This recommendation is loaded with conflicts, but I'm sure you won't mind. Freelance writer Cherie Parker, who now lives in the Washington, D.C., area, used to work with me at the Twin Cities Reader, and, lucky for Star Tribune readers, she reviews books for this newspaper. Her bright mark on the blogosphere is this site, which focuses on books. Books and her life as the mother of young children. Books and her job at a bookstore. Books and memory. Books and her trip to a doctor who pushes his underappreciated memoir, "Mulu: Rain of Gold," onto her for a review. Parker is a great deflater, as in her measured takedown of such overpraised writers as Nam Le. Her posts are routinely insightful, funny, grumpy, harrowing. Note to bloggers everywhere: Learn from Parker how to write great headlines, such as "The Greatest Book I Never Read" or "Screw Nam Le; I'm Reading 'Scruples.'"
CLAUDE PECK
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