Media Reviews

Booklist A professional reviewer, Kanigel occasionally chose books to review for the Baltimore Sun that weren't new. He gathered those columns into this cozy and enlightening book. His divisions are revealing: everyone's classics; title appearing on many a list for burning; one-of-a-kinds; best-sellers; those dealing with the realm of the spirit. Because they were columns, their format and brevity sometimes are of a muchness: a boffo opening sentence and a catchy close. But Kanigel takes another look at titles as varied as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Nana; The Microbe Hunters and A Bell for Adano; and he makes us want to pick them up again and read what he read. He shares the odd little fact, like how caryatids got their name or what a sonata is. He offers a flash, now and then, of spot-on description (Malthus as "intellectual history's Gloomy Gus"). Fun to read and fine fodder for book-discussion groups.

Library Journal Book groups looking for titles would find this a good choice as would library users who want a list to guide their reading. Recommended for public libraries.

School Library Journal These brief essays on Kanigel's personal choice of best books provide a unique point of view to literature students in search of an overview or comments about their favorite work. The author makes no claim to be scholarly or comprehensive, but has written briefly about enduring books and stories that appeal to his "middle-brow" tastes.

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