If you don't know, Nancy Pearl is a bibliophile who has worked as both a bookseller and a librarian. Her book recommendations have earned her a reputation as "a rock star among readers and the tastemaker people turn to when deciding what to read next" (quote from her website). Pearl chats about books on National Public Radio (NPR), on her website and in her books Book Lust, More Book Lust, Book Crush, and others.

Book Lust is essentially a listing of recommended titles categorized by topic. The topics cover nearly every genre, from poetry to historical fiction to biography to "books that are simply about nothing" (256). Each section contains at least 6 recommended titles, both fiction and non. Some of her suggestions are obvious (Amy Tan for Chinese-American fiction, Chaim Potok for Jewish, etc.), and some are more unique. Pearl also offers a good mix between classic and contemporary literature.

I'm not sure how many titles Pearl covers in Book Lust, but it's a lot. To cover that much ground, she makes short work of plot summaries, usually limiting herself to one sentence per title. I need more than that to decide if I will like a book or not, so I found that aspect of the book annoying. Otherwise, I thought the book covered a good, wide-ranging selection of titles. I was awed by the sheer amount of books discussed and the fact that I had read only a fraction of them. That's the only problems with books like this - and book blogs for that matter - it reminds me of how many books there are out there and how little time I have to read them...