It’s taken me days to recover from the realization that I missed that this book purported to be written by one of the characters as her M.F.A. thesis. I only learned about that from talking to Jennifer when I had just finished the book. I listened to the beginning of the book again and yes, right at the beginning it says it was written by Robbie for her thesis. One of her motivations was to...
I learned about this book on a reading blog I have consulted for years, Tony’s Book World. I am sad to say it was Tony’s last entry before he died last summer. Tony worked in the world of computers, lived in Wisconsin, and was a great reader. I was emboldened by his writing to read much more ambitiously than I would have otherwise; I credit him with making me willing to read books that left me...
Initially I found this book to be a bit preachy with its earnest messages, but I was won over by the author’s unique life and her willingness to face the great complexities of life that affect us all. And of course she could write about those complex issues with clarity. She was born in Korea and lived there her first five years. Her father, a multi-generational Tacoma-based Jewish man...
This is my third Mark Kurlansky book and I marvel at his enthusiasm for his subjects and for his love of factual information. And a firehose of information it was; this time he writes about “The Adventures of a Curious Man,” Bob Birdseye, the man associated with frozen food, for whom the Birds Eye brand of frozen vegetables is named. When I wrote about Kurlansky’s book Cod, I...
The subtitle of this non-fiction book is Ireland to India with a Bicycle and just reading it was exhausting. It’s hard to imagine someone could do this, but doing it in 1963 is truly amazing. I must resist the urge to recount all Dervla’s stories, but hope that a few of them will give the feel for how she coped with the challenges and what beauty and joy she found. To begin this epic...
I could not tear myself away from listening to this book and as a result, made significant progress on a tough jigsaw puzzle I was working on. I had been thinking about this Charlottesville author since his recent book was tapped by Oprah and then learned that Jennifer was reading this one. While I was always conscious of its shortcomings, it did capture me. It is the story of four complicated...
Ron Charles’ enthusiasm for this book is infectious. He says, “Please don’t do this. Don’t write a novel about trying to write a novel. It’s cliche and insular and lazy. Just don’t do it. Unless it’s this novel — this wonderful, witty, heartfelt novel by Lily King titled Writers and Lovers.” I strongly agree and also have an aversion to books about...
What a fun book this was to listen to. I have listened to all of the Baltimore-based author’s detective Tess Monaghan series, but haven’t written about them, though I did write about two of her other books. This one centers on Mrs. Blossom who made an appearance when Tess hired her as a person unlikely to be spotted following a suspect. She is 60-something and is a large woman, thus...
There is now a genre “people writing about their connection to wild animals” and in my experience two stand out: H is for Hawk and Raising Hare. This one is remarkably insightful and like the other two, successfully interests us in the human involved and what the human thinks. Frieda Hughes is a poet and a painter and was living in the countryside in Wales during the time George was...
When I read that Helen Garner, one of my favorite writers, had written a book describing the season of Australian Rules Football for under 16s that her grandson was playing, I knew I had a treat in store. One day she saw her youngest grandson with a football and realized he was almost six feet tall. She asked Ambrose (called Amby) if she could come to his practices. She explained to Amby she had...