tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71693568165865006952012-01-25T19:22:07.898-08:00One reader's answer to the question: "Read any good books lately?"Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.comBlogger2141100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-20741141454598704312012-01-24T11:34:00.000-08:002012-01-24T11:34:17.391-08:00

A few weeks ago I fell back to my favorite way of choosing what to read: randomly judging books by their covers on the library's "New Books" shelf. This time Andre Dubus's book Townie: A Memoir caught my eye. Andre Dubus III wrote the devastating and powerful novel The House of Sand and Fog, which got a lot of (well deserved) hype when it was chosen for Oprah's Bookclub in 2000. But that's not

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-61329017780065913472012-01-12T13:12:00.000-08:002012-01-12T13:12:03.279-08:00

So the Twitter Effect was a new and quite disruptive influence on my reading patterns in 2011, but there is a long-term issue that also affects how I approach reading: Greed. My mother took me to get my first library card when I was five and as soon as I could ride my bike over to the public library by myself, I started the habit of filling my bike basket with as many books as would fit. Often I

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-85258662623881856772012-01-03T12:33:00.000-08:002012-01-03T12:33:47.388-08:00

2011 proved to be an interesting year in my reading life. When I looked back on my blog stats it appeared that  I had produced a respectable number of posts (47), but then I realized that there were more re-posts of old reviews than quality posts of new books.  I also realized that if I had written that Inevitable End of the Year  List for 2011, it would have been shorter than usual and I would

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-8626555218326575032012-01-01T18:04:00.000-08:002012-01-01T18:04:09.765-08:00

Well, I should know better than to make promises about TFB during the holidays (and a much needed mental vacation)!  No new blog posts, not even the "2011 Inevitable End of the Year List." There were so many "Best of" lists out there, I just didn't have the appetite to add another one to cyberspace. I did do one book review while on hiatus for this month's issue of Hippocampus Magazine.  Here's

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-47202515971399872342011-12-13T09:40:00.000-08:002011-12-13T09:40:02.148-08:00

Here's the TFB "Best of..." list for 2010.  The list for 2011 is shaping up, but won't be as long as it has been in the past. As with 2009's list, my reading for 2010 was hampered quite a few times by serious reading lulls. Some were caused by the distractions of everyday life and work, others were caused by an apparent lack of interest, on my part, in anything I picked up from the library. Book

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-41811132987984788872011-12-11T19:04:00.000-08:002011-12-11T19:04:49.765-08:00

I'm still here, folks. It's been a busy, busy couple of months, but things will be calming down soon. Posts will be resuming...I hope in a matter of days. Fingers crossed, and all that. Thanks for your patience.

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-72299699811530782422011-12-05T11:42:00.000-08:002011-12-05T11:42:53.946-08:00

We've finally entered best season for getting locked into a long, heavy book with a captivating story. Here are a few of my favorite Good Ole Tomes, perfect for settling in with on a long winter's evening. Stories like these  are the best cure for cabin fever: Ahab's Wife or, The Star Gazer by Sena Jeter Naslund (included in a post on several worthy novels) Away by Amy Bloom Cold Mountain by

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-59459071857411806292011-11-22T07:27:00.000-08:002011-11-22T07:27:17.579-08:00

The film version of this book, Hugo, is in theaters this week, and Brian Selznick has a new book, Wonderstruck, on the shelves, so it's time to re-post this one! (I'm usually suspicious of books-turned-into-movies, but I can't wait to see Hugo in the theater.) **** There should probably be a specific section of the library devoted to particular books that adults should read, though they're

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-52552459133530563612011-11-18T21:02:00.000-08:002011-11-18T21:02:15.852-08:00

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot  Issues surrounding our country’s health care crisis, aging population, and general obsession with science as the answer to society’s ills make headlines every week. A byproduct of this has been a boom in medical or science-related books, most notably Siddhartha Mukherjee’s Pulitzer Prize winning The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-75441969966819237432011-11-15T12:58:00.000-08:002011-11-15T12:59:09.037-08:00

I'm going to: ...have the time to write a new blog post ...give the following novels their due: The Report by Jessica F. Kane, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje ...watch the 4-DVD set of The Royal Shakespeare Company's 1980 production of Nicholas Nickleby, starring Roger Rees ...redesign the blog ...donate boxes of extra books to the Seattle Public

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-44785063697322532222011-11-12T11:26:00.000-08:002011-11-18T09:54:29.437-08:00

When I was a kid, I was a loyal re-reader. If I discovered a book I loved, I would read it over and over again. The Little House series, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, Wuthering Heights, Harriet the Spy...I never tired of them. Now that I have kids of my own, I get the chance to read these old favorites again, this time to an audience that I hope loves these old favorites as

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-24796259468354324002011-11-05T10:40:00.001-07:002011-11-05T10:41:08.351-07:00

Living in the Pacific Northwest, surrounded by mountains and water, you can't help but have an acute awareness of how adventure figures into the everyday life of a majority of people who live here. A drive through Seattle on an average day reveals it: car after car with rocket boxes, ski racks, bike racks, kayak racks (or a combination of several) on top. Stores specializing in skis, bicycles,

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-63899062643368782792011-10-30T18:30:00.000-07:002011-10-30T18:30:15.381-07:00

Here are three titles in honor of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), also referred to All Souls Day. This is a day, in Mexican culture and also in many religious traditions, to celebrate the lives of loved ones who have died and to pray for and honor them. These books do a little of both. Death figures predominantly in all of them and, therefore, there is a sense of sadness underlying each one

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-49870064737689220562011-10-26T14:47:00.000-07:002011-10-26T14:47:36.626-07:00

Nothing in particular makes these books a "pair" other than that they appear together in this post. Well, they're both written by women, but that's where any similarity between Elise Blackwell's Grub and Anne Peile's Repeat It Today with Tears ends. Why pair them, then? Easy. They're both library books, which are due, and I enjoyed them both, but (here we go again) for very different reasons.

