Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sophie Glazer on February 7, 2011 at 6:04am

The View From The Ground, a collection of journalism from Martha Gellhorn, covering a 50-year stretch from her earliest days as a naive, idealistic young girl having dinner at the White House with the Roosevelts, to her knowledgeable coverage of America in the recent past.

The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman, a brilliant novel which caught my eye because it was described by reviewers as a new take on Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility: I planned to buy it for a dear young cousin, a passionate Janeite who was battling cancer, only to discover that the book is really about two sisters whose lives are devastated by the death of their mother from cancer in their youth.  Of course I couldn't give it to my cousin, but the book is so beautiful and life-affirming, and so lovely a picture of Berkeley and Oakland, California, that I gave it to my Berkeley-based daughter, and she and her husband read it and loved it.

The Year of Reading Proust: A memoir in real time by Phyllis Rose.  I had loved Rose's wonderful Parallel Lives, and thought her book about reading Proust would inspire me finally to read Proust's lengthy roman-fleuve, but alas, I am still bogged down in Swann's Way.

Coppelia, retold by Margot Fonteyn.  I had hoped this would be inspiring to a little girl of my acquantance who is said to love ballet--but a few days ago she came to dinner and spent the entire evening building an enormous, elaborate, castle out of wooden blocks, totally absorbed and happy: so I suspect she has found a less conventionally girly route to creativity.

The Butterflies of Grand Canyon by Margaret Erhart.  I bought this solely because the author was a classmate of mine in the sixties: the book's beautifully produced, with a lovely depiction of a butterfly at each chapter heading, and I passed it on to a friend of mine who is so passionate about monarch butterflies that she made a pilgramage to Mexico to see their nesting places (if that's the right word to use about butterflies).  

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.  This was recommended to me by my sister, Sarah Glazer (a shewrites.blogger) and I loved it so much that I bought copies for various friends.  Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!

Shakespeare's Kitchen: the latest collection of stories by Lore Segal.  I've loved her work since Other People's Houses and Her First American; when I see something by her in The New Yorker, it's like a wave from an old friend. 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Adela Crandell Durkee on February 14, 2011 at 8:33am

Marrying George Clooney by Amy Ferris.  Quite a gal.  I love her sense of humor and how she came to terms with her relationship with her mother.  Plus her husband is one fine guy.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Deborah Batterman on February 14, 2011 at 10:57am

Writers are often asked where their ideas come from. A more telling question might be what form those ideas -- poems, novels, stories short and long -- shape themselves into. Cheryl Snell's Variations on a Theme with Harmonica is a deftly crafted chapbook that draws on the nature of improvisation. 

And Shahrnush Parsipar's Women without Men is everything Jean Casella said it was in her debut post for She Writes Women in Translation feature.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Cheryl Snell on February 14, 2011 at 2:24pm

What a lovely surprise, Deborah! Thanks so much for your generosity. I am truly touched.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Erica W. Jamieson on February 21, 2011 at 11:03pm

The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen. Advanced purchase (yes, I am looking forward to that much) on Amazon!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Joyce Evans-Campbell on March 8, 2011 at 9:52pm

Bought "Cross My Heart and Hope to Die" by Aundria Sheppard Morgan

Poetry by Reta Dove and Marilyn Hacker

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Deborah Batterman on March 14, 2011 at 6:19am

I'm still reeling from hearing/seeing Masha Hamilton at the Women's National Book Association reception honoring her this past Saturday. What a gracious, vivacious, compassionate, visionary, and talented writer! I bought the most recent of her novels,31 Hours, though I'm sure it won't be the only book of hers that I read.

And the more I read of Maureen Doallas's poems, the more I want to read, so the only thing to do is order her collection, Neruda's Memoirs.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Maureen E. Doallas on March 14, 2011 at 7:48am

I buy a lot of poetry collections, and look for poets who are women, both established and emerging poets.

 

Among my most recent are Dawn Potter's "How the Crimes Happened" and L.L. Barkat's "Inside Out" (also her "Stone Crossings"), in addition to collections by Kelli Russell Agodon ("Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room") and Susan Rich ("The Alchemist's Kitchen"), Patricia Fargnoli, the late Rachel Wetzsteon, Luci Shaw, Jehanne Dubrow, and a collection of stories by Siobhan Fallon.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Erin Emerson on April 5, 2011 at 6:24am

I bought Found by Jennifer Lauck.  It's the long awaited sequel to Blackbird.  If you haven't read Blackbird, buy  both, you won't regret it. These memoirs are beautifully written. 

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 9
• 10
• 11
• Next ›
• Page