You say you don’t like historical fiction? You say descriptions of technical nautical details bore you silly? You say if you wanted to read a novel with turn-of-the-19th-century dialogue you’d read Jane Austen?

Fie, I say. And possibly pshaw. I'm here to tell you why you should consider reading Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series, and in order to keep myself from going on ad nauseum, I'm going to do it in list form.

When you're the sort of person who spends your days wrapped up in books, in whatever manner that might be, the seemingly back-to-back deaths of historian Howard Zinn and famed recluse J.D. Salinger were likely a little hard to take.  Your opinion of Zinn likely is determined by your particular political bent, but Salinger's death was a little more universally felt.  Who hasn't read Catcher in the Rye, at very least?  In the Editorial Department office, the day following Salinger's death was one where we talked about his books for awhile and shared a laugh over The Onion's amusing Caufield-like obit.  However, as a group of people well removed from the age of Catcher's main character, we had to wonder...do teenagers still care about Holden Caufield?

We love books here at the Editorial Department...even the ones we weren't personally involved with. However, with dozens of newspapers, magazines and websites covering new releases, it can be difficult to keep track of what people are saying about books newly on shelves. To try to resolve that dilemma, we offer our Tuesday Review Wrapup, using the last sentences of prominent book reviews as literary tea leaves to discern the trends guiding our industry. This week, we're looking at Julie Powell's followup to her Julia Child experience, Cleaving.

We love books here at the Editorial Department...even the ones we weren't personally involved with. However, with dozens of newspapers, magazines and websites covering new releases, it can be difficult to keep track of what people are saying about books newly on shelves. To try to resolve that dilemma, we offer our Tuesday Review Wrapup, using the last sentences of prominent book reviews as literary tea leaves to discern the trends guiding our industry. This week, we're looking at Barbara Kingsolver's newest novel, The Lacuna.

We love books here at the Editorial Department...even the ones we weren't personally involved with.  However, with dozens of newspapers, magazines and websites covering new releases, it can be difficult to keep track of what people are saying about books newly on shelves.  To try to resolve that dilemma, we offer our Tuesday Review Wrapup, using the last sentences of prominent book reviews as literary tea leaves to discern the trends guiding our industry.  This week, we're looking at Nick Hornby's Juliet, Naked.

It's been over a month since I read the book , and just last night night I passed on the offer for half of my wife's quesadilla even though I was still pretty hungry. So this book has definitely made an impact!

I wrapped up my original post on this by considering the power of what Dr. Kessler doesn't say and doesn't offer in this really remarkable book.  He doesn't offer diet advice. He doesn't tell readers what to eat. Nor does he imply that restaurants or food producers should stop serving up food that's so bad for the people who eat it.   But his message is stronger without this, and the takeaway value of the book--something my colleague Peter Gelfan explores in some detail here--is still very high.

I can't imagine anyone with half a brain not being compelled by the  premise of the book, nor the facts that support it:

• that much of the food available to  the American consumer  is far too sweet, salty, and fatty to really be good for us
• that many if not most Americans have concerns about their weight and difficulty resisting the allure of sweet, salty, fatty foods