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-62372121712565305532011-10-23T11:01:00.000-07:002011-10-23T19:50:56.329-07:00

So, the apocalypse was supposed to happen on Friday, but we were spared once again, it seems. Of course, 2012 is just around the corner, so there's still a chance. Zombies and vampires are filling the television schedules, the soon-to-be holiday block buster film releases, the best seller lists. Colson Whitehead's Zone One is getting good reviews and a lot of coverage--the pre-Halloween timing of

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-87618174437191259062011-10-11T14:25:00.000-07:002011-10-11T14:25:46.292-07:00

The scope of Jonathan Evison's West of Here makes me wish that everyone would read it. I fell so in love with the Pacific Northwest when I moved here from the landlocked state of Ohio that I always want to show everyone who hasn't been here what I can see on a daily basis. The mountains rising on horizon: the Cascades to the east, embraced by arms of the rising sun; the Olympics to the west,

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-60220266946255684412011-09-30T14:44:00.000-07:002011-09-30T14:44:55.863-07:00

This is a re-post of one of my favorite posts from the past year. It's an argument against "cleaning up" the N-word from Twain's classics The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. What I realized when writing the post is that sometimes people want to restrict literature out of love, out of an attempt to protect a legacy that appears in danger because of issues of...I guess the only way I

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-21525714042315624352011-09-26T15:08:00.000-07:002011-09-26T15:08:26.941-07:00

Well, it's Banned Books Week again, and I've been digging around in the Too Fond of Books archive looking to see which banned books I've read and enjoyed over the past few years.  Here is a re-post of a review I did of The Catcher in the Rye in February 2010. ***** The Catcher in the Rye Revisited It was Scholastic Books day in seventh grade homeroom. I had pored over the flimsy paper catalogue

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-70264448328317431642011-09-16T10:47:00.000-07:002011-09-16T10:47:00.844-07:00

While folks in the rest of the country are probably thanking their lucky stars that the sweltering, miserably hot summer of 2011 is at a close, folks in Seattle are wishing summer would last much longer.  Many of us are in denial about the obvious nip in the air and the increasingly frequent morning clouds. The summer sun and warmth didn't show up out here until about August, and it seems cruel

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-91152108834309029072011-08-17T08:58:00.000-07:002011-08-17T08:59:58.089-07:00

My hold on Jonathan Evison's West of Here is waiting for me at the library. I can't wait to get my hands on it. By all accounts it's the kind of book I love this time of year: an epic novel about the people who fully inhabit the place in which they find themselves. In Evison's case, it's a fictional part of the very real Pacific Northwest, a place that I adopted as my home over 15 years ago. As

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-6605905013186343012011-08-08T18:10:00.000-07:002011-08-08T18:10:30.405-07:00

I tend to stubbornly shy away from block buster novels for no other reason than sheer contrariness. It took me a long time to start Harry Potter--which, of course, I loved. I still haven't gotten around to The Help or The Kite Runner. It took until last year for me to read Pride and Prejudice (and that one's been talked about since 1813). This past winter, when my husband went through his Stieg

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-31642705851644353612011-07-27T12:00:00.000-07:002011-07-27T12:00:00.410-07:00

I think I will forever re-post this review when I'm contemplating a stint in America's lovely airports. Alas.******* There are so many levels on which to appreciate Jonathan Miles's Dear American Airlines that it will take some effort to write about it without giving too much away. It is a short novel, only 180 pages, but Miles offers readers a many layered and profound story in this very small

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-5303837032319650722011-07-22T12:00:00.000-07:002011-07-22T12:00:03.934-07:00

Three years ago I wrote a Dia de los Muertos post that featured the beautiful works of three writers and included Christopher Coake's book of short stories We're in Trouble. I like that post quite a bit because it showcases books that deal with a tough subject--death--but do so in a remarkable way. But since I wrote that post I've felt a little guilty about not allowing Coake's book to have its

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-16436456031857040612011-07-17T17:55:00.000-07:002011-07-17T17:58:56.302-07:00

And now for something a little different: straight non-fiction. It had been a while since I read non-fiction when Jon Ronson's The Psychopath Test was recommended to me. I was between books so I gave it a try even though Ronson's popular The Men Who Stare at Goats has been on my shelf for about two years now. Why this book instead of the one gathering dust on my shelf? The Psychopath Test was due

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-81313397756439721662011-07-12T09:19:00.000-07:002011-07-12T09:19:37.547-07:00

