I received a bound galley of The Ringer, a debut novel by Jenny Shank, from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. Many thanks to The Permanent Press and to LT for the chance to read and review this book. I decided to copy the summary from the publisher’s website, because when…
Category: books and reading
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
The first time I heard of Jhumpa Lahiri was when one of the members of my book discussion group selected Interpreter of Maladies, Lahiri’s debut story collection, when it was his turn to choose the book and lead the discussion. The book had recently come out in paperback, and had…
Reading Challenges for 2011: only two
In my somewhat delayed wrap-up post for my 2010 reading challenges, I said that I planned to participate in two of last year’s challenges again in 2011. One of them, the Persons of Color (POC) Reading Challenge, is up and running, but the other one, Read Your Own Books (RYOB),…
Let’s Take the Long Way Home: a Memoir of Friendship by Gail Caldwell
Yesterday morning, I woke around 4am and couldn’t get back to sleep. By 445am, I’d decided to get up and start my next book. I’d first heard of Let’s Take the Long Way Home in late summer or early fall, on an episode of the Books on the Nightstand podcast,…
The last 2010 reading round-up
Yes, the year 2010 is done, and I feel like all the bloggers I follow have written their Year in Review posts, with lists, stats, and general thoughts on their reading for the past year…and I’m finally just starting mine. But in the space of life, what’s a few days’…
News & notes: books, housecleaning, fixing the PC, Black Friday
I took today off work to get some things done that I hadn’t gotten done last weekend, since I was fighting a cold and not sleeping well (due to stuffiness, etc.), and though I got some extra rest in the morning after the boys left for school, the rest of…
Super-short update on books & reading
Over Saturday and Sunday, I managed to do some amount of cleaning in every room of our house. I was listening to the audio version of The Help by Kathryn Stockett, and it was fabulous. While dusting bookshelves, I started pulling out books to remove from my collection — but…
My long-delayed review of Great House by Nicole Krauss
(I really love the way the words dominate the cover. I always hear them in my head when I look at the book: “Nicole. KRAUSS. Great. HOUSE.” It reinforces the rhyme.) Thank you to W. W. Norton & Company, and to LibraryThing, for the advance reader’s copy of the novel…
I wish I had time to review books…
I have books on my bedside table that I’ve read and had hoped to review, or at least babble about briefly, here on my blog. Now, I’m trying to put a few things in better order (mostly paperwork that needs our attention, or just needs to be sorted out, examined,…
Read-a-Thon only hours away, finally signing up
My life has been a complete zoo for WEEKS now, and I’m so excited to have a Saturday with nothing scheduled for our whole family except a much-needed haircut for me (YAY!), and the 24-Hour Read-a-Thon, a totally awesome excuse for me to REST and READ and not do housework…