Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond This book has a lot to recommend it. It’s generally the type of non-fiction I love reading: well researched, first-hand information about people I don’t know much about (and would like to understand.) Desmond has done a mountain of research for this book, much …
Category: Book Review
May 22
Book Review: A Reliable Wife
A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick The plot starts when Ralph Truitt meets Catherine Land. He’s sent away for a mail-order bride, and she’s the one who responded. Truitt is irritated that Catherine’s train is late, and he’s irritated that she is not as she appeared (she’s much prettier, we’re told) but he tolerates all …
May 17
Book Review: H is for Hawk
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald It seems like the memoirs that really appeal to me, especially recently, are ones like this: brilliant, well-read women who do interesting things. Helen Macdonald is a falconer, but she’s also an academic with a taste for literature. When Macdonald’s father dies, she sees the book Goshawk by …
May 17
Book Review: At Home, A Short History of Private Life
At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson I have adored quite a few of Bill Bryson’s books, especially In a Sunburned Country and A Walk in the Woods, which I found both uproariously funny and full of fascinating anecdotes. I expected to like this one just as much, and got the …
Apr 30
Book Review: Lolita
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov I chose this book based on its thunderous reputation, despite the loathsome logline. Let’s say straight off the bat that this is a book about a man who spends two years raping a child. One’s opinion of this book is bound to be different depending on how close you are to …