I wish this book had a different title, something like Letters of a Fiesty, Funny, and Thoroughly Modern Woman Homesteader, but I suppose the publishing world was a little more to the point in 1914. When I found this book via the Seattle Public Library's online catalogue I considered it a text to skim through for research, but didn't expect much from it beyond that.  My first impression of this

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-42838050753354371352011-07-01T21:39:00.000-07:002011-07-01T21:39:17.391-07:00

A few years ago, a friend asked me which book has had the most influence on my life. It's a tough question, but didn't take long for me to surprise her with my answer: The Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. This series of children's novels about Laura Ingalls Wilder's life with her pioneering family in the late 18oo's has had a lasting affect on my life even though I read them for the

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-46285051825483931332011-06-20T10:23:00.000-07:002011-06-20T10:23:45.196-07:00

In July of 2009, I wrote a review of Ana Maria Spagna's book of personal essays called Now Go Home: Wilderness, Belonging, and the Crosscut Saw. One part of that review has come back to me in recent days because of conversations I've had with friends lately about all kinds of things, from the state of the world to parenting to the art of decision making. "Now Go Home is a slim volume of

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-2632423375390667852011-06-16T11:01:00.000-07:002011-06-16T11:33:24.483-07:00

In honor of Bloomsday and in memory of my college friend and literary adversary Matt Brookshire, who loved James Joyce as I did not, I offer up this essay from my distant past. In the spring of 1990 I had slogged my unwilling way through Ulysses in Professor Marilyn Atlas's Modernist Literature class at Ohio University. This essay was my desperate attempt to fulfill the final writing assignment

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-1430957931548273762011-06-11T11:40:00.000-07:002011-06-11T11:45:25.556-07:00

The Center for Fiction's Maxwell E. Perkins Award honors "an editor, publisher, or agent who over the course of his or her career has discovered, nurtured, and championed writers of fiction in the United States." This year's winner is Nan Graham, Senior Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of Scribner.  Max Perkins is not particularly well known to the general public, but he is a hero in the

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-38307075021977615552011-06-08T13:53:00.000-07:002011-06-08T15:39:05.969-07:00

The Known World is a novel that whisks you right out of this world and places you immediately  in the center of the story. After you read the last page, you suck in your breath, murmur "Wow," and just sit there for a while. The characters stay with you for days. The Known World is a novel that you won't forget; the reading experience will have a hold on you for a long time. The novel is about a

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-55123352689327665582011-06-03T14:49:00.000-07:002011-06-03T14:49:43.198-07:00

I'm between books right now, so I'm going to start what I hope to be a regular series of posts. I realize how long my archives list is and that some writers I'd love for you all to read are hidden in that long list of names.  So, I'm going to do some updates to bring them back to the spotlight a bit. One of my favorite writers is Matt Ruff, the author of some of the most quirky and entertaining

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-31162704106450268392011-05-26T13:22:00.000-07:002011-05-26T15:38:11.196-07:00

The power of books is mysterious indeed. Sometimes I can't help but believe there is some natural literary force at work in my world, one that puts the perfect book into my hands at just the moment I need it.I wasn't looking for a new book when I went into the library last week. There are stacks of library books on top of and next to my bedside table. The shelves in my office are loaded with

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-41693437427828835862011-05-19T14:56:00.001-07:002011-05-23T15:18:26.409-07:00

Sleepwalker is a short walk in the life of Stuart Byrne, a 25-year-old Dubliner heading fast and furious into an existential crisis. Narrated by the slightly unreliable Tom, a jaded, yet optimistic former classmate of Stuart's, we catch a glimpse of a young man tottering on the brink of a huge revelation about life and about himself. Stuart is the typical golden boy, all looks and charm. He is

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-53583375321578465192011-05-02T10:13:00.000-07:002011-05-02T10:17:24.997-07:00

A post about the Dalai Lama, a world leader who has devoted his life promoting peace to counteract the news about the death of a man wholly devoted to violence.The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama by Pico Iyer is not a biography of the Dalai Lama or even a memoir of Iyer's experiences with the Dalai Lama, though sometimes there is a little of both in the text. Iyer

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-44354479257643934202011-04-29T10:13:00.000-07:002011-04-29T10:23:45.797-07:00

I've been reading Virginia Woolf by Hermione Lee for weeks now. It's a well written biography and I'm learning a lot by reading it, but I also can't wait to be finished with it. It's taking up way too much of my reading time. I'm not going to review it here because it probably doesn't hold a lot of appeal for that many readers, but I'll re-visit a discussion I wrote a while ago about why

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-62958059794837980002011-04-20T08:11:00.000-07:002011-04-25T14:32:28.707-07:00

Sometimes when people ask what my favorite books are or which books have had the most influence on me, I have to think hard about the answer. The books that come to mind aren't necessarily Big Old Tomes, though I quite enjoy Big Old Tomes. I think of favorite or influential books more by how I feel about them than by what's in them. That is, I may not remember details about these books. They

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-56762058244256582092011-04-19T09:48:00.000-07:002011-04-19T10:01:08.176-07:00

All the talk recently about the upcoming publication of David Foster Wallace's novel The Pale King reminded me of my attempt to read Infinite Jest a few years ago:"I picked up the 2006 edition of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest at the library the other day, and I quickly realized two things: (1) it is very long and (2) there is no way I'll have the time right now to read it the way it's

