The Mill on the Floss (reread)

“Things out o’ nature niver thrive: God A’mighty doesn’t like ‘em.” So Maggie Tulliver is told in an early chapter of George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss. Although the statement refers to lop-eared rabbits, it could just as easily apply to Maggie herself. From her childhood, Maggie is perceived as a “thing out o’ nature.” She’s [...]

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Sunday Salon: 2009′s Notable Reads

This being the last Sunday in 2009, it seems appropriate to look back over my reading year. I feel like I’m a little late to the party because so many have posted their year in review lists already, but I’m glad I waited because one book did squeak in. According to LibraryThing, I read a [...]

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Angela’s Ashes

I remember when Frank McCourt’s memoir of his impoverished Irish childhood, Angela’s Ashes, came out in 1996. I was working at a Barnes and Noble at the time, and it absolutely sold like hotcakes. It seemed like everyone was reading it, from every walk of life. It had something for everyone: men, women, Catholics, Jews, [...]

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Merry Christmas to All!

Yes, even the most unbearable Christmas song ever is delightful when the Muppets are involved! Ba-dum-bum-bum!

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Shutter Island (audio)

I’m not sure I want to say anything at all about Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane because someone made an offhand remark to me about it a couple of years ago, and that was enough to spoil the ending. The remark itself was really innocuous, intended to encourage me to read the book, but it was enough to [...]

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North and South

Today we welcome Elizabeth Gaskell to Shelf Love as part of the Classics Circuit. Between us, we’ve read all of Gaskell’s most well-known novels, and it was a great pleasure to finally read North and South. Shortly after the book opens, Margaret Hale’s father, a minister, is having a crisis of faith that causes him to [...]

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Sunday Salon: Making a Plan

So this is the time of year when people are making their plans for next year’s reading. Bloggers are posting challenge lists right and left, and the lists are fascinating. I love looking at them and imagining what I might read to complete the challenge. As Eva said yesterday, reading challenge lists are all about [...]

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Crossed Wires

Yes, the cover is pink. Yes, the v in the word love is in the shape of a heart. No, I would never pick up this book in a bookstore. But I’d seen several bloggers say good things  about Crossed Wires (one of those things being that the cover doesn’t suit it), so when author [...]

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The Diary of Samuel Pepys

I was interested in reading the diary of Samuel Pepys, a 17th-century businessman who helped turn the Royal Navy into the great institution it became, for a few different reasons. First, of course, it is One Of Those Things One Ought To Read. It’ s a classic. People quote from it, and read it in [...]

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Best Books of 2009

Wuthering Expectations and Litlove over at Tales from the Reading Room have reminded me that it’s time to round up a few of the very best things I read this year. I have to say that 2009 has been one of my very best reading years since I started keeping track, along with the golden [...]

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