Why do you assume that my suggestion we read something more entertaining than "Dubliners" is pandering to the masses? I happen to enjoy some of those authors. Are you one of those people who believe that the popular cannot be good? Reading is a form of entertainment, remember?

I still recall the chills I got reading Mary Higgins Clark's "Where are the Children" and "A Stranger is Watching" while in grammar school. And there's no better go-to guy than James Patterson's Alex Cross. These writers, and others like them, deliver consistently. You always know when you pick up their works you will be spending the next few hours immersed in a mystery. What's wrong with that?

I guess "Handle with Care" it is then since we both mentioned the works of Jodi Picoult. You game?


- Tricia Ambrose

P.S. I didn't call you erudite. I said you liked to read works that were. And it wasn't necessarily intended as a compliment.