Meredith Sue Willis's
Books for Readers # 234
June 15, 2024
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
MSW To Teach Novel Writing Online at NYU Fall 2024.
Fatima Shaik's Economy Hall Recommended by The New York Times
Danny Williams Adventures in Editing June 2024 Issue--
How Danny got a client's book accepted for publication and more.
A poem for early summer by Dreama Frisk
MSW was in "This Week in West Virginia History!"
New Commentary on MSW's novel about student sit-ins
at Columbia University in 1968!
CONTENTS
Back Issues
More Announcements
Book Reviews
In Memoriam: Recent Literary Deaths
Especially for Writers
Good Stuff Online & Elsewhere
BOOK REVIEWS
This list is alphabetical by book author (not reviewer).
They are written by MSW unless otherwise noted.
The Salt of the Geologic World by Jennifer Browne
The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani
In the Distance by Hernan Diaz
I, Claudius and Claudius the God by Robert Graves
Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane
Bandits by Elmore Leonard
Cuba Libre by Elmore Leonard
Split Screen by Elmore Leonard
Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi
Don't Tell 'Em You're Cold by Kathy Manley Reviewed by Martha Casey
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride.
Some Kin by Marie Tyler McGraw Reviewed by Dreama Frisk
Fools Crow by James Welch Reviewed by Diane Simmons
NOTES ON THIS ISSUE #234
Diane Simmons and Dreama Frisk and Martha Casey review some fine books in this issue, and my own reading included more Elmore Leonard (chewy chocolate chip cookies! crunchy potato chips!--so sweet and salty and they go down so fast). I also review Robert Graves's I, Claudius books and the wonderful James McBride's The Good Lord Bird--my favorite so far of his novels. And there's more.
A happy thought: as I write this, summer's only a few days away, and I look around and say to myself, "Sixty or seventy years of reading, and I've hardly begun!"
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride.
This one was recommended by Eddy Pendarvis after I reviewed McBride's The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store in issue 232. I think The Good Lord Bird is better than the grocery store novel. It's consistently strong, organized around the real history of John Brown's anti-slavery struggle, which can be viewed as heroic or as terrorism.
McBride is a genius of voice and language, and some of his work, brilliant as it is, tends to wander. No one is better at short bursts of vivid story telling, but in this novel, the outlines of history give his tales and voices and observations a perfect armature.
McBride''s narrator is a boy called Onion who is one of Brown's companions at Harpers Ferry
who makes it out alive. Onion, enslaved at the beginning, runs away with John Brown disguised as a girl, and pretty much stays in a dress for the whole novel. He is a delightfully practical survivor with no particular ideology except staying alive. His sort-of benefactor, Old John Brown, is crazy as a bedbug, but also oddly lovable and carelessly loving.
Onion doesn't quite get the concept of slavery--what he does get is how black and white treat each other. He spends three years with John Brown and his crew and learns from the inside about hiding the most important parts of oneself for safety.
He also learns a lot about killing: it's all around him, people getting "deadened," and he definitely doesn't want to be one of the smelly bodies littering Kansas and Virginia. He has a lukewarm, unformed plan to run away, even though he becomesfond of John Brown and his zealot sons. "The Old Man," according to Onion, is clearly a lunatic, and a fearsomely boring preacher, but at the same time he allows people to make their own decisions, and he never gives up on his mission.
It's a spectacularly engaging story, and a good analysis of the murderous old abolitionist from the point of view of the black people he wanted to free. My only complaint is that my hero Frederick Douglass doesn't come off very well.
In the Distance by Hernan Diaz
This strange and lovely tall tale follows the life of Håkan, a Swedish immigrant boy who only wants to find his beloved older brother and ends up in Gold Rush California where he is held as a sex slave prisoner in a raw mining town. He escapes finally, grows to an unusual height and strength. He has adventures, is exploited by many more people, meets a few who help him, eventually kills a large group while trying to save a family that has been kind to him. Hunted for the killings, he is captured by an evil lawman who displays the prisoner on his way to be hung. One of the Sheriff's men finally helps him, and the two young men run away and live together for a happy while in the wilderness.
Diaz's American West has some of the vastness, human violence, and mythological quality of Cormac McCarthy's West in Blood Meridian, but Diaz is a much kinder novelist. He makes us yearn for some kind of happiness or at least relief for Håkan–and in the end, what Håkan gets is an opportunity to tell his tale at length to others.
This, perhaps, is as great a gift as a novelist can give a character.
Fools Crow by James Welch Reviewed by Diane Simmons
Fools Crow is an insecure but earnest young warrior of the Lone Eaters band, Blackfeet nation. The place is what we now call Montana, close to the Canadian border. The year is around 1870. To the east, the Civil War has ended, and, no longer preoccupied, white soldiers and settlers are flooding West. Even before we start, we know, pretty much, how the story will end. The wise older men of the band know that the napikwan, the whites, will, ultimately, be impossible to defeat or drive away. The napikwan are not necessarily strong fighters. One-on-one they are no match for the Blackfeet warriors, who've been trained since childhood to raid and steal from other bands, to fight and kill those they consider enemies, to "make them cry."
A string of scalps worn at the waist shows the fighting prowess of a warrior. Such deeds win him the trust of the leaders, respect of contemporaries, admiration of women. But despite the ferocity of this warrior culture, it is clear that the napikwan can't be stopped. There are too many of them, they are better armed, and they'll keep coming. As the older men understand: the only way to preserve their way of life- -at least for their children and grandchildren—is to treat with the whites, even though agreements are often broken. But the young warriors see that their elders are ultimately powerless, and no longer listen to their council.
And the mad violence perpetrated by young braves like Owl Child means that the chiefs' cautious negotiations are worthless. A massacre against white settlers gives the army the excuse to indiscriminately destroy as many Indians* as they can. As the book concludes, we see the U.S. Calvary ride into a camp of sleeping women and children, killing indiscriminately. The event is based on the 1870 Marias Massacre, which Welch, who grew up within the Blackfeet and A'aninin cultures, learned of from his grandmother, who was a witness that day. We know this story; it's how the West was won. But what we generally don't know, I think, is how it felt to be Fools Crow just before his world ended.
The young man—his name was White Man's Dog before brave actions in battle with the Crow band earned him a new name—needs to prove himself in hunting and in war. Only in this way will he become respected by the others, grow rich, own many horses, attain a fine lodge and many wives. At first, as I read—and I hope I can be forgiven this —I thought: "just like Succession." Well, the fighting, the killing, the pursuit of wealth is certainly there in this male-dominated culture.
