The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty

May 8, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – print. Riverhead Books, 2013. Originally published 2012. 402 pgs. Purchased.  In the 1920s and 1930s, Louise Brooks became a famous silent film actress and dancer and was noted for her bob hairstyle, a unique take on the poplar flapper persona of the time. In Moriarty’s fictional account, Louise is a fifteen-year-old girl leaving Kansas for the first time to study with the prestigious Denishawn School of Dancing in New York. Louise’s parents insist she be accompanied by a […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Book Club, Feminism, Fiction, New York, North America, United States • Tags: Laura Moriarty

Thoughts on Three Book of the Month Selections

April 3, 2019 by Christina

About four years ago, a number of the members of my book club in Boston joined Book of the Month, a subscription service that mails you a newly published book out of five options once a month. I passed on subscribing for two reasons: I was able to pick up a number of these titles as read (and unread) castoffs at book club meetings I figured a new book would arrive each month and promptly be added to my bookshelves […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Asia, Europe, Feminism, Fiction, New York, North America, ReadDiverse, United Kingdom, United States • Tags: Candice Carty-Williams, Etaf Rum, Yangsze Choo

Squeezed by Alissa Quart

February 11, 2019 by Christina

Nonfiction – print. Ecco, 2018. 320 pgs. Library copy. With its provocative subtitle “Why Our Families Can’t Afford America”, I’ve had my eye on Quart’s book since it was published back in mid-2018. The book promised to examine how and why Americans were finding themselves unable to make ends meet and remain inside the middle class that they were born into. “…65 percent of all Americans worry about paying their bills – as the parents I’ve interviewed, murmuring anxiously at […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Economics, New York, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Alissa Quart

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

January 24, 2019 by Christina

Fiction — audiobook. Read by Carrington MacDuffie. Blackstone Audiobooks, 2007. Originally published 1943. 16 hours, 17 minutes. Born in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn in 1901, young Francie Nolan has fallen in love with reading. She’s determined to read every single book in the small, public library, and has already made her way through the As when Smith’s novel opens. Along with a love of reading, Francie also possess a keen ability for observation, noticing the plant in the bowl […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Audiobook, Book Club, Chunkster, Classics, Classics Club, Fiction, New York, North America, United States • Tags: Betty Smith, Carrington MacDuffie

The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer

December 2, 2018 by Christina

Fiction – print. Riverhead Books, 2018. 454 pgs. Library Copy. College freshman Greer Kadestsky is set adrift. Disappointed with where she has ended up for college, Greer struggles to connect with her classmates and plans to structure her life around visits to her high school boyfriend, Cory, at Princeton. As time passes (but the pain of losing out on Yale fails to fade), Greer is dragged to parties and lectures by her dorm-mate, Zee. At a party, Greer has an […]

Categories: 2018 Reads, Book Club, Chunkster, Feminism, Fiction, New England, New York, North America, United States • Tags: Meg Wolitzer

Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan

July 19, 2018 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Free Press, 2012. 250 pgs. Library copy. Subtitled “My Month of Madness”, Cahalan’s memoir recounts the sudden manifestation of psychosis, including intense bouts of paranoia, she experienced at the age of twenty-four. Concerned about her erratic behavior, Cahalan’s family and boyfriend pushed her — and, later, her doctors — to seek a diagnosis for her behavior, rejecting the suggestion that she is detoxing from too much alcohol consumption or presenting with preliminary signs of schizophrenia. The one […]

Categories: 2018 Reads, Book Club, New York, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Susannah Cahalan

The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo

May 30, 2018 by Christina

Fiction — audiobook. Read by the author. Penguin Random House, 2017. 7 hours, 15 minutes. Library copy. On September 11, 2001, Lucy is sitting in her classroom at Columbia University prepared to discuss Shakespeare when Gabe burst into the classroom tardy. Lucy is immediately intrigued by Gabe; so much so that she goes home to his dorm room after the TA arrives announcing that a plane has hit one of the Twin Towers. That day, as America and the world […]

Categories: 2018 Reads, Audiobook, Book Club, Fiction, New York, North America, United States • Tags: Jill Santopolo

The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott

March 28, 2018 by Christina

Fiction — audiobook. Read by Euan Morton. Macmillan Audio, 2017. 8 hours, 7 minutes. Purchased. Determined to prove that his life belongs to him and only him, a married Irish immigrant by the name of Jim disconnects the gas hose to this stove and commits suicide. When his pregnant wife, Annie, returns to find the apartment barracked, she conscripts a neighbor into helping her force open the door. The subsequent explosion that occurs when the neighbor lights a match attracts […]

Categories: 2018 Reads, Audiobook, Book Club, Fiction, New York, North America, United States • Tags: Alice McDermott, Euan Morton

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

March 14, 2018 by Christina

Fiction — audiobook. Read by Maggie Gyllenhaal. HarperAudio, 2016. Originally published 1963. 7 hours, 24 minutes. Library copy. Sylvia Plath’s novel opens with her main character, Esther Greenwood, in the midst of spending the summer in New York City. Having won a fashion magazine’s contest, Esther is being mentored by editors and writers on both her chosen field and the state of her complexion — a combination of feminism and femininity — as she and the eleven other winners of the […]

Categories: 101 Great Books, 2018 Reads, Audiobook, Classics, Classics Club, Fiction, New England, New York, North America, United States • Tags: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Sylvia Plath

Yes Please by Amy Poehler

December 9, 2015 by Christina

Nonfiction — audiobook. Read by Amy Poehler, Carol Burnett, Seth Meyers, Michael Schur, Eileen Poehler, William Poehler, Patrick Stewart, and Kathleen Turner. Harper Audio, 2014. 7 hours, 31 minutes. Library copy. Memoir is likely the wrong word to describe this book. Yes, it provides some details into Poehler’s life — her childhood just north of where I currently live in Burlington, Massachusetts; her time at Improv Olympics in Chicago; her experiences living in a rat-infested, basement in New York City […]

Categories: 2015 Reads, Audiobook, New England, New York, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Amy Poehler, Carol Burnett, Eileen Poehler, Kathleen Turner, Michael Schur, Patrick Stewart, Seth Meyers, William Poehler

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

January 7, 2015 by Christina

Fiction — audiobook. Read by Anna Fields. Blackstone Audio, 2004. Originally published 1905. 13 hours, 42 minutes. Library copy. Set against the backdrop of the 1890s New York upper class society, Wharton’s fourth novel tells the story of Lily Bart, an unmarried woman, beginning with her visit to Lawrence Selden’s apartment. Lily has feelings for Lawrence but must marry a wealthier man in order to keep her social standing. An unexpected visit by Lawrence causes her to change her mind […]

Categories: 101 Great Books, 2015 Reads, AP Literature, Audiobook, Classics, Classics Club, Fiction, New York, North America, United States • Tags: Anna Fields, Edith Wharton

The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin

November 24, 2014 by Christina

Nonfiction — audiobook. Read by Edward Herrmann. Simon & Schuster Audio, 2013. Audiobook. 36 hours, 42 minutes. Library copy. Subtitled “Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism”, Goodwin’s book follows the collusion of Taft and Roosevelt during the progressive era through the fracturing of their friendship, which culminated in their running against one another for president in 1912. The book also highlights the role of “muckraker” journalists, particularly Ida Tarbell and McClure’s Magazine, in calling for […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Audiobook, Chunkster, New England, New York, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Doris Kearns Goodwin, Edward Herrmann