Ex Libris Interregnum

A.D. Freudenheim, The Editor

Thanks to LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program, I’m working on a review for book that will be published in January. I have enjoyed the book, and my review should be done in the next few days. UPDATE: my review of Jeffery Hantover's book The Jewel Trader of Pegu is posted here.

In the meantime, this seemed like an auspicious moment to do a quick review of my own book reviews. The list below reflects several years worth of reading, although there are significant jumps in the chronology. It isn’t as though I wasn’t reading (or was reading only dull books) during most of 2005 and 2004; I suppose it’s just that whatever I was reading must not have needed a review by me. Moreover, book reviews take a completely different kind of style and thought process, and it is a form I have always admired but not always worked at successfully. Some of mine are better than others, but then, the same can be said of the books, too.

Enough intro. Following is the round-up: the book’s title links to its LibraryThing entry – and the date links to my review. In reverse chronological order:

Requiem for An Assassin, by Barry Eisler – 12 August 2007

Cakes and Ale, by W. Somerset Maugham – 10 August 2007

A selection of books by Lawrence Block – 14 March 2007

A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry – 4 March 2007

Good and Plenty: the Creative Successes of American Arts Funding, by Tyler Cowen - 1 February 2007

Of Human Bondage, by W. Somerset Maugham – 7 January 2007

Special Topics in Calamity Physics, by Marisha Pessl – 29 October 2006

V for Vendetta, by Alan Moore – 4 September 2006

Absolute Friends, by John le Carré – 22 August 2006

The Line of Beauty, by Alan Hollinghurst – 31 July 2006

Joint reviews: Pornified: How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families, by Pamela Paul, and How To Make Love Like A Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale, by Jenna Jameson with Neil Strauss – 25 June 2006

Love Creeps, by Amanda Filipacchi – 18 June 2006

Self-Made Man: One Woman’s Journey into Manhood and Back Again, by Norah Vincent – 23 April 2006

Joint reviews: The Surrender: an erotic memoir, by Toni Bentley and The Camera My Mother Gave Me, by Susanna Kaysen – 21 January 2006

Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture, by Ariel Levy – 14 January 2006

A Return to Modesty: Discovering The Lost Virtue, by Wendy Shalit – 05 March 2006

41 Stories by O. Henry, by O. Henry – 10 March 2005

The Emperor, by Ryszard Kapuscinski – 5 January 2003

The Shadow of the Sun, by Ryszard Kapuscinski – 8 July 2002

If I’ve missed any ... forgive me, and feel free to let me know!