Category: books

Anita Brookner

In Praise of Gentle Reading

Yesterday I had a lovely Pym-ish morning. Hubby was out power walking in the cold wind. But I was lolling on the sofa in our sun room, cup of tea at my elbow, gazing out the window at the sun …

Read More →
A Thousand Splendid Suns

Haunting Books

A few years ago I was privileged to head up the English department in a brand spanking new school that was just opening. What an exciting, exhilarating, and exhausting time that was. The English teachers (including moi) worked really hard as a team to build …

Read More →
books

Being a Teenager Can Be Murder… Literally.

I’m home in New Brunswick this week and next. Staying with my mum in her new little home. Mum moved out of the old farmhouse a couple of years ago, and into a much smaller, and more manageable house, but …

Read More →
books

Downstairs, Not Upstairs, Books

 Last week I had lunch with a friend with whom I share a love of Jane Austen, Anita Brookner, mystery novels and all things Mitford. Over our coffee, as we gushed a bit about Downton Abbey… the elegant clothes, the sumptuous settings…, …

Read More →
books

When Well-Loved Books Become Movies, and Mini-Series… Maybe

As I said in my last post, I recently (finally) finished Donna Tartt’s book The Goldfinch. I think she is a wonderful writer. Although I must say there were times when I wished her editors had been a bit more strict with …

Read More →
books

Further Consequences of Reading: The Goldfinch and “Value Added” Books

I’m a bit late on the bandwagon, I know… but I’ve just started reading Donna Tartt’s newest book, The Goldfinch. I was a little hesitant to even begin it, despite all the praise I’ve heard. My experience last fall with Eleanor …

Read More →
books

A Mind For Murder: Saying Good-bye to P.D. James

P.D. James died last week, “peacefully at home in Oxford,” at age ninety four. But I’m sure you know this already. She was one of a kind. A seemingly gentle, charming and erudite woman who loved to talk and wonder and …

Read More →
"Q"

Love, Sex, Pain and The Whole Damned Thing… or October Book Club

On a dark and windy (but not stormy) night, just before Halloween, my book club gathered at the beautiful home of one our members, to eat and drink and talk about war. More specifically about books on World War I. …

Read More →
book club

Illuminating The Luminaries…

Everyone it seems loved The Lunminaries. Everyone but me.

Read More →
books

Murder, She Writes

I know, I know… I wrote a post on “murder” only a few weeks ago. It must be all this shopping for jeans… frustration, failure, more frustration. I can’t sit still to read a literary novel and so fall back …

Read More →