Rounding out the past year
I closed 2013 by finishing a book that I’ve been picking up and putting down for months, as well as …
Previous articles
Longbourn by Jo Baker
Longbourn opens with a detailed description of a housemaid’s early morning labors, fetching the water from the well for laundry …
The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton DiSclafani
I quickly got caught up in The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls, an atmospheric, well-written coming of age novel set …
Snow White Must Die by Nele Neuhaus
I was intrigued by this book’s title, and discovered it was the first novel published in English (in translation) by …
The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny
I saved this book—number eight in Louise Penny’s “Inspector Gamache” mystery series—to read while on vacation in Québec. Although I …
Dear Life by Alice Munro
A week after the announcement that Alice Munro had won the Nobel Prize for her beautiful, evocative short stories, I …
The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín
A slender book, at eighty-one pages, but one that makes a big impact. Its subject: the final reflections of Mary, …
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both…” Did you ever wonder what your …
Cascade by Maryanne O’Hara
I’d anticipated reading Cascade, because its central action is a source of sad fascination: the deliberate flooding of several small …
Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong
Who can turn the world on with her smile Who can take a nothing day, And suddenly make it all …
