Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in a woman-centered household, the youngest with two older sisters. I was the only child of my mother’s second marriage, and a space of ten and twelve years separated me from my sisters. My sisters and mother always felt like an intense unit that didn’t include me, and that yearning and outsider status defined my life and made me a lover of books about mothers and daughters and the female world.


I wrote

Studio of the Voice

By Marcia Aldrich,

Book cover of Studio of the Voice

What is my book about?

This book is a lyrically voiced collection of essays written over time that take stock of my life as a…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Housekeeping

Marcia Aldrich Why did I love this book?

I read this book in graduate school at the University of Washington, where Robinson had also been a graduate student. What struck me so forcefully was how the father is killed off in a train wreck at the beginning of the novel to usher in the exploration of the female life of generations of women.

No work before made me see how a male character and tradition can marginalize female life. This novel encouraged me to focus on my mother and sisters in my own writing.

By Marilynne Robinson,

Why should I read it?

10 authors picked Housekeeping as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Winner of the Pen/Hemingway Award

A modern classic, Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping is the story of Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, who grow up haphazardly, first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, the eccentric and remote sister of their dead mother.

The family house is in the small town of Fingerbone on a glacial lake in the Far West, the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck and their mother drove off a cliff to her death. It is a town "chastened by an outsized…


Book cover of Annie John

Marcia Aldrich Why did I love this book?

Kincaid’s voice and style, bracing and autobiographical, almost obsessive, rocked my world.

Hearing the insistence of her voice helped me discover my own voice and to embrace it. I love the compulsive presence in her work and the "I," whose power of personality, sensibility, and voice rushes through me.

By Jamaica Kincaid,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Annie John as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An adored only child, Annie has until recently lived a peaceful and content life. She is inseparable from her beautiful mother, a powerful and influential presence, who sits at the very centre of the little girl's existence. Loved and cherished, Annie grows and thrives within her mother's shadow.

When she turns twelve, however, Annie's life changes, in ways that are often mysterious to her. She begins to question the cultural assumptions of her island world; at school she makes rebellious friends and frequently challenges authority; and most frighteningly, her mother, seeing Annie as a 'young lady', ceases to be the…


Book cover of Blue Nights

Marcia Aldrich Why did I love this book?

This book is an elegy to the author's daughter, who died in 2005 at age 39. What compelled me was how Didion pieced together fragments of memory, little snapshots of vivid detail that evoked powerful feelings.

I found the writing raw, unpolished, ragged, and endlessly revealing; one might say heartbreaking. She created a kind of lyricism that struck a deep part of me more than any narrative and has stayed with me. 

By Joan Didion,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Blue Nights as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A work of stunning frankness about losing a daughter, from the bestselling, award-winning author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Let Me Tell You What I Mean

Richly textured with memories from her own childhood and married life with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and daughter, Quintana Roo, this new book by Joan Didion is an intensely personal and moving account of her thoughts, fears, and doubts regarding having children, illness and growing old.

As she reflects on her daughter’s life and on her role as a parent, Didion grapples with the candid questions…


Book cover of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Marcia Aldrich Why did I love this book?

This is a quirky, hilarious, autobiographical coming-of-age story about a lesbian who grows up in a repressive English Pentecostal community.

Winterson’s creation of the mother is the most unique mother I’ve ever encountered—damaged, oppressive, deeply misunderstanding of her genius daughter. I found lots of commonalities between the conflicts Jeanette had with her difficult mother and my own experience, even though we live countries apart.

Winterson’s gusto and humor are inspiring.

By Jeanette Winterson,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Key Features:



Study methods
Introduction to the text
Summaries with critical notes
Themes and techniques
Textual analysis of key passages
Author biography
Historical and literary background
Modern and historical critical approaches
Chronology
Glossary of literary terms


Book cover of Jane Eyre

Marcia Aldrich Why did I love this book?

For me, this book is the beginning of my becoming a writer and coming into my own. I vividly remember reading the novel for the first time when I had chicken pox in ninth grade in the winter, and it was snowing and cold. It was a revelation.

In this case, Jane is an orphan, but her solitary status spoke profoundly to me and my own loneliness and outsider status in my family. If there’s a character other than Jane Eyre who has meant more to me, I don’t know who she is. If there is a writer who has spoken more intimately to me than Charlotte Bronte, I don’t know who she is.

This novel, called an autobiography at the time of publishing, is my beginning and my end.

By Charlotte Brontë,

Why should I read it?

39 authors picked Jane Eyre as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 13, 14, 15, and 16.

What is this book about?

Introduction and Notes by Dr Sally Minogue, Canterbury Christ Church University College.

Jane Eyre ranks as one of the greatest and most perennially popular works of English fiction. Although the poor but plucky heroine is outwardly of plain appearance, she possesses an indomitable spirit, a sharp wit and great courage.

She is forced to battle against the exigencies of a cruel guardian, a harsh employer and a rigid social order. All of which circumscribe her life and position when she becomes governess to the daughter of the mysterious, sardonic and attractive Mr Rochester.

However, there is great kindness and warmth…


Explore my book 😀

Studio of the Voice

By Marcia Aldrich,

Book cover of Studio of the Voice

What is my book about?

This book is a lyrically voiced collection of essays written over time that take stock of my life as a woman, a daughter, a mother, and a writer. It probes the spaces of intimacy among women and asks big questions about intergenerational conflicts among mothers and daughters. The mother in the book is a contradictory, mysterious figure. The essays speak of the complicated and long-lasting impact my mother has had upon me and my many roles—daughter, mother, young woman, middle-aged woman, lover, wife, swimmer, professor, writer.

The essays span from the classical to the inventive, using the elasticity of the essay form to meditate upon the almost mythic trouble between mothers and daughters: the source of glory and haunting pain and beauty. 

Book cover of Housekeeping
Book cover of Annie John
Book cover of Blue Nights

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Book cover of Adventures in the Radio Trade: A Memoir

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Joe Mahoney Author Of Adventures in the Radio Trade: A Memoir

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Why am I passionate about this?

Author Broadcaster Family man Dog person Aspiring martial artist

Joe's 3 favorite reads in 2024

What is my book about?

Adventures in the Radio Trade documents a life in radio, largely at Canada's public broadcaster. It's for people who love CBC Radio, those interested in the history of Canadian Broadcasting, and those who want to hear about close encounters with numerous luminaries such as Margaret Atwood, J. Michael Straczynski, Stuart McLean, Joni Mitchell, Peter Gzowski, and more. And it's for people who want to know how to make radio.

Crafted with gentle humour and thoughtfulness, this is more than just a glimpse into the internal workings of CBC Radio. It's also a prose ode to the people and shows that…

By Joe Mahoney,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Adventures in the Radio Trade as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"In dozens of amiable, frequently humorous vignettes... Mahoney fondly recalls his career as a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio technician in this memoir... amusing and highly informative."
— Kirkus Reviews

"What a wonderful book! If you love CBC Radio, you'll love Adventures in the Radio Trade. Joe Mahoney's honest, wise, and funny stories from his three decades in broadcasting make for absolutely delightful reading!
— Robert J. Sawyer, author of The Oppenheimer Alternative''

"No other book makes me love the CBC more."
— Gary Dunford, Page Six
***
Adventures in the Radio Trade documents a life in radio, largely at Canada's…


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