Stones – Poem by Poem
STONES, BY KEVIN YOUNG – POEM BY POEM Hum I am learning how to sleep again, to love the descent, or is it, lying here, a rising up to summit where sleep wanders till waking. And when I cannot, when the water leaches into everything & capsizes me, I wonder where you are, father, if […]
Station Eleven
Read a newspaper lately, in hand or online? War, famine, global warming and now Ebola — it’s no wonder publishers are publishing and readers are reading a near-glut of novels about the end of the world, or in more concise and even Biblical terms, all things apocalyptic. If the story is about what happens after […]
Ed King
Because I was born and raised in Seattle, I look for books by Pacific Northwest authors. Since reading Snow Falling on Cedars, one of my favorite Washingtonians has been David Guterson. In his latest novel, Ed King, he describes perfectly my childhood landscape. “December in Seattle is a dark proposition—by four, the light has disagreeably […]
Always Home
ALWAYS HOME The subtitle of Fanny Singer’s Almost Home delineates the content—“A Daughter’s Recipes & Stories.” What begins as a paeon to Fanny Singer’s famous mother, Alice Waters, quickly segues into recipes and reminiscences that bring not only Alice Waters to life but also a host of delicious gastronomic influences. Alice Waters, for those of […]
Redhead by the Side of the Road
REDHEAD BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD Reading Anne Tyler’s novel, Redhead by the Side of the Road, is rather like paging through an album of family photographs, searching for pictures of a favorite, eccentric but lovable, middle-aged uncle. Each snapshot of him tells its own unique story, while the whole collection of photos embraces […]
If There is Something to Desire
Looking for a collection of poetry is like trying to figure out what you’re hungry for. When I visited Sundance Books to kick off my reading list for the new year, I realized I wanted to gorge myself on spicy verse—lines with sharp wit and bold sentiment. I had to look no further than the […]
The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Dorrigo Evans, protagonist of Richard Flanagan’s novel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, is a man of many facets. Born in poverty in Tasmania, well-educated in Australia, a surgeon by training, a life-long ladies man, a prisoner-of-war during World War II, a national hero and regarded by many as a national treasure, a man […]
Ghostman
Roger Hobbs almost explodes onto the thriller scene in his debut novel Ghostman. We may never know the Ghostman’s identity but the Ghostman is a character we will never forget. Without hesitation, I can say that Ghostman is as powerful a thriller as I’ve read in a long time. Roger Hobbs has developed a nameless, faceless […]
The Invention of Nature
The Invention of Nature – Alexander von Humboldt’s New World Territorial Nevadans in the 19th century considered naming their new state-to-be Humboldt. Instead, the famous scientist’s name was attached to a Nevada county and a 330 mile long river that ignominiously disappears into the Humboldt Sink in the Great Basin. Alexander von Humboldt never visited […]
Fields of Blood
Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence Since reading and swooning over Karen Armstrong’s A History of God twenty years ago, I have eagerly devoured her subsequent books. I approached Fields of Blood, her newest work, with anticipation. Although not disappointed, I found myself arguing with her more frequently than in some of […]
Wild
Wild, From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, a memoir of her 1995 solo hike on the Pacific Crest Trail, has been wildly popular. A New York Times #1 Bestseller, a first selection for Oprah Winfrey’s 2.0 Book Club, and with sales in the millions, Wild received wildly enthusiastic reviews. […]
Home
HOME — MORE THAN A HOUSE OR THE PLACE YOU COME FROM “Home” is rather like a jigsaw puzzle (another of my favorite pastimes). It is a short novel, not 150 pages and when first read it seems very straightforward. Frank Money returns stateside from the war in Korea. He enlisted in the army to […]
Homegoing – Three hundred years of family ties
HOMEGOING — Retrieval of family ties Not since Alex Haley’s Roots have I been so taken by a novel with characters spanning more than three hundred years of family ties. Homegoing is not to be missed. It has taken me some time to put into words why this story of two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, […]
Pictures at an Exhibition
“We were archaeologists in our own tomb,” observes Sara Houghteling’s narrator when he and his father come home to Paris in August, 1944. Paris itself is hardly recognizable and the Berenzon Gallery, their family business, has long since been emptied of its treasures. Even the 250 paintings stowed in a nearby bank depository have vanished […]
Celine
Celine Each of Peter Heller’s three novels sends dissimilar characters in wildly diverse directions. Yet there is a thematic consistency between The Dog Stars and The Painter and, now, Celine. Each plot involves a quest. Each protagonist pursues an almost impossible goal, tilts at contemporary windmills along the way, satirically amuses the reader (and I […]
Two Boys Kissing Reviewed by Ann Ronald
David Levithan’s novel, Two Boys Kissing, contains so many layered nuances of gay America in the twenty-first century that I hardly know how to begin this review. The story lines are multiple, and cover many facets of gay life: embarking on a new relationship, saying goodbye to an old one, trolling the internet for boys […]