The Neddiad: How Neddie Took the Train, Went to Hollywood, and Saved Civilization by Daniel Manus Pinkwater

The latest from the incomparable Daniel Pinkwater. His smart and soulful young narrators always find themselves engaged with the surreal, cruel and funny adult world and emerge with the reader a little worn but a lot wiser.

Through the Children's Gate by Adam Gopnik

A brilliant memoir/pensee on family, art, and New York from the always engaging NewYorker writer.

Frog & Toad Together by Arnold Lobel

"I wonder if we are brave," said Frog.
Frog and Toad looked into a mirror.
"We look brave," said Frog.
"Yes, but are we?" asked Toad

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Wonderfully evocative and detailed pencil drawings share equal narrative weight with the text. Hugo Cabret has a classic, timeless sensibility and plays in an entertaining style with our sense of time and machinery.

Divisadero by Micahael Ondaatje

Any work by Ondaatje is worth reading more than once. I didn't get this the first time but will come back to it again.

The Rape of Europa by Lynn H. Nicholas

Full title: The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War. An extraordinary story of art as currency of power and legitimacy. Recently produced as a documentary.

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway

A beautifully written, compelling story of endurance and art during the terrible siege. "The men on the hills didn't have to be murderers. The men in the city didn't have to lower themselves to fight their attackers. She didn't have to be filled with hatred. The music demanded that she remember this, that she know to a certainty that the world still held the capacity for goodness. The notes were proof of that."
Steven Galloway. Vedran Smailovic.

The Fabulous Life of Diego Rivera

It truly was a fabulous life. The biographer knew Rivera and writes about the man and his work with love and insight while putting it in the context of the brutal historical times.

Un Lun Dun by China Mieville

"You're a traveler? You came by storyladder? My goodness. It's been years since we've had an explorer. It's not an easy journey, after all. Still, you know what they say: 'All bookshelves lead to the Wordhoard Pit.' And here you are. I'm Margarita Staples." She bowed in her harness. "Extreme librarian. Bookaneer."

China Mieville

Travels With Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski

Kapuscinski's extraordinary professional life moved hand in hand with and even mirrors that of the Father of History.

Museum of the Missing by Simon Houpt

A terrific exploration of the extraordinary history of the plundering of works that are 'our collective birthright'. LJ

An Elemental Thing by Eliot Weinberger

A meditative collage of essay and poetry.
new directions

The Penguin Dictionary of Saints

A great reference tool: a clear-eyed examination of the lives and legends of the saints.

Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman

'Books wrote our life story, and as they accumulated on our shelves (and on our windowsills, and underneath our sofa, and on top of our refrigerator), they became chapters in it themselves. How could it be otherwise?' Anne Fadiman

The Ball is Round: A Global History of Football by David Goldblatt

The Ball is Round is a meticulous history of the beautiful game.

love is a mix tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time by Rob Sheffield

'Some of us are born Gladys Knights, and some of us are born Pips.' npr

The Library at Night

Reading The Library at Night, or have I read it already? Quiet, thoughtful essays for a foggy night in a leather armchair with a meditative cigar.

The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte

The Queen of the South was one of those engrossing and entertaining thrillers that are hard to recall afterwards; The Club Dumas is my favourite Arturo-Perez but all of this incredibly prolific authors novels are good reads.