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-46730637797716496052011-04-14T09:21:00.000-07:002011-04-14T10:11:48.912-07:00

I'm a big fan of the list. To-do lists, grocery lists, idea lists....my brain, not to mention my memory, absorbs things best if they are written down. Lists and notes keep my ideas intact, and sometimes they keep them in control, too.So, imagine my delight, as I was judging books by their covers at the local library, when I found this one: Lists, To-dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-15008469680158022202011-04-11T10:43:00.000-07:002011-04-11T11:51:21.568-07:00

When I tried to read this Loving Frank by Nancy Horan three years ago, I wanted to throw it across the room. I just barely resisted the urge because it was a library book and therefore sacred. I was definitely not thrilled to see it on my book club reading list this year. However, my book ethics kicked in and I knew I had to read it. If it's a book club selection, then I read it no matter how I

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-69602103838699948982011-04-07T14:01:00.000-07:002011-04-07T14:11:32.600-07:00

Dropping by to say that a Too Fond of Books experiment with Twitter is in the works. If you'd like TFB updates on Twitter, just look for me on Twitter at: EmceeReadsI hope to have a "Follow Me on Twitter" button on the page soon, but techy difficulties are causing some trouble with the button upload to blogger. Why EmceeReads and not Too Fond of Books? Well, I'm a newcomer to Twitter and the

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-87070013523424972582011-04-01T13:31:00.000-07:002011-04-04T14:16:35.078-07:00

Okay, here's the second of the four novels I've been trying to catch up on: Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan. In Saving Fish From Drowning twelve American tourists find themselves trying to salvage an art tour of China and Burma without the guidance of the woman who carefully organized--and orchestrated--the trip in the first place. Bibi Chen has died under strange circumstances, but the

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-19740027655494095462011-03-29T12:26:00.000-07:002011-04-04T14:42:14.063-07:00

I have fallen behind on my posting, but I've read four novels over the past month or two that I want to recommend, so I'll try for a quick and short approach this week to get them all in! Here's the first of four: The Still Point by Amy SackvilleThe Still Point is a blended story of two couples: modern day Julia and Simon and 19th century Arctic explorer, Edward Mackley, and his long-suffering

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-10674954602892320102011-03-11T10:55:00.000-08:002011-03-24T14:46:58.854-07:00

Good writers with great stories have caused me to feel every emotion from joy to fear, hope to grief, anxiety to inspiration. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, however, caused me to experience something completely new: hangover by association. The Sun Also Rises takes place several years after the end of World War I and is the story of American expatriate Jake Barnes and his friends.

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-58723780608588827372011-03-10T14:03:00.000-08:002011-03-10T14:09:16.326-08:00

Elizabeth Strout has the wonderful ability to get inside her characters' heads, whether they are protagonists or minor characters. Her novels are character driven tales of the folks who live in small towns; they contain no dramatic plot devices or fast paced action sequences or grand and glorious vistas. They are novels of small moments that somehow converge into a whole fabric of human

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-43840952240254125862011-02-25T09:49:00.000-08:002011-02-25T09:54:01.597-08:00

Living in the Pacific Northwest, surrounded by mountains and water, you can't help but have an acute awareness of how adventure figures into the everyday life of a majority of people who live here. A drive through Seattle on an average day reveals it: car after car with rocket boxes, ski racks, bike racks, kayak racks (or a combination of several) on top. Stores specializing in skis, bicycles,

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-62852431405482161972011-02-18T21:15:00.001-08:002011-02-18T21:19:31.686-08:00

Feeling a little guilty for not posting lately, so I'm recycling a post from 2008 about books that are perfect for reading a bit here and a bit there when you're pressed for time. Now in 2011, I can think of a lot more to add to this list, but that will have to wait until I have a little more time.*****During hectic times, get your reading fix with these books. They are easy to read and perfect

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-86988811354693148952011-02-01T12:51:00.000-08:002011-02-01T14:11:00.350-08:00

About 10 years ago, I enrolled in a short story writing program. I figured that the best way to kick start my fiction writing career was to take classes from a professional--it was obvious that doing it on my own was getting me nowhere. I had the misconception that short stories would be easier to write than, say, a novel because they are "small." I learned very quickly that this "smallness" is

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-4761911201272708812011-01-23T10:50:00.001-08:002011-01-28T12:11:24.593-08:00

Here is a confession by George Orwell who was, apparently, a big re-reader: "I worshipped Kipling at 13, loathed him at 17, enjoyed him at 20, despised him at 25, and now again rather admire him." Orwell was 33 years old when he write that he "again rather admire[d]" Kipling. I wonder what he would have said at 50.It's not often that we have the time or the inclination to reread a book that

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-5220363688538212992011-01-08T13:00:00.000-08:002011-01-08T13:02:15.545-08:00

I have long been a fan of Dave Eggers because of his gifts as an editor, publisher, and change-maker. He is the founder and publisher of the print literary magazines McSweeney's and The Believer and the online magazine McSweeney's Internet Tendency. Eggers is the co-founder of a writing center for kids in San Francisco (826 Valencia) that has grown into a national organization, and he is a

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-84353716661205931762011-01-05T20:01:00.000-08:002011-01-05T21:08:27.605-08:00

