If every book is a "must-read," and "amazing," then how can people looking for suggestions take all this hyperbolic Tweeting and Facebooking seriously?

There's something special about finding, nestled among bills and glossy catalogs, a personal letter in the mail. The envelope may be wrinkled, smudged...

The Rumpus recently provided its members with a book of personal essays by women writers they have featured on their site. The contributors have mastered the form on the page and in performance.

A list of fiction writers that was, perhaps, missed by those on this side of the pond was the one in the UK Telegraph, which contains a determinedly multi-cultural list of 20 under 40, among whom my personal favorite is Rana Dasgupta.