But if Fools Crow is no stranger to violence and ambition, that is far from the sum of his existence. For a great deal of his experience is supported, informed, even dictated by a rich access of dreams, omens and visions, all of which are thought to impart to humans the knowledge and wishes of the spirit world. Fools Crow would never dream of disregarding these messages, though often they send him on dangerous quests. He is, it seems to me, rather unlike the whites, whose undoubted Christian beliefs appear not to inform their actions. The spirit world is, in addition, brought to Fools Crow by his intimacy with nature, where animals, birds and even insects are as sentient as humans when they wish to be, and sometimes step out of their expected role to beg for help, offer wisdom or mockingly criticize. Too, companionship, stories and teachings are offered by heavenly bodies.
Though Fools Crow—who is always on horseback— might appear to be travelling alone, the spirit world is always present. Finally, Fools Crow is fully intertwined with tribe and family. We see him safe and warm in his father's fine lodge, where, as the elders talk, the pipe is passed to the right and then the left; never passing the doorway. We see him stepping up to hunt for another family, when their man is lost to war. We see his astonishment at the power of sexual passion when he takes a wife, Red Paint, and his tender amazement when she is with child, carrying a little creature that its parents-to-be call "butterfly."
The world that Fools Crow is losing has been, in many ways, brutal, dangerous and precarious, with much fighting and killing, sometimes darkened by superstition. James Welch does not care to pretend otherwise. To do so would be an insult to memory.
But it is also a world so steeped in spirituality, so immersed in nature, so beyond anything the napikwan can imagine, that—as Fool's Crow sees in a dream—with their ascendency, the life of his people can only be a shadow of its former self.
*I adopt Welch's usage.
Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi
First of all, don't miss the interesting afterword interview with Philip Roth and the discussion about the original title versus the American title.
Second, Levi says up front that he won't in this book be emphasizing the horrors of the death camps (the
vast majority of the people arrested with him were immediately gassed and cremated), but rather the quotidian suffering of the work camps. This turns out to be horrible enough: some more or less healthy men put to strangely brutal and often irrationally useless work. They are not fed enough to live on, and face frequent "selections" when numbers of them are pulled out to be gassed.
Weirdly, there is an infirmary where some people actually recover as they rest and eat relatively well. Levi is in the infirmary with scarlet fever when the Nazis start retreating from the Russians. They take the healthy prisoners with them, and most of them did not survive. The people in the infirmary are simply left to their own devices. For ten days they find food and organize their own lives, and then the Russians arrive, and a goodly number of them eventually get home.
It's a story about infinitely receding personal agency: the lack of camaraderie, the brutality of other prisoners. The insanity of the Nazis. Everything is chance: where you are at a given moment, whether you have some useful skill, are you hard enough to push in front of the weaker ones.
It's an essential text, and the mystery to me is that it is, in the end, it is not depressing--it's one possibility, one extreme, one experience.
Don't Tell 'Em You're Cold by Kathy Manley reviewed by Martha Casey: A Review and a Coincidence
On the cover of a memoir, I read recently, Don't Tell 'Em You're Cold, by Katherine Manley, is the intriguing picture of a
sweet-looking little girl with a shy smile and wearing a very dirty dress. I decided to read it, and I could hardly put it down.
Kathy's father is crippled, having lost part of a leg in a train accident and fingers in another accident. This meant that he needed Kathy to help him. They would go to the tipple where coal cars were loaded. When the cars moved, a few lumps of coal would drop to the ground. Kathy would run to pick them up and her father would load them into The Purple Goose, their old car. Later, during the winter, her father would sell the coal. He received a relief check of about ninety dollars a month, but he was cut off from relief because one could not earn money if on relief. As a result, hoping to qualify again in a different place, the family moved from their two-room shack on Paint Creek to a coal camp in Holden. Relief was restored, but it was not enough. In order for the family to survive, her father begged in front of G.C. Murphy's store in Logan while selling pencils. Kathy would stay with him.
This story began to sound familiar. In my homeroom in Logan High School, I once had a student named Kathy whose father had a peg leg, and who was responsible for getting her two younger siblings off to school each morning. She also was our cheery, popular homeroom president. Could it be the same Kathy?
I looked the book up on the computer and read about the author. I found her “bio” in the back of the book and some pictures.
Yes, Katherine Manley is Kathy Evans. Her father was John Evans.
Having read this book, I am asking myself, “Why wasn't I more sensitive?” Kathy was proud and never indicated that she needed help, but I never discussed her home situation with her. I hope after reading this book, I will try harder to show love and kindness to all and to be aware how much we all need to be caring and moved to lend a helping hand.
Don't Tell 'Em You're Cold was a finalist in the 2024 American Legacy Book Wards in two categories, nonfiction narrative and autobiography/memoir. Also see another review in Issue #205.
Bandits by Elmore Leonard
New Orleans during the Nicaraguan Contra/Sandinista days. The story includes a letter from Ronald Reagan
complimenting a brutal, sometime Contra colonel as a freedom fighter.
The main character, Jack Delaney, is another of Leonard's charming ne'er-do-wells: a retired (by virtue of a prison sentence) cat burglar, presently driving a hearse for his brother-in-law and living in a small apartment at the funeral parlor. A fair amount of the story takes place at the funeral parlor, in the embalming room and the viewing rooms.
The plot revolves around a caper by the brutal Contra and some associates to raise a lot of money from rich Americans for the Contras and then steal it. Among the colonel's many crimes was slaughtering a lot of people in a leper colony, witnessed by a nun, now an ex-nun, who wants to punish him and take the money to rebuild the leper colony.
Jack is pretty much ignorant of current affairs let alone history. He has to be schooled by the gorgeous ex-nun, whose father is one of the right wing rich men being asked for donations. There's also an old girlfriend of Jack's who got him put in prison not really on purposes, and a couple of ex-con friends of Jack. Other assorted characters include a Miskito Indian assassin who has no idea what's going on. There are a lot of issues of trust, and who is going to help whom, and shoot whom.
And a good time was had by all.
Cuba Libre by Elmore Leonard
This 1998 novel one is part western, one part crime, and one part historical novel--Spanish American war: the sinking of the Maine, smuggling guns to Cuban guerrillas, evil Spanish "dons," bad leadership and frequent racism from the North Americans. There's a fair amount of torture and execution revenge, a leprosy hospital (an ongoing theme of Elmore's? See Bandits above). The Girl is a kept woman, which came about as a sort of lark, but she and the cowboy hero fall hard in apparently true love for each other. She's a Leonard girl, at least post-second wave Feminism Leonard girl: beautiful of course, falls for the main character, clever and ready for anything-- riding, shooting, stealing. Leonard goes into everyone's head and always manages to make his thugs and assassins interesting or at least amusing. There's a lot of history slipped in, frequently by a journalist trying to cover it all. He makes amusing asides about how to put what he's seeing in just the right words.
