I am not a deep attention-to-details type of person, so the idea of building anything like a model has never appealed to me. (In this, Dustin and I are polar opposites.) So, I’m surprised as anyone that I decided to tackle building a gingerbread house this year. And not only that. I actually enjoyed it!
Read MoreAfter weighing the weather report for the day and the following day, the Cranberry Glades area won out. Everything we had read about the area sold us on this decision. The Cranberry Glades are a unique bog environment, not typically found so far south. A more common location of a bog is Canada or far northern areas in the United States, not a spot a 7+ hour drive south of there. A bog is a freshwater wetland area with an soft, spongy ground because it is filled with peat, partially decayed plant matter.
Read MoreAs we found during our own travels to Malta, the country is at a fascinating geographic crossroads, with its unique culture and history, influenced by Italy and broader Europe to its north and Africa to the south. And all the while, surrounded by the sunny, blue Mediterranean. This memoir is the story of a Welsh expat who spent three years living among the Maltese and paints colorful depictions of the country as it was in the early to mid 1960s, a jump in history to an interesting time and place. In the early 60s, Malta was less than two decades past its role as a strategic stronghold for the Allies during World War II, a designation that led to significant deprivations and bombing of the small island nation.
Read MoreFor some reason, a few of my recent reads have featured midwives, and Animal Life fits the pattern. Dómhildur is a midwife in a Reykjavik hospital and comes from a long lines of midwives in her family. Closest to her, perhaps, was her childless great-aunt, now deceased but previously a midwife, whose mantle has settled on her shoulders.
Read MoreAs with the two prior novels of Hamid's that I have read in the last few years, The Last White Man tackles contemporary challenges that pertain, at least in part, to race or ethnic origin. I have known people who have both loved his writing and been turned off by it, and I think the two main routes that lead readers either towards or away from Hamid are the topics of his novels and his writing style, which is perhaps best described as perfunctory. I'd add another word to his style in this particular novel: exacting. Characters often use a particular word, think better of it, and then use a more appropriate word. It is an exercise in the importance of language itself and what we mean, what we say, and the vast abyss that often lies in between.
Read MoreWhere Coyotes Howl begins with Ellen's arrival in Wyoming, in search of a new life away from her family in Iowa. She has been hired to serve as the local teacher after the prior teacher lasted a year, in what turns out to be a trend in the community.
Within moments, it is clear that most of Ellen's clothing and her small allocation of personal belongings that made the trek are no match for the dusty, hardscrabble life on the prairie in the early twentieth century United States.
Read MoreA Woman in Time by Bobi Conn is set in rural Appalachian Kentucky between 1899 and 1939, amidst the backdrop of the Prohibition Era and reminiscent of Lee Smith's Fair and Tender Ladies, set in Virginia's Appalachian region.
Read MorePeople who know Joan - the doctors she works with at the hospital, her boss, her new neighbor, her brother - are pretty sure she is not okay. Joan isn’t sure why they can’t just leave her be - let her work constantly, keep her apartment minimally furnished, and skip out on holiday bashes.
Read MoreLanguage of loss and love suffuce the novel with poignant descriptions that cut to the bone of life. The unstated question which echoes throughout is: What is worth dying for? Is it love, is it loss, is it a belief in a political state? Krishan, the main character, may be on the verge of asking a new question: What is worth living for?
Read MoreWhat publisher would risk publishing a book under this title? You can sure it is one who has a hell of a lot of confidence that this will, in fact, be one hell of a book. My verdict: a resounding yes.
Read MoreAs we looked up at the heights of the mesa, we could see teeny tiny people atop it and, while it was hard to envision how it would happen, it was clear we had just chosen to scale it. Yikes!
Read MoreDrive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead is part crime novel, part animal rights activism, part a tale about aging, and part a tale about living as an outsider in your own community. Sprinkle in a dose of mysticism and astrology, and this is a book that is more than the sum of its parts.
Read MoreMuch has been made about the urban and rural divide in America, a topic that reached new urgency as pundits, pollsters, and social scientists sought to make sense of the 2016 presidential election. Overnight, books such as J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy became best-sellers. A national narrative was told by reporters from Big City, USA, popping in to visit rural Kentucky and other rural spots, to identify their “otherness”.
Read MoreWe drove for about two and a half hours to reach Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. The first twenty minutes or so of the drive, down from the heights of Lincoln National Forest, were pretty and filled with trees. For the next two hours, our route took us along the east and then north sides of the Tularosa Basin, home of the White Sands Missile Range. The route was, in a word, desolate. Driving for two hours with basically nothing in any direction left me feeling isolated, as if our car’s interior was the entire world.
Read MoreThis science fiction trilogy begins against the backdrop of the real-life Cultural Revolution in China, which occurred from approximately 1966 to 1976. The commentary, details, and perspectives offered about that time period are interesting and are told through the eyes of the author, who lived his formative years during this experience.
Read MoreWe spent the fifth day of our trip exploring spots very near to our accommodation in Cloudcroft, nestled in the Lincoln National Forest. In fact, one of our destinations was even walkable from our B&B! You would think that our elevation in Cloudcroft - about 8,600 feet - was plenty high enough but no, we headed further up into the mountains, a far cry from the prior day’s visit to the low elevation of the desert!
Read MoreLife has not been easy for Kit Biddle, which is evident from the opening pages of The Essence of Nathan Biddle. Six years prior, Kit's beloved and special cousin, Nathan Biddle, had been sacrificed by his father in a modern-day rendition of the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac.
Read MoreThe Speed of Mercy immediately introduces a number of strong female characters that range in age from youth to elderly and are spaced across the two time periods through which the novel moves. The book is about friendships among women and their protection for each other - in a physical sense as well as in an emotional, a psychological, and even a magical way.
Read MoreFor those readers unfamiliar with Roswell, it holds a place in popular imagination for some or as practically a holy mecca for others. What is certain is that in 1947, something crashed to the earth and a cattle rancher discovered it in his field, located about 75 miles outside of the city of Roswell.
Read MoreSalem, Massachusetts, is home to year-round witchery, a phenomena that shows up in most cities only around Halloween. The historic city is a mecca for those who are fascinated by the idea of witches, interested in the 330 year old history of the witch trials, and of course represents ongoing debate about the role of women throughout history and how the claim of witchcraft was used to subjugate and control the ‘weaker sex’, as it were.
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