Ah, the pleasures of doing the “hard work” in reading. Let David Lipsky guide you on an amazing, intimate and poignant journey with the late writer, David Foster Wallace. Lipsky has transcribed the tapes of a week-long “interview” with DFW during the book tour for his breakthrough work, Infinite Jest. Originally planned for Rolling Stone,…
Reeve Lindbergh, herself an accomplished memoirist, writes a wonderful review of Jamison’s book in the Washington Post that can be found on the Amazon site. “To write the truth with such passion and grace is remarkable enough. To do this in loving memory of a partner is tribute indeed.” Jamison is indeed a writer of…
A first novel by Gaile Parkin is just what the librarian ordered for the armchair traveler who, not for lack of desire, has never made it to the beautiful and fierce continent of Africa. Written in the authentic voices of her many characters, from Egyptians to Americans as well as the many peoples of the…
If you haven’t yet discovered the talented and passionate writer Louise Desalvo, On Moving is a wonderful opportunity to begin to glimpse this unapologetic feminist and highly accomplished scholar’s inner life and to share her fascinating musings and insights into the lives of writers you may also have read and loved . Marilyn Demario writes:…
Michael Lavigne has written a brave and courageous first novel. Cynthia Ozick calls it “radiantly imagined” and Ron Rosenbaum terms it “a daring, even dangerous act of the imagination”. Lavigne confronts some rather incendiary and critical moral issues in this book and he does so with great skill and a fair dose of levity. One…
I’m on a desperate (or should I say deliberate?) search for a piece of postmodern fiction that I might actually enjoy-unfortunately Mr. Clarke’s book isn’t it. The “heartbreaking hilarity” was a bit lost on me. Anyone remember Cher in “Moonstruck” when she slaps Nicolas Cage across the face and shouts “Snap out of it!”? That’s…
Its difficult to imagine anyone who has’t been touched by breast cancer either in their own family or that of friends and acquaintances. Jessica Queller’s book is a powerful reminder of how insidious and often ubiquitous this disease is – every woman Jessica encounters in her emotional sojourn has an important story to tell. Queller…
Nicholas Dawidoff’s haunting memoir of his childhood in New Haven, Connecticut is a moving and richly realized family portrait. No doubt armed with the courage of his impressive successes as a writer (The Catcher Was a Spy and The Fly Swatter, a Pulitzer Prize finalist) and editor (Baseball : A Literary Anthology) Dawidoff confronts his…
Perhaps familiarity really does breed contempt-I so looked forward to reading Banks’ new novel about my favorite part of the world, the High Peaks of the Adirondacks that I suppose I couldn’t help but be disappointed. Banks beautifully recreates a landscape and truthfully conveys the class distinctions that define the way of life among these…
If you enjoy history, and can snag a copy of this popular read, do so immediately! Award winning historian Hodes does a masterful job of recreating the life of a woman, Eunice Stone Connolly, in the 19th century through her letters to her family before during and after the American Civil War. Connolly was rendered…