A stunningly beautiful book, The Carry Home is the chronicling of Gary Ferguson's grief after his wife Jane dies in a canoeing accident, but it's also a story of life in nature, of environmentalism, the culture of the West, of wanderlust, and what it means to truly love. Spending much of their lives trekking around… Continue reading The Carry Home by Gary Ferguson (2014)
Evicted by Matthew Desmond (2016)
I'm not sure what was most shocking about this book and its comprehensive story of eviction: the squalid conditions that many urban poor live in or the shockingly high rents they pay for these conditions or the percentage of their income that goes toward rent (sometimes as high as 80+%) or the number of people… Continue reading Evicted by Matthew Desmond (2016)
One Station Away by Olaf Olaffsson (2017)
This is a strange book. Most of the reviews say it's a story about a doctor (Magnus) and the three women that have influenced his life. That's true, but really it's four women, and while they may have all "influenced" him, by the end of the book, I don't feel like I understand or know him… Continue reading One Station Away by Olaf Olaffsson (2017)
The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn (2018)
This page-turning psycho thriller kept me up way too late on a Sunday night and continued to distract me until I finished it a few hours after I got home from work on Monday. All told: about 8 hours of reading over 3 days, squeezing it in whenever I could--ignoring laundry, dishes, cleaning, and grading. … Continue reading The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn (2018)
Hunger by Roxane Gay (2017)
This is an important book. I'll start with that. I started it this morning, finished it by 5:30, and went to her book talk at St. Mary's College at 7. My colleague mentioned going to her speaking engagement, so I had a quick deadline to read at least one of her books. I chose her memoir because… Continue reading Hunger by Roxane Gay (2017)
The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott (2017)
Alice McDermott is a beautiful writer. That sounds cheesy, I know. But The Ninth Hour had the exact same effect on me as Charming Billy: I could not put it down. Yet it's not a thriller, it's not melodramatic, and it's not a skim-get-to-the-end-quickly type of book. Rather, her understated, poetic approach to detail pulls… Continue reading The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott (2017)
American Wolf by Nate Blakeslee (2017)
The whole wolf debate was not much on my radar until I read this book which I bought for my son--not for me--and devoured in a few days. Who knew that O-Six, 21, 755, 744, and other wolves could feel like characters in a novel? I found myself ready for bed at 9 pm so… Continue reading American Wolf by Nate Blakeslee (2017)
