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Author Archives: lfpbe
Two Years of Reading, in Snapshots
So Jill and I are in the Vacaville Panera again, contemplating blogging. For a while, reviewing every book I read felt perfectly natural, but that has changed. But she had a great idea: let’s go back through all the books … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews by Bethany, Snapshots, Uncategorized
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A Review of Bill Buford’s Heat: An Amateur’s Adventures as a Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany
As food memoirs go, this is a good one. The premise is that New Yorker staff writer Bill Buford “accidentally” invited celebrity chef Mario Batali to a dinner party at his home in 2002 (Batali was a friend of a … Continue reading
A Review of Avi’s The Button War
Summer is here and I’m reading like a maniac. At least half of the books I’ve read this month are for kids, since I just finished my first year teaching elementary and middle school (after ten years at the high … Continue reading
The Typo of the Month Award Goes To…
… “he upholstered his pistol.” Instead of “unholstered” – get it? I don’t remember where I read it, but it was in a published source somewhere, and I laughed and laughed. Also, it’s official. I’ve forgotten how to write book … Continue reading
Posted in Glimpses into Real Life, Uncategorized
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A Review of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One
I didn’t time my review of this novel with the weekend of its film adaptation’s release on purpose. I started this book in December but put it down after a hundred pages for some reason, in spite of the fact … Continue reading
A Review of Philip Pullman’s The Subtle Knife
This review contains what the young people call “spoilers.” Read at your own risk. The second installment in this trilogy is my favorite, I think. In this book – which is also the shortest of the three – we learn … Continue reading
A Review of Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass
Recently I was reminded of a core truth: teachers don’t read much in the fall. Nor do we blog, as you have seen. Come to think of it, my blogging life began within days of my resignation from full-time teaching … Continue reading
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A Long-Ago PFP Board Meeting
This is Jill and me on the beach at Tahoe just a little over four months ago. The day after this photo was taken, I woke up before dawn, drove back to the Bay Area, and started my new job … Continue reading
Posted in Glimpses into Real Life, Uncategorized
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A Review of Lawrence Osborne’s The Forgiven
A month ago I could have written a fantastic review of this book – its tension, its creepiness, its unlikeable protagonist, the works. But for now, here are the basics. This is a novel about David Henniger and his wife … Continue reading
A Brief Review of Julie Otsuka’s When the Emperor Was Divine
This is one of those “quietly good” books I keep meaning to read more of. Though only 144 pages long, it tells a complex story from five distinct points of view: one chapter each from the third-person perspective of a … Continue reading
Postcards From Purgatory 