Galley Talk: Week of 11/1/10

Galley Talk: Week of 10/25/10

Galley Talk: Week of 10/11/10

Daniel Pinchbeck's latest essay collection, Notes from the Edge Times (Tarcher, Oct.), illustrates why he has become an important voice in the generation of edge-timers.

Galley Talk: Week of 9/20/10

Bo Caldwell's The City of Tranquil Light (Holt, Sept.) is, to put it succinctly, one of the best books I have read this year. The novel chronicles the lives of two Mennonite missionaries, husband and wife, working in rural China in the first half of the 20th century, and is told in their voices—hers from a diary spanning the decades of the book, and his as an old man looking back at his life. Will Kiehn, destined to be a Midwestern farmer, receives an unexpected call from God to go to China.

Galley Talk: Week of 9/13/10

Galley Talk: Week of 8/30/10

Galley Talk: Week of 8/9/10

I originally picked up Gary Jansen's Holy Ghosts (Tarcher, Sept.) from the galley pile because of its subtitle: How a (Not So) Good Catholic Boy Became a Believer in Things That Go Bump in the Night. I was intrigued, but was pretty certain I'd just skim it.

Galleytalk: Week of 8/2/10

Galley Talk: Week of 7/19/10

Galleytalk: Week of 6/28/10

Galleytalk: Week of 6/21/10

Galley Talk: Week of 6/14/10

Galleytalk: Week of 5/31/10

Wyoming has many treasures, one of which is Craig Johnson's Sheriff Walt Longmire mystery series; Junkyard Dogs (Viking, May) is number six.

Galleytalk: Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo

GalleyTalk: Light Boxes by Shane Jones

Michael Johnson, Square Books, Oxford, Miss. Shane Jones's debut novel, Light Boxes, began with a 500-copy print run by Publishing Genius. Then Spike Jones called, wanting to buy the movie rights. Now Penguin has picked it up for a May release, and this exciting work will finally reach the audience it deserves.

Galley Talk: 'Thomas and the Dragon Queen'

Leon Archibald, children's book buyer at Bank Square Books in Mystic, Conn., offers words of praise for a summer novel.

Thomas and the Dragon Queen has everything you'd expect in a tale of a chivalrous age: a brave knight, a kidnapped princess, a fearsome dragon—but none of these in quite the way you'd expect. The brave knight is 12 years old and the size of a boy half his age, the princess is content—even very happy—in her prison within the dragon lair, and the dragon does indeed have a rich treasure, but it is not at all what you would expect.

Galley Talk

Chris Bolton, Powell's Bookstore, Portland, Ore.

Galley Talk

Wendy Manning, Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park, Wash.

Galley Talk

McKenna Jordan, owner, Murder by the Book, Houston, Tex.

Galley Talk

Anne Kimbol, Murder by the Book, Houston, Tex.