Split Screen by Elmore Leonard
It's not my fault... I was definitely finished reading Elmore Leonard for a while. I had put a hold on the e-book version of this some time ago, and it suddenly became available and I just sort of lost control and the next thing I knew, I was on my screened porch with a glass of iced tea and my Kindle and I was halfway through--
Split Screen is set half in Detroit and half in Florida and has a typical Elmore Leonard love affair with a pleasant lean cowboy-style Detroit homicide detective and a bright good sport of a woman, plus a wonderfully amoral and crude right-wing ex-cop named Walter and a sociopathic rich guy who has just discovered a hobby that actually doesn't bore him--killing people.
Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane
This 2023 best seller was my husband's birthday gift to me. I started reading and went wham through it, very engaged, very entertained. It moves fast, as Lehane's work usually does, and this one has just enough socio-historic context to give it some resonance.
This context is the busing/integration crisis in Boston in 1974-76. Most of it takes place among poor project families, Irish American, in South Boston. They are frankly racist, violent, and deeply clannish, but not entirely wrong that they are being used to achieve something (school integration) that will not require any discomfort for affluent people in the Boston suburbs. The black people in segregated Roxbury aren't thrilled with the situation either, and the death of a young black man in the subway sets off the plot.
The main characters are Bobby, an Irish-American cop from Dorchester, not South Boston, and Mary Pat, a woman who is the product of a public housing project and an enormous violent Southie family. She works in a nursing home, but street-fights better than anyone else who shows up in the novel.
There are two murders early on, both young people, one black and one white. Clearly, but never too heavy-handedly, Lehane is setting up who are the real victims here. There are a lot of other missing young people too: soldiers from Vietnam, drug over-doses, etc. There are also some fraught cross-race relationships. Then,about two thirds in, Mary Pat goes rogue. She feeds evidence to the cop and takes justice into her own hands.
My reservations aren't so much about this book as about its genre: all of what interests me most begins to fall away around the revenge story: Death Wish Charles Bronson in drag--no, that isn't fair. Lehane makes Mary Pat feel real. And I was definitely excited at the end: my reading speed increased: How would Mary Pat's private war turn out? But in the end, too much for me is about what certain types of bullets do to the human body.
There's a nice epilog in which Bobby's beloved young son has a bicycle accident that breaks his leg in several places and lands him in the hospital. He's going to recover, but Bobby realizes how vulnerable even a well-guarded kid is--that all of us and our beloveds are in constant danger from human evil, but also from everyday accidents.
The Salt of the Geologic World by Jennifer Browne
This chapbook from Bottlecap Press has 16 lovely poems built of natural observations and powered by the human body striving for its place in the universe:
Maybe to love you is
to love this landscape,
or to love this landscape
is to love you.... (13)
That fragment touches some of how the poems embed the human in the natural, but Browne is every more precise in what she sees: the "chubby,/dust-fluffed" house sparrow under the café table (3), the moth banging the window. snakes mating, as the poet attempts to join herself physically to the world she is a part of. She is often fierce, almost savage, as in the wonderful image
I don't know what to do with all my wanting,
but rub myself along the surfaces of things... (7)
The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani
My 8 year old granddaughter went crazy for this book--reading the whole thing in a day or two. So I decided, as a responsible grandma who wants to have a topic of conversation with her granddaughter, to read it too. Wikipedia says of it, among other things (this is the first volume, published in 2013 and labelled as children's fantasy) that it is about best friends who are pulled away from home to attend the "School for Good and Evil, an enchanted institution where children are trained to become fairy tale heroes or villains."
The premise is that the friends, witchy Agatha and tooth-ache sweet Sophie, are placed in the wrong schools. This is a great premise, and pretty obvious from the beginning to an adult reader anyhow. that Agatha, in spite of black dresses and bad skin and a home in the graveyard cares very much for Sophie and will do anything for her, while Sophie is pretty clearly a classic user.
Anyhow, it's lively and clever, but for my taste, events and invention tumble by so fast that there's no time to savor anything let alone do real character building. Does that only mean I don't fully appreciate it because I'm old? Maybe, but other y.a. and kidlit have pleased me a lot--I'm thinking of Harry Potter and Hunger Games. The latter is even more vicious and has all the usual love dilemmas, but it worked as science fiction for me. This one feels thin, frantic, no time to catch your breath, and terribly dependent on fractured fairy tale style and parody.
Yes, it's funny that the princesses are obsessed with grooming and catching a prince, and the princes are musclebound dunderheads, but Chainani seems to love the accoutrements of his cleverness more than his world or his characters. In the end, writers like Suzanne Collins and J.K. Rowling take their worlds deeply seriously, and I think that makes the difference.
Well, the good news is that Shira didn't like the second book in the series, so I'm released from the necessity of going on.
I, Claudius and Claudius the God by Robert Graves
I don't hear these excellent 1930's British novels mentioned often--there was the t.v. series fifty years ago, but I never watched it. Except for the orgies, is the Roman
empire perhaps cconsidered old-fashioned? Graves, of course, grew up at a time when British boys' education was centered on the Latin language and Roman history. When I was growing up, Roman history was mostly skipped over unless it was being spoken of as a kind of foil to the flowering of Christianity.
The odd to me is that Claudius's voice feels timeless. I can't speak to the world building (most of the history is fairly accurate, I believe), except to say that it feels modern, but without anachronisms.
For me, then, these two, really one book, are perfect historical fiction: a faint whiff of the archaic, but also a window in, an interpretation. I ended up thinking I knew something about Roman history, which may or may not be true, but Claudius is a wonderful guide to his life and times.
And his family. Mercy upon us, what a crew--especially Claudius's nephew Caligula, of course, but also his cold mother who doesn't like having a partially disabled son, and his grandmother Livia, who, according to Claudius/Robert Graves, really ran Augustus's empire.
This was written during the rise of the Nazis, also the early days of Stalin, so the study of what it's like to be in the presence of an absolute and probably insane dictator is fascinating and terrifying.
I liked the women characters too, not just powerful ones like Grandma Livia and Claudius's super slut wife, but also the prostitute he hires, Calpurnia when he's between wives, who helps him through bad times and saves his life.
The second book, Claudius the God, is in large part about aging. Claudius gets tired. He has less interest in good government, and slips into some dictatorial executions of his own as well as silly public entertainments. He keeps his ideal of a Roman republic to the end though, even when everyone else has given up on it, and names nasty Nero as his heir in hopes of shocking the empire back into being a republic. He marries Nero's mother because she can run the empire while he rests.