So, I've been thinking about the soon-to-be-released version of Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer all day. The story in a nutshell: Professor Alan Gribben of Auburn University in Alabama, who is a Mark Twain scholar, has collaborated with a publisher to produce an edition of Twain's novels that excises the "n-word" from the texts. That's a deletion of over 200 uses of

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-3429681021334042462011-01-05T09:28:00.001-08:002011-01-05T09:32:29.462-08:00

I'm going to have to interrupted my regularly scheduled post--apologies to Dave Eggers and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (you were proving to be tough to write anyway)--to ponder the latest Mark Twain-induced drama in the literary world.Study this, dear readers, and look for a post on it tomorrow. My brain's a'whirlin' on this one.New edition removes Mark Twain's 'offensive' words

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-48189972417779923122010-12-03T09:44:00.000-08:002010-12-03T22:45:23.344-08:00

Mink River is a novel that I will buy for myself even though I've already read it. I borrowed it from the library and I fell in love with the people, the landscape, and the lovely optimism of the story lines. When I finished Mink River, I turned to the first page to read it again, but the library wants it back, and I need to have it around to dip into again and again. It's one of Those

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-44510633022549347772010-11-29T09:14:00.000-08:002010-11-29T09:47:26.885-08:00

Harry Potter did something that few other series of books have done. He brought the world of Young Adult literature to a wide adult audience. The end of that series opened the door, I hope, for adults to check out the treasure trove of books out there that are considered for a "younger" audience. Here is a list of some of the Young Adult novels I've read in the past few years that I highly

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-26042201462697496192010-11-24T09:18:00.000-08:002010-11-24T09:23:01.236-08:00

Here's a surprise just in time for Thanksgiving: a novel about family dysfunction! When I picked up The Ghost at the Table, I thought I'd give it a try despite the general over abundance of family dysfunction literature, especially when it concerns the holidays. What got me over my initial reluctance to read it is that the protagonist, Cynthia Fiske, is a writer who has been enticed to fly home

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-18372533018009032442010-11-22T15:12:00.000-08:002010-11-22T15:35:03.253-08:00

This past summer and early fall I fell into a reading lull. I tried book after book, but so many either failed to live up to their potential or failed to live up to my mood at the time I tried them. I'm having the opposite problem now...I am overrun with books that I want to read Right Now! Here are some titles that have piled up on my bedside table:The Lacuna by Barbara KingsolverMink River

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-63736688242029640372010-11-17T10:56:00.000-08:002010-11-17T14:52:13.450-08:00

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is the perfect book for the crazy season between Halloween and New Year's Day. Time seems dramatically condensed in these months. It's darker, the days are shorter... you just want to hole up with a hot toddy and a good book. This novel, for all its over-long title, is a short, easy read, one that you can dip into at odd, free moments of the day

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-29359886259509674822010-11-05T12:41:00.000-07:002010-11-05T12:45:13.312-07:00

(I am re-posting this review from last November because it's too timely not to!)How is it possible, I frequently wondered as I read this 846 page tome, that this is Susanna Clarke's first novel? Wow. This novel is, indeed, a tome. A brilliant, entertaining, humorous epic of a story. This is a November novel, if I ever saw one. I often found myself reading late into the night, hearing the wind

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-13207932104067374592010-10-27T16:33:00.000-07:002010-10-27T16:40:51.487-07:00

Here are three titles in honor of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), also referred to All Souls Day. This is a day, in Mexican culture and also in many religious traditions, to celebrate the lives of loved ones who have died and to pray for and honor them. These books do a little of both. Death figures predominantly in all of them and, therefore, there is a sense of sadness underlying each one

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-89228461142283679952010-10-13T20:20:00.000-07:002010-10-13T20:24:26.823-07:00

Just Kids by Patti Smith(National Book Award Finalists were announced yesterday; here is another look at a post I wrote over the summer.)If you've been reading TFB for a while, you know I'm selective about the memoirs I'm willing to read. It seems that everyone has a memoir to peddle these days and, as with anything else, some are better than others. I was familiar with Patti Smith's name and

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-24653913067016625862010-10-10T08:18:00.001-07:002010-10-10T08:19:04.459-07:00

After he won The 2008 John Newberry Award for The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman told theNew York Times how he felt about the book once he had finished writing it:You always have this Platonic beautiful idea of a book in your head, and then you write something which isn't as good as that.... The Graveyard Book is the first time I've had a Platonic ideal of a book and written the thing and looked at

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-60858120707010276492010-10-04T15:01:00.000-07:002010-10-04T15:11:58.520-07:00

In her afterward to the 2003 edition of Lucy Grealy's memoir Autobiography of a Face, Ann Patchett writes:In the right hands, a memoir is the flecks of gold panned out of a great, muddy river. A memoir is those flecks melted down into a shapable liquid that can then be molded and hammered into a single bright band to be worn on a finger, something you could point to and say, "This? Oh, this is my

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-75154169642469170432010-09-16T14:25:00.000-07:002010-09-24T11:19:26.441-07:00

The Hakawati is one of those novels (like the Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell) that I will find hard to pin down in a blog post. It is a long, multi-layered novel that moves dreamily from one layer to the next, sometimes with no transition at all. It's the sort of novel that you just know has connections between the layers, but trying to link them together is a lot of work. You periodically

