Review of The Luminous Web: Essays on Science and Religion by Barbara Brown Taylor
Barbara Brown Taylor is one of my favorite authors, but this slim, early book of hers didn't offer the candid, thought-provoking, wise...
May 23, 2024
Review of Inciting Joy by Ross Gay
Poet and essayist Ross Gay explores the experiences and explorations that have offered him meaning, depth, connection, understanding, and...
Apr 5, 2023
Review of Nothing Like I Imagined (Except for Sometimes) by Mindy Kaling
This is a funny, light, self-deprecating peek into Kaling's single motherhood, dabbling in Hinduism, love of brunch, life as a producer,...
Jan 31, 2023
Review of Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris
In and among Sedaris's oddball, incisive, skewering observations are poignant, funny, heartfelt, complicated moments from his personal...
Oct 18, 2022
Review of Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives by Mary Laura Philpott
While taking the reader through her children's health crises, Philpott considers the power of worry, of love, and of trying to let go and...
Jun 30, 2022
Review of The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green
John Green provides a range of thoughtful, wonderfully absurd, or sentimental examinations along with his ratings on a five-star scale of...
Jun 22, 2022
Review of This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett
ICYMI: This five-star read--part memoir/part essay--is one of my favorite books of Ann Patchett's, and I didn't want her reflections and...
Mar 23, 2022
Review of Festival Days by Jo Ann Beard
In Jo Ann Beard's lovely essays and short stories, she writes honestly and beautifully about moments large and small, from the...
Jan 13, 2022
Review of The Best of Me by David Sedaris
This collection of previously published Sedaris works is a gold mine of discomforting, edgy, offbeat observations--with more heart than I...
Nov 1, 2021
Review of The Wreckage of My Presence by Casey Wilson
Wilson's bubbly personality comes through in these essays, and her show business experiences were interesting, but I often couldn't...
Aug 26, 2021
Three Books I'm Reading Now, 8/23/21 Edition
The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Once There Were Wolves, Charlotte McConaghy's novel about a biologist fighting to reintroduce...
Aug 23, 2021
April Wrap-Up: My Favorite Reads of the Month
My very favorite books from April! In no particular order, here's the gist of each of the books I most loved reading during the past...
Apr 30, 2021
Review of The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
The Book of Delights is a sunshiny set of thoughts and examinations, yet it's not overly earnest, and it's never corny. I just loved it....
Apr 29, 2021
Three Books I'm Reading Now, 4/28/21 Edition
The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading an upcoming book from Chris Bohjalian (author of Midwives), a historical fiction story Hour of the...
Apr 28, 2021
Six Great Books about the Immigrant Experience
01 Pachinko by Min Jin Lee In the early 1900s, a teenager falls for a silver-tongued stranger on the coast of Korea. But when the...
Jan 22, 2021
Review of Untamed by Glennon Doyle
I love Glennon's heart and her honesty, but many of these essays ended too soon for me. Doyle, the bestselling author of Carry On,...
Jan 12, 2021
Three Books I'm Reading Now, 1/6/21 Edition
01 With or Without You by Caroline Leavitt In Leavitt's novel, published by Algonquin Books late last summer, Simon and Stella have been...
Jan 6, 2021
Three Books I'm Reading Now, 1/1/21 Edition
01 Today Tonight Tomorrow by Rachel Lynn Solomon It's the last day of high school, and nemeses Rowan Roth and Neil McNair have battled...
Jan 1, 2021