Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Recent Readings”
What to make of a novel that runs to over 800 pages, weighs enough to cause damage if one falls asleep, and tells a story so complex, with so many twists and turns, that in the end this reader at least is left bumbling around in the dark, bumping into knobbly plot-protrusions, shrouded allusions, and a ghost that breaks all …
RECENT READING — FALL AND WINTER 2013IN THE YEAR-END BOOKS SECTION of The Globe, Pasha Malla reflects on what he calls a “gender disparity” in the literary world, which spurred his year-long determination to read as many books by women as by men. Rather than digging into whether or not such a disparity does broadly exist, I thought I’d merely …
How often do we get a chance to read a “novel in progress” which, paradoxically, has already been internationally published and acclaimed? How often do we come upon a novel so achingly hovered-over by the irony of fate — where both the characters and the author are caught up in the sweep of history as it unfolds – where we …
Everybody Has Everything Katrina OnstadShanghai Girls, Lisa SeeThe Uncommon Appeal of Clouds, Alexander McCall SmithRu Kim ThúyAnd the Mountains Echoed Khaled Hosseini Mennonites Don’t Dance Darcie Friesen HossackThe Age of Hope David BergenThe Forgotten Garden Kate MortenThe Juliet Stories Carrie SnyderShut Up He Explained John MetcalfSuite Francaise Irène Némirovsky — And many many stories by Alice Munro! “You don’t have …
April and May, 2013 (Continued) Letters to my Daughters, Fawzia KoofiThe Girl in the Box, Sheila DaltonReading by Lighting, Joan ThomasMalarky, Anakana Schofield Why did we do it? Why are we still doing it? When are we going to quit?To anyone with doubts about our country’s involvement in Afghanistan (and I admit to having been high on that list) I …
April and May, 2013 (Continued) The Purchase, Linda Spalding419, Will FurgusonSeige 13, Tamas Dobozy Stars in the Triple CrownIn my previous post I mentioned the conundrum presented by two novels telling of the same historical events yet telling two such different stories. Another challenge I set myself in early April was to read each of the most recent fiction winners …
Curiosity, Joan ThomasRemarkable Creatures, Tracey ChevalierReading by Lighting, Joan ThomasThe Girl in the Box, Sheila DaltonThe Purchase, Linda SpaldingLetters to my Daughters, Fawzia KoofiMalarky, Anakana Schofield419, Will FurgusonSeige 13, Tamas Dobozy On today’s post: About Curiosity and Remarkable Creatures A friend recommended Joan Thomas’s Curiosity, a book I’d long been thinking of. I ordered it, fell in love with it …
RECENT READING, March 2013: The Imposter Bride, Nancy RicherAt Last, Edward St. AubynThe Man in the Ice, Konrad SpindlerThe Painted Girls, Cathy Marie BuchananThe Forgotten Waltz, Anne EnrightSouth of Elfrida, Holley Rubinsky WHAT IS IT that makes a novel stay in the memory? Why do some disperse so quickly – thin out, the way a cloud does – leaving misty …
February Reading Concluded — with Annabel Lyon’s The Sweet Girl While I was doing research for a recent novel, I was surprised to learn how many archaeologists began their careers in some artistic speciality. This came back to me as I read Annabel Lyon’s The Sweet Girl. Particularly a conversation I’d had with an archaeologist whose early work was to …
Recent Reading (sort of): I had elaborate hopes for this page — an up-to-date record of books read, along with pithy comments. But over the last year it’s turned out to be all helmet and no pith (as a great uncle might have said). So many books read during that year (yes, all real books with real pages) and so …
