The title refers to women who become invisible as they live carefully, fulfilling their obligations, putting the needs of others before their own. In a superficial way this book has a connection with Barbara Pym's Excellent Women the much admired (except by me) book centered on British women characterized as spinsters who live a circumscribed life, helping others, and wearing...
I found this audiobook of essays written and read by Tim Winton so heartening that when I finished it, I listened to it again immediately. I have never done that before, either listening or reading a book, so what is different about this one? First he writes so beautifully, using such a literate vocabulary with the bonus of the vernacular of Australia, perhaps in particular, working class...
In the last few days I have been focused on the novella-length report of the summer’s awful events, especially the one I wrote about that occurred on August 12. Though I was skeptical about the report, given that Heaphy seemed to be buddies with various people in City government and that he requested to undertake this project paid for by the City. I believe he did a creditable job. As I...
This book by a poet growing up in Poland during the 1970s and 80s is autobiographical fiction. You notice that the unpleasant smells of rural life vie with the visual descriptions to an unusual degree. And there are plenty of home remedies thrown in. Right off the bat is this description of her mother bringing her home from the maternity ward: She brought me home in February. Still bleeding after...
While I was happy to listen to this book as I cooked, dug around in the dirt outside, or folded clothes, I couldn't help but notice it didn't come up to the standard of the other two Rose Tremain books I have appreciated (The Gustav Sonata and Trespass). It is the story of Lev, a Polish man forced to leave his village to make money for his daughter and mother. He had worked in a sawmill...
This Jennifer-recommended book was a Booker Prize finalist for this year. I recall reading somewhere that this was the first post-Brexit novel and while it speaks to trying to come to terms with that world, there's more. First we hear Daniel's voice as he finds himself washed up onto a beach and concludes he must be dead. "Thank you for having me, death. Please excuse me, must get...
I guess it's not surprising that Toibin's take on the lives of Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Orestes, and Electra is pretty wonderful. I have loved everything of his I've read. Having read Aeschylus' Oresteia years ago, I was conscious of the basic plot, which, I should say, does vary with the storyteller. Agamemnon needs a wind to set sail to make war and the gods...
I was so happy when I heard recently that Viet Thanh Nguyen won a MacArthur award. I was impressed by his tour de force of a book The Sympathizer and have been looking forward to reading this one. It did not disappoint. Each short story dropped you into a world that you do not know and his skill often left me breathless. With these short stories you have to pay attention to each sentence...
I fell in love with this short book from the outset and read it slowly because I didn't want it to end. The book is set in Canada, rather vaguely in the 1980s. It's intense because the characters love whatever it is they love so intensely. And it doesn't matter that the things they love are not, for me, particularly lovable. Lets start with Réjean: Réjean had never owned...
This is the story of one strain of the national movement to preserve our plant heritage. In this case a couple who were drawn to living close to the land expanded their reverence for the vegetables of their elders to working to preserve the vitality of that heritage. Shortly after Diane and Kent were married and living near her parents in Iowa, he asked her grandfather for seeds from the morning...