celebrating books & the literary lifestyle
At long last I can tell you about the epic book I’ve been reading since spring break using my crumpled boarding pass to Miami as a bookmark.
I read this work of art slowly because every page needed to be savored and understood. There were so many characters and so much to digest from the busy streets of Bombay where an Australian fugitive settles.
I read several other books in the meantime because I practice multibooking.
This book, now a favorite, is:
The book I’m recommending today was a slower, thoughtful read for me. I am adding it to the “Newer Classics” list which is where I categorize the epic reads published in the past 20 years (or so).
This book was apparently a national bestseller years ago – or so the cover claims – but I hadn’t heard of it until my Dallas friend who also recommended A Fine Balance (I will always be recovering from that book) recommended it to me.
I just finished a book that is timely and relevant to issues of race in America, a book I loved and recommend wholeheartedly.
by Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieThis book follows the lives of Ifemelu and Obinze, two Nigerians who fall in love as teenagers but then take separate paths to America and Britain.
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Only a couple times a year (if I’m lucky) do I read a book that is nearly perfect to me like This Tender Land: A Novel by William Kent Kreuger.
By perfect (to me) I mean that every day I am thinking “All I want to do is read this book.” Also it has to provide artistic value (more on this below) and hit me emotionally.
This book is set in 1932 Minnesota when four kids flee a horrible home for orphaned Native American children and set off in a canoe towards the Mississippi River. Their intended destination is St. Louis, and along the way they meet other adrift Americans and lost souls, some good and some bad, but most are, as in real life, complicated. It is written as a memoir, from an older man looking back on this astounding, hazardous adventure.
Continue readingThree summers — and 185 posts ago — ago I started “Leslie’s Bookcase” with this post about old books. I had been working on my graduate degree in English literature for several years and was reading mostly older books. This blog was going to (and has) filled the void of reading and discussing books after earning my degree.
After blogging for one year and realizing, however, that readers (including me) prefer reading about new books, I celebrated my first blogoversary by writing about how I loved new books.
This year I am celebrating by choosing my FAVORITE 5 BOOKS since starting this blog. At the end of every year I name my five favorites published that year; the “published in this year” keeps my selection process defined from year to year. So many older books I have discovered or even read a year later weren’t eligible for my annual post. But for this post I am considering ALL THE BOOKS I have blogged about.
So here they are, MY FAVORITE 5 BOOKS SINCE STARTING THIS BLOG:
Continue readingThe book I recently finished, A Fine Balance, ranks in my favorite reads ever.
This novel is a sweeping portrait of India in the 1970s with its corruption, tragedy, poverty, caste violence, and all the other turmoil and sadness you can imagine.
Two tailors have moved to the overpopulated “city by the sea” for its perceived opportunities. They find a job sewing for a widow, Dina, who also takes in a university student as a boarder to make ends meet. It is ultimately the story of four people who, through shared circumstances, move from strangers to soul friends.
Continue readingOccasionally I ignore a book until I can’t anymore. Of course I heard the buzz and reviews of this particular book for months, but I wasn’t in the mood for a “southern novel.” So I just kept on reading other books. Until a couple of weeks ago when this book literally ended up in my house:
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
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I haven’t posted in a couple of weeks because I have been reading a book that required a slower pace of reading, Gilead: A Novel
The lyrical novel reads as a letter from a dying 67-year-old minister, John Ames, to his young son. He reflects on his love for his family; he confronts his own perceived shortcomings and jealousies and moves towards forgiveness and acceptance.
I finally picked up Rules of Civility, which has been sitting in my bookcase since last year after I read (and loved!!!) the author’s newer work A Gentleman in Moscow
I found this book to be a really good read and a really smart read. As the strong woman character (Kate Kontent) – climbs the social and professional ladders, we get a thorough picture of New York (Manhattan) in the 1940s which is fascinating. This is post-depression but pre-war so although people are happy and doing well (especially the upper echelons Kate works to put herself among) I couldn’t help but think about what was to come.
Also I took notice of the many literary references in this book.
I asked for The Goldfinch: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)
Books like this are why I love to read. (Though to be fair – a book like this comes along for me – if I’m lucky – maybe/hopefully once a year.) There is so much to love about this novel, but when I break down why I love how Donna Tartt told this story it comes down to People, Places, & Things.
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