"Like Nietzsche, Genet believed in the "transvaluation of all values", by which bad is good and the ugly is beautiful. Whereas most writers treated homosexuality as a disease, Genet took the stronger position in linking it with evil and crime and sin. He invented the drag queen for literature in Divine in this novel."

"“Cat’s Cradle” is a perfectly satirical novel poking fun at the arbitrary systems, institutions, and rules that hold society hostage, in a way that only Vonnegut could. It is easy to get lost in the fantastical island of San Lorenzo and its religion of Bokononism. A story with an even more fantastical back story."

"This is such an elegant novel. I love how Wharton finely details the lives of the New York wealthy, their intrigues, the ways they interact, the ways they indulge and deny themselves. And at the heart of it, passionate, unrequited love, and the quieter, more reserved love borne of duty. I’ll always love this book."

"An exposition of the science of manufacturing written in the guise of the novel, the book encourages companies to identify the biggest constraints in their operations and then structure their organizations to get the most out of those constraints. The Goal was a bible for Jeff Wilke and the team that fixed Amazon’s fulfillment network."

"Until she writes another book of poetry, this collection, “Mercury,” for me is the apotheosis of Reines’s output and voice. You can read it like it’s a novel, turning pages until you get to the end, building a sense in your mind of the funny, gorgeous, odd, dirty, gnostic visions of one female gaze."

"This novel, a linked series of strange and acid and darkly comic vignettes on life in Naples at the end of World War II, gets at the material reality of a liberator (the American military) as occupier and at the contradictory and surreal world of Naples. In sum, no one is innocent, not even Malaparte."

"Everything about this novel is poetic. From the ripe symbolism and haunting telling of true love, to witnessing the true liberation of a woman who has led a life dictated by societal pressures. The story of Janie is both insanely specific to her life and also a statement on the universal transformative stages of womanhood."

"This is the most gripping book I’ve read about the Vietnam War, written by a New York Times journalist who, along with David Halberstam, was one of the best on-the-ground chroniclers of that chapter in our history. And because it focuses on one single, indelible character, it reads like a great novel."

"Finally, something brand new. In this recent novel, Ann Patchett makes use of haunting events in her own life which, coupled with her storytelling skills, lend her book an extra layer of emotional intensity. If you have siblings, and especially if you have half-siblings, it will bring your own childhood back to vivid life."