MONTECRISTO

Books About Fitness

The current vogue for entertaining, well-written non-fiction has expanded into the frequently overblown and tedious field of exercise books. Here are three titles you won’t want to miss, even if they have no discernible effect on your exercise habits.

Edward St. Aubyn’s Patrick Melrose Novels

Susan Juby on “Never Mind”, “Bad News”, and “Some Hope” by Edward St. Aubyn.

Books about Dogs

There is an old saying about how the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man. The same seems to go double for the inside of a dog, at least according to some writers fascinated with what the essential nature of dogs can tell us about being human.

Families in Fiction

Missing: my family. Funny and/or disturbing, stories of missing families make for terrific reading. After all, your family makes you who you are, or (just as often) prevents you from being who or what you think you could have been.

Books by Sociologists

A fine social scientist can reveal new truths about the worlds we thought we knew. Here are three investigative books that will challenge your assumptions.

An Introduction to Science Fiction

Those who scorn science fiction often labour under several misconceptions. For the sci-curious, the following three titles will gently ease you into the rich world of contemporary science fiction.

Contemporary Short Stories

Sam Lipsyte’s Venus Drive and Miranda July’s No One Belongs Here More Than You are two sets of stories that share a fascination with that mysterious territory where skeevy meets the sublime.

Reading Music

Could it be that each genre of music gets the chronicler it deserves? If so, bluegrass, hip hop and heavy metal have certainly been doing something right.

Romance in Fiction

Love is the land of the bait and switch. It promises freedom but instead provides boundaries, compromise and a certain level of disappointment. Or so it seems in three funny, beautiful and unutterably romantic novels.

Stories from the U.S. Subprime Mortgage Crisis

One positive side effect of the convulsions that have wracked the United States and world economies is the abundance of inventive and clear-eyed reporting tracking causes and effects.