Staff Pick: The Patterns of Paper Monsters by Emma Rathbone 7

I longed for a contemporary novel about contemporary life. I longed for references to malls, and to boners, and to "intense cell phones" and to a pillow made of denim with an actual jeans pocket on the front, "like it thinks it's Bruce Springsteen."

Staff Pick: John Fowles' The Tree 0

He takes to task the Victorian obsession with categorizing, with trying to tame the wild, and makes a case for experiencing nature, for "green chaos."

Of Human Limitations 6

There was a divide between the books that I wanted to read, and the books that I wanted to want to read. And the latter category won over the former time and time again.

The Trick of It 4

Childhood and adolescence are the great gateway experiences to adulthood, middle-age, the so-called golden years, and then decrepitude. All that, waiting to be unpacked. By that time it’s too big for a backpack. We’re talking about a whole civilization you’ve buried in your backyard.

The Germs They Carried 0

A Year in Reading: Hamilton Leithauser 1