Margaret Renkl,
who comes from a colorful southern family, interweaves her close observations
of nature with glimpses of her own autobiography. She uses her birthplace and
nature as her gauge, mirror, and touchstone, whereas I use my authors.
Renkl
writes a weekly opinion column for the NYT. “The Gift of Shared Grief” is my
favorite piece from her second book. I hope that you don’t need it right now,
but maybe it will be useful to you when you do. Renkl’s way of responding to
grief is wise, eloquent, and uplifting; however, when necessary, she can be
brave and fierce.
When Renkl says, “Every day the world is teaching me what I
need to know to be in the world,” she’s not talking about screaming
headlines.
Winner of the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay Winner of the 2022 Southern Book Prize An Indie Next Selection for September 2021 A Book Marks Best Reviewed Essay Collection of 2021 A Literary Hub Most Anticipated Book of 2021 A Country Living Best Book of Fall 2021 A Garden & Gun Recommended Read for Fall 2021 A Book Marks Best Reviewed Book of September 2021
For the past four years, Margaret Renkl's columns have offered readers of The New York Times a weekly dose of natural beauty, human decency, and persistent hope from her home in Nashville.…
I
invented a category called Best Offbeat Memoirs because I’d written one.
Fearless about showing her flaws, Patchett was saved from illiteracy by a
determined nun. If not for her dazzling self-discipline she might have remained
a crackerjack waitress. When nobody showed up at a book signing, she looked
around to observe what makes an independent bookstore tick.
When book banners
certain that first-year students at Clemson University would be turned into sex fiends,
homosexuals, and drug addicts if they read her assigned book (sound familiar?)
she gave the “kick-ass” speech printed here. Her three proud fathers adored
her. Patchett’s no-nonsense but caring nature and sense of humor are the
narrative thread that holds these diverse pieces together, making this a book
to treasure.
'So compellingly personal you feel you're looking over her shoulder as she sits down to write' New York Times
'Electrically entertaining ... Funny, generous, spirited and kind' The Times
This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage is an irresistible blend of literature and memoir revealing the big experiences and little moments that shaped Ann Patchett as a daughter, wife, friend and writer.
Here, Ann Patchett shares entertaining and moving stories about her tumultuous childhood, her painful early divorce, the excitement of selling her first book, driving a Winnebago from Montana to Yellowstone Park, her joyous discovery of opera, scaling…
De Waal’s uses
his ceramicist’s eye and hand to inscribe between the lines the pain of the
Camondo family which was completely eradicated during the Holocaust.
This quiet
book took my breath away, and since it is in the form of letters, it means even
more to me. On view in this heartbreaking testament are the rage and sadness of
a master ceramicist who understands control—that one false move will be enough
to destroy the balance of his creation.
De Waal’s book of letters to Moïse
marks the trajectory of his family of privilege and generosity to France—the
nation they naively believed had accepted them along with their many priceless
gifts, including the life of Camondo’s only son who died defending the country
Moïse thought was his.
From the author of the bestselling phenomenon The Hare with Amber Eyes
As you may have guessed by now, I am not in your house by accident. I know your street rather well.
The Camondos lived just a few doors away from Edmund de Waal's forebears. Like de Waal's family, they were part of belle epoque high society. They were also targets of anti-Semitism.
Count Moise de Camondo created a spectacular house filled with art for his son to inherit. Over a century later, de Waal explores the lavish rooms and detailed archives and, in a haunting series of letters…
I write to the authors I admire, both
living and dead, who continue to keep me company.
Among these are Kafka,
Proust, Nabokov, Camus, Flaubert, Balzac, Leonard Cohen, Christo, and my
father. My letters have been described as quirky (“Dear Jean-Paul Sartre, There
have been many Jean-Pauls in my life, but you’re the only one in whose bedroom
I have slept”), warm, and funny.
They reflect what these writers have taught me
about myself, but also what they can offer the reader. Each letter—part
literary love affair, part entertaining memoir—shows my reaction to having
studied and taught the work of these timeless writers. I was a latecomer to many of them, but it’s never too late to fall in love with great writers.
During the Covid years, Grandpa James
read to our granddaughters online every day.
There is nothing like Mercy
Watson, a joyful “porcine wonder,” and her love of “hot toast with a great deal
of butter on it” to brighten a day! Although I hadn’t intended to listen to the
story, at the mere mention of that toast, I was hooked. I still smile whenever
I think of Mercy and her lovably eccentric neighbors on Deckawoo Drive.
Now
that we feel like part of their community, of course we had to read every book
in the series. Although Mercy probably prefers “toast with a great deal of
butter” to reading, there’s room in life for both.
The first adventure of this NEW YORK TIMES best-selling porcine wonder is now available as an e-book. (Ages 6 - 8)
To Mr. and Mrs. Watson, Mercy is not just a pig – she's a porcine wonder. And to the portly and good-natured Mercy, the Watsons are an excellent source of buttered toast, not to mention that buttery-toasty feeling she gets when she snuggles into bed with them. This is not, however, so good for the Watsons' bed. BOOM! CRACK! As the bed and its occupants slowly sink through the floor, Mercy escapes in a flash – "to alert the…
I recall how grown-up I felt going to
the local library by myself and making Betsy’s acquaintance. Judy Blume, Nora Ephron,
and Anna Quindlen are fellow fans of the series—such a soothing relief from
today’s headlines!
Although the first book was published in 1940, it begins in
Minnesota in 1897 on the eve of Betsy's fifth birthday, and the last
book, Betsy's Wedding, ends in 1917 as the United States
prepares to enter the First
World War. We
follow spunky Betsy’s rites of passage and see her fulfill her ambition to make
her living as a writer.
She is an inspiring model for my granddaughters who are
budding authors. Called “the best series of all time,” these warming books can
be a wonderful discovery at any age.
“Some characters become your friends for life. That’s how it was for me with Betsy-Tacy.” —Judy Blume
The First Four Books in the Betsy-Tacy Series in One Volume
With Forewords by Judy Blume, Ann M. Martin and Johanna Hurwitz
The first four books in the beloved Betsy-Tacy series, together in one volume, ready to delight a new generation of readers—and to bring a grownup generation of readers back to the engrossing stories of their youth. Following the childhoods of Betsy Ray and her friends in the late 1800s and early 1900s, this handsome anthology collects the original Betsy-Tacy as well…
Toilet
humor, superhero, slapstick, science fiction—all genres I would have expected I’d be
allergic to.
A book like that would appeal to boys who love gross stuff, not my
cultured granddaughters, right? Captain Underpants has repeatedly been “the
most banned book in America.” Among the characters are Professor Poopypants,
Wicked Wedgie Woman, Tippie Tinkletrousers, and Dr. Diaper.
The plot itself—the
mean principal can be turned into comic superhero Captain Underpants whenever
one of the two fourth-grade pranksters snaps his fingers—is plenty silly;
however, it has amused children around the world and gotten them interested in
reading.
Book-banners of all stripes agree that this is an objectionable book.
Yet given all the chaos in the world, it felt good for our family to laugh
together.
