"“This French writer was new to me; I found his novel in a hurry at the airport. It’s very funny, full of insight on being arrogant and getting old, and on being a servant who is generous of spirit. Humility, grumpiness, some tender love, and brutal violence. I will now investigate all of Garnier’s other books — there are about 60!”"

"The author says she asked, ‘What does it take for a woman not to be defeated when everything around her is telling her to sit down and mind her manners?’ Kadish answered the question by writing a superb novel. Reading it, I gasped out loud more than once with the sheer joy at Kadish’s use of language and intricacy of thought."

"LaValle writes horror, but horror as a way to move in closer to the complexities of our minds and our society. This novel takes the reader on a wild coast-to-coast journey that begins in an unusual library in a forest and includes many vividly memorable scenes, allowing for amazing, surreal access to our protagonist's psyche and the inner workings of America."

"In the last ten years this magnum opus has eclipsed Ulysses as the most influential novel of the 20th century. Proust is wonderfully companionable, his analyses of passion and snobbism and the corroding effect of time are devastating, but despite his philosophical gloom his rich, intelligent prose is exhilarating. He and George Eliot are the most intelligent of all authors."

"As popular as this novel is among the Arthurian Legend fanatics and 13-year-old boys, I have always found it and its author very untrendy to love. Then Helen McDonald’s stunning H is For Hawk came along last year and blew up my spot. Still, I’m happy to share the love — and to know much more about T.H. White now."

"The people of this sci-fi novel live underground in darkness. They retain ‘light’ in their language, but only in allusions to a lost paradise. They worship Light (‘For Light’s sake!’), and their theology includes demonic figures that engineered the fall from Light’s grace. The demons are called Strontium, Cobalt, and the arch-devil, ‘Hydrogen Himself.’ Go figure, as you Americans say."