Favorites, old and new

This Sunday's Bookshelf sees the third in our new series of "classics." Features editor Laura Tutor reviews Anna Karenina (which she read before in Russian and only now read in English).
Steve Whitton reviews the new book by Endless Love author Scott Spencer. Although Spencer addresses the themes of isolation and obsession well enough in Willing, the book just gets to be "too much," Whitton writes.
Lindsay Maples reviews the sequel to the laugh-out-loud The Spellman Files, which she heartily enjoyed, and finds that she is just as satisfied with the Curse of the Spellmans. Lisa Lutz's characters and writing are quirky, sometimes caustic, and reliably hilarious.
Readers should be interested to read about the upcoming Alabama Book Festival in Montgomery, sponsored by the Alabama Center for the Book at Auburn University. The free event will be April 19 in Old Alabama Town from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will feature something for everyone, even children. For more information, visit the website at www.alabamabookcenter.org or call 334-844-4946.