The winning story of Boston Review's 15th annual fiction contest is online; I think it's unpretentious and moving.

Advance Reading Copies are the new cute dogs -- they do all the romantic luring for you. (They also make excellent -- and free -- birthday presents.)

"Hey babe, I have a great idea for this weekend!" I can just picture the look so many boyfriends' faces

In 2000, David Foster Wallace wrote this piece for Rolling Stone, about his seven days traveling with the then-insurgent John McCain campaign. The story, published in full as part of DFW's 2005 Consider the Lobster, offers an incomprable look inside the insanity that is a modern political campaign -- packaged in true DFW style, which means it is funny and intricately detailed and spot-on, analysis-wise.

William Grimes wrote in the New York Times last Friday about the 2006 book 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (Universe). He offers a realistic take on said list, pointing out its merits while acknowledging that any such catalog should be taken with several grains of salt (perhaps sea salt of the Moby Dick variety?).

I just finished Diane Vadino's amazing debut, Smart Girls Like Me, last week. In preparation for the review I've been assigned to write, I Googled around and found her also-amazing and mouth-wateringly delicious fashion-and-shopping blog, Bunnyshop. (Bookmark. This. Now.) For a few days, I've been thinking about all the things I adore about Smart Girls while trying to figure out a way to discuss and justify the fact that it's packaged in a baby-pink cover with a picture of a rack of designer clothing.

Oh, Lauren.

I rewatched the second half of Season 2 of The Hills on Sunday (thanks, Comcast On Demand!) in preparation for the Season 3 premiere on Aug 13. It was a delightful, delicious re-immersion experience, let me tell you. Until I noticed something troubling. Often, I saw my dear LoLo curled up on the couch, upset about something Heidi or Douche-bag Extraordinary Spencer Pratt had done.