From One Book Lover

I went to the library this week and got some loot: I borrowed two books and purchased a third, only one of which is on my original summer reading list.  (Like that's a surprise. We all know I make the list, I chuckle, and then a I reach for whatever I darned well please. Hey, it's summer reading: no rules, just reading! Plus, can you blame me if I stray with so many great choices?) I shall read at least one this weekend, possibly two (if I am ambitious).  I am excited that one is Ruined , a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by a playwright new to me, and the others are by authors I know and enjoy. I have encountered Lynn Nottage in numerous articles lately, so it's really a sort of sign that she is in my loot today. I also am excited about listening to Eric Weiner 's new book. I so enjoyed his Geography of Bliss and I can't wait to see what he has to say about "genius." As for Cristina Henríquez 's book, I almost didn't leave the library b...

Summer means reading — and summer reading club!  Remember back in the day, when reading came with rewards? In my local library, readers would have their names posted with the number of titles read during the summer. One year, I read 4o books. My librarian was skeptical — then she remembered how I sat in the library for hours at a time, reading. Forty it was. Getting a shout-out From One Book Lover may not be as cool as having your name posted on the Norwalk Library children's section activity board, but it's still not bad.  Visit your library (public or private), your local bookstores and thrift shops, yard sales and online book suppliers, friends and family, and choose what books look like they need to be read this summer. So here's what I hope to consume this summer between the Memorial Day weekend and the first weekend in autumn. This year, that date is Friday, May 26 through Sunday, September 24. First of all, please take a moment to think about Me...

Memorial Day is right around the corner, which means...  ...summer reading! If you're anything like me, you've been perusing your own bookshelves, reviewing your library wish list, pondering the bookstore inventory, and just thinking about books. I also am pondering summer reading lists of the past. Every year, I come up with a list, and every year I veer off-course almost immediately. (I mean,  2016 . And  2015 !) Want to join the fun? Join the Summer Reading Club! (You may even win a new book.) The "rules" of the Summer Reading Club, if any summer fun can have real rules, are singular: read as much as you wish from Friday, May 26 through Sunday, September 24. If you are the club member who's read the most book, you will win a book of your own.  To join the club, just  send me an e-mail  or leave a message below. Then, at the end of the summer reading period, send me a message or include your reading list in a blog message. If you read the mo...

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...

Celebrate National Poetry Month with a daily dose of poetry. Visit our sister blog, Hedgehog Lover, in April for a poem every day. Got an idea for a poem? Send me a message and share you ideas! Meanwhile, watch a stunning performance at National Poetry Slam 2013.

Well, for some of us, this winter hasn't really been all that "polar." For the rest of us: have you dug out yet? No matter your frost level, there's still time to catch up on this year's Polar Book Club selection :  The Bookman's Tale . I have been slowly savoring it, and it's coming along nicely. If you haven't started it yet, maybe this description of Charlie Lovett's will tickle your fancy: Hay-on-Wye, 1995. Peter Byerly isn’t sure what drew him into this particular bookshop. Nine months earlier, the death of his beloved wife, Amanda, had left him shattered. The young antiquarian bookseller relocated from North Carolina to the English countryside, hoping to rediscover the joy he once took in collecting and restoring rare books.   But upon opening an eighteenth-century study of Shakespeare forgeries, Peter is shocked when a portrait of Amanda tumbles out of its pages. Of course, it isn’t really her. The watercolor is clearly Victorian...

What a difference a few months make.  Conclave  was released in November 2016, before the political and cultural turmoil of the Trump presidency. I finished this book weeks into the tenure of the new U.S. President, and the politics of the Catholic Conclave struck me completely differently than they would have a scant month before. Conclave sounded like such a great read: suspenseful, intriguing, and just fluff 'n trash enough to feed a craving. When I saw it on sale as I just happened to be strolling past the display, I thought it was kismet. Imagine my surprise at finding myself bored early in the story. A snap of excitement occurred as the story began with the death of the Pope (hopefully no spoiler alert was needed). Then author Robert Harris introduced so much expository information that was, frankly, tedious. Harris takes readers inside the otherwise closed doors of this select society. Cardinal Jacopo Lomeli, Dean of the College of Cardinals, is riddled with ...