In her weekly examination of the Times Book Review, Intern Alexis has made a stunning discovery: writers are lazy. Yes, it's true — even writers for the Book Review are prone to making repetitive over-generalizations in lieu of writing something original! Aside from this ground-breaking realization, Alexis also falls prey to the trickery of reviewer Jennifer Egan; meanwhile, the Bernard-Henri Levy/Garrison Keiller slap-a-thon continues. After the jump, your essential guide to sounding like you didn't sleep through lit-crit 101.

This week's edition of Reading About Reading is more late than Intern Alexis' period, but that's not gonna stop her from getting down to business with the Times Book Review in which Bernard-Henri L vy fights back while Jay McInerney's latest effort is flogged into submission. Add to that a light slapping of Siro Hustvedt, and you've got a gleefully angsty review. After the jump, Alexis wallows in the negativity.

In this week's installment of the Times Book Review, David Kamp faces backlash from the banjo-toting patriots of Appalachia, who seem to think that their trailerpark luxuries don't make them white trash. And they're right: trashy inbred babies know no color. Then there's an oh-so-timely, post-Fashion Week review written by none other than Josef Joffe, creator of our favorite "girl about town," Jessica Joffe. We've no idea if he's half as well-dressed, but if you imagine him writing the review while wearing Marc Jacobs, the whole thing reads a lot better. Intern Alexis holds your hand through all that, plus the horror of Ayelet Waldman, after the jump.

Yeah, that's right: we totes saw our favorite anal-sex-memoirist Toni Bentley's review of Gail Sheehy's sexy old lady book, but we're not going there. The assfucking grandma jokes are just too easy, you know? Instead, Intern Alexis laughs at things that moan for dick. Six of one half, two dozen of the other. After the jump, her weekly rundown of what the literate people are reading.

While Bernard-Henri L vy was working the talk-show circuit, espousing heavily-accented nuggets of pseudo-wisdom about the United States, Garrison Keillor and the Times book review were busy concocting yesterday's very, very funny spanking of his book, which has Intern Alexis waving her "Freedom Fries Forever!" flag. Meanwhile, Ariel Levy has fallen victim to the Mastercard style guide and Dwight Garner loses touch with reality. After the jump, your weekly guide to sounding literate.

How does the New York Times Book Review justify taunting "We told ya so" on the matter of Fake Writer James Frey's memoir like, oh, two freaking weeks after the story was big? They don't really — but as Intern Alexis learns, they make up for it by readily employing the word "twaddle," which is so faux-naughty that it totally makes up for any annoyingly late-breaking Frey thoughts. After the jump, Alexis twaddles her way through this week's Review.

Earlier today we posted the Times Book Review's bestseller list for next weekend, as currently available at NYTimes.com. It lists A Million Little Pieces as the top-selling nonfiction paperback:

Hey, so long as Oprah is buying that "essential truth" crap, ain't no way Tanenhaus is disagreeing.

In this week's installment of the Times Book Review, you've got crazy bitches, Mormon playas, fucky families and a dose of Jacko — it is, in effect, the most mockable Review to fall before young Intern Alexis' eyes. And while she loves to snicker at absurdity as much as we do, she appreciates a challenge. Diversity of the stupid, if you will. Alas, not this week. After the jump, her guide to sounding literate.

Back from a court-ordered break from media, Intern Alexis returns to her old stomping grounds at the Times Book Review. In this week's edition, Alexis finds that Christopher Buckley enjoys life between Wonkette's bookish thighs, Billy Collins is best trashed in his own medium, and Liesl Schillinger likes to show off her high-school French skills. After the jump, your weekly guide to sounding well-read.

In case you missed the Janet Maslin review last Tuesday, or the David Carr profile Thursday, or the op-ed that also ran Thursday, the Times considerately ran yet another review of erstwhile Wonkette Ana Marie Cox's new novel, Dog Days, in the Book Review yesterday. (And people thought "flooding the zone" went the way of Howell Raines.)

