Several books in this issues point to a trend: writers seem to be losing the magic in their work. Is it age, too much writing, or the unbelievably cartoonish reality of the times? Whatever, the magic is gone from a lot of writing at the moment. * Magical Realism can’t keep up with the zeitgeist. * …
Yearly Archives: 2017
The Books of September and October
Read: Fiction PS from Paris — Marc Levy (2017) As close to a pure romance as I am likely to read. Two disaffected characters: a writer hiding from his past success and an actress hiding from her current marital problems. The twist is amusing — the writer, an American living in Paris — is popular …
The Books of August
Heavy on the audio books this month. A lot of listening while knitting or other domestic activities happening. Books Read: Lucy and Edgar — Victor Lodato (2017) I finished this out of a dogged sense of loyalty to the old woman who dies at the beginning of the book. The characters are stereotypes without any …
The Books of July
Prose You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir — Sherman Alexie (2017) A complicated book on a complicated subject. Many slight chapters made up of short essays, stories, and poems. This is a reflection on life with a complex woman and the hazards of mothering and being mothered. Alexie’s mother Lillian … she …
Books of June
This month in nonfiction: Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior — Catherine Johnson and Temple Grandin (2006) Ms. Grandin has a unique perspective on animal behavior that is informed by her own autism. She is very opinionated but you have to trust the opinion of a woman who has …