Lara Killian

Scratching the Surface: Your Brain on the Internet

By Lara Killian

What does the ubiquitous availability of digital text mean for the human brain as it processes ever-increasingly amounts of information? [24 July 2009]

Who Says Libraries Are Just About Books?

By Lara Killian

Quiet, Please author Scott Douglas speaks out about the future of libraries, being played by Oprah in the movie version, and his recent library-themed wedding. [16 April 2008]

Censoring an Iranian Love Story by Shahriar Mandanipour

By Lara Killian

The impossibility of getting a realistic love story published in Iran, a relationship gone off the rails, a mysterious assassin; how much more intrigue and frustration could fit into one story? [4 October 2009]

Home

By Lara Killian

Stunning aerial photography illustrates the astonishing variety of natural landscapes all over the planet. [10 September 2009]

Bleak House

By Lara Killian

The special edition of this Dickens classic is an admirable example of the superiority of the Blu-ray format, highlighting the voluptuous period settings and finely wrought details in every episode of the 2005 mini-series. [31 July 2009]

Fresh: A Perishable History by Susanne Freidberg

By Lara Killian

Is it a good thing to have a refrigerator full of produce we call “fresh” even after it has been sitting around in climate controlled storage for days or even weeks? [9 July 2009]

Eddie Murphy Delirious: The 25th Anniversary Edition

By Lara Killian

Delivered in a box as red as the fire hydrant colored leather getup Eddie Murphy paraded around in 25 years ago, the 25th anniversary edition of the classic stand-up tour “Delirious” has arrived. [18 June 2009]

The Old Curiosity Shop

By Lara Killian

If you like your Dickens dark, this is about as bleak as it gets. [2 June 2009]

Secret Son by Laila Lalami

By Lara Killian

Authors like Lalami provide a gateway through which readers can hope to understand more about the driving forces in disparate global cultures. [19 May 2009]

Hijacking Sustainability by Adrian Parr

By Lara Killian

Parr moves through discussions of trash, disaster relief, slums, and poverty, treating each topic within a social context, emphasizing that a one-size-fits-all approach is ineffectual. [4 May 2009]

Oliver Twist

By Lara Killian

Director Coky Giedroyc uses stark colors, complex textures, and an unusual soundtrack to bring to life the classic characters and complement some fabulous acting talent. [18 March 2009]

‘Allo ‘Allo!

By Lara Killian

Repeat after me, in your worst French accent: "Leessen very carefully, Ah shall say theese only once." [18 February 2009]

The Edwardians

By Lara Killian

From Rolls to Royce, a famous detective fiction writer, and Anthony Hopkins as you've never seen him, this series showcases colorful and influential individuals of early 20th century Britain. [3 February 2009]

Confessions of an Eco-Sinner: Tracking Down the Sources of My Stuff

By Lara Killian

The label says 'Made in China', but where does our stuff really come from? [20 January 2009]

Keeping Up Appearances: The Full Bouquet

By Lara Killian

Routledge is outstanding as an abrasive British housewife who considers it her solemn duty to associate with the "right sort of people", keep the house spotlessly tidy, and her family in order. [6 January 2009]

Will & Grace: The Complete Series Collection

By Lara Killian

Grace may have started out in high-waisted, pleated pants, and Will may have sported a mullet, but over the years this pair really demonstrated how great TV comedy can be. [8 December 2008]

Blankety Blank: A Memoir of Vulgaria by D. Harlan Wilson

By Lara Killian

Deadly lifestyle: retribution upon middle-class America comes in the form of a blank-faced serial killer. And watch out for the multiplying shrunken heads. [30 November 2008]

Books: A Memoir by Larry McMurtry

By Lara Killian

While I can't quite agree with McMurtry that even librarians don't want books to be in libraries, it certainly seems true that computers are taking up some of the space that used to belong to the books. [13 November 2008]

Dave Barry’s History of the Millennium (So Far)

