book

Wants to read Knives & Ink: Chefs and the Stories Behind Their Tattoos

Finished reading A Dark and Drowning Tide

Wants to read The Phaeton Report

Finished reading The Sins on Their Bones

Rated Life & Times of Michael K 6/10

<div>I liked this, but it was not love. Nothing particularly wrong with the book, the writing is good, and I understand thematically what the story was doing, but it's not necessarily the sort of thing I'd have picked up on my own had I not been reading this for a yearly challenge list (this particular entry was for "Award-winning book from the year you were born"). And that's fine! You may like it better, and it's short.</div>

Finished reading Roadside Picnic

Wants to read A Conjuring of Light

Finished reading The Old Drift

Finished reading The Priory of the Orange Tree

Finished reading Days of Shattered Faith

Finished reading The Fellowship of the Ring

Finished reading Witches Steeped in Gold

Finished reading An Unkindness of Ghosts

Rated Head Full of Joy 6/10

Wants to read Sorrowland

Finished reading The Oblivion Bride

Finished reading Yellow Jessamine

Rated Letters to Forget: Poems 8/10

<div>Some amazing individual parts, and the story behind this collection is certainly made more poignant by its pairing with Cass Donish's <em>Your Dazzling Death</em>. I didn't always vibe with every poem, and that's fine, but there is an interesting portrait here of a woman trying to hang on.</div>

Rated Life on Mars: Poems 10/10

How do I even begin to tell you how wonderful <i>Life on Mars</i> is? Tracy K. Smith's poetry fills me with peace and such fullness, even when she writes about how inhuman we can be. Her poems are almost meditative — I really enjoyed slowing down and focusing on her words, their rhythm, and the overall picture of the poem before me. Part space opera, part elegy, part wartime commentary, <i>Life on Mars</i> exceedingly deserves the Pulitzer it received, won on Smith's birthday, no less.<br><br>(My full review appears at <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2012/08/life-on-mars-by-tracy-k-smith.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)

Rated Joyride: A Memoir 8/10

<div>Susan Orlean has a particular talent for finding the story in just about anything, and that's probably why I was first drawn to her magazine writing before I even registered her name, only realizing later whose writing I found compelling. In Joyride, Orlean looks back over her life and career, telling us what made her the person that she is, and why she feels compelled to tell stories that we might never otherwise notice.<br><br>I haven't read every book of hers — just The Orchid Thief and The Library Book — but I used to have a New Yorker subscription, and I can remember buying, during some airport layover, the issue of Vogue during some airport layover. And I was there, Frodo! I was there the night of Susan Orlean is Drunk-Tweeting! ha (Really, we were ALL losing our minds in 2020, so I think she's allowed.)<br><br>Orlean brings that same "tell me about an interesting person" energy to her own life, and I enjoyed reading this, even though I want to throw her first husband into the sun. (He's dead now, but still.) I also discovered that our children graduated college at the same time. We were rained on together!<br><br>If you've enjoyed any of her other work, you'll like this one.</div>

Wants to read Land of the Blind

Wants to read The Madwoman of Serrano

Rated Making Masterpiece: 25 Years Behind the Scenes at Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery! on PBS 6/10

The writing in this is not exceptional, but the stories are interesting, particularly if you've seen a lot of the things Eaton has produced. The back end of the book is more or less affectionate promo for Downton Abbey (while only sort of mentioning the revival of Upstairs Downstairs, then half forgetting to resolve its narrative), but I like Downton Abbey, so that's all right. Not a bad read.

Wants to read Un pianista de provincias

Finished reading A Darker Shade of Magic