On My Shelf: Casebook, by Mona Simpson

April and May are big publishing months, with publishers pushing to get books on shelves before the glorious season of summer reading. Unfortunately for me, this has meant that I've fallen a bit behind in recent weeks--and one of the sufferers is Mona Simpson's Casebook, which I am meant to be reviewing today but have actually not yet had time to finish.

According to the publisher's description, Casebook presents the story of Miles, a young boy who starts spying on his mother to find out what she is planning for his life. What he finds instead of her plans for him are her plans to divorce her husband--and suddenly Miles is involved in a game of youth detective that promises to explore the big questions of privacy and individual expression in our age of social media and over-sharing.

The Millions called Casebook a "riff on Harriet the Spy" (sign me up, please), and Catherine at Gilmore Guide to Books wrote an excellent review of the novel today (I tend to trust Catherine's recommendations). So even though I've missed my deadline for this particular book, I'm sure I'll work it into my schedule in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for a full review.

In the meantime, check out what others thought as Casebook makes the round of this TLC Book Tour.

PS: Not that it's relevant to the book itself, but Mona Simpson, it turns out, is Steve Jobs sister, and her eulogy for her brother can be read in The New York Times.