
FIRST LINE:
“Roseto Valfortore lies one hundred miles southeast of Rome in the Apennine foothills of the Italian province of Foggia.”
2 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————————
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Lionel Shriver
400 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
A Perfectly Good Family, The Post-Birthday World
SORTA LIKE:
Zadie Smith writes a Jodi Picoult novel
FIRST LINE:
“Dear Franklin, I’m unsure why one trifling incident this afternoon has moved me to write to you.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————————-
The Fran Lebowitz Reader
Fran Lebowitz
333 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Metropolitan Life, Social Studies
SORTA LIKE:
Nora Ephron meets Larry David meets Woody Allen
FIRST LINE:
“Fran Lebowitz still lives in New York City, as she does not believe that she would be allowed to live anywhere else.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
————————————————————————–
Super Sad True Love Story
Gary Shteyngart
331 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, Absurdistan
SORTA LIKE:
Infinite Jest meets World War Z (no zombies though)
FIRST LINE:
“Dearest Diary, Today I’ve made a major decision: I am never going to die.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
———————————————————————–
The Sibling Effect
Jeffrey Kluger
299 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
Apollo 13, Splendid Solution
SORTA LIKE:
The Firstborn Advantage,
FIRST LINE:
“At the time, it seemed like a good idea to put my baby brother Bruce in the fuse box.”
2 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
———————————————————————
Geek Love
Katherine Dunn
348 pages (in paperback)
SORTA LIKE:
Chuck Pahlaniuk goes to the carnival
FIRST LINE:
“‘When your mama was the geek, my dreamlets,’ Papa would say, ‘she made the nipping off of noggins such a crystal mystery that the hens themselves yearned toward her, waltzing around her, hypnotized with longing.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
—————————————————————————-
Bag of Bones
Stephen King
732 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
A million other things
SORTA LIKE:
Desperation, Needful Things
FIRST LINE:
“On a very hot day in August of 1994, my wife told me she was going to the Derry Rite Aid to pick up a refill on her sinus medicine prescription—this is stuff you can buy over the counter these days, I believe.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
———————————————————————-
The Night Eternal
Guillermo del Toro, Chuck Hogan
ALSO WROTE:
The Strain, The Fall
SORTA LIKE:
The Strain, The Fall
FIRST LINE:
“On the second day of darkness they rounded them up.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
———————————————————————————
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)
Mindy Kaling
222 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
episodes of The Office, Matt & Ben
SORTA LIKE:
Bossypants meets Chelsea Handler
FIRST LINE:
“Thank you for buying this book.”
2 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
———————————————————————————
Lay the Favorite: A Memoir of Gambling
Beth Raymer
228 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
n/a
SORTA LIKE:
Bringing Down the House meets I Was Told There’d Be Cake
FIRST LINE:
“The thing I liked best about working at Komol was Jowtee, the invisible spirit who controlled the restaurant’s destiny.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
———————————————————————————
In the Garden of Beasts
Erik Larson
375 pages (in hardcover, not counting end-notes/bibliography)
ALSO WROTE:
The Devil in the White City, Isaac’s Storm
SORTA LIKE:
The Devil in the White City meets Valkyrie
FIRST LINE:
“Once, at the dawn of a very dark time, an American father and daughter found themselves suddenly transported from their snug home in Chicago to the heart of Hitler’s Berlin.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
—————————————————————————
The Visible Man
Chuck Klosterman
230 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs and Killing Yourself to Live
SORTA LIKE:
Downtown Owl meets A Scanner Darkly meets The Fourth Kind
FIRST LINE:
“Mr. Bumpus: Well, here it is. I never thought I’d type that sentence, but now I have!”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
——————————————————————————–
Back to Work
Bill Clinton
192 pages (in hardcover)
SORTA LIKE:
Third World America (but better)
FIRST LINE:
“I wrote this book because I love my country and I’m concerned about our future.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
——————————————————————————
Steve Jobs
Walter Isaacson
571 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
Einstein: His Life And Universe and Kissinger: A Biography
SORTA LIKE:
Other biographies, only better?
FIRST LINE:
“In the early summer of 2004, I got a call from Steve Jobs.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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What’s the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America
Thomas Frank
310 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
One Market Under God, The Wrecking Crew
SORTA LIKE:
The World is Flat meets Fear of Falling
FIRST LINE:
“The poorest county in America isn’t in Appalachia or the Deep South.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones
Stories collected by Alvin Schwartz
109 pages in paperback
ALSO WROTE:
Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark, More Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark
SORTA LIKE:
Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark, More Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark
FIRST LINE:
“The girl was late getting home for supper.”