He stays an attractive character, and his final skepticism and disappointment are sad.
Anyhow, highly recommended, and not quite like anything else you're likely to read.
Some Kin by Marie Tyler McGraw Reviewed by Dreama Frisk
In Some Kin, Marie Tyler McGraw uses all her experience as an academic historian teaching in colleges – two of which were historically African American – to write an engrossing and splendidly written family history concentrated on four families over four centuries played out against a background of time and change. In
addition, each of the chapters follows intimately members of one of the families and their world. Eventually every piece fits together like a puzzle. You will feel close to these families as they share their stories of struggle, joy, revelation, tragedy, and triumph. The title, "Some Kin," comes from an inscription written by Marie's grandfather on the bottom of a photograph taken in 1911 by an early Brownie camera. He could not keep track of all his wife's cousins. As Marie warns, the families come dragging their own mysteries and dramas with them. This includes her sister, Crissy, and her sister-in-law Alicia. It certainly includes Marie as she begins in the first chapter, Wheeling Island. "Johnny Hunter drowned in the Ohio River. I heard someone screaming outside our house. Johnny's mother was walking up and down South Huron Street, and Derry Smith's mother was holding her up. Johnny was the youngest Hunter boy and was in my first-grade class." Then, there is are comments about Johnny's father made by her mother and her aunt about a neighbor, still in Germany after World War II, "He'd rather live with the Nazis than those Hunter kids," her mother said. "Maybe he's got a fraulein over there," Aunt Marion said. Marie is teaching her readers all the time: "I am not interested in the genealogy that results in long strings of "begats" or hundreds or thousands of distant cousins." Instead, she uses every possible device known to writers: a preface, an introduction, chapter titles, chapters notes, notes on sources, and an appendix. They are full and even elaborate. In addition there are, snapshots, and scribbled cake recipe. Notes on Sources for all ten chapters especially connects the reader to the main text. I frequently used the chapter notes as a reader and a reviewer. It is not like anything anyone has written before. She has created a genre unto itself. It reads like fiction. This would come as no surprise to Marie who planned it all. Always there the clarity of a remarkable purpose. From her background as an historian, she creates the freedom to connect as she moves through the history of four families. Marie is like that herself. Over a life- time of friendship, we come together easily after long absences.
2 All chapters have titles, like Inventing Tylers. In particular, one chapter not only has a title, but sets up the chapter with a note: ". . .according to a statement of Elisha Tyler's, "that during the early settlement, of New England three brothers named Nathaniel, Abraham, and Job coming from England landed at Plymouth and after a little delay seated themselves on a log, partook of their refreshments, arose, embraced and kissed each other, then each went his own way, and it saith not that they ever again met." signed Jessica Tyler Austin. As she follow her plan, Marie uses two chapters to move through the worlds of Inventing the Tylers and Beezaleels. It is possible to follow one member and his world. I followed Roger Tyler who died in 1796 and his grandchildren, Bezaleel 11, and Bezaleel III. Bezaleel II died on June 29, 1796 from drinking potash. As if she knew him first hand, Marie tells us, "he may have confused the liquid with water. . . and decided he had seen enough of the world." Describing a boundary line on a map, she writes about how the southwest corner of Pennsylvania presses into West Virginia like a sharp elbow into a pillow. Frequent travelers in this area will instantly remember it. This is a place I fondly remember. Marie and I with our spouses met for dinner at a restaurant there. Some Kin not a culmination of Marie's career as an historian but an addition. It is a daring book you can give yourself to.
GOD and the Catbird
That gray catbird,
Rufous under the tail of the male,
Knows where to find me.
The "meow" call has no bearing
Upon my hesitant soul;
Catbird just flutters down
From his summer haunt
Between the fence and the redbud tree,
The perky bend of the head
With a centered black stripe;
The snappy eyes,
So inquisitive.
Look at me and waits
Knows and knows that to standby
Is simply enough.At hint of autumn,
Catbird and covey leave,
Having born out their summer stay.
They never promised
To be with me in winter.Next spring, one lovely day in late May,
When I am in despair
In the garden at weeds and such,
Catbird or a cousin,
Return to find me
Pondering this earthly adventure.
Dreama Wyant Frisk
GOOD READING & LISTENING ONLINE AND OFF
Another wonderful piece by Hannah Brown in The Jerusalem Post: "Dies Irae."
Suzanne McConnell interviews Jason Baum on Bellevue Literary Review Youtube.
Fatima Shaik's nonfiction Economy Hall is recommended by The New York Times!
Sign up for Kelly Watt's weekly log of books recommended. Go to her web page (and learn about her books) then scroll to the bottom.
Adventures in Editing with Danny Williams Editor and Writer Danny Williams tells amusing tales of editing--and passes on some serious hints for writers at the same time!
ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS
Six Writers on Writers' Block
Alice McDermott in Literary Hub on what to say when the future of your writing career looks bleak. Thanks to Suzanne McConnell.
For marketing your books and for all indie-publishers, take a look at some free (and paid) tools at Kindlepreneur. Free QR codes among other things.
From Jane Friedman-- a chart for writers of historical fiction and the merely curious: who was alive and how old at a given date in history: Parallel Lives.
IN MEMORIAM
George Lies
George was one of the great gentlemen of West Virginia Letters. Learn more about him here.
Alice Munro, Nobel Prize Winning
Master of the Short Story Dies
See the New York Times obituary here.
Literary Hub has links to 25 Alice Munro
stories to read online for free.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
MSW Teaching Novel Writing Online at NYU Fall 2024.
Fatima Shaik's Economy Hall Recommended by The New York Times!
Danny Williams Adventures in Editing June Issue
MSW was in "This Week in West Virginia History!"
New Commentary on Trespassers!
Jayne Anne Phillips wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction!
Read Jonathan Corcoran at Literary Hub on what he learned from her books and from classes with her. Also, read my essay about her work in Appalachian Heritage "Seduced into Consciousness" here.
Rediscovered! Temma Ehrenfeld's Morgan: The Wizard of Kew Gardens
Imagine George Constanza turned into Harry Potter.... A sardonic pot-smoking New Yorker, develops magic powers.
Jane Hicks' new book of poetry The Safety of Small Things meditates on mortality from arevealingperspective. Images of stark examination rooms, theravages of chemotherapy, biopsies, and gel-soaked towels entwine with remembrance to reveal grace and even beauty where they are least expected. Jane Hicks captures contemporary Appalachia in all of its complexities: the world she presents constantly demonstrates how the past and the present (and even the future) mingle unexpectedly. The poems in this powerful collection juxtapose the splendor and revelation of nature and science, the circle of life, how family and memory give honor to those we've lost, and how they can all fit together. This lyrical and contemplative yet provocative collection sings a song of lucidity, redemption, and celebration.
