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Category Archives: Authors
A Review of Michael Cunningham’s The Snow Queen (by Bethany)
Michael Cunningham has long been on the list of writers I respect, although I realized this week that I have only ever enjoyed one of his novels (The Hours, of course). I’ve started several others (Specimen Days, Flesh and Blood, … Continue reading
A Review of Emmanuel Guibert’s How the World Was: A California Childhood (by Bethany)
Emmanuel Guibert’s How the World Was: A California Childhood is only the second graphic novel I have ever read. The first was Marjane Satrapi’s The Complete Persepolis. I loved it, and I remember that I was sort of shell-shocked when … Continue reading
A Review of Richard Rodriguez’s Days of Obligation: An Argument with my Mexican Father (by Bethany)
Richard Rodriguez’s memoir Hunger of Memory has been a favorite of mine ever since I first read it as a freshman in college. The American-born son of Mexican immigrants, Rodriguez wrote in that book about juggling two cultures: the close-knit, … Continue reading
A Review of Susanna Kaysen’s Cambridge (by Bethany)
Through no conscious design of my own, I appear to have been reading a lot of books lately that walk the shifting line between memoir and autobiographical fiction. I am aware, of course, that to a writer of either of … Continue reading
Thoughts on Richard Wright’s Black Boy (by Bethany)
Over the last month or so I have sent myself back to school, thanks to the wonders of the internet and the Yale Open Courses program. If you’re the type (like me) who sometimes misses the academic atmosphere of college … Continue reading
A Review of Gin Phillips’ The Well and the Mine (by Bethany)
If themes and character types could be protected as intellectual property, Harper Lee would be a billionaire. To Kill a Mockingbird has got to be the most-scavenged, most-cribbed novel in the world, or at least in the United States. To … Continue reading
A Review of Allegra Goodman’s Paradise Park (by Bethany)
There is no earthly reason for me to like this book. It’s a voice-heavy, first-person narrative with lots of interior monologue and a semi-picaresque plot and a protagonist who makes a lot of really stupid mistakes. Just to be clear, … Continue reading
And I’m spent…. Final thoughts on Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch. (by Jill)
Finally finished The Goldfinch yesterday afternoon and I’ve been resetting my brain by playing solitaire ever since. No, not the whole time. This book was a roller coaster—it made me feel almost every emotion I can think of at … Continue reading
In which Jill decides she really dislikes Theo Decker: Progress report on Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch
Since last posting, I’ve read about three hundred more pages of The Goldfinch. Thanksgiving preparations slowed me down quite a bit, despite having two long weekends in the past two weeks. The past couple of days I’ve had more free … Continue reading
Postcards From Purgatory 