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Tropic of Cancer
Henry Miller
318 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Tropic of Capricorn, Black Spring
SORTA LIKE:
John Updike meets Jack Kerouac
FIRST LINE(S):
“I am living at the Villa Borghese. There is not a crumb of dirt anywhere, nor a chair misplaced. We are all alone here and we are dead.”
3 CUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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Water for Elephants
Sara Gruen
331 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Riding Lessons, Ape House
SORTA LIKE:
Moulin Rouge meets Dumbo
FIRST LINE:
“Only three people were left under the red and white awning of the grease joint: Grady, me and the fry cook.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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Under the Dome
Stephen King
1,074 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
I mean, it’s Stephen King.
SORTA LIKE:
The Mist meets Desperation
FIRST LINE:
“From two thousand feet, where Claudette Sanders was taking a flying lesson, the town of Chester’s Mill gleamed in the morning light like something freshly made and just set down.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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You’re a Horrible Person, But I Like You
Various authors
216 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
n/a
SORTA LIKE:
Dear Abby meets I Like You
FIRST LINE:
“Dear David Cross: We’re thinking about publishing a book of advice.”
2 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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A Separate Peace
John Knowles
204 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Spreading Fires, Peace Breaks Out
SORTA LIKE:
The Catcher in the Rye meets Dead Poets Society
FIRST LINE:
“I went back to the Devon School not long ago, and found it looking oddly newer than when I was a student there fifteen years before.”
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Seeing
José Saramago
307 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Blindness, Death with Interruptions
SORTA LIKE:
1984 meets Catch-22
FIRST LINE:
“Terrible voting weather, remarked the presiding officer of polling station fourteen as he snapped shut his soaked umbrella and took off the raincoat that had proved of little use to him during the breathless forty-meter dash from the place where he had parked his car to the door through which, heart pounding, he had just appeared.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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Box 21
Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström
393 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
n/a
SORTA LIKE:
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
FIRST LINE:
“Extract from an accident & emergency primary assessment, Söder Hospital, Stockholm”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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The Wave
Susan Casey
396 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
The Devil’s Teeth
SORTA LIKE:
Blue Crush meets Mary Roach
FIRST LINE:
“The clock read midnight when the hundred-foot wave hit the ship, rising from the North Atlantic out of the darkness.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption and Pee
Sarah Silverman
240 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
n/a
SORTA LIKE:
Bossypants and I Drink for a Reason
FIRST LINE:
“When I first selected myself to write the foreword for my book, I was flattered, and deeply moved.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Shirley Jackson
146 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
The Lottery, The Haunting of Hill House
SORTA LIKE:
The Crucible meets Stephen King
FIRST LINE:
“My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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The Liar’s Club
Mary Karr
320 pages (in paperback)
SORTA LIKE:
The Glass Castle
FIRST LINE:
“My sharpest memory is of a single instant surrounded by dark.”
2 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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A Visit from the Good Squad
Jennifer Egan
340 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
The Keep, The Invisible Circus, Look at Me
SORTA LIKE:
Juliet, Naked meets The Imperfectionists
FIRST LINE:
“It began the usual way, in the bathroom of the Lassimo Hotel.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
J.K. Rowling
759 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
the other Harry Potter books
SORTA LIKE:
the other Harry Potter books
FIRST LINE:
“The two men appeared out of nowhere, a few yards apart in the narrow, moonlit lane.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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The Know-It-All
A.J. Jacobs
369 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
The Two Kings: Jesus and Elvis, The Year of Living Biblically
SORTA LIKE:
Nickel and Dimed meets Wikipedia
FIRST LINE:
“I know the name of Turkey’s leading avant-garde publication.”
2 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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The American Way of Death Revisited
Jessica Mitford
274 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Hons and Rebels, A Fine Old Conflict
SORTA LIKE:
Stiff meets Fast-Food Nation
FIRST LINE:
“When funeral directors have taxed me—which they have, and not infrequently—with being beastly about them in my book, I can affirm in good conscience that there is hardly an unkind word about them.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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The Ask
Sam Lipsyte
296 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Home Land, The Subject Steve
SORTA LIKE:
The Futurist meets Dear American Airlines
FIRST LINE:
“America, said Horace, the office temp, was a run-down and demented pimp.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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I Remember Nothing
Nora Ephron
135 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
I Feel Bad About My Neck, Heartburn
SORTA LIKE:
I Feel Bad About My Neck meets your grandmother’s ranting at Thanksgiving
FIRST LINE:
“I have been forgetting things for years—at least since I was in my 30s.”
