Melinda Truelsen
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Novel loses appeal once shock value wears out

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov was first published in 1955. Immediately it became infamous for its highly controversial content: a middle-aged man’s sexual infatuation with a twelve year old girl.

“Because I am Furniture” examines consequences of emotional abuse

What is a good novel? Does it have to have beautiful, lengthy prose? Something that has complex sentence structure?

“Tale” explores human nature in shaken society

What would society be like if half the population was treated like an inferior race? If their civil liberties and basic human rights were taken away based on a physical trait?

“The Virgin Blue” weaves plotlines that are centuries apart

While Chevalier may be most well known for her novel turned film, “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” her debut work, “The Virgin Blue,” is actually far superior to her more popular works.

“The Book of Lost Things” shows another side of fairy tales

Most of us are familiar with the softened Disney version of fairy tales, but few of us have read any of the original Grimm’s fairy tales or anything like them.

Themes of love and death intertwine in eerie novel

Audrey Niffenegger, who has recently become known for her work “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” has triumphed again with her latest novel, “Her Fearful Symmetry.” Set in London, Highgate Cemetery to be exact, Niffenegger weaves connections between sisters, strangers and even ghosts.