BUYING BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS NEWSLETTER
A not-for-profit alternative to Amazon.com is Bookshop.org which sends a percentage of every sale to a pool of brick-and-mortar bookstores. You may also direct the donation to a bookstore of your choice. Lots of individuals have storefronts there, too including me.
If a book discussed in this newsletter has no source mentioned, don’t forget that you may be able to borrow it from your public library as either a hard copy or as an e-book.
You may also buy or order from your local independent bookstore. To find a bricks-and-mortar store, click the "shop indie" logo left. Kobobooks.com sells e-books for independent brick-and-mortar bookstores.
The largest unionized bookstore in America has a web store at Powells Books. Some people prefer shopping online there to shopping at Amazon.com. An alternative way to reach Powell's site and support the union is via http://www.powellsunion.com. Prices are the same but 10% of your purchase will go to support the union benefit fund.
I have a lot of friends and colleagues who despise Amazon. There is a discussion about some of the issues back in Issue # 184, as well as even older comments from Jonathan Greene and others here.
Another way to buy books online, especially used books, is to use Bookfinder or Alibris. Bookfinder gives the price with shipping and handling, so you can see what you really have to pay. Another source for used and out-of-print books is All Book Stores.
Paperback Book Swap is a postage-only way to trade physical books with other readers.
Ingrid Hughes suggests another "great place for used books which sometimes turn out to be never-opened hard cover books is Biblio. She says, "I've bought many books from them, often for $4 including shipping."
If you use an electronic reader (all kinds), don't forget free books at the Gutenberg Project—mostly classics (copyrights pre-1927). Also free from the wonderful folks at Standard E-books are redesigned books from the Gutenberg Project and elsewhere--easier to read and more attractive.
RESPONSES TO THIS NEWSLETTER
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Books for Readers Newsletter by Meredith Sue Willis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from Meredith Sue Willis. Some individual contributors may have other licenses.
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Meredith Sue Willis, the producer of this occasional newsletter, is a writer and teacher and enthusiastic reader. Her books have been published by Charles Scribner's Sons, HarperCollins, Ohio University Press, Mercury House, West Virginia University Press, Monteymayor Press, Teachers & Writers Press, Mountain State Press, Hamilton Stone Editions, and others. She teaches at New York University's School of Professional Studies.
BACK ISSUES
#234 Robert Graves, Kathy Manley, Soman Chainani, Marie Tyler McGraw, James Welch, Elmore Leonard, Jennifer Browne, Dennis Lehane, Primo Levi, Elmore Leonard, James McBride. Reviews by Martha Casey, Dreama Frisk, and Diane Simmons--and a poem by Dreama Frisk!
#233 Ursula LeGuin, Ford Madox Ford, Elmore Leonard, Deborah Clearman, Susan Abulhawa, Agatha Christie, Oscar Silver, Jeff Lindsay, Linda Parsons, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Philip Roth, Lisa Scottoline. Reviews by Joe Chuman and Felicia Mitchell.
#232 Jim Minick, Clarice Lispector, The Porch Poems, George du Maurier, Louise Fitzhugh, Natalia Ginzburg, Marilynne Robinson; Kathleen Watt; Hambly, Connelly, Alison Hubbard, Imogen Keeper, James McBride, Jenny Offill. Reviews by Hilton Obenzinger, Eddy Pendarvis, Diane Simmons, Suzanne McConnell, and Christine Willis.
#231 Triangle shirtwaist fire, Anthony Burgess, S.A. Cosby, Eva Dolan, Janet Campbell Hale, Barbara Hambly, Marc Harshman, P.D. James, Michael Lewis, Mrs. Oliphant, Paul Rabinowitz, Nora Roberts, Strout, Tokarczuk. Review by Dreama Frisk.
#230 Henry Adams, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Jonathan Lethem, Magda Teter, Mary Jennings Hegar, Chandra Prasad, Timothy Russell, Carter Taylor Seaton, Edna O'Brien, Martha Wells, Thomas Mann, Arnold Bennett, and more. Reviews by Mary Lucille DeBerry, Joe Chuman, John Loonam, Suzanne McConnell, and Edwina Pendarvis.
#229 John Sandford, Dr. J. Nozipo Maraire, Rex Stout; Larry Schardt; Martha Wells; Henry Makepeace Thackery; about Edvard Munch;Erik Larson. Reviews and interviews by John Loonam and Diane Simmons.
#228 Edward P. Jones, Denton Loving, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. Lee Martin, Jesmyn Ward, Michelle Zauner, Valérie Perrin, Philip K. Dick, Burt Kimmelman. Reviewes by Ernie Brill, Joe Chuman, Eddy Pendarvis, Diane Simmons, & Danny Williams.
#227 Cheryl Denise, Larissa Shmailo, Eddy Pendarvis, Alice McDermott, Kelly Watt, Elmore Leonard, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Suzy McKee Charnas, and more.
#226 Jim Minick, Gore Vidal, Valeria Luiselli, Richard Wright, Kage Baker, Suzy McKee Charnas, Victor Depta, Walter Mosley. David Hollinger reviewed by Joe Chuman, and more.
#225 Demon Copperhead, Thomas Hardy, Miriam Toews, Kate Chopin, Alberto Moravia, Elizabeth Strout, McCullers, Garry Wills, Valerie Nieman, Cora Harrison. Troy Hill on Isaac Babel; Belinda Anderson on books for children; Joe Chuman on Eric Alterman; Molly Gilman on Kage Baker; and lots more.
#224 The 1619 Project, E.M. Forster. Elmore Leonard, Pledging Season by Erika Erickson Malinoski. Emily St. John Mandel, Val Nieman, John O'Hara, Tom Perrotta, Walter Tevis, Sarah Waters, and more.
#223 Amor Towles, Emily St. John Mandel, Raymond Chandler, N.K. Jemisin, Andrew Holleran, Anita Diamant, Rainer Maria Rilke, and more, plus notes and reviews by Joe Chuman, George Lies, Donna Meredith, and Rhonda Browning White.
#222 Octavia Butler, Elizabeth Gaskell, N.K. Jemisin, Joseph Lash, Alice Munro, Barbara Pym, Sally Rooney, and more.
#221 Victor Serge, Greg Sanders, Maggie O'Farrell, Ken Champion, Barbara Hambly, Walter Mosely, Anne Roiphe, Anna Reid, Randall Balmer, Louis Auchincloss. Reviews by Joe Chuman and Chris Connelly
#220 Margaret Atwood, Sister Souljah, Attica Locke, Jill Lepore, Belinda Anderson, Claire Oshetsky, Barbara Pym, and Reviews by Joe Chuman, Ed Davis, and Eli Asbury
#219 Carolina De Robertis, Charles Dickens, Thomas Fleming, Kendra James, Ashley Hope Perez, Terry Pratchett, Martha Wells. Reviews by Joe Chuman and Danny Williams.
