Archive: Rachel Hartigan Shea
Five Books to Avoid Reading Outdoors
A week or so ago, on a family trip to West Virginia, I lay awake listening to wild animals (or, I feared, monsters or depraved killers) munch away on our food. And as I was lying there, the smacking of their slavering lips paralyzing me with terror, my thoughts turned...
By Christian Pelusi | June 26, 2008; 07:59 AM ET | Comments (13)
Five Books to Climb Into
I was a fanciful child, desperate for the romance and adventure that seemed far away from the suburban sprawl of Reno, Nevada, where I grew up. So when I read books, I read them hungrily, eating up the details of places and times distant from my own. If I loved...
By Christian Pelusi | April 24, 2008; 06:24 AM ET | Comments (26)
Books to Read on a Washington Snow Day
Here in mild Washington, snow days are called on account of rain, even cloudiness. Snow itself is just a forecaster's fantasy. So instead of seeding the clouds or moving to New England, create your own winter wonderland: turn the heat down very low, wrap yourself in a plush blanket and...
By Christian Pelusi | February 7, 2008; 10:08 AM ET | Comments (16)
Books That I Wanted to Throw Across the Room
Books don't often make me angry. If I don't like one, I just stop reading it. But then there are the good books, the ones that draw me in, that I'm fully invested in, that I look forward to reading during the few quiet moments of my day. When one...
By Christian Pelusi | December 20, 2007; 07:11 AM ET | Comments (31)
On How the West Was Won
As the sole Westerner on the Book World staff, I feel geographically obligated to highlight some of my favorite novels about the settling of the West. These aren't triumphalist, manifest-destiny books, but fiction that grapples with what it feels like to go out into a fierce, unfamiliar land. Are there...
By Rachel Hartigan Shea | October 18, 2007; 07:01 AM ET | Comments (9)
