In which I tell you what I found of compelling interest in the Saturday Review of Books last Saturday (8/2/2008):

Knight’s Ransom by S.F. Welty. Recommmended by James, The Old Coot. I’m interested in books with medieval settings right now because my homeschooled children are going to be studying the Middle Ages in school this year. So, I think I’ll add this one to my ever-growing list and try to finagle a copy somehow.

Lying Awake by Mark Salzman. Recommended by Mindy Withrow. This subject sounds fascinating, especially since I’ve been researching Dancer Daughter’s possible epileptic seizures (no accompanying religious visions).

Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski. Also recommended by Mindy Withrow. Mindy wants to discuss it; I want to read it. It’s about anthropologists and missionaries and cultural transformation and the interaction between observer and observed. I’m definitely hooked.

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart. Becky says the sequel to last year’s Mysterious Benedict Society is just as good, twisting, turning, and adventuring all over the place. I’m definitely in. Semicolon review of The Mysterious Benedict Society. Carrie’s review of MBS.

Handling Sin by Michael Malone. Recommended by Sage. A mixture of Job (the Biblical one), Cervantes, Dickens, and Fielding? I couldn’t resist.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Barrows and Annie Barrows. Recommended by caribousmom. I think it was the quotations that Wendy included in her review that got me on this one. It’s about a literary society with an unwieldy name that serves as a front for resisting the Nazi occupation of one of the Channel islands. Does that mean that the island is in the English Channel? I’ll have to look that up.

I already have this one on my list and reserved at the library.