Before creating "The Simpsons," Matt Groening worked as a pop-culture critic. He still "loves yakking about other people's stuff" -- like Graham Rawle's "Woman's World: A Novel."

"I saw it online and bought it. It's brilliant. He's this collage artist in England, and the whole novel looks like a ransom note. He cut up old women's magazines from the 1960s and put them together. It's garish and funny, a tour de force."