I cannot believe you recommended Sheer Abandon. Have you not read Lace? Or seen the mini-series from the 80s? Good lord, the only difference is that this tripe has 3 girls instead of the original four. And frankly, I preferred Lace. This is such an obvious lift, I am surprised that Kavya Viswa-whatever has not been credited for the writing!

YECH, is this trash what passes for "summer reading?" More like summer garbage!

Jesus! Who are you going to "review" next? Danielle Steel? At least she knows she writes crap.

sheesh!

Nice reviews, interesting books.

Just one question about "Sheer abandon" --

The stupefyingly melodramatic tale begins with the brief encounter in the 1980s of three beautiful, charismatic young women who meet while backpacking around Asia as students. They eventually part ways and vow lifelong friendship, which naturally doesn't pan out. At the end of their travels, and at the start of "Sheer Abandon," one of these young travelers -- the carrot, you see, is that we don't know which one! -- gives birth and abandons a baby in London's Heathrow Airport.

Is there a scene in this novel where the abandoned baby gathers her three possible mothers together in a room and asks:

"Which one of you bitches is my mother?"

Maybe they should make movie out of this novel and cast Phoebe Cates as the abandoned baby all grown up.

If you absolutely must put each review on a separate page -- an incredibly annoying thing to do -- would you at least consider putting a list of the books on the first page so that we can click directly to the reviews we're interested in?

Lest anyone be disabused of the notion that real readers read the letters, let TonstantWeeder's better self point out that Fact Checking is not, in fact, for Weenies, and that T.H. Wells in truth should be referenced as H.G. Wells.

Instead of using the verb "elicit" as an adjective, try "illicit" which actually is an adjective.

This illicit random homonym substitution, symptom of our post-literate (verging on non-literate) culture, can elicit these days (the end days) only the wistful collective sighs of a rapidly diminishing pool of Constant Readers, who must belatedly conclude that T.H. Wells was right. The Eloi have inherited the earth, and much sooner than expected.