From One Book Lover

As I was dusting my nightstand, I found myself rather impressed by my stack of books to be read. I think I need to have my head examined because I haven't finished  Hamilton: The Revolution . I even have it on Audible. And yet. Unlike any other Hamilton-related experience, I am savoring the book. Plus, I just finished the chapter about Christopher Jackson, my Washington, and I want to spend an extra moment with him. I think I'll make it a summer read. Interestingly, the book I am reading on my Kindle I also own in print — the latest translation of  Anna Karenina , translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. I hadn't really pondered translations until recently, when Oprah Winfrey's embrace of the new translation was chosen for her book club, and I heard a podcast featuring a strongly praised audiobook version of  Don Quixote . I have another translation on my Kindle, and whenever I read a delicious line in the newer book, I pull up the other translatio...

The American Library Association (ALA) has declared this week  Banned Books Week . If you are like me, you read a list of books that have been challenged by members of the public for removal from the library and scratch your head at at least one or two titles on the list — because, if you're like me, you've read the books on the list and didn't have the same reaction. Here is the list from 2009: ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle — Reasons: drugs, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson — Reasons: homosexuality  The Perks of Being A Wallflower , by Stephen Chbosky — Reasons: anti-family, drugs, homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited to age group To Kill A Mockingbird , by Harper Lee — Reasons: offensive language, racism, unsuited to age group  Twilight (series) by Stephen...

What would you do if you watched someone gasp their last breath in what you were certain was a heinous murder?  In The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie , Flavia de Luce watched in fascination and took exceptional mental notes. Flavia is not your ordinary 10-year-old, and the de Luce family is not a typical British family, even in 1950.  Flavia has a hint that something odd is occurring in her home that hot, lazy summer, and it has nothing to do with the torture she and her sisters Daphne and Ophelia execute against each other.  It goes beyond Mrs. Mullet's inedible custard pies and Father's obsession with stamps.  It even goes beyond the absent Harriet. Flavia's summer occupation involves nothing less than King George VI and a 30-year-old murder. The family discovers a dead jack snape with a postage stamp on its beak left at their door.  After overhearing a conversation she doesn't understand, Flavia wakes after a fitful night and, sensing a disruption i...