This was adorable, and surprisingly insightful. Of course, I’m always susceptible to books that feature socially challenged individuals, especially ones that are male, so there was probably no way I wasn’t going to like this book. I’m glad to say that not only did I like it, I very very much liked it, and I can’t wait to see the movie version (also written by Simsion — actually, I believe the script came first, and then he wrote the novel). A lot of people have […]
Another Historical Romance, But a Twofer with Displaced Princesses
New author! Juliana Gray is a very strong historical romance writer with a wonderful turn of phrase, a gift for simile, and great smolder. It is such an unexpected pleasure when a book randomly selected from the romance spinner at one’s library results in a new novelist to enjoy. I went back the next day, and the next, to get more of her books. Gray will be going on my woefully short good authors list and may well end up as an autobuy. The Princesses […]
An Old Man Remembers the Blues
It’s been a long time since I read Walter Mosley’s great Easy Rawlins mysteries, set in post-war Los Angeles. Many years ago a friend gave me RL’s Dream, Mosley’s first foray outside the detective genre. I tucked the book on the shelf to read later. Almost twenty years later I found the book on the shelf last week. Curious to see what I’d missed, I plunged into the book that was described as being about the blues. RL’s Dream is set in 1990s New […]
It Really Was All Too Brief…
My book club picked The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz for our February get together. This is the reason I love book club, because I would never have picked up this book on my own. Also, like every other female book club, we drink large amounts of wine. But we always read the book! The novel is centered around Oscar, a tragic and hopeless lame teenager, during his high school and college years. Oscar is overweight, socially awkward, and just […]
Hey, if you want someone to clean your house, hire a maid
I have to admit, I picked this book out because of the title; it tickles me to read it in public with a contemplative face. Anyway, it is not actually a self-help book, but as you might guess, Marta is a “good wife.” She cleans, prepares dinner for her husband, and takes care of all things domestic so that her husband does not need to worry himself with such concerns. However, Marta has recently stopped taking her pills (the actual reason for medication is left […]
Think “Brokeback Trojan War,” only BETTER
Maybe because I grew up in Christian private school, or because I’m just oblivious, or because Hollywood has succeeded in shaping my view of classical literature, I did not know until reading this book that many scholars agree that Achilles and Patroclus were not friends, or cousins, or brothers-in-arms, but lovers. Ooh la la! In fact, most of the time I was reading this book, I thought that the author, Madeline Miller, had taken a modern artistic liberty that was an interesting spin on the source material […]
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