Beginner's Greek
By James Collins
448 pages. Little, Brown.

The arch and romantic read of any season, James Collins's Beginner's Greek (Little, Brown) makes you half-believe in miracles. With his triteness detector in high gear and his sights trained on social hypocrisy, Collins spins a chance encounter on an airplane (shy guy meets his dream girl) into a perfectly calibrated comedy of missed opportunities and muddled loves.