recovering Victorianist, tech worker, fan of giant books. Portland, OR.
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As book reviewer for NPR's Fresh Air and contributor to many publications, Maureen Corrigan literally …
More amiable than insightful, but enjoyable enough. I was kind hoping this would be a better source of reading lists than it was (for me).
In Ireland in the early 1950s, Eilis Lacey is one of many who cannot find work at home. Thus when …
I don't know, there was lots of intriguing stuff in here but it felt labored, and I kept forgetting it was by an American writer because it seemed so much like recent Julian Barnes or whatever. Sometimes I wish writers who get older would not feel the need to deliver end of life insights, with which this novel is somewhat overburdened. I kind of love Doris Lessing for having figured out how not to get super-heavy about this--maybe because she was so serious in youth and lightened up?
Still, though, really vivid writing and sharp insights and memorable people and many writers can't do that at any point in life.
In exile in Holland, Hugh Herriot recalls the exploits of his youth as a follower of Bonnie Dundee who tried …
It’s 1952 and the Scott family has just moved from Los Angeles to London. Here, fourteen-year-old Janie meets a mysterious …
Francis Croft, the greatest poet of his age, was mad. His world was a nightmare of internal furies and haunting …
In this funny and thoughtful guide to a romanticized version of the American expansion west, …
I'm not really sure this is a coherent book, but the author is a pleasant and lively companion to ramble with (if you're a lefty sort--she's a little queasy around the End Times evangelicals she meets, which was funny to me but probably wouldn't be to them) and there are quite a lot of interesting facts and anecdotes sprinkled through her story about going hither and yon to see Laura Ingalls Wilder museums and pageants and sites.
Ursula Nordstrom was the director of Harper's Department of Books for Boys and Girls from 1940 to 1973 and "the …
It's 1996, and Josh and Emma have been neighbors their whole lives. They've been best …
OK, I read this because of the Facebook hook but alas, it did not provide any historical insights into either the pre- or post-Facebook eras. And the teen romance was very slight and fluffy. So: don't bother unless you're 12.
"A lively, frugal-chic answer to the question "Make or Buy" about 120 different food staples"-- …
I actually bought the book after reading just 30 pages, because it is so entertaining (and because I adore the writer's habit of humorously undermining the fiction that people legitimately undertake project cooking to save big money, or the world, rather than because they find it satisfying). She is damn funny, and the recipes look very good too. I'm going to try making camembert.
