Recently I noted that Patrick deWitt’s book Sisters Brothers is now a movie. Though I thoroughly enjoyed it as a book, the violence which was only just tolerable in the book will keep me out of the theater. That book was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize; this one came to my attention as a finalist for the Giller Prize. I look forward to reading what the Shadow Giller folks have to say...
When I was reading this book sometimes I drifted off without quite knowing it, until I became conscious that what I thought I was reading was surely not right. It took me to some odd places. This book is a series of observations about a woman in her 40s. Sonja grew up in rural Jutland, Denmark and seeing herself as different from her family and everyone else there, made her way to Copenhagen. She...
This qualifies as the perfect audiobook for me: it maintained my interest throughout, made me laugh, and was a poignant story. Robin Williams first became famous for the TV show Mork and Mindy which came at a time (1978 to 1982) when we only watched IU basketball and old movies on tv. We all probably remember him from appearances on late night shows like Johnny Carson, where he first appeared in...
Years ago, I read a book by a woman who spent two years in Japan learning about pottery. From it, and from my friend Pat, I learned about Japanese woodblock prints, so it was an important book for me. I read this book to revisit that one I loved so much. The subtitle of this one is Journal of a Zen Monk’s Wife in Japan. The author and her husband had been in Japan for a few years when in...
Kate Atkinson, Transcription. Gary Shteyngart, Lake Success. Funny/grim. Joanne Freeman read her new book: Field of Blood. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan (giller shortlist) Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David Blight Middlemarch by George Eliot French Exit by Patrick DeWitt (another giller shortlist) Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (at Jeff-Mad) The Road Through Miyama by Leila...
It was Tony’s review of this as an audiobook that led me to it. I had appreciated News of the World, so was happy to have a recommendation for a good book to listen to. And this was a great one. Like News of the World, it is successful in taking you to a distinctly different time and place, in this case Texas during the Depression years. You experience Texas along with the Stoddard family:...
Having been impressed with Thirteen Ways of Looking and Let the Great World Spin, I was glad to hear Dorothy’s recommendation to read TransAtlantic. I was doubtful that the structure of this novel would work for me. McCann first tells the story of three important but unrelated events: the first airborne crossing of the Atlantic, the visit to Ireland in 1845 by Frederick Douglass, and...
The fifth in the Maisie Dobbs series was a satisfying accompaniment to my household chores. As the series continues, there is less emphasis on Maisie’s working class origins, but the author reminds us of her time as a nurse during the war, her academic success at Girten, and her meticulous approach to her work as a detective. Though each book moves further from World War I and deeper into...
Jill Ker Conway’s second autobiographical book follows The Road from Coorain and recounts her experience upon arrival from Australia as a graduate student at Harvard through her time at the University of Toronto. It ends with the beginning of her presidency at Smith College in 1975. She tells the charming, sometimes quite touching stories of her life in this period beginning in 1960. The...
Having heard the author interviewed by Terry Gross, I thought this would make a pleasant and light-hearted audiobook to accompany me in the kitchen and in the yard. And that turned out to be mostly true. The premise is that a long-divorced couple each find themselves in need of help in their current lives and rediscover each other in a new role, friendship. Julie has a daughter who needs help...