The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty Vendela Vida Take inventory of what distinguishes you from everyone else and you’ll find a lot, like the obvious; your name, your physical description, and the clothes on your back; and esoterica, like experiences, memories, and the people who populate them. In fact, we seldom consider every aspect of identity,…
God Help the Child Toni Morrison Toni Morrison, an author that I gladly read twice, thrice, whatever it takes, that I study and annotate and emulate, came out with her highly anticipated novel, God Help the Child. Even with her illustrious presence as author, literary thought leader, Nobel, Pulitzer, et al., this, her eleventh novel,…
Queen Sugar Natalie Baszile You’ve no doubt been on the giving or receiving end of a comment that borders on “hey, wait-a-minute” and “maybe I should just let that one go.” Me too, and each is equally awkward to the well intentioned. So, what is microaggression and what does it have to do with the…
Beloved Toni Morrison What more is there to say about Beloved, the Pulitzer Prize winning novel written by Toni Morrison? It tackles the ghostly legacy of slavery. It uses both cultural and biblical mysticism in its narrative. Its prose is lyrical and literally shifts to poetry at some points, notably in part two when the three main…
Reading Lolita in Tehran Azar Nafisi Reading Lolita in Tehran takes you to another place–really–I mean you are “not in Kansas anymore!” Author, Azar Nafisi envelopes you with the textural content of a post-revolution Tehran and with scenes from her teaching experience there. She teaches fiction at University of Allameh Tabatabei, where her feminist interpretations of literary…
Healing from Family Rifts: Ten Steps to Finding Peace After Being Cut Off from a Family Member Mark Sichel I didn’t find this book. This book found me! I was sitting in the waiting room at the doctor’s office and noticed it on the bookshelf. While all the other books were placed uniformly, this one was…
Still Alice Lisa Genova In Lisa Genova’s extraordinary New York Times bestselling novel, Alice Howland, an accomplished professor diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease learns that her worth is comprised of more than her ability to remember. Alice is proud of the life she worked so hard to build. At fifty years old, she’s a cognitive psychology professor at…
White Oleander Janet Fitch In creative writing workshops the first thing you learn is to “show instead of tell” your story. This applies to character, setting, scene, etc., and author Janet Fitch’s novel, White Oleander, is my go-to book for examples in doing this. She’s written a novel rich with sensory detail and prose so…
Girl Soldier: A Story of Hope for Northern Uganda’s Children
by Grace Akallo and Faith J.H. McDonnell
The optimist: I see Alzheimer’s has lifted any weight she bore in this life. She is unfettered and living life in the here and now. There is no past, no future worries on her mind–after all, worry is fretting over what might be. The woman once propelled by a bit of useful OCD, kept a lovely, impeccably neat home; but she is now…
The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan Most of you have probably read The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan. If you haven’t, then you’ve most likely seen the movie adaptation directed by Wayne Wang and produced by Oliver Stone. This was my second time reading the book, and it was ironically prompted by my high…
Life Sentences Laura Lippman This was certainly one of those unexpected jewels. I read the book jacket and expected something completely different from what I got. I’m glad, because I am not much of a murder/mystery reader, and although the synopysis might lead you to believe this is what the book has in store, I…
The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison Wow! My first read of Toni Morrison, and it did not disappoint. It was powerful and weighted–normally I’d brace myself for a read like this before jumping in. So, ignorance is bliss, and I jumped, committing to finishing the book in three days. Subjects addressed in The Bluest Eye…race, class,…
The Mighty Miss Malone Christopher Paul Curtis The Mighty Miss Malone, Bud Not Buddy, The Watsons Go To Birmingham. What do these books have in common, besides a great children’s literature author? They have history, social studies, suspense, humor and heartwarmingly hopeful stories. At a time when children’s literature is inundated with fearful characters and…
It’s been a while since I read a book that I really, truly enjoyed. Angela’s Ashes, by Irish-American writer Frank McCourt, was considered an outstanding example of its genre immediately upon publication. Indeed, it was the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography in 1996, a fact that makes me wonder if I ought to read…
Simply Forgotten 