Augusta Locke: A Novel by William Haywood Henderson My rating: 4 of 5 stars For the pure pleasure of reading prose this book is at the top tier; the writing is strung through with paragraphs that are glorious, evocative of … Continue reading →
Now that I have all my time more or less to myself, reading has become a reward rather than a duty. Now when I read it is an act without obligation. I find that I am kinder to fiction, more … Continue reading →
Noble Norfleet by Reynolds PriceMy rating: 2 of 5 stars I have read at least a dozen books by Reynolds Price, including the first two novels that were so incandescently drawn, A Long and Happy Life and A Generous Man. … Continue reading →
A Princess of Roumania by Paul ParkMy rating: 2 of 5 stars I enjoyed the beginning of this book, the modeling of the world, the writing, and the structure; I enjoyed so many parts of the book at that point … Continue reading →
A Suitable Boy by Vikram SethMy rating: 3 of 5 stars Well, the book clocks in at 1500 pages and begins with an epigram that says, “The secret of being a bore is to say everything.” If you choose to … Continue reading →
O Beulah Land by Mary Lee SettleMy rating: 3 of 5 stars This is the first-written book of Settle’s quintet about American identity and I think it is an impressive piece of writing in many ways, especially in the authority … Continue reading →
The thing about saying you think a race war is coming or this group or that group wants to start a race war is the sheer ignorance of people not knowing there has been a race war in this country … Continue reading →
Prisons by Mary Lee Settle My rating: 4 of 5 stars This was a good companion read to Morrison’s A Mercy, from the same era of history, on the opposite side of the ocean, and with a different form of … Continue reading →
The Blindfold by Siri HustvedtMy rating: 3 of 5 stars My first impressions of this novel were that the writing had a stiff, unpracticed quality at the sentence level, and that the method of the narrative was abrupt. The first … Continue reading →
A Mercy by Toni MorrisonMy rating: 5 of 5 stars One of those moments in reading in which I remember why I fell in love with books in the first place. It’s been a while since I read Toni Morrison. … Continue reading →