Some books, you read more than once. In this case, I’m going to tell you about three of those. You’ve probably read Helene Hanff’s 84, Charing Cross Road. (If you haven’t, do.) But you might not have read her other books. I have, and they’re all worth multiple reads. I’m highlighting two here (and a third book by another author). Q’s Legacy is Hanff’s account of how she became and stayed a writer. While 84 and its sequel, The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, are delightful […]
White Dudes Walking
When I picked up this book as the April selection for my local library book club, I was puzzled. “Why are we reading a book about white dudes walking the Appalachian Trail, written in the 90s?” I still don’t have an answer to that question. I mostly find it entertaining because, as has been common in my experience, my local library book club is entirely populated with women, and white women at that, so we are an interesting audience for Bryson’s exercising in navel gazing […]
Hillbilly Elegy – an arresting title and an arresting story
J.D. Vance is an ivy-league educated lawyer. He has all the trappings of the heralded American dream – rewarded for hard work and diligence, he has a good job, a loving wife, and a nice home. But to get there, he had to first rise above (and in many instances, simply survive) the poverty of his surroundings in Kentucky and his “crazy hillbilly” family. Vance paints a clear portrait of Appalachia that is dire and often hopeless. As a person having a graduate degree that […]
Against Forgetting
Every once in a while I discover odd gaps in the books I have read, and Night was one of those. Since I learned to read German before I learned to read English, and spent K-7 in the German school system, I usually tend to assume I have read certain childhood classics or novels commonly read in middle school, but under a German name where the translated title doesn’t quite match up. This was especially the case with the book, Night, which blurs the line […]