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ANNEXED by Sharon Dogar.  This novel for teens and young adults is a familiar story told from a different perspective.  Peter van Pels is only sixteen when he and his parents go into hiding with Anne Frank and her family.  In love with a girl who was taken by the Nazis, at the beginning of this novel, he would much rather brood and sulk than spend time with the insufferable Anne with the impish eyes.  Soon, however, time is all he has, and he is surprised to discover a kindred spirit in Anne.  Their burgeoning love is full of questions and fear, and even reading The Diary of Anne Frank cannot prepare you for the heartwrenching ending.  This book is a very quick and compelling read, and the two 16-year-olds in my family will tell you the same thing—they both devoured it, too. 

ONE HUNDRED PORTRAITS engraved by Barry Moser, published by David R. Godine.   This is a collection of portraits of writers, musicians, composers, artists, poets, and friends, all beautifully reproduced.  Some of these were commissioned portraits, some of them are published here for the first time.  Moser is one of the world’s pre-eminent engravers and this is the first book that amasses 100 portraits from the books and broadsides of his vast collection, spanning several decades.  The production qualities are everything I’ve come to expect from David R. Godine, and I would be remiss not to mention the incredibly thought-provoking foreword that Ann Patchett provided.  And sure, it just so happens that I'm married to the man, but that doesn't take one whit away from hsi portraits and his ability to look unflinchingly at a face (including his own) and reveal something about the person in a most astonishing way, limned in shadow.