#218 Ed Myers, Eyal Press, Barbara Kingsolver, Edwidge Danticat, William Trevor, Tim O'Brien. Reviews by Joe Chuman and Marc Harshman.
#217 Jill Lepore; Kathleen Rooney; Stendhal; Rajia Hassib again; Madeline Miller; Jean Rhys; and more. Reviews and recommendations by Joe Chuman, Ingrid Hughes, Peggy Backman, Phyllis Moore, and Dan Gover.
#216 Rajia Hassib; Joel Pechkam; Robin Hobb; Anne Hutchinson; James Shapiro; reviews by Joe Chuman and Marc Harshman; Fellowship of the Rings#215 Julia Alvarez, Karen Salyer McElmurray, Anne Brontë, James Welch, Veronica Roth, Madeline Martin, Barack Obama, Jason Trask, Katherine Anne Porter & more
#214 Brit Bennet, Oyinkan Braithwaite, Robin Hobb, Willliam Kennedy, John Le Carré, John Loonam on Elana Ferrante, Carole Rosenthal on Philip Roth, Peggy Backman on Russell Shorto, Helen Weinzweig, Marguerite Yourcenar, and more.
#213 Pauletta Hansen reviewed by Bonnie Proudfoot; A conversation about cultural appropriation in fiction; T.C. Boyle; Eric Foner; Attica Locke; Lillian Roth; The Snake Pit; Alice Walker; Lynda Schor; James Baldwin; True Grit--and more.
#212 Reviews of books by Madison Smartt Bell, James Lee Burke, Mary Arnold Ward,Timothey Huguenin, Octavia Butler, Cobb & Seaton, Schama
#211 Reviews of books by Lillian Smith, Henry James, Deborah Clearman, J.K. Jemisin, Donna Meredith, Octavia Butler, Penelope Lively, Walter Mosley. Poems by Hilton Obenzinger.
#210 Lavie Tidhar, Amy Tan, Walter Mosley, Gore Vidal, Julie Otsuka, Rachel Ingalls, Rex Stout, John Updike, and more.
#209 Cassandra Clare, Lissa Evans, Suzan Colón, Damian Dressick, Madeline Ffitch, Dennis Lehane, William Maxwell, and more.
#208 Alexander Chee; Donna Meredith; Rita Quillen; Mrs. Humphy Ward; Roger Zelazny; Dennis LeHane; Eliot Parker; and more.
#207 Caroline Sutton, Colson Whitehead, Elaine Durbach, Marc Kaminsky, Attica Locke, William Makepeace Thackery, Charles Willeford & more.
#206 Timothy Snyder, Bonnie Proudfoot, David Weinberger, Pat Barker, Michelle Obama, Richard Powers, Anthony Powell, and more.
#205 George Eliot, Ernest Gaines, Kathy Manley, Rhonda White; reviews by Jane Kimmelman, Victoria Endres, Deborah Clearman.
#204 Larissa Shmailo, Joan Didion, Judith Moffett, Heidi Julavits, Susan Carol Scott, Trollope, Walter Mosley, Dorothy B. Hughes, and more.
#203 Tana French, Burt Kimmelman, Ann Petry, Mario Puzo, Anna Egan Smucker, Virginia Woolf, Val Nieman, Idra Novey, Roger Wall.
#202 J .G. Ballard, Peter Carey, Arthur Dobrin, Lisa Haliday, Birgit Mazarath, Roger Mitchell, Natalie Sypolt, and others.
#201 Marc Kaminsky, Jessica Wilkerson, Jaqueline Woodson, Eliot Parker, Barbara Kingsolver. Philip Roth, George Eliot and more.
#200 Books by Zola, Andrea Fekete, Thomas McGonigle, Maggie Anderson, Sarah Dunant, J.G. Ballard, Sarah Blizzard Robinson, and more.
#199 Reviews by Ed Davis and Phyllis Moore. Books by Elizabeth Strout, Thomas Mann, Rachel Kushner, Craig Johnson, Richard Powers.
#198 Reviews by Belinda Anderson, Phyllis Moore, Donna Meredith, Eddy Pendarvis, and Dolly Withrow. Eliot, Lisa Ko, John Ehle, Hamid, etc.
#197 Joan Silber, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Alexander Hamilton, Eudora Welty, Middlemarch yet again, Greta Ehrlich, Edwina Pendarvis.
#196 Last Exit to Brooklyn; Joan Didion; George Brosi's reviews; Alberto Moravia; Muriel Rukeyser; Matthew de la Peña; Joyce Carol Oates
#195 Voices for Unity; Ramp Hollow, A Time to Stir, Patti Smith, Nancy Abrams, Conrad, N.K. Jemisin, Walter Mosely & more.
#194 Allan Appel, Jane Lazarre, Caroline Sutton, Belinda Anderson on children's picture books.
#193 Larry Brown, Phillip Roth, Ken Champion, Larissa Shmailo, Gillian Flynn, Jack Wheatcroft, Hilton Obenziner and more.
#192 Young Adult books from Appalachia; Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse; Michael Connelly; Middlemarch; historical murders in Appalachia.
#191 Oliver Sacks, N.K. Jemisin, Isabella and Ferdinand and their descendents, Depta, Highsmith, and more.
#190 Clearman, Eyes Glowing at the Edge of the Woods, Doerr, Octavia Butler, Colson Whitehead, Miss Fourth of July, Goodbye and more.
#189 J.D. Vance; Mitch Levenberg; Phillip Lopate; Barchester Towers; Judith Hoover; ; Les Liaisons Dangereuses; short science fiction reviews.
