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First there was The City and the Pillar. Then, Giovanni’s Room. Now, make room for another classic in the canon, The Dreyfus Affair: A Love Story. If you have any idea what I’m talking about, then you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Although a more openly humorous approach than either Gore Vidal or James Baldwin, Peter Lefcourt nonetheless blows the doors right off of the great American pastime, while at the same time leaving us laughing as the whole world comes crashing down.

Randy Dreyfus, star shortstop for a Major League baseball team (I won’t tell you which one), is not only on his way to the pennant, the world series, a batting title and a possible MVP award, he’s got the Hall of Fame in his sights as well. That is until one day when he takes a second look at his second baseman, and Randy’s life—the whole country’s, for that matter—will never be the same.

What happens next is a wild ride from Cleveland and Dallas to LA and the San Fernando Valley. Throw into the mix a murder plot against a dog, a private detective hot on the trail, and a life-changing event in a Neiman-Marcus dressing room, and life for Randy Dreyfus, and everyone else around him, is about to get turned on its head.

I won’t tell you what happens next; I’m not in the spoiler business. What I can tell you is things get so out of hand that the FBI, the Secret Service, the President of the United States, even Stormin’ Norman Schwarzkopf himself, all get swept into the story.

Peter Lefcourt’s The Dreyfus Affair is a topsy-turvy, out-of-control, mile-a-minute, laugh riot, with more ups and downs than a Coney Island roller coaster. Although originally written back in 1992, it hasn’t lost any of its bounce or bloom. It’s one of those rare books that is so outrageously funny, it stands the test of time.

I give Peter Lefcourt’s The Dreyfus Affair my Four Balls Up recommendation, with a free pass to first base and a stiff Louisville Slugger to boot. You’ll never look at Major League baseball the same way again. —Philip Loyd, Author of You Lucky Bastard.

I knew I was going to love this book when upon first opening the package my daughter saw the cover and said, “Cool!”  No better place to hook the reader than with the cover.

Imagine Jane Eyre’s aunt and cousins weren’t just overbearing and cruel, they were vampires as well? Imagine no more. With Sherri Browning Erwin’s new spin on the classic tale, now even today’s readers have something to look forward to.

Move over Twilight, Erwin has teamed up with the likes of none other than Charlotte Brontë to bring you the classic story of Jane Eyre, but with a modern twist. Think they didn’t have vampires back in the mid-nineteenth century? Think again.

Seemingly doomed to a life of darkness and servitude, Jane is visited one night by the ghost of her late uncle who reveals to her that she is not some helpless young lass destined to spinsterhood after all, but that she comes from a long line of vampire slayers. Enter, Jane Slayer.

Throw in a girls’ school full of orphaned zombies, a werewolf, and you’ve got nothing less than an otherwise sensible world gone mad. It’s up to Jane to bring order to this world.

My first thoughts when first picking up this book were, Good luck. Trying to live up to a master like Charlotte Brontë is a task I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. About a dozen pages or so into the book, however, I realized (without noticing it at all), “By God, Erwin’s pulled it off!”  Except for the fact that there were vampires everywhere (and that her cousin kept wanting to drink her blood), I really did think I was smack dab in the middle of the 1847 classic.

So, what business does Erwin have slipping into such a big pair of shoes in the first place? For me, someone who had not read Brontë in more than 30 years (since prep school), it was like traveling back in time to the good ole days. I had forgotten how much I love the classics, like Austen, Dickens, and Brontë herself. I have Erwin to thank for bringing it all back to me.

For an old fogy like myself, revisiting such a classic is a wonderful walk down memory lane: a real no-brainer. But I’m too easy. What Erwin does by ratcheting-up the classic Brontë novel is to make it interesting for today’s readers. Jane Slayer would be a great segue for today’s younger generation into the classics themselves. Dare I say, I think this book would fit perfectly in most any high-school curriculum.  Then again, that’s just one guy’s opinion.

I want to thank Sherri for a wonderfully entertaining couple of days and a most enjoyable read. Not just enjoyable, but reminiscent. Thanks, Sherri.  I can’t wait to read Grave Expectations. Maybe Sherri has something new in the works. Vampire Heights? The Tenant of Werewolf Hall?  Whatever it is, I’m sure it will have fangs.

Chris Belden's Shriver hits the ground running.  It only takes off from there.

I love novels that get right down to it, and this is certainly one of those. I also love novels with a humorous but humble main character who not only falls unwittingly into the premise of the story, but once he realizes it, he digs himself in even deeper. Shriver, whose wife left him for (he doesn't know why) and hasn't left his home in (who knows how long) has all the humility and henpecked qualities of a James Thurber character.  Perhaps remaining a shut-in is the best thing for Shriver, after all.

But we’ll never know, because suddenly one day, completely out of the blue, Shriver is drawn out of his peephole prison and into an unfamiliar and frightening world. Just when you think you know where exactly where this story is going, Shriver takes a wild left turn. Where does he wind up? You're not going to believe what happens next.

Shriver ends up at a writer's conference like no other, complete with raucous characters, everything from a graduate student by the name of Edsel Nixon (Get it? Two epochal failures?), to a militant lesbian and the toughest dog-gone victim of love you ever did see. With names like Malarkey-Jones, Blotto, and Zebra Amphetamine, you know you’re in for some madcap mayhem. Belden certainly delivers.

I wish I could tell you all the hilarious stuff that happens in this book, but then that would be giving it away. What I can tell you is that just when you think you've got it all figured out, you don’t. Get ready for one surprise after another, and wild plot twists that make this book more like a roller coaster ride than a train trip.

So, what kind of rating do I give Shriver? Two enthusiastic thumbs up, and that's just because I only have two thumbs. If I was all thumbs (like my wife claims), I'd give it 10. I'd give it 20 if my feet would get in the game. Seriously though, I really loved this book. It gets right down to it and does not get bogged down in needless description and back story. Although the story line is well laid out and kept me guessing the whole time, it’s Chris Belden’s natural writing style and command of characters that I liked best. I look forward to reading more from Belden in the future.

Shriver by Chris Belden at Simon & Schuster...