Sloane Crosley

Curtis Sittenfeld's Sisterland, about a pair of adult psychic twins in St. Louis, is more about sibling rivalry than the supernatural. Reviewer Sloane Crosley says Sittenfeld handles the psychic realm with a light and logical touch that keeps the book artfully within the bounds of believability.

Author Sloane Crosley is moving apartments — and, just as importantly, her library. Some books will come with her; others won't. But when she can't find the sheets or shampoo, these are the titles she'll want easy access to.

Crosley says the novel by Irvine Welsh — also the author of Trainspotting — aces every category of "dirty" we have. Reading it, she explains, is like watching "a rusty car careen into a garbage dump of filthy phonetics and explode into a strangely beautiful ball of flames."