Oleander Girl: Coming of Age
Early in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s new novel, Oleander Girl, the dead mother of Korobi Roy appears to the young woman in a dream, beckoning to her from a bedroom window. Reading the novel, I felt...
View ArticleSummer Reading: Good Times
Summer loving is good but summer reading can be even better! I won’t waste your time with long explanations — I want to give you plenty of hours to spend reading! Add in a little loving when you can,...
View ArticleTime for Summer Reading
Time to read. Summer means many things — long days, hot weather, kids freed from homework, swimming pools and cool lakes and days at the seashore. Crickets (no locusts for us), fireflies, a rabbit in...
View ArticleShelley’s Monsters
Mary Shelley wrote the most famous monster story of all time, Frankenstein. Or did she really? That question is just one of the literary mysteries explored by Lynn Shepherd in her mesmerizing novel, A...
View ArticleWomen of a Certain Age
An examination of life looking back from a mature age is at the center of The Last First Day by Carrie Brown and I Married You For Happiness by Lily Tuck. The authors avoid the easy take on growing...
View ArticleSomeone Extraordinary
Someone by Alice McDermott is a marvel of grace, insight, and beauty. There is no high-blown melodrama, there are no evil-doers or outlandish characters, and no improbable or extraordinary events. What...
View ArticleThe Guest Cat
The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide is a slender but rich meditation on fate. What force directs the twists of our lives – or are all events random and therefore beyond our control? When a tiny,...
View ArticleQuiet Dell: Tragedy and Redemption
I loved Quiet Dell by Jayne Anne Phillips. It is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time, containing every necessary element for a great book: compelling and fully-developed characters, resonant...
View ArticleThe Soul of a Book Lover
The task of writing a review of An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine is daunting. Why? Because I don’t want to write anything that might keep someone from reading this book. Everybody should...
View ArticleJudith Frank: Choosing Life
A twin loses his brother in a Palestinian suicide bombing of an Israeli cafe and finds himself guardian of two orphaned children. The twin, Daniel, is gay; his partner, Matt, is a goy and viewed by...
View ArticleAdding to HOW to Read ALL DAY
As summer approaches and “summer reading” appears everywhere we readers tend to go – the library, bookstores, book supplements in our local papers, book blogs (like this one!) – I thought an update to...
View ArticleReturning to Therapy
Book therapy, that is. Eight years ago I began my year of reading a book a day. I was looking for escape, wisdom, comfort, and clarity after losing my oldest sister to cancer. Reading in my purple...
View ArticleThe Joys of Picking My Favorite Books
I am thrilled and honored to be Westport Library Guest Curator for November. In the list of 100 books I chose as curator, I share those books that changed my life. Great good comes from reading...
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