Daniel's Picks

Will Grayson, Will Grayson clearly speaks to a new generation of readers, and makes no fuss about tying itself to this particular moment in time. Will Grayson "1" expresses an abiding love of Neutral Milk Hotel. Will Grayson "A" spends hours at a time in instant message conversation. Still in High School, Tiny Cooper is not just a comfortably gay teen, but a loud, proud, musical-theater-composing, sing-it-from-the-rooftops gay dramaturg. This book is fresh, clever, rarely over-indulgent, and features one of the most uplifting "feel good" endings I've read in quite a while.

"Whether you are in love with New York, or just in love."

I hate to call it a love story, if only because it sounds so...trite, but the book does center itself around a few choice loves. Frequently a story of America, Helprin paints New York City and San Francisco lovingly, with a distinct air of Garcia-esque magical realism, though executed in a distinctly American style. Think Gangs of New York meets...something more wonderful.

Read it come winter to celebrate the season--there are a couple great recognitions of Christmas--or take a break from summer heat with Helprin's fantastic descriptions of dead-of-winter New York chill.

A very clear, understandable and enjoyable account of European history after the second world war up to the formation of the European Union. Seriously, Judt frequently made things seem so simple--Z follows Y, which of course happened because of X--that I actually begin to worry he may be taking liberties with causality. But after even just a few chapters (which--sorry for insisting--really are quite well written and fun to read) I feel my understanding of the state of things in Europe in the last century had been very much improved.

Apparently I especially enjoy the onset of postcolonialism. And you can too!

An incredible and enlightening account of Louis Leakey's leading ladies: Birutė Galdikas, Dian Fossey, and of course, Jane Goodall. These women and the apes they studied are extraordinarily fascinating, and Sy Montgomery's account of their personal and professional lives is a must-read for anyone interested in physical anthropology, or environmental conservation for that matter.

So much.

The ending might have disappointed a little—it wasn't tied off, the box didn't click shut—but really, it need to be that way. It oh-so-clearly needed to be that way.

Sapphire uses Precious's voice, writes in imitation of her speech—muhver, fahver, maff class—but consistent enough and, more importantly, genuinely enough to count it as an asset and not a gimmick. I read the first two pages and had to finish. A one-day read, and it's not even YA. Swear-word-inducing good, y'all.

At first I was a bit thrown by how callously Dawkins makes his claims and arguments, but he makes a point of explaining his approach early on: he's not here to pander to religiously minded people or their sympathizers. He'll say what he's got to say as clearly as he can, and not without a fair amount of [frequently snooty:] humour.