Coast-to-coast commentary about books
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Famous People I Have Known
A chance meeting with a figure of world historic importance
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Sometimes the Second Time Is Not the Charm
I often wonder if my reaction to a book is as much a reflection of my mood or receptiveness at that moment as it is any quality inherent to the book itself. It has often happened that a book that frustrated or bored or annoyed me on first reading proved to delight or at least
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The Problem with Worlds Within Worlds
Reading “The Lazarus Project” by Aleksandar Hemon, “The Resurrectionist,” by Jack O’Connell and “The Blind Assassin,” by Margaret Atwood
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Prussian Bodices Ripped by Jews!
Reading “Skeletons at the Feast,” by Chris Bohjalian
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Not Absolutely True
Reading “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” by Sherman Alexie
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Something Completely Different
Reading Ludmilla Petrushevskaya’s cracked and troubling modern fairy tales
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And the Loser Is…
How I learned to love Proust, Falkner, James, and Mann. Or at least how I got through some of their books.
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Hitting New Lows and Posting About It Just The Same
In the interest of completeness and full disclosure I will say that I read this book. Why? Because it was on the bookshelf and I had nothing else to read one night. But why was it on the bookshelf? I have no idea. Possibly a houseguest left it here? And you read it all? Yes,
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By the Author of…
Run, by Ann Patchett Wow, this is a terrible novel. It’s based on a cringeworthy premise – a pair of black children adopted by a white family – and it just piles the cringeworthy details on and and on. Just for example, the boys’ father lives in Boston and has political aspirations for his sons,
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A little dry
The Great Thirst: Californians and Water, by Norris Hundley Jr. Well, I’d be lying if I said this was a riveting tale. On the other hand, it answered most or all of my questions, such as “Where does my drinking water come from?” and “How much of the movie "Chinatown” was based on history?“ and
Far From Brooklyn 