Morgan, C.E. (2009). All the Living, a novel. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN: 9780374103620 A young woman from poverty in the rural south goes to live with her lover on his farm after his entire family is killed in an accident. A story rich with details of people acting, living and thinking by […]
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Poster, Jem (2009). Rifling Paradise. New York: Overlook Press This novel takes Victorian themes of repression and stifling structure and applies contemporary psychological interpretations to them. It also offers a post-colonial interpretation of exploration and British cultural influence. Still, the Victorian setting heightens the exotic feel and the social constraints of the era add drama to
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Valenti, Tom (with Friedman, Andrew). (2009). You Don’t Have to Be Diabetic to Love This Cookbook: 250 Amazing Dishes for People With Diabetes and Their Families. New York: Workman Publishing. ISBN: 9780761155508 New York chef Tom Valenti gives us food that is appealing, healthful, unpretentious and easy to prepare. The book opens with 16 pages
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“It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide–plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions. The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely
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Sackville-West, Vita. (1931). All Passion Spent. It is inescapable that this book is about the female condition, having been written by a woman about a woman’s life that was shaped largely by her being female. The argument that Vita Sackville-West was writing a feminist expression of frustration at a male-dominated world is therefore pretty
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Majumdar, Simon (2009). Eat my globe: one year to go everywhere and eat everything. New York: Free Press. ISBN: 978-1-4165-7602-0 Just what I’ve been craving. An adventurous food book! A British blogger from a family where food is the primary, or it seems only, past time, finds himself turning forty. It is not surprise that
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Steinmetz, Sol. (2008). Semantic antics: how and why words change meaning. New York: Random House Reference. A great book on the shift of word meanings over time in the English language. In addition to the generous glossary of stories of specific words, the “Introduction,” (pp. vii- xiii) is an excellent, succinct summary of the subject.
Changing Words: read most informative and fun etymology book yet Read More »
Budman, Mark, (2008). My Life at First Try: a Novel. Washington: Counterpoint. At first it was the structure that stood out to me. Short sections that break the story up into trim, well-crafted sections. Virtually any of the sections could be enjoyed as a stand-alone work. This is Mark Budman’s best achievement here: muscular sentences
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Blount, R., (2008). Alphabet Juice: the energies, gists, and spirits of letters, words, and combinations thereof; their roots, bones, innards,piths, pips, and secret parts, … with examples of their usage foul and savory.New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Blount is certainly knowledgeable about the English language. I can say I learned a great deal from
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Morrison, T., (2009). Burn This Book. City: HarperStudio. Anyone who has read even one book, poem or article or who has seen even one scripted play, movie or television program knows the power of the writer. The eleven writers of the essays in this book flesh out the reasons writing can affect people’s emotions and
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