Watching Judah emerge from the whale’s guts, King-me felt the widow was birthing everything he despised in the country, laying it our before him like a taunt. Irish nor English, Jerseyman nor bushborn nor savage, not Roman or Episcopalian or apostate, Judah was the wilderness on two legs, mute and unknowable, a blankness that could [...]
Posts under ‘Five-Ten Star Books’
Being With Animals – Book Review and Giveaway
To feel that mutual kinship with another creature is a special experience, one that brings us into attunement with the whole world. It’s a feeling deep in the chest, resonant in the heart: I share with all creatures a way of being in this world. All animals, in their own ways, struggle to live, and [...]
Every Last One – Book Review
Every day, with few variations – snow, minor illnesses, the failure of the paper to arrive, a lost backpack, a sleepover that’s left us one, or two, or sometimes even three kids shy of the usual full set – every day is like this. Average. Ordinary. More or less. – from Every Last One, page [...]
The Postmistress – Book Review and Giveaway
If there was a place on earth in which God walked, it was the workroom of any post office in the United States of America. Here was the thick chaos of humanity rendered into order. Here was a box for each and every family in the town. Letters, bills, newspapers, catalogs, packages might be sent [...]
Shadow Tag – Book Review and Giveaway
If Gil didn’t know that she knew about him reading her diary, she could write things there to manipulate him. Even hurt him. She thought she would start with a simple test, some irresistible hook. – from Shadow Tag, page 27 – A soul could be captured through a shadow. It was in the Ojibwe [...]
The Last Brother – Book Review
And now I do what I did in my dream: I reach out my hand to David, close my eyes, and remember. – from The Last Brother, page 8 – I was expecting that, at my great age, I would take an indulgent view of my life, knowing that regrets serve no purpose, that you [...]
The Weird Sisters – Book Review
Would we have chosen to come back, knowing that it would be the three of us again, that all those secrets squeezed into one house would be impossible to keep? The answer is irrelevant – it was some kind of sick fate. We were destined to be sisters at birth, apparently we were destined to [...]
The Hundred Secret Senses – Book Review
“… Yin people, after while, just speak heart-talk. Easier, faster that way. No misconfusion like with words.” “What does heart-talk sound like?” “I already tell you.” “You did?” “Many time. Don’t just use tongue, lip, teeth for speaking. Use hundred secret sense.” – from The Hundred Secret Senses, page 211 – When she is five [...]
Best Books of 2010
I will remember 2010 as a great year in reading – 75% of the books I read were rated a 4 star or higher…a reflection of the amazing books which found their way into my hands in 2010. As I sat down to make up my Top Ten reads of 2010 list (books not necessarily [...]
The Distant Hours – Book Review
As I walked up the hill, closer and closer, I could almost feel the air changing around me, as if I were crossing an invisible barrier into another world. Sane people do not speak of houses having forces, of enchanting people, of drawing them closer. But I came to believe that week, as I still [...]
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