Category: Winter Reading 2019

This book has been on my shelf forever.  I don’t remember when I bought it or why.  The pages of the paperback are yellowed with age.  I’m so glad I finally picked it up and decided to read it. The book is a series of interrelated stories set in the 1950’s.  The stories take place

This beautiful little book, first published in 1814, reprinted by Smithsonian Books in 2018, is a wonder. Based on the work of Abraham Gottlob Werner, it is a book to be explored, more than read. It was designed to provide standardized descriptions and representations of color to be used across the arts and sciences. Honestly,

My neighbor, Dave, gave me the copy of Immigrant Voices on New Year’s Day when we went to visit a friend in Sonoma. He had read “No Subject” by Carolina De Robertis to me the last time we drove out thatta way. I re-read that this week, and read “Home Safe” by Emma Ruby-Sachs. “No Subject” is

St. Clair gives the reader 281 pages of surprising information about a palette-full of colors:  their discovery and manufacture, their rise, and sometimes fall from favor.  The book is organized in sections by color category, with various shades of each category examined in some detail:  from Lead White all the way through to Pitch Black,

This novel is set in London, with the plot unspooling in the period leading up to England’s involvement in World War II, and after the war.  Juliet Armstrong, the main character, is hired by MI5, before the age of twenty, as a typist of transcriptions of meetings with Fascist sympathizers, secretly recorded.  So, there is

  In the midst of unpacking, preparing for the Spring semester, and generally allowing my body some well-earned rest, I did manage to read these two books. I picked up a number of Rae Armantrout books recently from Better World Books. I am trying to get closer to her process, but it is difficult —

This 122-page book on the subject of reading and writing poetry, one could say, enacts its subject matter.  Not a word is wasted.  It trusts that the reader has come to the text with an open heart and a desire to engage fully.  It was written in 1994, so I’m late in reading it.  But

I don’t have an organized stack. I always have a stack. Right now, within arms reach, the following – Hello, the Roses by Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge Things You Know But Cannot Explain / the art of Rick Bartow The Adventures of John Carson in Several Quarters of the World by Brian Doyle The Soul of an

So, the top book on my stack, “The Underground River,” was given to me by my son Michael for Christmas.  I finished it this afternoon, and absolutely loved it.  The writing is subtle and easy to read, while dealing with intense subject matter, which created a contrast that I found very appealing. The book in

Where does the time go when it flies away?  Don’t know, but it’s good to gather here. I’m too lazy this year to plan, make a stack of my books and photograph them, so I’ll just list (a few pages into some of these & almost through Gilbert’s book):  What’s Lying Around the House (Off