Thinking Out Loud
Dominick Birdsey, the narrator and main character of Wally Lamb’s sprawling novel, is a man struggling to come to terms with a life marred by tragedy. The novel moves through a year of that life, seemingly the worst, but also in some ways, the best, as Birdsey fights for both his brother and himself. And [...]
Another powerful piece of historical fiction from Geraldine Brooks, Caleb’s Crossing is the story of Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, the first Native American to graduate from Harvard in 1665. The narrator is Bethia Mayfield, resident of Great Harbor on Martha’s Vineyard, who has some basis in the original settlers of the island, the Mayhews. But, as with [...]
Pulitzer Prize winner Gilead has a quiet strength that arises from the character of its narrator, John Ames, a minister in a small Iowa town who is writing a letter to his young son. Ames, whose only son was born in his old age, wishes to speak of his life, both temporal and spiritual, to [...]
I haven’t read Little Women for at least a decade, maybe two, but I remember it being a heartwarming novel with plucky characters. Geraldine Brooks’ novel, March, takes its basic story from that beloved novel but does not offer the same heartwarming pluckiness. It is a dark book, but in it darkness, we learn about [...]
According to Library Thing, I read 33 books this year. It’s definitely a low for me. I usually get closer to 50 and last year got close to 75 as part of a challenge. It’s a testament to two things: moving to the farm and getting stuck with a couple books. While the move to [...]
As cool days and nights move in, we are able to get beyond the confines of the master suite with its window air conditioning unit. I set up the ironing board and my new sewing machine–more later–in the upstairs room and finished up a pillow that had been half done for several years. An honest [...]
I think the irony of the Civil War is that there was rarely a time when people either North or South were very happy with their government. The Confederacy tried to unite states who were seceding from the Union because they did not want to be united, a paradox that haunted them while in the [...]
We’re still deciding on the “s”…some of it may depend on the availability of domain names. It is a beautiful Sunday morning at the farm and I was checking in on my online classes so, since I’m tethered, I thought I’d do a quick farm update. This weekend was all about the chickens. We had [...]
I finished Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James Loewen. I read the first edition, published in 1995. I was particularly taken with his description of the more recent past and how poorly books address it: that “recent past” in 1995 was my own childhood: Vietnam, the energy [...]
Despite the busy-ness of March, I have been reading and listening to books. I enjoyed another Flavia de Luce mystery, A Red Herring Without Mustard, read by Jayne Entwhistle. Fluff but the chemistry and culture keep me coming back. As for reading, I made it through Outlander although I’ll admit to skimming the last 75 [...]