Over the next four years, he says, he read that book-along with the Lord of the Rings trilogy-countless times, and he's reread them at least once every year since. Tolkien's The Hobbit when he was eight years old, as a gift from a family friend. Marilyn Dahl, book review editor, Shelf AwarenessĬorey Olsen got his first copy of J.R.R. It's a great way to revisit old favorites and discover new delights. More than 500 pages of the world's greatest mystery novels championed by the world's leading mystery writers, from classics to little-known gems.

When one of them begins to strip the wallpaper in an old house, she uncovers a memoir written on the walls the women's stories, and others, unfold with tragedy, wisdom and grace.Ī satisfying anthology for mystery lovers is Books to Die For, edited by John Connolly and Declan Burke (Atria, $29.99). Arcade has published his latest novel, The Writing on the Wall ($24.95), a story of three women whose connected lives span a century. Wetherell, who wrote the brilliant A Century of November. Another favorite author who should be much better known is W.D. Re-reading it in the reissue from Overlook Press ($14.95 paper) I was happy to find that it is just as elegant, quirky, witty and surreal as I remembered. I discovered it years ago it in a used bookstore and was intrigued by the premise: in 1897 three men set out for the North Pole in a hot air balloon, carrying passenger pigeons and canned goods. Macdonald Harris (1921-1993) wrote 16 novels, and The Balloonist (1978) is probably his most famous. It comes with a dark blue, gold-stamped cover, frontispiece and chapter heading art, and smaller trim size.

For Neil Gaiman fans, check out the gift edition of his classic novel Stardust, first published in 1999 (Morrow, $30). It's a fine choice for the adult Wilder fan. Laura Ingalls Wilder is finally getting her due as 'a distinctive and vital voice in the canon of American Literature'-the Library of America has published her Little House series in a two-volume slipcased edition ($75), without illustrations and young-reader typography, and with historical notes.

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