The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

This book is set in the same world as The Shadow of the Wind--marked especially by the Cemetery of Forgotten Books--but it is set a generation earlier. David Martín is a successful author of lurid gothic tales; many of his friends feel he is wasting his talents, but he's locked into a long-term contract with a publisher who's especially interested in only the lucrative side of his talent. An interested (and apparently rich and influential) publisher, Andreas Corelli, offers to get him out of his contract in order to sign another deal. As Martín delves into the work though, he notices disturbing similarities to the life of his old house's previous owner (a lawyer-turned-writer). Many of the twists in the story were shocking, and I loved its thorough investigation of what we give up when we sell our talents. There were great layers of moral complexity in this story.

Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener's Bones

This book continues the adventures of Alcatraz Smedry, an orphan who discovers that he has supernatural powers and that the world is bigger than he knows. Again, there's a lot of meta-fictional commentary on what authors do, and why they do it. There's also a neat conception of the Library of Alexandria (not destroyed, but moved). The plot twists may be a bit contrived at points, but this series is a lot of fun.

The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman

I was a little surprised when September 11 appeared in the midst of this book (although given the time line, there's absolutely no reason why I should have been). The story is marvelously plotted, and I enjoyed reading about the dot-com bubble. Perhaps the romantic ends of the book are a bit transparent, and the historical ends are obvious, but I enjoyed the plotting and the attention to social relationships. Still, I find it a little unsettling to read about September 11, perhaps because it's an historical event I remember.

Bilingual Games: Some Literary Investigations edited by Doris Sommer

In this collection of essays contributors begin with a rigorous theoretical exploration of bilingualism and then move to specific examples of how it plays out. The first three essays take as a starting point that in some senses monolingualism does not and cannot exist. Then, essays begin reading various locations and texts to investigate questions of bilingualism in practice. Most helpful to me were the essays dealing with John Sayles's films Lone Star and Hombres Armada and Malinche. I also appreciated that the essays went beyond English-Spanish binaries. Although not all the essays were equally good, it was a great collection

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett

In this book a journalist recounts her attempt to get to know a prolific book thief and the bookseller determined to track him down. Although there are lots of helpful details about the methods of thievery and the market in rare books, I found the book repetitive and a bit lack-luster. There was a fair amount of speculation on the habits of collecting, but I would have liked to have seen more. Also, the book started with a story about a rare Kräutterbuch that never really was resolved, and I found that unsettling.

Tintenblut by Cornelia Funke

I enjoyed this book more than its predecessor, Tintenherz. In this sequel, much of the action goes to the Tintenwelt, and the action is much more exciting (at least for me)--also, there's a more thorough and robust investigation of the rules of reading changes into books (although nothing definitive is hashed out by the end)--although I still worry that there's a bit much of the deus ex machina. I'm really interested to see how this series ends up.

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

This story of self-discovery is intertwined with the discovery of the history of a book--a history that moves backwards. The book in question is a haggadah, but the heroism and tolerance which this book inspires brings out the best in everyone who comes to love it. This story is very well-written, and beautifully conceived.