Last month I had dinner at The Palm with a dozen or so women. Toward the end of the meal I asked (apropos of what I can’t remember), “By a show of hands, how many of you were homecoming queen?” Rita Mitchell, our esteemed host, looked vaguely irritated, because this is not at all the sort of ... [Continue Reading]
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
How could I resist a book with such an unusual title set on an island about which I know nothing (cows, right?) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a charming novel of 1946 London and Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands. London based writer Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a ... [Continue Reading]
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
In 1903, Mamah Borthwick Cheney and her husband commissioned their neighbor Frank Lloyd Wright to design a home for them in Oak Park, IL. By 1909, Mamah and Wright had departed for Europe leaving behind two spouses, eight children, and an outsized scandal. Although Loving Frank is a work of ... [Continue Reading]
Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee
How do you select a good read? Recommendations from friends and book reviews are two popular sources. But sometimes nothing beats a leisurely stroll through your local bookstore. I can spend hours perusing the stacks of bright, attention- grabbing covers wondering what lies beneath. Is the novel ... [Continue Reading]
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
Geraldine Books, the author of March and Year of Wonders, has written another inspired work of historical fiction. People of the Book is the story of an ancient Hebrew manuscript known as the Sarajevo Haggadah, and the book’s conservator, Hanna Heath. The novel alternates between the dramatic ... [Continue Reading]
March by Geraldine Brooks
I was not especially eager to read my book club’s recent selection, March by Geraldine Brooks for two reasons. First, it is a Civil War novel. Despite being dragged by my Dad to every Civil War monument in Middle Tennessee, I am not a Civil War enthusiast. The second reason is that the title ... [Continue Reading]
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
An ECW review from 2008 (pre-blog!) That I would recommend a novel about the end of the world by Cormac McCarthy surprises me too. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t consider a book by McCarthy, who received the 1992 National Book Award for All the Pretty Horses. But several incidents ... [Continue Reading]
The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The NCN Book Club’s January read was a stunning short story collection, The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of the best seller Americanah. As in Americanah, Adichie writes about Nigeria and the Nigerian immigrant experience, but her characters’ jingling anxiety and ... [Continue Reading]
Circe by Madeline Miller
A Feminist Spin on a Greek Myth Circe by Madeline Miller The witch Circe, a resident of the island of Aiaia and a rather minor persona in the pantheon of Greek gods and goddesses, is best known for her encounter with Odysseus in The Odyssey. In Homer’s story, Odysseus and his crew arrive at ... [Continue Reading]
Snow by John Banville a/k/a Benjamin Black
About a decade ago, acclaimed Irish novelist John Banville wrote the first in a series of literary crime novels under the pseudonym Benjamin Black. Set in 1950s Dublin, the novels, featuring pathologist Dr. Quirke and his sidekick Detective Hackett, were surprising best sellers. Emboldened by his ... [Continue Reading]