Not All Business

Who would have thought The Wall Street Journal would be a good source for fiction recommendations? But there I was looking at the weekend edition that arrives at the library on Saturday mornings and the entire book page looked interesting. Not in an elitist, highbrow way but in a populist kind of way. (I just had to throw in that word "populist" as it is so au courant.)

I loved the short bibliography of the best novels to read about the Depression (another word popping up everywhere these days.) Can you guess what they were? Surprisingly, Grapes of Wrath was not on the list.

The Day of the Locust by Nathaneal West
The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson
The Big Money by John Dos Passos
Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara

All of these written in the 1930's.

Next in the book section was a review of Among the Mad, the sixth in a mystery series by Jaqueline Winspear featuring the independent, spunky investigator Maisie Dobbs.

To round out the eclectic mix of reviews that day was an article about young adult vampire novels written by a mother-daughter team. P.C. Cast and her daughter Kristen just wrote the fifth book titled Hunted in the House of Night series. Now who would have thought the Wall Street Journal would write about blood sucking vampires?

To read more, you can find the March 21st edition of the Wall Street Journal on the 4th floor, or use the online Proquest News Database provided by the library.