Category Archives: Recent Reads

Blue Nights by Joan Didion Reread in January 2022, following her death in December, 2021 When I learned that Joan Didion had died on December 23, 2021, at the age of 87, I halted my last minute holiday preparations.  I wandered over to one of my bookcases and pulled “Everything Didion,” off a wide shelfContinue reading “Recent Reads”

Whale Day and Other Poems by Billy CollinsRead June, 2021 Ordinarily, any new collection of poems by Billy Collins would have appeared earlier on my Must-Have list, rather than almost a year after it was released.  Perhaps, the pandemic got in my way. Perhaps, the shuttering of all bookstores, and me, quarantined at home, tookContinue reading “Recent Reads”

A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines Read in 2000.  Reread, several times, most recently in 2020 In the late 1940’s, Grant Wiggins, a Black man and teacher from a small Cajun community in Louisiana, is called upon by his aunt, Tante Lou, and her friend Miss Emma, both in their 70’s, to befriendContinue reading “Recent Reads”

World Travel: An Irreverent Guide by Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever Read in April, 2020 Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever, who had assisted Bourdain with his writing projects since 2002, sat down together in early 2018 and asked themselves if the world needed another travel guide, thinking of basing one on his popular television series,Continue reading “Recent Reads”

Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didion Read in March 2021 Whenever one moves to a new community, expect a steep learning curve.  The flurry of paperwork required to become a citizen of a new state can be overwhelming; changes in voter’s registration, changes in addresses (after thirty-one-years in the same place),Continue reading “Recent Reads”

Giants in the Earth: A Saga of the Prairie by O. E. Rolvaag,  translated from the Norwegian by Lincoln Colcord and the author This is a book published in 1927.  This is a book I should have read sooner.  Was I asleep in literature class?  Was this book ever assigned?  Am I the only graduateContinue reading “Recent Reads”

Girls with Bright Futures by Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman Read February, 2021 I have no idea why I chose to read this book.  I have no idea why I hung with this story, why  I was able to  stick with it to the very end, all 374 paperback pages of this recent work ofContinue reading “Recent Reads”

Hamnet: A Novel of the Plague by Maggie O’Farrell Read February, 2021 In the middle of a pandemic, on a devastating day when 500,000  American lives have been lost, reading and reviewing  a book about The Black Death, the deadly plague in England in the 1580’s, makes no sense at all. Why would one be drawnContinue reading “Recent Reads”

Country Girl: A Memoir by Edna O’Brien December, 2020 In 1960, Edna O’Brien, now a famed Irish writer, wrote her first novel, The Country Girls which scandalized her local County Clare parish in Ireland so greatly that the parish priest publicly burned it.  There is no question that O’Brien designed or fell into a lifeContinue reading “Recent Reads”

A Beginners Guide to Japan; Observations and Provocations,  Autumn Light; Season of Fire and Farewells, and Art of Stillness; Adventures in Going Nowhere, all three by Pico Iyer All three of these recent books by Iyer are short delightful reads by an American travel writer now married to a Japanese woman, where he now focuses hisContinue reading “Recent Reads”