Reviews

This offbeat love story will be a delight for readers who enjoy quirky characters in unusual situations. Set in Sweden, this novel is about broken hearts and fumbling relationships. It is charming and funny and begins in a graveyard where a smile brought together two lonely people who couldn’t possibly be more different from one another.

A serial killer is murdering young women across the country. He has been dubbed the "Christopher Killer" because he leaves a St. Christopher medal with each of his victims. Dr.

Rhoda Janzen has it all. She has her Ph.D, her Prada and her lake house. She also has a very handsome husband, Nick, who has just left her for a man named Bob that he met on gay.com. If that isn't enough, Rhoda is involved in a serious car accident one short week after learning about Bob. How can this possibly be one of the funniest memoirs I've read to date?

Five things I hate about Rick Moody:

1. His writerly tone can be absolutely obnoxious. I mean overbearing, arrogant, snotty, condescending, downright rude to the reader.

2. His world view is bleaker than mine, which makes me jealous.

Are you one of those people who has never seen When Harry Met Sally? If your answer is yes, I say what are you waiting for? They say that laughter is the best medicine, and this movie is worth a few laughs. Yes, it’s a chick flick about male/female relationships, but it pokes fun at both genders—in a good way! A collaborative effort by the hilariously talented duo Nora Ephron (writer) and Ron Reiner (director) during their marriage, this film presents many insights into the thoughts, feelings and behaviors that drive men and women either closer or further apart.

Michael Crichton, one of my favorite authors, died in 2008. To pay homage to him, I decided to reread his first book (published under his real name), The Andromeda Strain. Written in 1969, I was afraid it would be very dated but to my surprise it wasn’t. The plot centers around a group of scientists investigating a downed satellite.

Elizabeth Reis, Associate Professor in the Women’s and Gender Studies Program and the History Department at the University of Oregon, shines a bright light into a dark alley in the history of American medicine.  The question for medical professionals: how to treat intersex patients, or, in other words,

The best category I can come up with for this book is: chick lit with dogs. The heroine, Dawn, on the rebound from a bad relationship, struggling with a second bad relationship and in the process of stumbling into a good relationship (finally!), discovers one day that she can understand the speech of dogs. This leads to interesting complications. Her dogs are hilarious, if somewhat foul-mouthed. And they may be good judges of character but their relationship advice is, as she discovers, often suspect. Dogs simply have different priorities than humans.