Being a person is hard. We all have stories — from our childhood maybe, or moments from college, formative memories that cause us pain, shame, embarrassment, or some combination of all three. What happens when we let go of our dreams, let ourselves down and can’t find the strength to start over again? On Being …
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what it means to be fulfilled
It is not unusual for me to cry while reading a book, but it IS unusual for me to cry for the variety of reasons I did while reading Correspondents by Tim Murphy. A sweeping tale of families on opposite sides of the world, Correspondents manages to be both epic and intimate at the same …
is this the real life?
If I had unlimited resources, I would distribute Kurt Andersen’s Fantasyland to the masses. And by distribute, I mean I would give a copy to every single person in the country, starting at about age 16. If they were unable to read I would read it to them. I would pay for translations into any …
it’s not paranoia if they’re really after you
I’m not a huge sci-fi fan, but I do love a well-written book. Obscura, a book club pick by our biggest sci-fi member, was an absolutely excellent choice. It’s unusual for all 7 club members to be in agreement that we liked a particular book, but that was the case here. The protagonist in Obscura …
Continue reading “it’s not paranoia if they’re really after you”
Lincoln, as he knew him
The premise is a fascinating one: a book about Abraham Lincoln before he declared his intention to run for president, written from the perspective of a young man who spent hours documenting his work in the courtroom. The murder case Lincoln is litigating is dramatic, his community is torn, and he has personal entanglements with …
Wits, Brogues and Guns
I’ve never had a run-in with anyone in the Irish mob, but if I did, I hope it would be 1/3 as funny as Caihm McDonnell makes it appear in his book A Man with One of Those Faces. In the opening pages, a young man fulfilling the community service quota required by his aunt’s …
{insert cliche here}
***This review contains spoilers.*** I’m not a huge fan of sappy romance novels or even chick lit, but something about Jill Santopolo’s “The Light We Lost” grabbed my interest. I wish it hadn’t. The novel about the romance between Columbia seniors Gabe and Lucy begins on 9/11/2001 and stretches on for the next thirteen years, …
hope
As an avid listener of Pod Save America, the Crooked Media podcast hosted by former Obama administration officials, I knew I would be reading Dan Pfeiffer’s book “Yes We (Still) Can!” as soon as I could get my hands on it. Dan was President Obama’s Communications Director, and he is one of my favorite hosts …
an education
What does it mean to be smart? To be educated? The right to learn is not one we think about often in this country, as public education systems are provided for free to all children. But to a young girl whose parents preferred to educate their family members by having them work at their junkyard/farm …
the amateur
Until a friend mentioned her obsession with true crime stories and named the Golden State Killer in passing, I had only ever read one book from the genre. That book was “In Cold Blood,” and it gave me the heebie-jeebies. When I read Truman Capote’s tale of the Clutter family murder I lived alone, in …
Literal Laura 