By Lara Killian

International relations get another moment in the spotlight when Barry mentions that in December 2006 the five permanent members of the UN Security Council include the US, the UK, Russia, China, and Google. [6 October 2008]

Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Collection

By Lara Killian

Playfulness with language is so much fun when reading Pratchett, but jokes based on homonyms lose their effectiveness on screen. [18 September 2008]

Robin of Sherwood: The Complete Collection

By Lara Killian

"One woman and half a dozen men?! It's a recipe for disaster!" [27 August 2008]

The Host

By Lara Killian

Having covered inter-species romance between humans, vampires and werewolves in her popular Twilight series, Meyer turns to new territory in her latest novel: aliens. [30 July 2008]

The Rough Guide to Europe on a Budget by

By Lara Killian

This guide will help you pinch your pennies along the journey so you can splash out when it counts. [7 July 2008]

The Elizabeth Gaskell Collection

By Lara Killian

Though her name is not a household one, Gaskell's willingness to take on some of the important social issues of the era make her an author deserving of wider exposure. [20 June 2008]

The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson

By Lara Killian

Winterson experiments with the components of a story and comes out with a tale that is greater than the sum of its parts. [22 May 2008]

The Golden Compass

By Lara Killian

Scruffy and unpolished in the open casting call, Dakota Blue Richards shines in her role as the gutsy heroine. [13 May 2008]

Sense & Sensibility

By Lara Killian

A dramatic Devonshire setting, a feminist younger sister, and a wet shirt wood-chopping scene: a few details are frankly invented, but for the most part this new adaptation is true to Austen's novel. [9 May 2008]

Wolves of the Crescent Moon by Yousef Al-Mohaimeed

By Lara Killian

This intense, fanciful story provides a uniquely slanted window into the manners and culture of Saudi Arabia. Small wonder it was banned in the Kingdom. [18 April 2008]

Quiet, Please by Scott Douglas

By Lara Killian

Douglas explains why library school is useless for an aspiring librarian and also about the many, many different types of crazy people who congregate in libraries. [16 April 2008]

The Prince by Hushang Golshiri

By Lara Killian

In early 20th century Iran, old-fashioned photographs prompt a distorted fever-dream journey through memory for one of the last members of the fading nobility. [23 October 2007]

The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani

By Lara Killian

The attention to detail in The Blood of Flowers brought to mind Orhan Pamuk's My Name is Red. [23 July 2007]

Re:Print: The Gargoyle [19 October 2009]

Re:Print: Uglier Than a Monkey’s Armpit [7 October 2009]

Re:Print: Stalked by Zhivago [10 September 2009]

Re:Print: Ian Colford’s Evidence [19 August 2009]

Re:Print: The Animal Bridegroom [3 August 2009]

Re:Print: Austen’s Quirks [21 July 2009]

Re:Print: Twilight, in Graphic form [17 July 2009]

Re:Print: Sherman Alexie: Diaries and Indians [7 July 2009]

Re:Print: Summer Reads 2009 [24 June 2009]

Re:Print: Granta Gear Shift [19 June 2009]

Re:Print: The Book of Negroes [8 June 2009]

Re:Print: 100% Evil [1 June 2009]

Re:Print: Booklist’s Apocalypse for Reviewers [24 May 2009]

Re:Print: Mistress of the Art of Death [18 May 2009]

Re:Print: The Kindle is Growing [10 May 2009]

Re:Print: McKinley’s The Blue Sword [3 May 2009]

Re:Print: Hairstyles of the Damned [27 April 2009]

Re:Print: Three Youthful Cups of Tea [13 April 2009]

Re:Print: Books 2 Eat [6 April 2009]

Re:Print: E-book reader battle continued… [29 March 2009]

Re:Print: The House of the Scorpion [18 March 2009]

Re:Print: NYT ‘Graphic Books’ Best Seller Lists [9 March 2009]

Re:Print: Kindle: Round 2 [2 March 2009]

