What is wrong with Emily Brontë? I want to make a house in her brain. I’m scared! I can’t tell you too much, because my sister is reading the book now and I don’t want to spoil anything.

I hope you’re like me. I hope you have put off reading Wuthering Heights forever for some vague reason. Maybe you figure it for weak tea. You’ve heard things. Costumes. A period piece. A love story for the ages. Just pick it up. Don’t read the back. Don’t read the introduction by a noted scholar. Especially don’t look at the cover. …more

The book I am reading and loving right now is In A Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes. I have known and loved the Humphrey Bogart movie based on the novel for a long time. The movie is about a deeply troubled screenwriter. It turns out the novel is nothing like it. (I think there’s a joke about that fact in the film version: Bogart’s character is struggling to adapt an unadaptable novel.)

Here’s the thing. The “Humphrey Bogart” of the novel is not a screenwriter. He’s a serial killer. …more