*** NOVEL: Dept. of Speculation AUTHOR: Jenny Offill YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 2014 *** This book isn’t a narrative, like most traditional novels.  It’s bits and pieces, fragments of writing, some only a sentence long, others several pages.  It’s arresting, right away, and starts to coalesce into a story, one that jumps around in time and switches from … Continue reading On Our Bookshelves – Dept. of Speculation – A Book Review →

I picked up this paperback, a mystery novel about a dead body found in an English country house, thinking it was going to be a cozy mystery.

This book is nothing if not elegant.

This book is the novelistic equivalent of a romantic comedy. A good one, though: Clueless or Notting Hill or When Harry Met Sally.

*** BOOK: Gift from the Sea AUTHOR: Anne Morrow Lindbergh YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 1955 *** This book is hard to describe without making it sound slight, or trite, but it is neither. It’s widely considered a classic, and for good reason. *** Anne Morrow Lindbergh had a very unusual life. Her husband, Charles Lindbergh, was … Continue reading On Our Bookshelves – 1955’s Gift from the Sea – A Review →

It’s not a picnic. It’s something else entirely, although I’m not sure exactly what. But it is worth seeing.

*** Diana Swartz recently invited me to a dinner party at a Italian restaurant in NYC.  She is good company and I like to see her (and the friends we have in common) but this was no ordinary dinner party.  This was a party at which the various guests were assembled to meet some of … Continue reading Changing Cambodia & the World – A Q&A – Diana Swartz, Liger Leadership Academy →

*** BOOK: Decorating a Room of One’s Own AUTHOR: Susan Harlan YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 2018 *** The subtitle of this book,”Conversations on Interior Design with Miss Havisham, Jane Eyre, Victor Frankenstein, Elizabeth Bennet, Ishmael, and Other Literary Notables,” says it all.  Either you will find this a delightful literary romp, appreciate the nod to Virginia Woolf in the … Continue reading On Our Bookshelves – Decorating a Room of One’s Own →

*** I picked up Brigit Young’s debut novel, Worth a Thousand Words, because we have a friend in common, and our mutual friend sent me a copy as a gift. I read it right away, and thought it was really well done. And I wasn’t alone in that assessment: Horn Book’s review called it “a … Continue reading A Picture and a Thousand (Plus) Words – A Q&A with Author Brigit Young →

Cheaper By The Dozen is a rather entertaining semi-autobiographical novel about an unusual family roughly a hundred years ago.