Book Report

There’s something to be said for extremely long novels. All that work to get into the characters pays off when you have another 900+ pages to follow their exploits. All 1,184 pages of “And Ladies of the Club” is one lovely example. I’m about halfway through the first movement of A Dance to the Music…

A good read, especially during resolution season, from the author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. How nice to be reminded of Peggy Guggenheim, grand salons, secret gardens and opera when planning a fresh year. Book: The City of Fallen Angels

I adored this book. Julia Child with her French adventures, passion for cooking, craftiness and general relaxed-outlook was just exactly what I wanted to read when turning 30 last week. I think I might just read it all over again directly.

All these ads for the Time Traveler’s Wife reminded me of a book I recently read on a similar theme. The Little Book also involves time travel within a family – this version set between America in the 20th century and Vienna in the 19th. The novel is the life work of an English teacher…

My mother gave Three Junes to me a while back and I hadn’t gotten to it until last weekend. What a great read! I’m not quite finished, but I’ve loved it so far. The characters are realistic in a gentle way. Each one has distinct foibles and seem to share a certain blindness toward how…

So many food books recently! I guess they make for good and hearty winter reading. A friend gave me her old copy of Julie & Julia a few weeks ago. You’ve probably already read it and heard that it is being turned into a movie as we speak. If you haven’t yet, I would recommend…

I picked up this novel second-hand for our trip to Pacific Grove and ripped through it pretty quickly. North River is a timely story about Manhattan life during the long recovery from the Great Depression. Not exactly great literature, but a good, solid love story to cozy up with in the winter.