ByGD
Kate DiCamillo has a Southern accent. I did not expect this because I do not hear it in the lyrical rhythms of her wide-eyed fiction. Both the accent and the wonder are explained by her childhood in Florida, where she experienced a number of unusual theme parks, and was particularly impressed by the vision of hidden worlds granted by glass-bottomed boats. It was on one of these boats that she heard a lady in a plastic rainbonnet say
Oh my. This world.
And knew exactly what she meant. Read More
ByGD
At my daughter’s school, students are encouraged to find connections between their own life and the stories in the books they read. If I was in the fifth grade, I would get an A for my book report on Finding Colin Firth. Actually, I would get an F for failing to turn it in – I read the book when it came out over a year ago. But never mind that. Let’s talk about the book. Read More
ByGD
Frances Hodgson Burnett’s books A Little Princess and The Secret Garden are two of my favorite childhood reading experiences. I did not find out until I was a grownup that Burnett also wrote books for grownups. I read one of her first novels, That Lass o’Lowrie’s and enjoyed it for the Victorian entertainment it was, but I didn’t read any more of her novels until I found one in an unexpected place – on my Kindle. Read More
ByGD
Lately I’ve been receiving a lot of review copies of novelty books. I wanted to review Crap Taxidermy, a self-explanatory photo book based on a Tumblr, but it depressed me too much. Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World is much more my style, although it too has a Tumblr feel about it, and my feelings on bloggy books are mixed. Unrelated to the movie of the same name, Lost in Translation is a collection of foreign words that have no equivalent in English.
ByGD
Delicious! is a completely realistic novel, but in it, debut novelist Ruth Reichl does some significant world-building. The aesthete’s New York City is full of foodies with unique personal style who notice architectural details and interior design. In this world, “artisan” is more than a buzzword and taxis are for tourists – locals walk so they can observe the changing seasons and appreciate the details of urban life. It would all be insufferably fabulous if Reichl wasn’t so adept at sharing the sensual nature of their artistic appreciation, and if the characters themselves weren’t completely developed, three-dimensional, interesting people. Even when you don’t like them, you believe in Reichl’s characters.