Compiled by Jane Bauer
Death Warmed Over By Lisa Rogak
You’ll think you’ve died and gone to heaven when you sample the delicious fare laid out in DEATH WARMED OVER, a unique collection of 75 recipes typically served at funeral ceremonies, alongside descriptions of rituals and traditions from cultures around the world. Continue reading Further Study Reading List
By Carole Reedy
Many books and articles have been written about famous athletes, but few are able to relay a story with the intensity, subtleness, and human insight that a finely tuned novel gives us. Most athletes have ghost writers or at least assistance from writers and editors who have the ability to translate the roller-coaster range of emotions and thought processes that define the physically demanding life of a professional athlete. Continue reading Play Ball: Sporting Insights
By Carole Reedy
ince detective fiction emerged in the 1800s with Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories and the novel The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (which appeared in 1868 as serial installments in Charles Dickens’ magazine All the Year Round), a diverse range of readers has become enraptured by the genre, the British poet T.S. Eliot and Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov among them. Sherlock Holmes’ arrival in 1887 cemented the success of detective fiction, which continued into what’s referred to as The Golden Age through the present day. Continue reading The Lure of the Detective Novel: From Golden Age to Present
By Carole Reedy
…a book can reach out and embrace you like an arm and make you walk away from everything you thought you understood. Suzanne, from Widow Basquiat by Jennifer Clement
Readers are always looking forward. What will we read next? The latest bestseller, the book recommended by a friend, a classic we haven’t read yet that we feel we must, a book we want to re-read, the Pulitzer Prize winner, the latest by our favorite author, the biography of someone who just died, a travel guide, or essays about places we may visit in the year? Continue reading The Dilemma of What to Read Next
By Carole Reedy
January is a healing month: time to start again, correct mistakes, renew promises. For readers, it brings the joy of new books by favorite authors and newcomers alike. It’s also a time to reflect and ponder favorite books from years past. I asked a diverse group of people to do just that: What book would you take to a desert island? In other words, what book could you read over and over? Continue reading Just for Fun: What Book Would You Take to a Desert Island?
By Carole Reedy
December. A time to reflect on the year’s end and anticipate the days ahead. One of my favorite mind games is to review books I’ve read this year and investigate 2016’s fresh arrivals. As Julian Barnes reminds us, the pleasure is in the anticipation. Continue reading The Art of Reading: Favorite Books of 2015
By Geri Anderson
On the way to lunch prepared by women of the village, I spotted her– a white baby doll with blond hair– hanging from a pole on a rooftop, a noose around her neck. Sequins on her white satin dress sparkled in the midday sun. I asked people at my table if they had noticed the doll swaying in the breeze. No one had–or didn’t want to talk about it. Continue reading The Hanging Doll of Sierra Norte – An excerpt from the book ‘Oh Oaxaca’
By Carole Reedy
Everyone seems drawn to awards and prizes, so here for book lovers are the big works in fiction for 2015, just in time to put one or more your Christmas list. Continue reading Le Crème de la Crème – 2015 Book Awards for Fiction
By Carole Reedy
Though falling leaves and dropping temperatures bring our thoughts to the end of another year, ironically autumn signals a beginning for many events: the school year, the opera, symphony, theater seasons and the award seasons. It’s also the season when new books begin appearing on lists everywhere, perhaps in anticipation of the Pulitzer Prize and the Man Booker and National Book awards. In 2015, we hit the jackpot, with a world of new choices for fall reading. The top writers of our time have outdone themselves. Here’s a sampling of fall titles. Continue reading New Fall Selections: A Hit Parade of Good Reading
By Carole Reedy
Just as many of us trust our friends to recommend the books we read, so it is always of interest to know what our favorite writers prefer to read at their leisure. After all, if we like their books, we surely should enjoy the ones that they choose to read. As on any list of favorite books, the classics dominate, which stands to reason; otherwise they wouldn’t be classics. A surprising fact though is that many writers and teachers reread their favorites, often every year (when do they have time?). My professor of American Literature at university reread Moby Dick and Huckleberry Finn every year. Continue reading The Art of Re-reading: Favorite Books of Famous Writers
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