Interred with their Bones, by Jennifer Lee Carrell
Okay, so I teach Hamlet (check out David Tennant’s Hamlet, if you haven’t yet!) and couldn’t help but try out this book, which is basically the Da Vinci Code and National Treasure on Shakespeare. Yes, it reads a bit like a movie, something I usually stay away from, but the story is just good romping […]
Orphan Train Girl, by Christina Baker Kline
This book opened the door to historical fiction for me, and I’m never looking back. It might be the laziness in me, but I genuinely enjoy learning about the past through fictional stories. The Maine setting is a bonus, as I’ve never been, but always hoped to, and now feel as if I have. The […]
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro
So I’m giggling now, (even though this book is surely the cure for the giggles), but I’m giggling anyway because I just did a quick search on the internet to make sure I spelled the author’s name correctly (I’m too lazy to get up and go get the book) and I found the question, “Is […]
The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
Everyone has recommended this book, but I will too, since popularity doesn’t always negate worth. And this is a worthy book—for its characters, its time period, and for its ability to paint such an utterly human portrait of complex relationships. Selfishly, I’m always curious and eager to learn from writers who write characters from outside […]
Little Altars Everywhere, by Rebecca Wells
Read this one for the voice alone. Sidda lived in my head for a little while as she led me through this story. I’m in awe of a writer who can create a character so alive you feel her breathing in the room with you as you read. Didn’t continue with the rest of the […]
How to Be Good, by Nick Hornby
Oh, to be British! And to be funny! Both of which I will inevitably try and joyfully fail at doing. Some of my favorite lines: “Bollocks” (p. 5 and throughout) Is there a more dismissive word in the English language? I think not. Something about the air blasted through the lips and the flippant tongue […]
The Passage, by Justin Cronin
Yes, ok vampires, but these “virals” surprisingly take a back seat to Cronin’s apocalyptic (and forever timely, it seems) tale that ultimately pumps more human heart than human blood. If you’re a writer, read the opening of the novel as a near-perfect example of character/plot introduction. Read the rest of the novel for a story […]
The Year of Fog, by Michelle Richmond
If books let us live out various vicarious lives, this one guided me through one of my deepest fears—the disappearance of my child. The writing was a bit stilted at times, but the story was brutal and kept me going, even when I wanted to put it down. Setting it in San Francisco was a […]
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
This book made me feel cold and achy and in need of VERY fuzzy socks from page one. Almost too bleak to read, but every time I tried to put it down, his little boy drew me back in. Some of my favorite lines: “scavenged bowl of the countryside” (p. 19) A giant’s view, or […]
About this Blog
You know those beautiful blank writing journals that people give you and you have absolutely no idea what to do with? My daughter gave me one of those for my birthday a few years ago, and then another for Christmas. After dusting them on my bookshelf for a few months, I began to keep track […]