Related Post: This week I offer two selections because there’s not much I can say about #3 without giving away the whole point. #2 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce © 1916 Date read: ca. 1966 or 1967 While I now credit Gillian Flynn’s novel Gone Girl with opening […]
Other posts in this series: Introduction Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, which was the starting point for this month’s 6 Degrees of Separation post, was My Most Surprising Read of 2022. I can’t remember the last time a novel made me cry, but this one did. Thinking about why Zevin’s book hit me
12 Novels That Changed How I Read Fiction Read More »
Instead of laying out an elaborate reading and blogging plan for 2024, I’m going to tell you what I’ll be focusing on. It seems that, at the end of every year, I look back on whatever reading and writing goals I had set at the beginning of the year and document, in excruciating detail, how
What Notes in the Margin Will Be Up to This Year Read More »
(Image by Enrique from Pixabay) Just as residents of San Francisco warn “Don’t call it Frisco,” I have it on good authority that true science fiction fans insist “Don’t call it sci-fi.” The first science fiction I remember being enthralled by was the original Star Trek TV show (1966-1969). Later, with the advent of cable television, I discovered
It’s National Science Fiction Day! Read More »
(Image by Markéta Klimešová from Pixabay) A happy new year wish for all my bookish friends. I look forward to sharing book thoughts and news with all of you throughout 2024. Keep reading and writing!
I was very picky about the books I chose to read this year. As a result, I read a lot of good books—so many that putting together this list was an agonizing process. In past years, I’ve kept my best books list to a total of 15, usually a top ten list plus five honorable
The Best Books I Read in 2023 Read More »
During the French colonial period in Vietnam, authorities exacted a tax on boats. So the people of the fishing villages got creative: “These aren’t boats. They’re baskets.” We saw these boats all over the beaches around Da Nang. Sometimes they were upright, as here, but often they were inverted to provide a waterproof covering for
The Basket Boats of Vietnam Read More »
We went traveling between June 8th and July 9th. And now we’re about to leave home again. Normally we wouldn’t be taking major trips this close together, but the current exploration is the last of our postponed then rescheduled trips from the COVID-19 times. This time we’ll be gone for three months on an itinerary
We’re Off to Sail the Seas Again! Read More »
Or, The Power of Enchantment How much do you remember about reading in early childhood? I ask because I’m always bemused when I see other peoples’ statements about learning to read at age 3 or 4 and remembering the very moment they realized they could make sense of the squiggles on the page. I ask
What Do You Remember About Your Childhood Reading? Read More »
After having two cruises canceled during the time of COVID-19, my husband and I are finally sailing off to enjoy retirement for a month. I don’t expect to be posting much during that time because internet access is severely limited while at sea. I do expect to read a lot around our bouts of sightseeing,
Setting Off to Sail the Seas! Read More »
