Category Archives: On Reading
Wedded to Wallace: The Stegner Marriage
Mary Stuart Page Stegner died last month. Her obituary (http://www NULL.sltrib NULL.com/D=g/ci_15120021) ran in a few newspapers, but it came to my attention as a blip in my Twitter stream, tucked appropriately between posts lamenting the destruction of nature in the BP … Continue reading
The Rabbit In The Soccer Net
(originally posted 10/2014) The other day my six-year-old ran in the house screaming: “A RABBIT IS STUCK IN THE SOCCER NET!” When I went outside the poor thing was writhing frantic, the webbing wrapped double around its neck. The … Continue reading
Booker-winner BARDO, odd and brilliant
I just finished the strange and un-put-downable LINCOLN IN THE BARDO, which won the Man Booker prize while I was reading it. Entirely deserving. It’s historical, biblical, Dantesque, supernatural, and just plain bizarrely unique. It’s about the death of Lincoln’s … Continue reading
Interviewing Fredrik Backman
I love when the local bookstore asks me to interview a visiting author, making it a Q&A-style event instead of a reading. I like that better in my own events too, more of a conversation than a monologue. That unscripted … Continue reading
My favorite recent read
A book I read last spring ruined me for books for a little while. Because after I finished, I had such a book hangover that I didn’t feel ready to go back to the trough right away. When I did, … Continue reading
The Year in Reading
The literary website The Millions (http://www NULL.themillions NULL.com) asked me to contribute to its year-end package of authors talking about their most memorable reads of the year. When I went back through my book journal of 2012, a diverse foursome stood … Continue reading
Faulkner For Kids?
At a recent visit to my children’s pediatrician, the doctor asked, “Have you ever read your kids that children’s book by Faulkner?” He said he read it to his kids a lot when they were younger, that it was their … Continue reading
What I’m Reading Today: WILD, by Cheryl Strayed
Part of the busywork of being an author-about-to-launch is writing essays for book blogs about a variety of things. This weekend I received a request to write about either a) something I’m reading right now, or b) who I’d envision … Continue reading
