This follow-up to “How to Build a Girl” is a funny, frank and tender look at a young woman coming into her own. Having “built the girl”, Johanna is now living alone in London, at 18, and writing for a popular rock and roll magazine. Traveling Europe to interview musicians and review gigs, she’s living the life she had dreamed of. But, trying to be true to herself is difficult as she tries to fit in both in the workplace and the London social scene. Desperate […]
Trees did not talk back, or willfully disobey, or laugh at him. They were not here to torment him; indeed, they were not here for him at all.
I enjoy reading fiction that has to do in some way with horticulture or nature. Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior and Prodigal Summer are two of my favorites. The Wolf Border by Sarah Hall and The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin are also both really good. I’m not sure what you would call this genre, but I am always on the look out for this kind of book (Hint hint: any recommendations?) This led me to Chevalier’s “At the Edge of the Orchard”. This is going to be a love/hate review. Part of the story […]
This is why your children were returned to you shoeless, jacketless, covered in mud, and full of fantastic stories.
Many of you fellow Cannonballers read this one and you folks are not ambivalent about it. It appears to be a like it or leave it situation. I gotta say, I thought it was tremendous. This is a modern tale that pokes fun at Seattle, Microsoft, progressive schools, helicopter parents and impersonal technology that allows us to outsource our lives. Elgin, Bernadette and Bee live in an upscale Seattle neighborhood. Elgin’s job at Microsoft affords them an affluent lifestyle but they live in a dilapidated former […]
I’m not in the habit of boring people with my biography
I think that I have already mentioned that I am a sucker for a good book cover and especially prone to snatch up ones that have an intriguing photo of a retro lady looking wistful and full of feelings. This selection method is a bit of a crap shoot. That’s how I found Beatriz Williams’ books. It is also how I stumbled upon this clunker. Which brings me to this book. This book. I have many feelings about this book. The story goes back and forth between 1913 and […]