Re:Print: It’s “Freedom to Read” Week [23 February 2009]

Re:Print: Oppel’s Airborn [16 February 2009]

Re:Print: Shelf-surfing [9 February 2009]

Re:Print: Newbery Medal goes to Gaiman [3 February 2009]

Re:Print: Rabbie Burns – Happy 250th! [26 January 2009]

Re:Print: The Teenage Reader [12 January 2009]

Re:Print: Does Christopher Moore follow Chuck Palahniuk? [5 January 2009]

Re:Print: The Girl in the Flammable Skirt [22 December 2008]

Re:Print: The Reading Brain [15 December 2008]

Re:Print: National Ambassador for Children’s Literature [1 December 2008]

Consuming Consumables: Will & Grace: The Complete Series Collection

Re:Print: Proust: On Reading [24 November 2008]

Re:Print: Elizabeth Bennet: After the Wedding [17 November 2008]

Re:Print: Economy Impacts Libraries in US [4 November 2008]

Re:Print: The Books of Abarat [29 October 2008]

Re:Print: Random Book Sale Score [24 October 2008]

Re:Print: Ephemeral Possessions: Books [13 October 2008]

Re:Print: The Necessary Revolution [6 October 2008]

Re:Print: The Secret Life of Bees [29 September 2008]

Re:Print: Canadian book festivals [22 September 2008]

Re:Print: Terry Pratchett receives a ‘pratchgan’ [15 September 2008]

Re:Print: In Library News… [12 September 2008]

Re:Print: Relocating—with Books! [8 September 2008]

Re:Print: Dawn has Broken [1 September 2008]

Re:Print: Is Google the Future of Reading? [25 August 2008]

Re:Print: Rushdie’s Enchantress [18 August 2008]

Re:Print: Steinbeck’s heirs lose rights to Penguin [14 August 2008]

Re:Print: Breaking Dawn shatters records [5 August 2008]

Re:Print: Love your Librarian [28 July 2008]

Re:Print: Summer Book Sales [21 July 2008]

Re:Print: After Dark with Murakami [13 July 2008]

Re:Print: Travel Reads [7 July 2008]

Re:Print: Markus Zusak [15 June 2008]

Re:Print: A Mixed Bag [9 June 2008]

Re:Print: Persepolis: the Story of a Reading [2 June 2008]

Re:Print: Another Evil Genius [26 May 2008]

Re:Print: By These Ten Bones [18 May 2008]

Re:Print: In Search of a Complete Proust [13 May 2008]

Re:Print: The End of Gemma Doyle [5 May 2008]

Re:Print: Evil Boy Genius [29 April 2008]

Re:Print: Spring Break Reading [20 April 2008]

Re:Print: Window into Botswana [14 April 2008]

Re:Print: Reading at Random: Funke’s Fiction [7 April 2008]

Re:Print: Travel + Leisure’s Unexpected Italy [2 April 2008]

Re:Print: Even more audio books [31 March 2008]

Re:Print: Riffing on Audio Books [25 March 2008]

Re:Print: The Value of Words [11 March 2008]

Re:Print: Bookmarks: Travel + Leisure’s Unexpected France [2 March 2008]

Re:Print: When to put it down? [27 February 2008]

Re:Print: Reading at Random [18 February 2008]

Re:Print: Anticraft: Knitting, Beading and Stitching for the Slightly Sinister [29 January 2008]

Re:Print: Our Dumb Century: The Onion Presents 100 Years of Headlines from America’s Finest News Source [6 January 2008]

Consuming Consumables: Cool Green Stuff by Dave Evans [$14.95] [9 December 2007]

Consuming Consumables: Our Dumb Century: The Onion Presents 100 Years of Headlines… [$23.95] [7 December 2007]

Re:Print: Cool Green Stuff: A Guide to Finding Great Recycled, Sustainable, Renewable Objects You Will Love [6 December 2007]

Re:Print: Everything ever published, ever. [3 December 2007]