I am writing about this book even though I didn’t finish it, something I rarely do. It was a library audiobook and I couldn’t renew it because others were waiting for it. The book is really an art history book; it has a flimsy premise that allows the author to give a thorough take on 52 works of art from the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay through the eyes of a ten year old and her...
The author says that a re-run of the I Love Lucy, which was on television from 1951 to 1957, is on somewhere in the world at any time. Its fame is not limited to those who saw it as it ran; my 12-year-old granddaughter knows the candy-factory episode. I just watched it again on YouTube and it remains funny and appealing. In the Prologue Purdum spells out Desi and Lucy’s strengths clearly:...
Like the last book I wrote about, this is a memoir by a woman. Catherine Coldstream’s background is about as different from Emilee Hackney’s as possible. Her father, Sir William Coldstream, born in 1908 (same year as my father), was a well-known British painter and taught at the Slade School of Arts and Crafts, which flourished under him. Catherine is one of three children from his...
I listened to this 2022 memoir after I saw it listed as one of the ten best books of that year by both the NYT and The Washington Post. Having read a review of it, I knew it focused on a college friendship the author had at Berkeley in the 1990s with a fellow student who was tragically killed by carjackers. After listening to it, I read about the author and learned he is a professor of English at...
Like the people in her fiction, the people in Ann Patchett’s life seem to be kind, funny, smart, beautiful. This is part of the reason her essays are such a pleasure to hear, especially if they are read by her. And I concluded she can see what is kind, funny, smart and beautiful in most people. This collection includes essays about her three fathers, going to Europe with her friend Marty in...
Because of my interest in Australia literature and history, I was aware of James Cook, that great explorer and cartographer, the first European to map and record visits to Australia and the Hawaiian Islands. Between 1768 and 1779 he made three voyages of exploration and this book details his third voyage. He was commissioned to look for a northwest passage across North America, beginning from the...
What a treat to listen to a book written by a Pulitzer Prize winning historian about her travels to historical sites, museums, and iconic spots throughout the country. She included places of interest such as Disneyland and the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta, as well as Williamsburg, Monticello, and the Alamo in her explorations. In the introduction read by Beverly herself, she said she visited...
This makes seven of Ann Patchett’s books I’ve read (including the beloved pre-blog Bel Canto), but the first I’ve listened to her read. Her voice had become very familiar to me as she often appears in my Facebook feed in her bookstore talking about books she loves. Hearing her read this novel was like having an ice cold drink in this heat or snuggling under a warm blanket on a...
After I read Angela Flournoy’s The Wilderness, I learned from Cathy that she had read the author’s first novel and was enthusiastic. Thanks, Cathy, I am so happy to have read this. At the outset I wondered how a novel set in 2008 in Detroit, a city that had been in economic decline beginning in the 1950s could possibly bring me joy. The focus is the Turner family whose life on Yarrow...
It’s hard to believe Elizabeth Strout is still writing books that capture us and take us into a world she has created. And this one is a world we haven’t been to before: no one in Olive Kitteridge’s orbit appears in this book. Olive herself made a very brief appearance when Artie, the main character, recalled reading a book about a grumpy old woman from Maine named Olive...