Or, as Tolstoy would say, Book Review: War and Peace, although it can’t really be a review because none of us know anything and everything is inevitable and none of us have any control over events, including writing book reviews, and also, I’m going to kill your favorite character. I decided eight years or so was long enough to leave this book languishing on my to-read list, and that it was time to give it the attention it deserved. Along…
Update: The giveaway is closed, and we have a winner! Congratulations, Marylou, your bookshelf should be expanding shortly. Thank you all so much for your comments. I loved reading them all, and appreciate your participation. And to answer your questions, yes, you can certainly enter if you’re family, and yes, submissions from other countries are always quite welcome. Also, if you signed up for the emails, and didn’t see anything this morning, be sure to check your spam folder. Sometimes…
Happy Saturday! So, what are you doing with your weekend? I’m going to help my mother attack the painting at the house my parents are remodeling. Also, I’m inordinately excited about the cooler weather predicted, and hope to take advantage of it in a park tomorrow. Picnics float my boat. Many of you all are new here, so I wanted to say welcome to the party. Drop a comment below telling me how you arrived here, and what you’d like…
Ahhh. Introducing this book to you all feels like introducing you to my (secretly favorite) child. It’s one that I reread every year or so, when I want something light and relaxing and hilarious, and every time, it is just as fun as I remembered. Daddy-Long-Legs, by Jean Webster, is the story of Jerusha, a girl who had spent all eighteen years of her life in an orphanage, until one day, she was called into Mrs. Lippet’s office for an…
Update: The lucky winner is Naomi. Congratulations! Thank you all so much for your entries. Hello pineapple comrades. This is a giveaway! But you already knew that. This is ostensibly to celebrate the summer solstice happening tomorrow, but mostly it’s to celebrate that you’ve stuck with me and read my ramblings and cheered me on this far. The winner will receive the book pictured above- a gift from my personal library. It’s a compilation from one of my favorite authors,…
You know how sometimes you encounter a book quite by chance, and it kind of knocks your socks off? When I worked at a little local used bookstore, someone brought in this book to exchange, and the quirky illustration and title made me decide it needed me. The story starts out simply enough, with Reggie answering a newspaper ad for gifted children looking for special opportunities. But he is quickly drawn into a plot much bigger than himself, and is placed…
I read this book in 2014, and loveloveloved it. I recommended it to loads of people, until finally I thought, maybe I should reread this and see if it’s actually as good as I remembered before I continue spreading it. So I did. And it was. Garlic and Sapphires is Ruth Reichl’s story of being the restaurant critic for the New York Times. As a reluctant foodie and an enthusiastic NYC lover myself, that in itself is enough to make…
Have you ever read Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll? It’s full of gibberish and nonsense, yet somehow it makes sense, thanks to Carroll’s brilliant and imaginative brain. He even managed to invent a couple new words through it that stuck, and we still use “chortle” and “galumphing” today. Cool or what? And at the risk of sounding childish, it’s one of my very favorite poems. Without further ado, I present to you…Jabberwocky. Read it aloud if you please; it’s twice as fun that way….
I found Anuschka Rees’ blog a while ago, and was fascinated by her fresh take on fashion. Most fashionistas like to put you into a little box and say, “You are shaped like an apple and have winter coloring, therefore you must only wear this style and this color regardless if you like it or not, because it suits you and I know best.” Anuschka takes a very different approach. She wrote a post titled “Why I don’t believe in dressing for my body…
My focus last year was less on reading and more on other new experiences. So I read thirty books instead of a more hefty amount. But here are the titles I did read, along with a blurb about each one. Some of them were lovely, and some of them I jumped in only to find I was in a pool I didn’t wish to swim in. Maybe my mini reviews will help you avoid those. And hopefully my glowing reports will…
Most maddening book: “Giant”, by Edna Ferber. If you like being left hanging in suspense at the end of a book, with no idea of what could properly finish the story, then this is just the book for you. After finishing it I had to storm into the hallway and yell at my housemate who had recommended it to me. Who does that?! However, in spite of the (in my opinion) incomplete ending, the writing style is entrancing, and it’s…
<a href=”https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/18828669/?claim=s6xwdxc3cg8″>Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a> In 2014 I purposed to read a book a week, and approximately did so, by the skin of my teeth. In 2015 I didn’t set any specific goals, but largely because I read aloud so much to my school kids, I managed to read sixty-one, and with no skin off my teeth. Hmm, does this mean that setting goals accomplishes less than living spontaneously? Anyhow, without further ado, here is the list of…