ELECTION (Tom Perrotta) - May 29/06

Following his brilliant Little Children, Perrotta has completely proven himself as an amazing writer in my eyes. Election is a concisely written, thoroughly entertaining novel that's over way too soon. All the characters are perfectly drawn and their respective arcs are wonderfully done. And the book is often genuinely funny, and we really come to care for these people. Where's the sequel? **** out of ****

THE DA VINCI CODE (Dan Brown) - May 24/06

Exciting, quick-paced adventure. Brown occasionally goes overboard with some of the historical stuff, but this is an ideal thriller (if often quite ridiculous). The majority was read over two days in preparation for the movie, with the last 80 pages finished yesterday. ***1/2 out of ****

LIVE AND LET DIE (Ian Fleming) - May 21/06

Interminable and racist, this must be the low point of the Bond series. It starts out okay, but there's just so much stuff regarding Bond's training for a nighttime swim attack and then the attack itself. Mr Big is a horrible, horrible Bond villain. ** out of ****