#188 Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban; The Hemingses of Monticello; Marc Harshman; Jews in the Civil War; Ken Champion; Rebecca West; Colum McCann
#187 Randi Ward, Burt Kimmelman, Llewellyn McKernan, Sir Walter Scott, Jonathan Lethem, Bill Luvaas, Phyllis Moore, Sarah Cordingley & more
#186 Diane Simmons, Walter Dean Myers, Johnny Sundstrom, Octavia Butler & more
#185 Monique Raphel High; Elizabeth Jane Howard; Phil Klay; Crystal Wilkinson
#184 More on Amazon; Laura Tillman; Anthony Trollope; Marily Yalom and the women of the French Revolution; Ernest Becker
#183 Hilton Obenzinger, Donna Meredith, Howard Sturgis, Tom Rob Smith, Daniel José Older, Elizabethe Vigée-Lebrun, Veronica Sicoe
#182 Troy E. Hill, Mitchell Jackson, Rita Sims Quillen, Marie Houzelle, Frederick Busch, more Dickens
#181 Valerie Nieman, Yorker Keith, Eliot Parker, Ken Champion, F.R. Leavis, Charles Dickens
#180 Saul Bellow, Edwina Pendarvis, Matthew Neill Null, Judith Moffett, Theodore Dreiser, & more
#179 Larissa Shmailo, Eric Frizius, Jane Austen, Go Set a Watchman and more
#178 Ken Champion, Cat Pleska, William Demby's Beetlecreek, Ron Rash, Elizabeth Gaskell, and more.
#177 Jane Hicks, Daniel Levine, Constance Fenimore Woolson, Ken Chamption, Patricia Harman
#176 Robert Gipe, Justin Torres, Marilynne Robinson, Velma Wallis, Larry McMurty, Charlotte Brontë, Henry James, Fumiko Enchi, Shelley Ettinger
#175 Lists of what to read for the new year; MOUNTAIN MOTHER GOOSE: CHILD LORE OF WEST VIRGINIA; Peggy Backman
#174 Christian Sahner, John Michael Cummings, Denton Loving, Madame Bovary
#173 Stephanie Wellen Levine, S.C. Gwynne, Ed Davis's Psalms of Israel Jones, Quanah Parker, J.G. Farrell, Lubavitcher girls
#172 Pat Conroy, Donna Tartt, Alice Boatwright, Fumiko Enchi, Robin Hobb, Rex Stout
#171 Robert Graves, Marie Manilla, Johnny Sundstrom, Kirk Judd
#170 John Van Kirk, Carter Seaton,Neil Gaiman, Francine Prose, The Murder of Helen Jewett, Thaddeus Rutkowski
#169 Pearl Buck's The Exile and Fighting Angel; Larissa Shmailo; Liz Lewinson; Twelve Years a Slave, and more
#168 Catherine the Great, Alice Munro, Edith Poor, Mitch Levenberg, Vonnegut, Mellville, and more!
#167 Belinda Anderson; Anne Shelby; Sean O'Leary, Dragon tetralogy; Don Delillo's Underworld
#166 Eddy Pendarvis on Pearl S. Buck; Theresa Basile; Miguel A. Ortiz; Lynda Schor; poems by Janet Lewis; Sarah Fielding
#165 Janet Lewis, Melville, Tosltoy, Irwin Shaw!
#164 Ed Davis on Julie Moore's poems; Edith Wharton; Elaine Drennon Little's A Southern Place; Elmore Leonard
#163 Pamela Erens, Michael Harris, Marlen Bodden, Joydeep Roy-Battacharya, Lisa J. Parker, and more
#162 Lincoln, Joseph Kennedy, Etel Adnan, Laura Treacy Bentley, Ron Rash, Sophie's Choice, and more
#161 More Wilkie Collins; Duff Brenna's Murdering the Mom; Nora Olsen's Swans & Klons; Lady Audley's Secret
#160 Carolina De Robertis, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Ross King's The Judgment of Paris
#159 Tom Jones. William Luvaas, Marc Harshman, The Good Earth, Lara Santoro, American Psycho
#158 Chinua Achebe's Man of the People; The Red and the Black; McCarthy's C.; Farm City; Victor Depta;Myra Shapiro
#157 Alice Boatwright, Reamy Jansen, Herta Muller, Knut Hamsun, What Maisie Knew; Wanchee Wang, Dolly Withrow.
#156 The Glass Madonna; A Revelation
#155 Buzz Bissinger; reader suggestions; Satchmo at the Waldorf
#154 Hannah Brown, Brad Abruzzi, Thomas Merton
#153 J.Anthony Lukas, Talmage Stanley's The Poco Fields, Devil Anse
#152 Marc Harshman guest editor; John Burroughs; Carol Hoenig
#151 Deborah Clearman, Steve Schrader, Paul Harding, Ken Follet, Saramago-- and more!
#150 Mitch Levenberg, Johnny Sundstrom, and Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns.
#149 David Weinberger's Too Big to Know; The Shining; The Tiger's Wife.
#148 The Moonstone, Djibouti, Mark Perry on the Grimké family
#147 Jane Lazarre's new novel; Johnny Sundstrom; Emotional Medicine Rx; Walter Dean Myers, etc.
#146 Henry Adams AGAIN! Also,Fun Home: a Tragicomic
#145 Henry Adams, Darnell Arnoult, Jaimy Gordon, Charlotte Brontë
#144 Carter Seaton, NancyKay Shapiro, Lady Murasaki Shikibu
#143 Little America; Guns,Germs, and Steel; The Trial
#142 Blog Fiction, Leah by Seymour Epstein, Wolf Hall, etc.
#141 Dreama Frisk on Hilary Spurling's Pearl Buck in China; Anita Desai; Cormac McCarthy
#140 Valerie Nieman's Blood Clay, Dolly Withrow
#139 My Kindle, The Prime Minister, Blood Meridian
#138 Special on Publicity by Carter Seaton
#137 Michael Harris's The Chieu Hoi Saloon; Game of Thrones; James Alexander Thom's Follow the River
#136 James Boyle's The Creative Commons; Paola Corso, Joanne Greenberg, Monique Raphel High, Amos Oz
#135 Reviews by Carole Rosenthal, Jeffrey Sokolow, and Wanchee Wang.
#134 Daniel Deronda, books with material on black and white relations in West Virginia
#133 Susan Carpenter, Irene Nemirovsky, Jonathan Safran Foer, Kanafani, Joe Sacco
#132 Karen Armstrong's A History of God; JCO's The Falls; The Eustace Diamonds again.
#131 The Help; J. McHenry Jones, Reamy Jansen, Jamie O'Neill, Michael Chabon.
#130 Lynda Schor, Ed Myers, Charles Bukowski, Terry Bisson, The Changing Face of Anti-Semitism
#129 Baltasar and Blimunda; Underground Railroad; Navasky's Naming Names, small press and indie books.
#128 Jeffrey Sokolow on Histories and memoirs of the Civil Rights Movement
#127 Olive Kitteridge; Urban fiction; Shelley Ettinger on Joyce Carol Oates
#126 Jack Hussey's Ghosts of Walden, The Leopard , Roger's Version, The Reluctanct Fundamentalist
#125 Lee Maynard's The Pale Light of Sunset; Books on John Brown suggested by Jeffrey Sokolow
#124 Cloudsplitter, Founding Brothers, Obenzinger on Bradley's Harlem Vs. Columbia University
#123 MSW's summer reading round-up; Olive Schreiner; more The Book Thief; more on the state of editing
#122 Left-wing cowboy poetry; Jewish partisans during WW2; responses to "Hire a Book Doctor?"