1 PAPERCUT: [FULL REVIEW]
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The Corrections
Jonathan Franzen
566 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Freedom, How to Be Alone
SORTA LIKE:
Freedom meets The Believers
FIRST LINE:
“The madness of an autumn prairie cold front coming through. You could feel it: something terrible was going to happen.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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Packing for Mars
Mary Roach
318 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
Stiff, Spook, Bonk
SORTA LIKE:
Bill Bryson meets Chelsea Handler
FIRST LINE:
“To the rocket scientist, you are a problem.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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Dead Reckoning
Charlaine Harris
325 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
Dead Until Dark, Living Dead in Dallas
SORTA LIKE:
Twilight meets Xena Warrior Princess
FIRST LINE:
“The attic had been kept locked until the day after my grandmother died.”
2 PAPER CUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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Brave New World
Aldous Huxley
259 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
The Doors of Perception, Point Counter Point
SORTA LIKE:
The Handmaid’s Tale, 1984
FIRST LINE:
“A squat grey building of only thirty-four stories. Over the main entrance the words, Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, and, in a shield, the World State’s motto, Community, Identity, Stability.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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Bossypants
Tina Fey
275 (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
n/a
SORTA LIKE:
Official Book Club Selection meets Nora Ephron
FIRST LINE:
“Welcome Friend, Congratulations on your purchase of this American-made genuine book.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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White Teeth
Zadie Smith
448 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
On Beauty, The Autograph Man
SORTA LIKE:
On Beauty meets The Believers
FIRST LINE:
“Early in the morning, late in the century, Cricklewood Broadway. At 0627 hours in January 1, 1975, Alfred Archibald Jones was dressed in corduroy and sat in fume-filled Cavalier Musketeer Estate facedown on the steering wheel, hoping the judgment would not be too heavy upon him.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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Methland
Nick Reding
269 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
The Last Cowboys at the End of the World
SORTA LIKE:
Beautiful Boy meets Cocaine: An Unauthorized Biography
FIRST LINE:
“As you look down after takeoff from O’Hare International Airport, headed west for San Francisco, California, it’s only a few minutes before the intricate complexity of Chicago’s suburban streets is overcome by the rolling swell of the prairie.”
1 PAPERCUT: [FULL REVIEW]
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Faithful Place
Tana French
400 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
In the Woods, The Likeness
SORTA LIKE:
The Keep meets Mystic River
FIRST LINE:
“In all your life, only a few moments matter.”
2 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin
Kathy Griffin
358 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
n/a
SORTA LIKE:
Are You There Vodka? It’s Me, Chelse meets The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee
FIRST LINE:
“Have you ever looked at the online photos of Britney’s peesh?”
2 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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Home Safe
Elizabeth Berg
258 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Open House, The Last Time I Saw You
SORTA LIKE:
White Oleander meets Falling Man
FIRST LINE:
“One Saturday when she was nine years old, Helen Ames went into the basement, sat at the card table her mother used for folding laundry, and began writing.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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Marshall McLuhan: You Know Nothing of My Work!
Douglas Coupland
224 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
Hey Nostradamus!, Microserfs
SORTA LIKE:
…a biography of Marshall McLuhan
FIRST LINE:
“The year is 1980 and it is spring.”
2 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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Between the Bridge and the River
Craig Ferguson
329 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
American on Purpose, I’ll Go T’foot of Our Stage
SORTA LIKE:
Sellevision meets The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God
FIRST LINE:
“Cloven-hoofed creatures passed this way.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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Third World America: How Our Politicians Are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream
Arianna Huffington
242 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
Like 11 other books
SORTA LIKE:
Nickel and Dimed meets Fast Food Nation
FIRST LINE:
“Growing up, I remember walking to school in Athens past a statue of President Truman.”
