Category: Books & Learning

My latest LibraryThing Early Reviewer book. It will be released in a couple of months. – David Ebershoff’s third novel, “The 19th Wife” is one part historical fiction, one part modern whodunnit and one part connective tissue. Its scope is monumental, addressing the legacy of “plural marriage” within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day [...]

Some people feel it necessary to brush their hair a hundred strokes before bed. Or lock the deadbolt three times. Or only eat eggs in multiples of two so as not to leave an odd number in the carton. My particular OCD tendencies are mostly centered around my books. My dream life has a lot [...]

I’ll admit it: I have a huge crush on Robert Fagles, studly classic translator. I celebrate the man’s entire catalog. Sadly, he died this year of prostrate cancer. A travesty! – The Three Theban Plays (Penguin Classics) Warning: I do mention things in this musing that could be construed as spoilers to the action in [...]

This is not a novel about a fat kid named Oscar. Maybe, but barely, if so. It is instead a story of the people and events surrounding him, making a hole in the world shaped like him. It’s a telling of him by way of that which surrounds him, of things orbiting him–appropriate for someone [...]

Sunday was Aileen’s birthday, so when she asked me to bring a copy of Tana French’s In the Woods to her in the hospital, how could I refuse? Even if my husband was halfway through my copy? Snip from e-mail to Aileen: The book story has become kind of epic. I actually did give you [...]

As a mind experiment last night, I decided to test my quick-reaction book associations. I gave myself three minutes and assembled the eleven books I would seize from my library were I to have to abandon the rest. No real thinking time, no real criteria, just impulse. These are the eleven I chose. In no [...]

And so this evening I am stalking about in my own library, peering at things that have at some time stopped me in my tracks: my illuminated manuscript from 1450, my precious books, my feeble attempts at self-made literature, my late-adolescent yearnings. And then I realize: those misty fantasies of my late teens–now true. I [...]

A foundational book for those interested in the history of Portland, Ore., and its surroundings. “Early Portland: Stump-Town Triumphant” is a comfortable, conversational look at the first goings-on in “The Clearing” on the Willamette that slowly became Portland. The chapters are a mix of biographical and economic history, with a strong thematic focus on the [...]

I saw a thread to this effect on the LibraryThing forums, and wanted to share the notion with you out there, you Lyza-readers. Probably the most interesting thing I have ever found in a book was a letter from September, 1910 written from a woman named Nell in Spokane, Wash. to her friend (relative?) Alice [...]

Dense, complex, rewarding. Steinbeck’s band of apres-Depression misfits each form an essential pillar in the community of Cannery Row, in Monterey, Calif. A quick but tricky book. Occasional deviations into individual vignettes are intriguing, but difficult to decipher at times. But Steinbeck’s love for place and land–this book is almost a pastoral at times–is clear [...]