Gather 'round…
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan My rating: 4 of 5 stars I've been reading a lot of very picturesque fiction. Quaint people in quaint places. Nostalgia. Beautiful stories, artfully told, deep and lovely messages woven into the fabric of every page. Lots of epistolary forms, letters shooting this way and that, drawing me... Continue Reading →
The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce My rating: 5 of 5 stars If it is possible, Queenie's story is even more compelling than Harold's. This is a beautiful book. Harold's story, from The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, is told here from the perspective of the woman he is walking to... Continue Reading →
Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry My rating: 5 of 5 stars Confession: I've never read any Wendell Berry. So when I say I've been reading Wendell Berry, it strikes me as a very lofty thing to say. A dear friend called Jayber Crow the best book she's ever read. Another dear friend, upon hearing that... Continue Reading →
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman My rating: 5 of 5 stars And the string continues... What a great tale. Backman hits the nail on the head when entering the head and heart of the curmudgeon, and all those around him. He pulls no punches, and brings Ove to life in brilliant color. He's... Continue Reading →
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce My rating: 5 of 5 stars Excellent Lenten reading, actually... I recently took up my priest's annual challenge to take a word into your heart for the year. Any word that gets you closer to The Word. Give. Or Love. Maybe Suffer. Then keep it close... Continue Reading →
The Truth According to Us by Annie Barrows My rating: 5 of 5 stars As usual, it took me a little bit to transition from the last book into this one, but once I did, it proved itself worthy of the transition. Annie Barrows, while co-authoring The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society with... Continue Reading →
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin My rating: 5 of 5 stars A wonderful, moving, endearing story of redemption and transformation that will sing in your heart for a very, very long time. That is what Garth Stein said about The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, according to the blurb plastered across... Continue Reading →
I don't generally take the time to finish books that I don't like. Sometimes, if I feel that I must, I'll push through, but for the most part, I have no need to torture myself. So, it follows that I would be statistically prone to writing favorable book reviews. I fear this is inevitable, and... Continue Reading →
Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler My rating: 5 of 5 stars It took me years to read this book. Well, 17 days to read it, but years to begin reading it. It's been sitting there on the pages of Volume One for what seems to me like Ever, and I have, for mysterious reasons, scorned... Continue Reading →
How to Be Good by Nick Hornby My rating: 4 of 5 stars Huh. I'm not sure what to say about this one. I heard about it somewhere, maybe in a writing book, so I picked it up. Turns out it is from the same author as About a Boy and High Fidelity so I... Continue Reading →
Book Review: The Canon I wrote a quick review of my latest read, but I wanted to expand a little more about the actual writing of the book for this week's Postbox. Here is the original review, from Goodreads: The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier My rating:... Continue Reading →
Well, we're home. OK, we've been home for over a week. But alas, the only writing I've gotten done since landing is the boring kind that meets a deadline. Boring, but lucrative, as long as your vocabulary is equipped with a vivid imagination. The North Shore was gorgeous, as always. There was that rocky start,... Continue Reading →
Tales From the Nexus 