Take Me With You Catherine Ryan Hyde Lake Union Publishing August Schroeder is heavy-hearted: his motor home, broken down and towed to a garage; his annual summer trip to Yellowstone on hold. For two days he passes time watching his Jack Russell terrier Woody run circles around two young boys hanging around the back of …
I drink my morning coffee with Steve Innskeep, my drive home is accompanied by Here and Now’s Robin Young, and I fix dinner or grade papers to the sound of Robert Siegal and Melissa Block. It’s not that I have a seriously packed social calendar, though. Rather, those are the NPR program hosts that make …
The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessey (Edelweiss DRC) Rachel Joyce Random House We expect our happiness to come with a sign and bells but it doesn’t. When The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce was published in 2012, the novel was short listed for the Booker Prize and won UK National Book …
Leaving Time Jodi Picoult Ballantine Books From the first page of Jodi Piccoult’s new novel, we’re drawn into the story of Jenna Metcalf and her mother, Alice, separated in a terrible accident years before. Each narrates her journey as she searches and longs for the One Missing and the love they have for each other …
Spool of Blue Thread (Edelweiss DRC) Anne Tyler “The disappointments seemed to escape the family’s notice, though. That was another of their quirks: they had a talent for pretending that everything was fine. Or maybe it wasn’t a quirk at all. Maybe it was just further proof that the Whitshanks were not remarkable in any way …
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin Algonquin Books What’s better than a book recommendation from a book-lovin’ friend? Nothing. So as soon as a friend wrote on my Facebook wall that The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry was fast and fun and right up my alley, I was on it. Plus I’m …
I’ve had a quiet love affair with Ray Bradbury for some time now. I actually think I love the man more than his books—or is it that I love his books because I adore the man? What’s odd is the fact that I don’t really like science fiction. I mean, Star Trek Next Generation is …
The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt Caroline Preston Harper Collins One of my most precious possessions is a “School Friendship Book” I found at a flea market several years ago. It is the real deal. None of this photos cropped, matted, and embellished with stickers stuff that we do today. No, this is a leather journal-sized wonder with dusty …
I adore Jane Austen. I mean, I am so there. The countryside, all hedgerows and lanes; the homes—Northanger Abbey, Norland Park–gracious with their breakfast dishes and card rooms. And those Georgian manners, “high spirits and good humor” all around at a carriage ride after breakfast; or, letters hastily set aside with colourless faces. Where new …
The stockings are hung (although sadly, there’s no chimney), the candles lit, and creche arranged–it’s the most wonderful time of the year! And every year for the past twenty-something, I’ve added Susan Branch’s Christmas From the Heart of the Home to the stack of holiday books on my coffee table. Branch inks and watercolors every …
This is my symphony 