A Whiter Shade of Pale and Becoming Emma, by Catarina Edwards (NeWest), sports a truly appalling cover on the outside, and a most unfortunate typeface on the inside (can we even call it a typeface?—if this one has a name, it can only be font). These two novellas deserve more than a shoddy presentation, for they are both very good. The first is a humorous meditation on middle-aged marriage angst, and the second ties Emma Bovary, Emma Wodehouse, art theory and Latvian history into the story of a woman floundering most entertainingly toward her destiny. Bonus: the word zeitgeist is to be found on page 217.