A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940 by Victoria Wilson Nonfiction, 2013 She had so many dogs that she had to take up carpets and get rid of various chairs. A visitor walked into her house, looked around at the … Continue reading Book Report — A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940; The Phoenix and the Mirror
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett Fiction, 2001 There were deep white bathtubs with an endless supply of hot water pouring out of the curved spigots. There were stacks of soft white towels and pillows and blankets trimmed in satin and … Continue reading Book Report — Bel Canto; Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever
Comics aren’t dying, but they are changing – and that’s got people scared by Heidi MacDonald There are no kerfuffles quite as tedious and toxic as those that churn up around the culture of comic books, at least when they … Continue reading Outside Reading — The Spinning Spinner Rack edition
The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin Fiction, 2017 But there are none so frightened, or so strange in their fear, as conquerors. They conjure phantoms endlessly, terrified that their victims will someday do back what was done to them—even if, … Continue reading Book Report — The Stone Sky; Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
Independent People by Halldór Laxness (translated from the Icelandic by J.A. Thompson) Fiction, 1934 and 1935 There are few things that fill the soul of man with greater disappointment than to wake up when everyone else is asleep, especially if it … Continue reading Book Report — Independent People; Ten Steps to Nanette
Transit by Rachel Cusk Fiction, 2016 Loneliness, she said, is when nothing will stick to you, when nothing will thrive around you, when start to think that you kill things just by being there. Yet when she looked at her … Continue reading Book Report — Transit; This Woman’s Work
As more schools target ‘Maus,’ Art Spiegelman’s fears are deepening by Greg Sargent Art Spiegelman has been here before, so when he intimates that the right-wingers’ frothing eagerness to ban books is at a higher level than before, and showing … Continue reading Outside Reading — Fahrenheit 450 and Rising edition
Sharp by Michelle Dean Nonfiction, 2018 The opening line of The Journalist and the Murderer, which originally appeared in three parts in the The New Yorker in 1989, is famous. “Any journalist who is not too stupid of too full … Continue reading Book Report — Sharp; Uncanny Valley
How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith Nonfiction, 2021 David knows that some visitors to Monticello arrive with an understanding of history that is not only misguided but also harmful. He has a difficult time disentangling this from the … Continue reading Book Report — How the Word Is Passed; It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth
Just Us by Charles Homans For this article, Charles Homans starts with the questionable press tour undertaken by a juror who served in a grand jury case examining one slice of the monumentally criminality of the amoral dimwit who placed … Continue reading Outside Reading — Peers edition
