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These Precious Days by Ann Patchett

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...

The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides

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...

Sisters of a Halved Heart by Nayantara Roy

I was eager to read this, having loved The Magnificent Ruins and I found there was much to enjoy. The family connections were unusual and interesting:  the narrator is Mira. Her mother was separated from her father who remarried and nine years after Mira was born, had a daughter named Joy whose mother died in childbirth. Mira, Joy and their father had a complicated connection: The fierce love...

The News from Dublin by Colm Tóibín

Another remarkable work from Colm Tóibín. I find short stories harder to manage, but I was captivated by these.  I will write about a few that were particularly poignant for me. The first, “The Journey to Galway,” tells about a woman hearing the news that her son, a fighter pilot apparently during the Second World War, was killed. She knows immediately the telegram brings bad news as...

This Land is Your Land by Beverly Gage

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...

The Typing Lady by Ruth Ozeki

Getting this collection of short stories off to an appropriate start, the first story features “the typing lady,” someone the narrator observes typing in the library. The typing lady is described as “nondescript:  oldish, in her fifties or sixties, Asian-looking, with black-framed glasses and gray-streaked hair,” so you know right away the narrator is describing the author...

Land by Maggie O’Farrell

It was in 2008 that I read my first Maggie O’Farrell book, so, yes, I am a fan. Land begins in the 1860s, more than a decade after the famine; Tomàs is creating a map for the “redcoats,” those oppressors of Ireland. Tomàs and his wife Phina, both lost their families during the famine and managed to survive their time in the workhouse and somehow Tomàs acquired the skills needed...

Whistler by Ann Patchett

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...

This is Where the Serpent Lives by Daniyal Mueenuddin

After Ann Patchett spoke about a 2009 book of short stories by this author, I found this recent one. If you are hoping to read an uplifting book with lovable characters, you should read the title of the book more carefully than I did. The author is a Pakistani-American; he was born in the US, lived in Pakistan until he was thirteen, returned to the US for education and became a lawyer. He now...

Thirst Trap by Gráine O’Hare

When Reading Matters listed the finalists in the Kerry Group Novel of the Year Award, this book went on my list to read and it moved to the top of the list when it won the award. It tells the story of three hard-living housemates in Belfast just as they are turning thirty. It manages to be both funny and sad, as the women choose drug and alcohol-filled nights and messy love affairs over...

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