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."

What makes the perfect beach book if you're the kind of person who gravitates toward the literary? The answer is simple: Books literally about the beach, featuring miles of shoreline.

Sloane Crosley loves winter, which may explain her particular affection for the mysterious, hidden garden in Frances Hodgson Burnett's dark children's classic.