Personal essays — the form that takes a general principle and brings it home to one person’s experience, or takes one human soul and shows what is universal there — have enormous appeal to me. I’ve read many of them in anthologies here and there over the years, from Anne Fadiman to Annie Dillard to, [...]
Archive for October, 2008
The Art of the Personal Essay
Posted in Nonfiction on October 30, 2008 | 5 Comments »
If on a winter’s night a traveler
Posted in Fiction on October 28, 2008 | 7 Comments »
If you are a regular reader of book blogs like this one, or if you belong to a book club, you have probably experienced the joy of communing with other readers. It’s such a pleasure to find other people who love books the way you do, who take pleasure in the feel of the book [...]
A Very Private Enterprise
Posted in Abandoned, Mysteries on October 28, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Set in India, A Very Private Enterprise opens with the murder of Hugo Fencham, a British civil servant. George Sinclair is called in from London to investigate. What ensues is very much a traditional whodunit. Sinclair interviews the various characters, checks out Fencham’s dwelling, uncovers a secret stash of gold, meets a pretty young Tibetan scholar. In [...]
Go Tell It on the Mountain
Posted in Fiction on October 26, 2008 | 5 Comments »
When John Grimes turns 14, he knows it’s time to make a choice. Will he follow the Lord, or will he follow his appetites? People have told him for as long as he can remember that he will be a preacher when he grows up, just like his father, but he’s not so sure. His father [...]
Come to the Pub in 2009!
Posted in Uncategorized on October 23, 2008 | 5 Comments »
Challenge completed: July 7, 2009!
I try to limit the challenges I participate in to those that will actually help me get through my massive TBR pile, but this one is too good to resist: It’s the 2009 Pub Challenge, hosted by 3m at 1morechapter.com!
The challenge is to read 9 books first published in 2009 in your [...]
The Complete Persepolis
Posted in Graphic novels, Memoir on October 22, 2008 | 3 Comments »
No matter when or where a person lives, that person must grow up, and growing up involves challenges that are common to everyone. Marjane Satrapi grew up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution—a world away from the southwestern Virginia farm where I grew up—but one of the things that struck me in reading her memoir-in-comic-strips [...]
The Winds of Marble Arch
Posted in Fiction, Speculative Fiction on October 20, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I don’t know what it is about autumn that makes me want to read huge, chunky books. Something about the cold, the weather closing in, the crisp air and the changing leaves, just forces me to pick up things like Dickens, Thackeray, Hugo, maybe the Collected Works of Plutarch — things I’ve wanted to read [...]
“What Should I Read in November?” Giveaway
Posted in Giveaways on October 20, 2008 | 34 Comments »
Yep, it’s that time again. Time for you to choose a prize from my overflowing bookshelves. Here’s how to enter:
Visit my TBR list and choose one book you’d like to read.
Leave a comment on this post (not on my bookshelf) telling me your choice. (Only one choice per person, but it’s ok to pick the same book as [...]
Born Standing Up (Audio)
Posted in Audiobooks, Biography, Nonfiction on October 20, 2008 | 3 Comments »
I have a weird sort of weakness for show-biz memoirs and biographies. I don’t read many of them, but I find myself wanting to read them all. I have no idea why because almost every book of this type disappoints me—the writing isn’t good, the information isn’t new, there’s too much gossip and not enough insight, [...]
Read-a-Thon: Finis?
Posted in Uncategorized on October 19, 2008 | 9 Comments »
Well, since my last update, I’ve read “The Use of Force” a short story by William Carlos Williams for C.B.’s Mini Challenge, and 47 pages of Persepolis. I picked up The Stepford Wives for Carl’s challenge and after reading the same page four times and stopping rub my eyes at least 20, I realized that I’m [...]
