Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston
"I was glad when someone told me, 'You may go and collect Negro folklore'." Specifically, that someone was Franz Boaz, who was Zora Neale Hurston's thesis adviser as she worked on a Master's degree in Anthropology. This is not exactly a rendering of her thesis, but covers a lot of the same … [Read more]
Marigold and Rose: A Fiction by Louise Glück
"Marigold was absorbed in her book; she had gotten as far as the V." Much like Mr Ramsay in To the Lighthouse Marigold has made far into her book. Unlike Mr Ramsay, Marigold can't actually read. This is a small book, a short story really, by Louise Glück, who won the Nobel Prize a few years ago, … [Read more]
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
"You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings." In what is probably my 20th reading of the novel, I am beginning to wonder what more ideas and meaning I can squeeze from it. One of the nice things … [Read more]
Galatea by Madeleine Miller
"It was almost sweet the way they worried about me." I recently re-read the Richard Powers book Galatea 2.2 which involves a novelist feeding culture and conversation into an AI protocol and inadvertently trying to shape it into a lost love, while also piling assumption after assumption onto an … [Read more]
Harry Sylvester Bird by Chinelo Okparanta
"We arrived at the resort in the afternoon when the sun was rising above the army of palm trees, lined and fanning in the breeze like the windmills in the brightening orange and blue." This is the second novel by Chinelo Okparanta and I wanted to read it after I read an article she wrote … [Read more]
Snowdrift and Other Stories by Georgette Heyer
I found this collection thanks to one of the many articles that pop up in my social media recommending various types of book to me. I can’t remember what the list was (I think it was some sort of recommendations from the New York Public Library), but given last month’s arrival of snowstorm Elliot … [Read more]
