August 2011
3 posts
Breathing Lessons
Anne Tyler’s 1988 Pulitzer Prize-winning Breathing Lessons charts one day in the life of middle-aged couple, Ira and Maggie Moran. The Morans have been married nearly 30 years and raised two children. On this Saturday, they are driving from their home in Baltimore to a friend’s funeral in Pennsylvania. Along the way, squabbles and incidents that any long-married couple could relate to...
Favorite Books: 2010
Below are some titles I read and loved last year. I managed to keep track of all the books I read that year (which is one thing I hope to do with this blog) and I just rediscovered that list. Here they are…
Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner
Tess of the d’Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy
Tales of the City, by Armistead Maupin
Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout
Brighton Rock, by...
Author Profile: Anne Tyler
Anne Tyler wrote her first novel, If Morning Ever Comes, when she was only 23. Seventeen novels later, Tyler remains a popular and gifted portrayer of contemporary family life in America. She sets most of her novels in Baltimore, where she has lived the majority of her life, and imbues her novels with casts of convincing characters all facing some sort of crisis, usually involving their family....
July 2011
3 posts
Author Profile: Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates, or affectionately coined “JCO” by critics and fans alike, is perhaps the most prolific writer in contemporary American literature today. She published her first novel, With Shuddering Fall, in 1964, and since then has published 55 novels (including some under two pseudonyms), 19 story collections, and numerous poetry and criticism collections. She has been...
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She's Come Undone
Originally released in 1992, Wally Lamb’s debut novel, She’s Come Undone, came to wider public attention in 1998 when Oprah picked it for her book club. I remember having seen this book pretty much everywhere for years before I finally picked it up.
She’s Come Undone is essentially the bildungsroman of Dolores Price, a morbidly obese young woman who survives, among other...
Here I Go
When asked to do whatever when I was growing up (and even today), I always felt like saying, “No thanks… I’d rather read.” Because, the truth is… there’s precious little I’d rather do than read a good book. I enjoy vegging out in front of the TV, or watching movies, but nothing beats the inner serenity and total immersion felt when I curl up with a book...