celebrating books & the literary lifestyle
I took the opportunity of “COVID-19 shelter in place” to re-read a favorite book that I was feeling called towards again:
Atonement: A Novel
I first read this book in a grad school class, “modern 20th century literature.” I loved that class!! And this book was my favorite of the class. I remember exactly where I was sitting when I finished this book – with my jaw dropped!
Time and experience make for a different experience with the same book.
Continue readingMany times during the last few days I have thought to myself, “At least I like to read!”
I’m happy to share my spring reading list in case you need something new to read while we are quarantined and/or sheltering in place, with all of our usual activities and events cancelled.
All these books are new releases this spring, and they have been recommended to me by librarians around the country when I asked for new books that keep the pages turning plus provide some emotional value. Even in these trying times, I do not want fluffy reads. I want to read books that I will think back to over my life because they have added something to it.
Best wishes to you and your families as we all try to stay healthy and ride this out. And remember, at least you like to read!
Continue readingAt the end of 2019 I used one of my favorite Twitter hashtags – #AskALibrarian – to ask for new book recommendations with these qualities:
– a page turner
– book you can’t stop thinking about
– book that added something to your life
One of the recommendations I received – Dear Edward: A Novel by Ann Napolitano – was being released in 2020 so I immediately added it to my early 2020 release reading list.
And I’m posting today to say that YES, this is a book worth reading that met my qualifications above.
Continue readingI put American Dirt on my early 2020 reading list before I knew of any controversy and because it was promoted as “The Grapes of Wrath for our times.”
And the controversy, which I do understand, doesn’t change the fact that, for me, American Dirt was a great read. Meaning that I could have been accused of ignoring everyone and anything else while I finished it over this past weekend. The last novels I remember being so consuming are This Tender Land and Where the Crawdads Sing. So for me, this novel is in good company based on the personal experience I had reading it.
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I haven’t posted about a book for awhile because I’ve haven’t read much since the new year. I’ve been pretty busy with other activities and also took the time to watch all the best picture nominations for the Academy Awards. I was so happy to see Parasite win best picture. If you haven’t seen Parasite (English Subtitled) you can watch on Amazon Prime (click on picture below). Even though I liked all the movies I saw, except Joker which I couldn’t finish, Parasite is the only one I am excited to experience again, and I will soon when I make my husband watch it!!
But I’m logging in today to tell you about the book I’ve been slowly reading since the new year. At first I thought that maybe I wasn’t liking this book so much because I was reading it very slowly. But after fully experiencing it and finding out it was inspired by real people and of course a real place, I am going to recommend it:
Continue readingUsually I don’t publish a reading list until “Spring” but I had to put this together NOW because SO MANY intriguing books are being released early in the year.
Here they are, new titles for early 2020 that I’ll be reading. Publishers notes in boxes and click on the title or picture to take you to Amazon. I hope you see something interesting you will read along with me!
Already being hailed as “a Grapes of Wrath for our times” and “a new American classic,” Jeanine Cummins’s American Dirt is a rare exploration into the inner hearts of people willing to sacrifice everything for a glimmer of hope.
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake delivers a fresh and compelling portrait of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz.
Continue readingAn extraordinary memoir of drama, tragedy, and royal secrets by Anne Glenconner–a close member of the royal circle and lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret. As seen on Netflix’s The Crown.
This post is from my own archives from a different, older blog. Watching This is Us and Rebecca’s memories of cradling Randall as the sun came up reminded me of savoring my own children in a certain chair.
(From 2014)
I am writing this so I can throw away an old chair.
When I moved to Dallas, Texas after college not knowing a soul in that city, I bought a small chair/loveseat set at Pier One for $500 total – a lot for me at the time, especially for something so itty bitty, but it fit perfectly in my first itty bitty apartment at 17878 Preston Road.
Continue readingAs has become tradition (I am now at the end of my fourth year of running this blog) I enjoy looking back on my year of reading to remember and recommend my favorite books of the year. To keep my process consistent from year to year I only consider books published within the past year.
My five favorite books of 2019:
Continue readingI added The Lightest Object in the Universe: A Novel to my fall reading list because I liked the idea of a apocalyptic novel with hope.
A debut novel by Kimi Eiselle, it tells the story of two people who were beginning to fall in love when the $hit hits the fan. The power grid in the United States is down, and they can’t communicate (or do most anything the same way they used to). So one starts walking across the country to find the other.
Continue readingFollowing his or her shocking, bombshell essay in the New York Times last year, an anonymous senior official in the Trump administration has gone into more detail in this new book: A Warning.
Our first question is: Who is writing this book? After reading it, I cannot tell you who it is though I expect we will know soon enough, surely this person will come clean and claim some fame sometime in the next 1 – 5 years when we have a new president.
I can tell you that the author is a lifelong republican. He or she is deeply trusted in the administration. He or she sees Trump on a daily basis, when he emerges each morning from his “prime tweeting hour.” He or she began to question loyalty to the President after John McCain’s death and what he or she saw as the President’s “spite” towards a dead man. He or she has a great interest in history. This person claims to have stayed in the administration to try and guide the president’s impulses as best as one can. However, this author wants Donald Trump voted out of office in November of 2020 and has written this book to help that cause.
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