READ ALL ABOUT IT
Since 2012, I’ve been writing about books. And the act of reading. And the importance of story and narrative. But, mostly, the underlying theme of all I write is how taking a moment to stop and digest some longform text — instead of scrolling, instead of watching a video, instead of multitasking — can be one of the most grounding things we can do for ourselves. Here’s the one-stop online home for all this writing.
You can read more about me and my work by moseying over here. Want to peruse periodic “essay drops” — excerpts from my work-in-progress essay collection about Homesickness? Here ya go.
Libraries are Benevolent
The two books I’ve read by Richard Powers — The Overstory and Bewilderment — are so full of profound nuggets of wisdom about, well, life. And you can probably find many of them aggregated on sites like Goodreads. This one isn’t really “life wisdom,” but it really is a nice way to describe a library, isn’t it?
What Happened to Amazon’s Bookstore?
I just finished Bewilderment by Richard Powers. (Really great!)
I have way too many books out from the library at the moment, including A Calling for Charlie Barnes by Joshua Ferris, The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller, and Why We Can’t Sleep: Women’s New Midlife Crisis by Ada Calhoun (that’s funny). Plus 3 others. Like a kid in a candy shop…
Bewilderment
Is Richard Powers’ entire MO to gently prod readers to flip life on its side so we can learn to approach our investigation of it differently? Bewilderment is only the second novel of his that I’ve read, but it seems fitting to (almost) end out 2021 with his latest — an Oprah pick, btw — after jumpstarting this crazy year reading The Overstory with my husband. I guess I’ll have to read more Richard Powers to find out.
Just a Pic of a Little Free Library
I just finished Bewilderment by Richard Powers. (Really great!)
I have way too many books out from the library at the moment, including A Calling for Charlie Barnes by Joshua Ferris, The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller, and Why We Can’t Sleep: Women’s New Midlife Crisis by Ada Calhoun (that’s funny). Plus 3 others. Like a kid in a candy shop…
Rising Out of Hatred
Gearing up to discuss this one tomorrow with a handful of high school classmates. Yes, I read Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist by Eli Saslow over Thanksgiving break, which feels inappropriate for some reason, i.e. it’s not exactly a sweet or #blessed tale.
Matrix
Everyone’s raving about Matrix by Lauren Groff (I mean, this book sure roared in with a bang, right?), and here I am googling “psychology of preference” and scouring an old NPR transcript of an interview with Ira Flatow, Yale professor of psychology and author of How Pleasure Works. (In other words, why we like certain things.)
How to Recommend a Book
Ha. The “Tip” column in the New York Times Magazine from Oct. 24 is “How to Recommend a Book.”
City of Asylum in Pittsburgh
I learned about an incredibly interesting organization today. It’s called City of Asylum, and it’s a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit; I’m just going to copy their mission directly:
Harlem Shuffle and Real Estate
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead is a heist novel. But heist stories are not my thing, so I’m billing this as a novel about real estate. Because it partly is. And because I read it in tandem with Real Estate, the third installment of Deborah Levy’s “A Living Autobiography” series.
‘The Clique’ Books Taught Hate (?): Books Are Not the Problem
If you’re a parent, you are already well attuned to how television and film affect your offspring. (Or at least how we think they affect them.) Let’s rewind to me appalled at the iCarly episode my daughter was glued to in a Montana emergency room when she was six.
A Long Petal of the Sea
Once again, another wonderful book club meeting with alumnae from my high school. This time, we ranged from the Classes of 1948 to 2004. (I think I got that right.)
The Wolf Border and The Electric Michelangelo
Two totally different novels by the same author. One about wolves, one about tattoos. (Duh, of course I’m simplifying.) Highly recommend both, but for some reason Wolves > Tattoos for me?
In This House of Brede
Is a novel about a group of nuns in an enclosed monastery in England a bit dated? Well, yes…but I think that’s the point. Or maybe it’s not. I think the point is that Everything Old is New Again ™️. In This House of Brede, Rumer Godden’s 1969 book that was made into a film in 1975, explores life in the Western world around the time of Vatican II.
Goncourt Scandal and Drama
SCANDAL & DRAMA!
In case you didn’t know, French literary culture is Serious Business. Très sérieux.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
I shared in my stories the other week that I’m trying to read more non-fiction, and that The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot was where I was starting. (Now, cue the 7 fiction books that I’ve got lined up. I guess you can say that my intentions are good; execution is poor.)
Netflix (Bandwagon) Book Club
Once again, in case you haven’t noticed, books are #Trending. Books are cool!
Charlotte Mecklenburg Library
Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, Main Branch.
The Cost of Living
I struggled with this one. I recently read about Deborah Levy’s new book Real Estate: A Living Autobiography, not realizing that it is a third installment in a series. But I learned all this after I decided to check out the second in the series — The Cost of Living. (I’ve got Real Estate on hold!)
The Most Carol Shields Day Ever?
Dublin Book Festival shared a fun blog post earlier this week as a lead-up to one of their events with an Irish musician who just published a book. (No, not that one — geez.) It was just a quick, whimsical read about five songs that were inspired by books, and of course one of them was Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush. I hadn’t heard that song in a while, so pulled it up on Spotify, and then spent the next 10 minutes Googling Kate Bush. And then I learned that there is a “holiday” called The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever, wherein people around the world reenact Bush’s video. WHAT! (Check out this Guardian pic of this day in 2018 in Sydney.)
I Couldn’t Love You More
I reserved this book at the library and it came in right away…but now it is due basically yesterday because someone else has put in on hold. I love thinking about the zipzapzing of books being shelved and shuttled from one branch to another. Who had this book before me? Did they like it? Is it someone similar to me…or is it, like, an 85-year-old man? And in the case of a *kind of* obscure book — meaning it’s not the latest hot new release that’s being made into a movie — I really, really wish I knew who was checking it out it too.