2 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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Consider the Lobster
David Foster Wallace
343 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, Infinite Jest
SORTA LIKE:
A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
FIRST LINE:
“The American Academy of Emergency Medicine confirms it: Each year, between one and two dozen adult U.S. males are admitted to ERs after having castrated themselves.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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The Imperfectionists
Tom Rachman
269 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
n/a
SORTA LIKE:
The Wire, Season 5 meets Then We Came to the End
FIRST LINE:
“Lloyd shoves off the bedcovers and hurries to the front door in white underwear and black socks.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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Cognitive Surplus
Clay Shirky
213 pages (in hardback)
ALSO WROTE:
Here Comes Everybody
SORTA LIKE:
The Shallows, Bowling Alone
FIRST LINE:
“In the 1720s, London was busy getting drunk. Really drunk.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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By Nightfall
Michael Cunningham
238 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
The Hours, Flesh and Blood
SORTA LIKE:
Lulu Meets God and Doubts Himmeets Freedom
FIRST LINE:
“The Mistake is coming to stay for awhile.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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Gilead
Marilynne Robinson
247 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Home and Housekeeping
SORTA LIKE:
Mere Christianity meets Jesus Land
FIRST LINE:
“I told you last night that I might be gone sometime, and you said, Where, and I said, To be with the Good Lord, and you said, Why, and I said, Because I’m old, and you said, I don’t think you’re old.”
2 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God & Other Stories
Edgar Keret
130 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
The Nimrod Flipout, Missing Kissinger
SORTA LIKE:
No One Belongs Here More Than You meets Dogma
FIRST LINE:
“This is the story about a bus driver who would never open the door of the bus for people who were late.”
2 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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Mockingjay
Suzanne Collins
400 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
The Hunger Games, Catching Fire
SORTA LIKE:
The Hunger Games, Catching Fire
FIRST LINE:
“I stare down at my shoes, watching as a fine layer of ash settles on the worn leather.”
————————————————————————————————–
Catching Fire
Suzanne Collins
391 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
The Hunger Games, Mockingjay
SORTA LIKE:
The Hunger Games, Mockingjay
FIRST LINE:
“I clasp the flask between my hands even though the warmth from the tea has long since leached into the frozen air.”
————————————————————————————————
The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins
374 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Catching Fire and Mockingjay
SORTA LIKE:
Lord of the Flies meets 1984
FIRST LINE:
“When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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About A Boy
Nick Hornby
307 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
High Fidelity and Juliet, Naked
SORTA LIKE:
All other Nick Hornby books
FIRST LINE:
” ‘So, have you split up now?’ “
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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Ms. Hempel Chronicles
Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum
193 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Madeleine is Sleeping
SORTA LIKE:
Special Topics in Calamity Physics meets No One Belongs Here More Than You
FIRST LINE:
“Many of Ms. Hempel’s students were performing in the show that evening, but to her own secret disappointment, she would not be appearing.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Stieg Larsson
644 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
The Girl who Played with Fire, The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
SORTA LIKE:
Silence of the Lambs meets The Firm
FIRST LINE:
“It happened every year, was almost a ritual.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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Half Empty
David Rakoff
224 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
Don’t Get Too Comfortable, Fraud
SORTA LIKE:
Dry meets A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again
FIRST LINE:
“We were so happy. It was miserable.”
2 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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The Devil in the White City
Erik Larson
390 pages (in paperback, before notes)
ALSO WROTE:
Isaac’s Storm, The Naked Consumer
SORTA LIKE:
In Cold Blood meets 1776
FIRST LINE:
“The date was April 14, 1912, a sinister day in maritime history, but of course the man in suite 63-65, shelter deck C, did not yet know it.”
4 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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Proofiness
Charles Seife
260 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
Zero, Decoding the Universe
SORTA LIKE:
Freakonomics meets A Short History of Nearly Everything
FIRST LINE:
” ‘In my opinion, the State Department, which is one of the most important government departments, is thoroughly infested with communists.’ ”
2 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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Beautiful Boy
David Sheff
331 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Game Over, China Dawn
SORTA LIKE:
The Night of the Gun meets The Glass Castle
FIRST LINE:
“‘Howdy Pop, God, I miss you guys so much.’”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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Catch-22
Joseph Heller
463 (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Closing Time, Picture This
SORTA LIKE:
Fahrenheit 451 meets Stripes
FIRST LINE:
“It was love at first sight.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Junot Diaz
340 pages (in paperback)
ALSO WROTE:
Drown
SORTA LIKE:
The Joy Luck Club meets Random Family
FIRST LINE:
“They say it came first from Africa, carried in the streams of the enslaved; that it was the death bane of the Tainos, uttered just as one world perished and another began; that it was a demon drawn into Creation through the nightmare door that was cracked open in the Antilles.”
3 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
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The Fall: Book Two of the Strain Trilogy
Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan
320 pages (in hardcover)
ALSO WROTE:
The Strain: Book One of the Strain Trilogy
SORTA LIKE:
World War Z meets The Host
FIRST LINE:
“It took the world just sixty days to end.”
2 PAPERCUTS: [FULL REVIEW]
