I like reading writers’ memoirs and their books on writing. I especially love a window into their creative process. Since I first saw it, I have been gripped by this description from Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Often when you sit down to write, what you have in mind is an autobiographical novel about your […]
Books
My Favorite Quotes from David Sedaris’ Naked
I recently reread David Sedaris’ Naked. I originally read this book when we lived in NC. It was featured as “new from a local author” at the Chapel Hill library. The descriptions of his OCD compulsions on his walk home from school—gotta lick the ma‎ilbox—made a big impression on me. On my more recent read, […]
Versatile Shirley Jackson
Did you read the short story “The Lottery” in school? The story takes place in a small town, at an unstated time. Palpable excitement builds over a cherished town tradition. Which tradition, exactly, is revealed to the reader in pieces. We finally learn that one town member, chosen by lottery, is to be stoned to […]
Words In Air
My husband and I mostly had a long distance, international, pre-Internet courtship. We wrote a lot of letters, and I have boxes of them still. One of my retirement projects will be to organize, scan, assemble, and annotate. I’m a romantic about letters. Thus, I fell in love with Words in Air. The book contains […]
Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist
I binged on two of Roxane Gay’s books: Bad Feminist and Hunger. Bad Feminist was wise. Hunger was shocking, in an impressively plainspoken way. The essay in Bad Feminist that moved me to post was “Typical First Year Professor.” This incident, in particular: When I was a student listening to a boring professor drone endlessly, […]
A Beautiful and Touching Novel: Commonwealth
I have reported on other favorites (here and here), but my favorite author is Ann Patchett. I’ve read all of her novels and her books of essays. When I see them, I devour her columns in the Wall Street Journal. I love everything she has written. My favorite of her novels was her first one […]
My Favorite Novel: The Namesake
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri is my favorite novel. Gogol (Nikhil) is the main character. It is his name that the title references, and the book follows his life. I find him absolutely fascinating. He goes through life with a certain level of dissatisfaction with everything, a combination of self-loathing and other-loathing. His heritage makes […]
What She Said (Well, Some of It)
I like it when a writer says what I would say, only better. I had that experience with Meghan Daum’s The Unspeakable, a collection of essays. A few of the essays had me nodding my head in recognition, especially “On Not Being a Foodie” and “Invisible City.” Boulder was named as America’s Foodiest Town by […]
As Unsentimental as It Gets
Michael Lewis has impressive range. I first heard of him in college, when wannabe NYC investment banker classmates were reading Liar’s Poker. I thought it was cool that he also wrote about the other coast, and technology, in The New New Thing. One day in the library, I happened upon Trail Fever, about the 1996 […]
The Wonderful Franzen
I’ve read most of what Jonathan Franzen has published. Not surprisingly, my introduction to him was via The Corrections, his Oprah-endorsed novel. That put him onto my list of authors to watch. While I waited for his next novel (Freedom), I read his essays (How Not to Be Alone) and his memoir (The Discomfort Zone). […]