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-53505101579509044992010-09-12T20:39:00.000-07:002010-09-24T11:19:58.204-07:00

When a series of young adult novels that is ostensibly about teenagers who will do anything to be pretty and popular causes 40-something, skier/backpacker type guys to impatiently wait for their pre-teen kids to hurry up and finish them, you know that this is not a typical young adult, pop culture phenomenon. This sci-fi trilogy (Uglies, Pretties, and Specials) took our neighborhood community by

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-60427120438306075082010-09-02T11:30:00.000-07:002010-09-02T11:49:36.027-07:00

The only way to get past this blog post writer's block, methinks, is to start completely fresh rather than trying to catch up with writing about what I read this summer. But I would still like to give you all a list of what I've been reading because I spent some time with excellent books this summer.If you've read any of these books, please feel free to make a comment about what you enjoyed (or

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-2859075133341851662010-09-01T16:23:00.000-07:002010-09-01T16:35:42.389-07:00

It's late summer, almost fall. My favorite time of year. The beginning of the school year, whether I'm actually attending school or not, is more of a New Year for me than January first is. This is the time of year that I make new plans and resolutions. I guess I'm always a school kid at heart.My biggest resolution this September is to get back into the saddle with blogging. It's amazing how

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-69485108854330525322010-06-16T11:45:00.001-07:002010-10-13T09:12:37.043-07:00

Okay, now I'm adding June to the list! Despite my best intentions, I'm still behind on blogging. I expect that it will be late August before I can maintain a regular schedule again, but until then I'll try to stick to the capsule approach. More to the list, if I can remember them all....Just Kids by Patti SmithIf you've been reading TFB for a while, you know I'm selective about the memoirs I'm

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-74103784831499230662010-06-11T10:44:00.000-07:002010-09-24T11:21:32.049-07:00

I can't even imagine catching up with the blog for missed posts in April and May, but I did want to reveal what I was reading while I was out of sight during those months. So, here's Part 1 of a list of what I have been reading lately with a little something-something about each.Set This House in Order and Bad Monkeys by Matt RuffThese were both re-reads (see past post re: Ruff). Occasionally,

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-73732921759512104562010-06-04T09:28:00.000-07:002010-09-24T11:21:54.342-07:00

The Help by Kathryn StockettYou can’t swing a cat these days without hitting someone reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Half the riders on my bus seem to have the ubiquitous yellow book with purple birds on the cover. Besides screaming “chick-friendly,” the cover gives no clue to what lies inside.The Help is the story of the relationships between affluent and middle class white women in small

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-79516638733057755052010-04-30T08:26:00.000-07:002010-04-30T08:29:17.684-07:00

Hi, TFB.I haven't forgotten about you...I'm a little swamped with a big project right now. To help move things along, however, Guest Blogger Hilary Meyerson will be posting in the next day or two. Whew.Stay tuned!

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-14693770857668513012010-03-31T13:56:00.000-07:002010-04-04T15:31:53.107-07:00

Just as clouds are scientifically explainable weather phenomena that also figure a great deal in our imaginations, Book of Clouds by Chloe Aridjis is an identifiable literary form (a novel) while at the same time dreamlike series of observations of Berlin made by its central character, Tatiana. I have not read a novel like this in a long time. Though there is character development, a series of

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-54689693047576664262010-03-30T11:03:00.000-07:002010-03-30T12:51:33.255-07:00

In a prior post, about Ann Patchett's novel The Magician's Assistant, I mentioned that I had been reading Patchett's work "backwards." I started with her later novels, Bel Canto and Run before going back to her earlier work. Now, finally, I have read her breakthrough first novel The Patron Saint of Liars, which got rave reviews when it came out in 1992.I regret coming upon this novel last because

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-1215225059907831312010-03-22T15:19:00.000-07:002010-03-22T15:25:06.050-07:00

Sorry about the little lull in action here at TFB. I'm still reading, I promise, but quite behind on the writing. Some good books coming up, but until then there are always the quickie updates on the Too Fond of Books Facebook page. Just click on the button that falsely claims that there are 0 updates -- there are actually quite a few little posts on it!Up next: Anne Patchett's The Patron

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-1248021032203510492010-03-10T10:20:00.000-08:002010-03-10T14:17:33.723-08:00

The Elegance of the Hedgehog is the kind of novel I love, but one that has to be read while in a certain frame of mind. It's a novel to take your time with and to savor. Though the stories are vastly different, The Elegance of the Hedgehog reminds me a great deal of Marilynne Robinson's Gilead: a slow moving, beautifully written meditation on life, beauty, art, and our place in the world in

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-12756538271589983222010-03-05T14:31:00.000-08:002010-03-05T14:51:08.548-08:00

A friend recently asked for some title recommendations for her book club, and I thought it would be nice to pull a short list together here on TFB. My reading tastes don't always translate into good book club options because I tend to be rather random with my choices, but here are some that I think would work particularly well for clubs whose members have varying tastes.Ways of Dying and Cion by

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-2300879822643953962010-03-01T19:36:00.000-08:002010-03-01T19:44:55.329-08:00

The 3 Quarks Daily Arts & Literature blog contest is now open for voting, Too Fond of Books has three nominations (thanks, readers!). It is so fun to explore the list of nominees; what incredible writers, and such eclectic topics. Wow.

