A good book

A good book

Before I came upon Seating Arrangements, I had never heard of Maggie Shipstead, It seems she went to Harvard University, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and went on to become a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford. Seating Arrangements is one of three novels—along with Astonish Me and Great Circle (currently shortlisted for the Booker Prize).

Burning snakes and stained-glass windows: a trifecta of memoirs

Burning snakes and stained-glass windows: a trifecta of memoirs

Hello, everyone. I hope you are having a great late summer, enjoying your days, and squeezing in some reading time. I have a stack of books I have read lately and an equally tall stack of books I am looking forward to reading in the future. A bounty of books. A tower of reading yet to come.

Summertime…and the reading is breezy (for the most part)

Summertime…and the reading is breezy (for the most part)

It is officially summer, I heard someone say the other day. Summer—a time to swim and walk, sit on the back porch, boat, play tennis, recline in shade-dappled hammocks, paddleboard, read…. Plus, the world is opening up, and there’s a lot of joy in all of that. I hope you are all enjoying yourselves.

Pondering reading and three good books on a rainy day

Pondering reading and three good books on a rainy day

It’s a cold, rainy Monday, and I am thinking about reading. I have always been a reader. I remember so many of the books and authors I read when I was young. Pat the Bunny, Dr. Seuss, Uncle Wiggly, Pippi Longstocking, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mary Kinman Rawlings, Black Beauty, Black Hearts in Battersea—I could go on. And on. And on.

Two outstanding but very different books at the turn of a new decade

Two outstanding but very different books at the turn of a new decade

The holidays are over and I’m feeling a bit numb. The Christmas tree is still up, a light snow is falling, the dogs are trying to convince me that a second dinner is in order, and my youngest child, a senior in college, is sitting here on the couch applying to grad school (although right now I could swear she is dozing).

On Books – Sept. 19, 2019

On Books – Sept. 19, 2019

A couple of weeks ago my daughter and I took a summer’s-end jaunt up to Montreal. It was a lovely, short trip. We discovered such a good restaurant, Jatoba, that we went to it both nights we were there, saw the Thierry Mugler exhibit (but only once) that a friend of mine had raved about, and wandered around the Plateau area, as well as Old Port. On one of the afternoons, my daughter opted to rest for a bit, and I (not one for resting much) headed out to (you guessed it) a nearby bookstore (Indigo, on Sainte-Catherine Street).

Some good reads for your listening pleasure

Some good reads for your listening pleasure

I don’t know what there is about Kevin Hart. I just love him. Since I first encountered him in the movie, Get Hard (my kids laugh at me for how much I went so crazy over that movie), I can’t get enough of him. I mean it; I love him. Imagine my delight when I discovered that he had written a book, I Can’t Make This Up: Life Lessons.