Two reading recommendations from me

Slate.com has a new book forum, I am also the T.C. on page two.  Excerpt from my contribution:

Clare Clark's The Nature of Monsters is a flat-out fun read.  Set in 1718, the story blends influences from Edgar Allen Poe, Alfred Hitchcock, Michel Foucault (the potentially monstrous nature of scientific knowledge), and Daniel Defoe.  Imagine a veiled apothecary who appears to practice black magic, holds captive a woman who is virtually mentally retarded, and has strange dealings with a free-thinking bookseller.  Should you, as a pregnant woman without a husband, stay in his house or flee?  The tone of the book is serious, and the style is borrowed from the 18^th century. Things are most dangerous precisely when they appear most safe.

But is it underrated?  You'll find more recommendations at the link.