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-7788255978381408332010-02-25T10:17:00.000-08:002010-02-25T10:23:25.927-08:00

The Facebook Button on this page is faulty. It does link to the Too Fond of Books facebook page, but doesn't accurately show the number of updates on the facebook page. I've been updating on facebook once or twice a week. The updates consist of: notices of newly written blog posts; book or reading related news that is interesting, but wouldn't merit a whole blog post; and links to other

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-66053228839174571922010-02-23T15:33:00.000-08:002010-02-23T15:44:10.412-08:00

The website 3 Quarks Daily, a site that gathers interesting writing on subjects from science to art from around the world, is hosting a blog post contest. They've already held contests in the areas of science and philosophy, and they have just opened nominations for blog posts about arts and literature.The competition is stiff and incredibly varied, but it never hurts to try, so if there has

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-9411906593619352332010-02-21T09:08:00.000-08:002010-02-21T10:27:52.440-08:00

It was Scholastic Books day in seventh grade homeroom. I had pored over the flimsy paper catalogue weeks before, carefully choosing the books I would order. I have no memory of the other books I had chosen for that day, but for some reason I vividly remember getting that paperback copy of The Catcher in the Rye. It was a very small book with a maroon cover, the title in yellow type. There was no

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-26204904073415501332010-02-08T12:12:00.000-08:002010-02-08T12:32:43.264-08:00

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China is an incredible literary accomplishment. Part biography, part history, part memoir, this thick book is the story of three generations of women who were born into and survived the most violent and repressive decades of modern Chinese history.Beginning in 1909, in the years just prior to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, Jung Chang traces almost 70 years of

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-57972713457468807742010-01-30T10:40:00.000-08:002010-01-30T12:04:20.073-08:00

A photograph is an image held in the trance of time. Waiting for that image to thaw, to come alive, is like sitting in that room with you, waiting for you to emerge from your trance, waiting for you to move, to talk: it's like I've called around at your place, like I'm there with you.Bud? Bud?...I'll do the talking for both of us if that's the way you want it. Maybe I'll learn something from

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-58742629488591892252010-01-25T09:16:00.000-08:002011-09-28T10:02:14.857-07:00

From the TFB archives, a re-post of a January 25, 2010, review of Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which has been banned or removed from schools around the United States. It's a hard-hitting book, as Alexie's books always are, but it has warmth, humor, and honesty. It is another novel that is listed as Young Adult, but it's a wonderful read, no matter what your

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-77918923250776010602010-01-24T11:15:00.001-08:002010-01-24T11:22:10.325-08:00

As an experiment, I've created a Facebook page for Too Fond of Books. You'll see a Facebook button on the blog, right under the archives, if you're interested in checking out the presently bare bones TFB Facebook page.Since over the last two or so months there have been some time delays between posts, it occurred to me that having a Facebook option would allow me to keep posting about books even

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-10279910665143886442010-01-20T13:25:00.000-08:002010-01-21T14:26:04.352-08:00

If it's been a while since I've read a book, then it's difficult to do a quality review of it. With that in mind, I'm going to do very condensed reviews of two books in this post. The first, The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, I read last summer and just never got around to writing about even though the book has been on my "Upcoming Posts" list for months. The second, City of Thieves by David

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-66294578115258182832010-01-20T11:36:00.000-08:002010-01-20T11:38:30.866-08:00

Post will be coming soon. It's been very, very busy here at TFB, but not in a bookish way. Check back later this week for the first of a new set of regularly posted reviews.

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-59136851974655537632010-01-04T10:49:00.000-08:002010-01-04T12:38:59.612-08:00

The Soloist is the story of two friends: a world-weary newspaper columnist, Steve Lopez, and a homeless man, Nathaniel Ayers, who also happens to be a musical genius. When they meet, Lopez senses A Story: "I write a column for the Los Angeles Times. The job is a little like fishing. You go out and drop a line, cast a net. I'm figuring this vagrant violinist is a column. Has to be.... It's got

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-82946350643720540362009-12-31T14:00:00.000-08:002009-12-31T14:08:09.893-08:00

I just finished Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, and I know I'll be thinking about this one and puzzling over the many incredible elements of this story (maybe I should say "stories") for a long time. What an amazing read for the end of the first decade of the millenium.I'd heard the name of the novel bandied about when it first came out in 2004, but never got around to it until just last week.

