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Fablehaven, by Brandon Mull
I spent Sunday morning reading Brandon Mull’s debut children’s fantasy novel Fablehaven, and found it to be something of an emotional rollercoaster: this imaginative, fast-moving story had a lot g...
Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall, by Bill Willingham
I always encourage comic book-wary female readers to try Bill Willingham’s Fables. Not only is it unquestionably a story for grown-ups, it’s one of the few American comics I've encountered that boasts a truly involving romantic storyline. I love almost everything about this series—except for the internal artwork, which has consistently been competent but pedestrian...
Fact of Life #31, by Denise Vega
High-school junior Kat Flynn loves her after-school job, even if it is a little unconventional. She works at her mother's midwife birthing center, intermixing secretarial work with helping prospec...
Faking It and Fast Women, by Jennifer Crusie
The fine people at St. Martin's Griffin continue to trot out reprints of Jennifer Crusie's earlier work. Their latest offerings are freshly re-covered editions of 2001's Fast Women and...
Fallen, by Lauren Kate
As a merry band of book critics who spend a lot of time pondering young adult literature, we found it impossible to read Lauren Kate's novel Fallen without thinking about Stephenie Meyer's...
Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living, by Doug Fine
Hoping to reduce his carbon footprint, journalist Doug Fine purchased a sprawling ranch in New Mexico, along with a couple of goats, some solar panels and a truck that runs on vegetable oil. He th...
Fate, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
YA author Jennifer Lynn Barnes has quite the talent for creating unlikely heroes. Her The Squad series features cheerleader secret agents, while 2007’s Tattoo and its recently released...
Fateful, by Claudia Gray
Claudia Gray's Fateful must have had one hell of an elevator pitch: “It's a Downton Abbey romance! But with werewolves! And set on the Titanic!” Some of those elements are executed more successfully than others, but we always approve of an author thinking big...
The Fattening of America, by Eric A. Finkelstein and Laurie Zuckerman
Health economist Eric A. Finkelstein and business writer Laurie Zuckerman are the co-authors of The Fattening of America: How the Economy Makes Us Fat, If It Matters, and What to Do About It, a...
Fever Moon, by Karen Marie Moning
First, a word of warning: Fever Moon is the only Karen Marie Moning book that I have ever read, so while I'm finally capable of evaluating a graphic novel without a boatload of preconceived notions about how everyone should look and behave, I'm flying blind when it comes to the series' larger story arc...
Fire Me, by Libby Malin
Libby Malin’s new novel Fire Me takes a series of girl-book clichés (a self-effacing heroine, an overbearing family, a vaguely defined job) and combines them with the workplace hijinks of...
The FitzOsbornes in Exile and The FitzOsbornes at War, by Michelle Cooper
I opened the second and third books in Michelle Cooper's Montmaray Journals trilogy in exactly the right mood to appreciate them. I had just finished the final book in Nora Roberts' most recent series, and I seriously cannot recall a lazier piece of writing: Roberts's Inn BoonsBoro trilogy combines recycled characters with done-to-death plots, turns the whole series into a 1000-page-long brochure for her new hotel, and has the gall to charge sixteen dollars per book...
The Flappers: Ingenue and Diva, by Jillian Larkin
I wasn't overly impressed by Vixen, the first book in Jillian Larkin's Flappers series. It wasn't terrible, but it was the kind of book I read and immediately forgot, so I attributed most of its success to a one two-punch of trendy subject matter and gorgeous cover art. Happily, Larkin's trilogy improved steadily over the course of its run, and by the end of the series I was genuinely sorry to say goodbye to the characters...
The Flappers: Vixen, by Jillian Larkin
Vixen, the first book in Jillian Larkin's new Gossip Girl-meets-Thoroughly Modern Millie young adult series, has a lot going for it. The cover looks great, Larkin has a wonderful time with period slang, music, and clothing, and flappers are totally hot right now...
Flight: Vol. 7, edited by Kazu Kibuishi
The seventh volume of Flight is another solid installment in Villard Books' series of lavishly illustrated graphic novel anthologies. These sixteen short stories—edited by contributor and art dir...
Floors, by Patrick Carman
When it comes to Patrick Carman, I usually end up damning with faint praise: his books are, y'know, fine. His 2011 novel Floors maintains his record of being totally inoffensive—I've read better, and I've read worse...
Flora Segunda, by Ysabeau S. Wilce
Ysabeau S. Wilce’s Flora Segunda: Being the Magickal Adventures of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), A House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog is...
Flora's Dare, by Ysabeau S. Wilce
Middle series installments frequently feel like stopgaps, but Ysabeau S. Wilce’s Flora’s Dare, the sequel to 2007’s Flora Segunda, is in all ways exceptional. As the story opens, fourteen-year-old Flora has discovered that her formerly crazy father was actually a lot easier to live with back when he was nuts...
Flora's Fury, by Ysabeau S. Wilce
I have been waiting for Flora's Fury, the third book in Ysabeau S. Wilce's Flora Segunda series, for what feels like forever. Happily, the book has finally been released, and I am delighted to report that it is totally worth the (damn near interminable) wait...
The Forest of Hands and Teeth, by Carrie Ryan
A word of warning before we begin: on the Depression Scale, Carrie Ryan's debut novel The Forest of Hands and Teeth ranks somewhere between Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games and Schopenhauer...
The Foundling: Monster Blood Tattoo, by D. M. Cornish
Poor Rosamund Bookchild. Orphaned and odd, he just can’t catch a break. He's scrawny and curious in a world where neither is desirable. Kids pick on him, potential employers pass him over, and al...
The Fourth Watcher, by Timothy Hallinan
Timothy Hallinan’s The Fourth Watcher is his second book to feature American travel writer Poke Rafferty. After abandoning his Looking For Trouble series of travel books, Rafferty has settled...
Freaks, by Kieran Larwood
Kieran Larwood's debut novel Freaks was the 2011 winner of the annual Children's Fiction Competition co-sponsored by the London Times and Chicken House Publishing. I've been following this contest since it started in 2008, and while all of the books they've chosen have been solid, Larwood's novel is my new favorite...
Free For All: Fixing School Food in America, by Janet Poppendieck
Janet Poppendieck writes like a lawyer, and we mean that in the best possible way. She's careful and she covers her bases—both highly desirable traits in a nonfiction writer, particularly wh...
Freefall, by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams
All of the books in Brian Williams and Roderick Gordon's Tunnels series have featured elements from Jules Verne's novel Journey to the Center of the Earth, but Freefall—the third entry in the seri...
Friday's Child, by Georgette Heyer
When Lord Sheringham, the hero of Georgette Heyer’s Friday’s Child, proposes marriage to the beautiful Miss Milbourne, she turns him down flat. Furious (partially because she spurned him, bu...