#121 Jane Lazarre's latest; Irving Howe's Leon Trotsky; Gringolandia; "Hire a Book Doctor?"
#120 Dreama Frisk on The Book Thief; Mark Rudd; Thulani Davis's summer reading list
#119 Two Histories of the Jews; small press books for Summer
#118 Kasuo Ichiguro, Jeanette Winterson, The Carter Family!
#117 Cat Pleska on Ann Pancake; Phyllis Moore on Jayne Anne Phillips; and Dolly Withrow on publicity
#116 Ann Pancake, American Psycho, Marc Harshman on George Mackay Brown
#115 Adam Bede, Nietzsche, Johnny Sundstrom
#114 Judith Moffett, high fantasy, Jared Diamond, Lily Tuck
#113 Espionage--nonfiction and fiction: Orson Scott Card and homophobia
#112 Marc Kaminsky, Nel Noddings, Orson Scott Card, Ed Myers
#111 James Michener, Mary Lee Settle, Ardian Gill, BIll Higginson, Jeremy Osner, Carol Brodtick
#110 Nahid Rachlin, Marion Cuba on self-publishing; Thulani Davis, The Road, memoirs
#109 Books about the late nineteen-sixties: Busy Dying; Flying Close to the Sun; Looking Good; Trespassers
#108 The Animal Within; The Ground Under My Feet; King of Swords
#107 The Absentee; Gorky Park; Little Scarlet; Howl; Health Proxy
#106 Castle Rackrent; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows; More on Drown; Blindness & more
#105 Everything is Miscellaneous, The Untouchable, Kettle Bottom by Diane Gilliam Fisher
#104 Responses to Shelley on Junot Diaz and more; More best books of 2007
#103 Guest Editor: Shelley Ettinger and her best books of 2007
#102 Saramago's BLINDNESS; more on NEVER LET ME GO; George Lies on Joe Gatski
#101 My Brilliant Career, The Scarlet Letter, John Banville, Never Let Me Go
#100 The Poisonwood Bible, Pamela Erens, More Harry P.
#99 Jonathan Greene on Amazon.com; Molly Gilman on Dogs of Babel
#98 Guest editor Pat Arnow; more on the Amazon.com debate
#97 Using Thomas Hardy; Why I Write; more
#96 Lucy Calkins, issue fiction for young adults
#95 Collapse, Harry Potter, Steve Geng
#94 Alice Robinson-Gilman, Maynard on Momaday
#93 Kristin Lavransdatter, House Made of Dawn, Leaving Atlanta
#92 Death of Ivan Ilych; Memoirs
#91 Richard Powers discussion
#90 William Zinsser, Memoir, Shakespeare
#89 William Styron, Ellen Willis, Dune, Germinal, and much more
#88 Sandra Cisneros's Caramelo
#87 Wings of the Dove, Forever After (9/11 Teachers)
#86 Leora Skolkin-Smith, American Pastoral, and more
#85 Wobblies, Winterson, West Virginia Encyclopedia
#84 Karen Armstrong, Geraldine Brooks, Peter Taylor
#83 3-Cornered World, Da Vinci Code
#82 The Eustace Diamonds, Strapless, Empire Falls
#81 Philip Roth's The Plot Against America , Paola Corso
#80 Joanne Greenberg, Ed Davis, more Murdoch; Special Discussion on Memoir--Frey and J.T. Leroy
#79 Adam Sexton, Iris Murdoch, Hemingway
#78 The Hills at Home; Tess of the D'Urbervilles; Jean Stafford
#77 On children's books--guest editor Carol Brodtrick
#76 Mary Lee Settle, Mary McCarthy
#75 The Makioka Sisters
#74 In Our Hearts We Were Giants
#73 Joyce Dyer
#72 Bill Robinson WWII story
#71 Eva Kollisch on G.W. Sebald
#70 On Reading
#69 Nella Larsen, Romola
#68 P.D. James
#67 The Medici
#66 Curious Incident,Temple Grandin
#65 Ingrid Hughes on Memoir
#64 Boyle, Worlds of Fiction
#63 The Namesame
#62 Honorary Consul; The Idiot
#61 Lauren's Line
#60 Prince of Providence
#59 The Mutual Friend, Red Water
#58 AkÉ, Season of Delight
#57 Screaming with Cannibals
#56 Benita Eisler's Byron
#55 Addie, Hottentot Venus, Ake
#54 Scott Oglesby, Jane Rule
#53 Nafisi,Chesnutt, LeGuin
#52 Keith Maillard, Lee Maynard
#51 Gregory Michie, Carter Seaton
#50 Atonement, Victoria Woodhull biography
#49 Caucasia
#48 Richard Price, Phillip Pullman
#47 Mid- East Islamic World Reader
#46 Invitation to a Beheading
#45 The Princess of Cleves
#44 Shelley Ettinger: A Few Not-so-Great Books
#43 Woolf, The Terrorist Next Door
#42 John Sanford
#41 Isabelle Allende
#40 Ed Myers on John Williams
#39 Faulkner
#38 Steven Bloom No New Jokes
#37 James Webb's Fields of Fire
#36 Middlemarch
#35 Conrad, Furbee, Silas House
#34 Emshwiller
#33 Pullman, Daughter of the Elm
#32 More Lesbian lit; Nostromo
#31 Lesbian fiction
#30 Carol Shields, Colson Whitehead
#29 More William Styron
#28 William Styron
#27 Daniel Gioseffi
#26 Phyllis Moore
#25 On Libraries....
#24 Tales of the City
#23 Nonfiction, poetry, and fiction
#22 More on Why This Newsletter
#21 Salinger, Sarah Waters, Next of Kin
#20 Jane Lazarre
#19 Artemisia Gentileschi
#18 Ozick, Coetzee, Joanna Torrey
#17 Arthur Kinoy
#16 Mrs. Gaskell and lots of other suggestions
#15 George Dennison, Pat Barker, George Eliot
#14 Small Presses
#13 Gap Creek, Crum
#12 Reading after 9-11
#11 Political Novels
#10 Summer Reading ideas
#9 Shelley Ettinger picks
#8 Harriette Arnow's Hunter's Horn
#7 About this newsletter
#6 Maria Edgeworth
#5 Tales of Good and Evil; Moon Tiger
#4 Homer Hickam and The Chosen
#3 J.T. LeRoy and Tale of Genji
#2 Chick Lit
#1 About this newsletter