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-31521450189361460422009-12-21T17:50:00.000-08:002009-12-22T14:56:41.224-08:00

Too Fond of Book's favorite reads from 2009, in no particular order, though this year I've informally divided it up by genre. It was an odd year of reading for me. There several long slumps during which I hit the 50 page turnaround point with book after book and just couldn't finish anything. Then I hit several books that I read all the way through even though I highly disliked them--two of

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-89856334663093623982009-12-08T11:31:00.000-08:002009-12-16T17:05:17.090-08:00

I generally dislike cooking. I can create a good meal when I put my mind to it, but I tend to see it as just another chore on a long list. I try to get it over with as soon as possible, so I can do other, more interesting things with my time. I have a sneaking suspicion, however, that if I dare read any more of Michael Ruhlman's books, I may come to have a grudging affection for the act of

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-46807221653897725502009-12-07T20:37:00.001-08:002009-12-07T20:47:57.796-08:00

The other day I was wondering aloud how people like Neil Gaiman, Dave Eggers, and other perpetually producing creative types do it. Do they not sleep? Are they just so ridden with brilliant ideas that they are able to churn out material like machines? (Maybe they are machines themselves, and not actual humans.) Are they secretly enslaving legions of child prodigies who actually do the work

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-58509623151994848342009-12-02T13:11:00.000-08:002009-12-02T13:38:55.112-08:00

Though the stack of books to read is ever increasing, time here at TFB is ever decreasing! My posting output has suffered over the last couple of months, and while Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke is largely to blame for the loss of the much of October, non-readerly obligations have been crowding out the last several weeks.So, I'm reading more slowly, but still reading. I hope

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-19642159245234420552009-11-27T16:47:00.000-08:002009-11-30T08:53:02.760-08:00

In honor of Thanksgiving, here is a bookish list of what I'm thankful for:Books (of course)The Seattle Public LibraryThe Seattle City Council who listened to citizen concerns and re-instated a significant portion of the library's budget, preventing threatened city-wide branch closures.Seattle's amazing thrift stores that sell stacks of beautiful, almost-new, current books for rock bottom

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-52213666164355600772009-11-13T12:36:00.001-08:002009-11-13T13:46:00.761-08:00

How is it possible, I frequently wondered as I read this 846 page tome, that this is Susanna Clarke's first novel? Wow. This novel is, indeed, a tome. A brilliant, entertaining, humorous epic of a story. This is a November novel, if I ever saw one. I often found myself reading late into the night, hearing the wind lashing rain against the house, burrowing myself deeper into the blankets. On

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-56856238832813947122009-11-02T20:40:00.001-08:002009-11-05T14:29:40.157-08:00

I couldn't believe it when I realized that November 9, 2009, marks the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. It was one of those confluences of disbelief: "has time passed that quickly?" and "it seems so long ago" went through my mind basically at the same time.My memories of the late 80s and early 90s are memories of joy and wonder that so much positive change in the world filled the

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-49082014422340007902009-10-31T12:58:00.001-07:002009-10-31T13:02:52.387-07:00

Need a break from reading novels? Join the folks at NaNoWriMO (National Novel Writing Month) and produce the longest novel you can in 30 days. Starting at midnight November 1, write as much as you can before the deadline at midnight on November 30. The goal is a 175-page novel of 50,000 words. Quantity is much more important than Quality for this project.Check out the NaNoWriMo website even

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-32049221627744843882009-10-28T11:56:00.000-07:002009-10-28T12:11:41.166-07:00

I'm doing one or the other in this post; I guess I prefer to think of it as recycling. (Being from Seattle, and all....)At the moment I am in the middle of a very entertaining--and appropriate for the end of October--epic that I probably won't finish for a while: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. This novel was all the rage a couple of years ago, but I'm just getting to it now and

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-68869190794278941622009-10-23T12:20:00.000-07:002009-10-23T13:19:21.933-07:00

What a relief to read Neil Gaiman after my last two novel choices. The heavy themes in Hegi's and Patchett's books, made me very ready for a good yarn with plenty of humor, adventure, and improbability. Anansi Boys fit the bill perfectly.Anansi Boys is a novel as absorbing and fantastic as Gaiman's Coraline and The Graveyard Book are, but for the adult reader. For this novel, Gaiman takes us into

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-45921134747634887742009-10-20T14:10:00.000-07:002009-10-20T14:23:06.337-07:00

I have to post this link to the article "Ghost Story: On Anne Frank and Windows" from the online magazine The Smart Set. It is incredibly moving to see the only known video clip of Anne Frank looking out of a window at a wedding couple on the street below and then to read Stefany Anne Goldberg's essay about her experience viewing the same film.Here, too, is a link to the Anne Frank House in

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-21606641785302894292009-10-14T10:20:00.000-07:002009-10-14T10:24:41.835-07:00

In case you're in need of even more books to choose from for your bedside table, check out the National Book Foundation's website. The finalists for the National Book Award and the 5 Under 35: Best of a New Generation are all listed, with loads of good information about the books and writers. It's a great site for browsing, lots of links to explore.

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-49648109592751973732009-10-08T12:46:00.000-07:002009-10-08T13:04:52.300-07:00

At the end of this month, while many families celebrate Halloween, many others--especially those with roots in Mexico--will celebrate Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead. I am re-visiting the post I wrote for Dia de lost Muertos in 2008 because it highlights three of my favorite novels that celebrate life by dealing with death:Here are three books (click on the link to view entire post)--We're

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169356816586500695.post-20357450187514044012009-10-05T11:06:00.001-07:002009-10-05T12:57:47.867-07:00

The Magician's Assistant is one of Patchett's earlier novels; it was published in 1997. It's always interesting to read writers' works from their earliest to their latest, but in the case of Ann Patchett, I started with Bel Canto (published in 2001), then read Run (2007), and then moved back to The Magician's Assistant. From the three Patchett novels I've read so far, it seems that Patchett

Mary-Colleenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05977916042870566332noreply@blogger.com0