After several weeks of intolerable, gut-wrenchingly long and/or boring editions of the Times Book Review, yesterday saw the Gray Lady finally put out something that made Intern Alexis's nipples perk up: a big fat work of hotness from big bad Barney the Purple Public Editor, addressing conflicts of interest when it comes to reviewers and their subjects (holla, MoDo!). As if that didn't bring enough joy, the Review even toyed with such evils at Hitler and bloggers. After the jump, Alexis's guide to sounding like you're halfway literate.

We know it's December, we're between food-filled holidays and everyone, ourselves included, is feeling a little sluggish — but really, you'd think the Gray Lady just passed out working on this week's Review and died in her sleep. Perhaps she hadn't any energy left after the 80-page debacle that was last week's Times Book Review, but Intern Alexis doesn't see much point in blowing one's wad all at once, leaving nothing but nasty dribble during the following weeks. After the jump, Alexis braves the boredom and tells you what you luckily missed.

Sometimes, we think we ought to start compensating Intern Alexis with something other than stale biscuits. After all, the poor dear actually dragged her ass through EIGHTY PAGES of the latest Times Book Review, just so we could all read her report and act as if we were literate. For such hard work, she deserves better. Maybe this year we'll stop making her act as like a human Hanukkah candle. Maybe.

In the latest incarnation of the Times Book Review, Intern Alexis finds Stones fans writing about the Beatles, old friends turned bitchslapping reviewers, and a healthy dose of cartoon haterade dumped, apropos nothing, really, on lit-crit Dale Peck. Not very bookish, mind you, but it's the sort of thin, slapdash issue you'd expect after Thanksgiving, but Alexis knows a little Googling makes things a lot more interesting. After the jump, her review of the review.

In her latest review of the New York Times Book Review, Intern Alexis finally gets that which she's been waiting for: an appropriate opportunity to give cranky reviewer Joe Queenan a swift kick in his unfunny pants. She also champions the underdog, reminding Review readers of the artistry of Us Weekly insta-book writers Mara Reinstein and Joey Bartolomeo, all the while questioning the necessity of vomit omelets. After the jump, Alexis fights for your right to a decent Review.

Poor Intern Alexis, saddled with her responsibility to review the latest Times Book Review. Because we're such meanies, we made Alexis drag the paper to the Sunday night premiere of Walk the Line, where she did most of her reading (and, we hope, caught the eye of Joaquin Phoenix for being such an intellectual). This week, the Review indulges the ankle-biters with its Children's Books section, which does a solid nosedive in quality by devoting space to the work of Queer Eye star Carson Kressley and his book about unicorns. After the jump, Alexis delves into the homo-kiddie-lit and requisite Maureen Dowd review.

This week's a very special time for Intern Alexis: It's her first interracial encounter! In her latest review of the Times Book Review, nestled comfortably between talk of sad whores and elitist education, you can find Alexis' deflowering by the penis of African-American author E. Lynn Harris. After the jump, Intern Alexis becomes a Woman.

You'll have to forgive Intern Alexis if she seems a bit sluggish today — it's just that this week's edition of the Times Book Review is the most depressing thing she's read since Dicey's Song. It's amazing that, between the reviews of Iraq-related literature, Joan Didion's self-pity, and some nasty tales of child molestation, poor Alexis didn't kill herself. But our girl is nothing if not brave and so, after the jump, she looks depression in the eye and does her damnedest to skewer whatever she can.

In her latest review of the Times Book Review, Intern Alexis is forced to endure yet another cranky reviewer's bitching about some author who, in an attempt to write about a bygone era, uses modern language. Well, God fucking forbid. And then there's the unshakable suspicion that, in the era of Judy Miller's crimes against her colleagues, the Book Review is jumping the Times' self-loathing express. Self-flagellation and errant Bridget Jones references after the jump.