It's Monday, which means it's compare/contrast time here at Galleycat HQ. Let's begin with the NY Times' Book Review, where Ana Marie Cox doesn't think very kindly of Barbara Boxer's political thriller A TIME TO RUN:

"Boxer, a California Democrat who was elected senator in 1992 after 10 years in the House, is clearly following the dictum to "write what you know." But any novel with even a hint of autobiography is likely to carry a whiff of revenge fantasy."

And then there's Kirkus's review of Cox's upcoming novel DOG DAYS:

"This debut novel by Ana Marie Cox, the political gossipeuse responsible for the popular Wonkette website, takes chick lit from the campaign trail into the blogosphere, with results that make Primary Colors read like Proust...Just call it Bridget Jones Goes to Washington or Sex and the Capital City, though readers hoping for some real-life dirt (or at least a salacious facsimile) will be dealt nothing more than lightweight fluff and throwaway farce."

Now, Kirkus does tend to hate everything, so a bad review from them should always be taken with a zillion grains of salt, but I did find it somewhat disheartening that Cox's NYTBR review was (for the most part) better written and more incisive in 750 words than her novel was in 300 pages.