So far this year I've been pretty much wrapped in a blanket, reading comfort books, specifically Trollope. Only one more of the Palliser or Parlimentary novels to go.But finally I read a couple of good YAs: Legend and Where Things Come Back, which was a strange little charming book, sort of reminded me of The … Continue reading A Slow Start
Category: books. reading
2012 Dibby Hill Awards
Herewith the eagerly anticipated 2011 Dibby Hill Book Awards, based on what I read in 2011, not what was published in 2011:Book of the Year, Skippie Dies (a grand tale, brilliantly told, Holden Caulfield meets Oscar Wao in an Irish prep school)Best Young-Adult Novel: The Evolution of Calpurnia TateBest Crime Novel: A Single ShotBest Non-Fiction: … Continue reading 2012 Dibby Hill Awards
The Winter Solstice
We are sinking to the low energy point of the year, the time when we should be hibernating in our dens, the time when the fires die out and we clean the hearths and light a new flame of hope that once again spring and light will return.It's a time to go inward, go deep, … Continue reading The Winter Solstice
G-4 Summit
We had our G-4 Summit in Chicago in October. Fabulous in every way. From the storms we landed in on day one, to Lori's Shoes, to our favorite restaurant, Shine, to hearing the Bears fans erupt in cheers on Lincoln Avenue, to seeing the unbelievable Connie Crothers tear up the keyboard Sunday night at the … Continue reading G-4 Summit
Review of The Informationist
Get to host author Taylor Stevens at the Southern Festival of Books next week. Really looking forward to meeting her. Link to my review of The Informationist is below.The 2011 list so far:32. The Informationist, Taylor Stevens-http://www.chapter16.org/content/deadly-information31. The Penderwicks, Jeanne Birdsall29-30. Palladin of Souls, The Hallowed Hunt, Lois McMaster Bujold26-28. The Treason of Isengard, The … Continue reading Review of The Informationist
Now reading Half Broke Horses, a "true life novel" by Jeannette Walls about her grandmother's life in the West. Calm writing about tremendously dramatic events, which is I guess how you avoid melodrama. And yet the emotion and the nuance comes flowing through. I'll now have to read her memoir, Glass Castle, which is about … Continue reading
Welcome Autumn! Hurry Cold Front!
Arkansas Delta: High CottonSpring River: PerfectFriends of my Childhood: Adorable (photos by Evette Kimbrell Chapman/September 2010)Reading Update: Forest of Hands and Teeth: Hunger Games with zombies, that's a compliment.Reading right now: The Perks of Being a Wallflower, awesome.Through Sept. 2133. The Forest of Hands and Teeth, Carrie Ryan32. Lord of the Changing Wind, Rachel Neumeir31. … Continue reading Welcome Autumn! Hurry Cold Front!
Reading Update
Strange collection of stuff. Finally finished 2666, which was magnificent, wild, tortured, exotic. And it actually did all come together at the end, although without resolution, but at least the circle was completed.The English Major was like guy lit. If hen lit is a woman getting a divorce in middle-age and suddenly finding herself, this … Continue reading Reading Update
Reading Update
The Hemmingses of Monticello is a rich and provocative study of race, family, slavery, paternalism, and history. It read like a novel only in the sense that one's imagination fills in, or tries to, all the mind-boggling inconsistencies of Jefferson and his time in history. My brain nearly exploded in the first chapter when Annette … Continue reading Reading Update
