This is the book I’d want with me if I were ever stranded on a desert island. “The Thurber Carnival” is a collection of essays, cartoons, short stories and illustrated poems and fables by the late humorist James Thurber. Written between 1931 and 1945, most of the pieces were originally published in magazines or books. […]
It was 1965, I was eight years old, my parents were divorcing and I was staying at my father’s house. His mother, my Nonna, was very unhappy about the divorce and let her displeasure be known in bursts of loud angry Italian. Trying to stay out of the way of the fracas, I used to […]
Bill McKibben’s new book “Radio Free Vermont” hooked me immediately with its description of determined Vermonters ambushing a Coors Light delivery truck. Not a Coors fan by any means, I had to know why. Was someone finally taking a stand against overpriced, watery, mega-brewery beer? Yes, indeed a stand was being taken, but things got […]
The title of this taut psychological thriller is quite apt. In the story, wildly successful author Oliver has committed a shocking, violent crime – beating his devoted wife Alice so brutally that she’s in a coma from which she may never awaken. With Oliver’s motives unclear, it leads the reader on a quest to figure […]
“Little Sister” by Barbara Gowdy is definitely one of the weirdest novels I’ve read lately. Rose Bowan owns and runs the local movie hall with her mother. She has a placid, uneventful life and a placid, uneventful boyfriend. Her mother is in the early stages of dementia, but that is the only cloud on Rose’s horizon. […]
“Mrs. Fletcher” by Tom Perrotta. Poor Mrs. Fletcher. After her husband leaves her for a younger woman and her only son goes off to college, she’s feeling a bit lost and lonely. Mrs. Fletcher runs into time for reevaluating her life and ponders how she will spend her newfound free time now that she is not shuttling her son […]
The summer reading round-up continues with “Grief Cottage” by Gail Godwin. Eleven-year-old Marcus goes to live with his reclusive Aunt Charlotte after the sudden death of his mother. Aunt Charlotte is a painter who lives on a small island off the coast of South Carolina. Fiercely independent, prickly and secretive, she nonetheless steps up to shelter […]
“Summertime, and the reading is easy…” And easy the reading was, in bounteous sunlight with no worries about getting up early the next day for work. Here are my thoughts on just a few of the books I devoured this summer: First up is “The Monsters of Templeton” by Lauren Groff. With a dauntingly thick plot […]
Journalist Michael Finkel’s book “The Stranger in the Woods” is subtitled “The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit,” which I expected to be a bit of hyperbole. People unplug for days and even weeks, but who would willingly live alone in the dense Maine woods for more than 20 years, speaking only once to say […]
“Rabbit Cake” went from being a book that I almost didn’t read to one I’m pestering my friends to give a try. While I was not initially intrigued by the story – it centers around a young and precocious protagonist and deals with a tragic death among a quirky family and community – I was hooked immediately after reading an excerpt. The […]
Disturbing. Compelling. Upsetting. Masterful. I could go on and on about how amazing this novel, “So Much Pretty” by Cara Hoffman, is. The plot is deceptively simple. Wendy White, a cheerful, well-liked young woman disappears in rural upstate New York. Months later, her remains are found and a drifter is accused of her abduction and […]
Chef Marcus Samuelsson’s new cookbook “The Red Rooster Cookbook: The Story of Food and Hustle in Harlem” is a delightful mélange of recipes, essays, history and photographs celebrating Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City long associated with black culture. Owner of Red Rooster in Harlem and best-selling author of “Yes, Chef: A Memoir” and other books, Samuelsson takes […]
Thirteen year-old Julie was abducted from her home at knifepoint. She was never found and there were no suspects for her abductor. Police suspected that Julie knew her abductor, because there were also no signs of forced entry in her home. Eight long years later, Julie’s parents, Anna and Tom Whitaker, and younger sister Jane have rebuilt […]
Reading this book was a bit like coming home. I had read Kupfer’s previous memoir, “Before and After Zachariah,” in the ’80s. Beautifully written, honest and heart-wrenching, her story of life with a severely disabled son and her family’s difficult decision to institutionalize him stayed with me for decades. “Leaving Long Island“ was a chance […]
