slice of life from a fabulous writer
343493
Loved this book--so honest, funny and touching. Great life insights from one of my favorite writers.
2849125
I am reading this terrific/swift read while annotating Under the Volcano AND reading through Pursued by Furies, the other bio of Lowry, and I must say that Day's work is page-turnerishly delightful.  Am something of a sucker for any psychoanalytic reading of a writer's life, and Day dishes out the Freudianisms like Christmas candy.  Love the fact that he paints first the author's last days rather than David Copperfielding down the lane.  The pacing is beautiful:  reviewers have noted that this book reads like a novel--and it does.  It reads like a novel more so than Lowry's NOVEL reads like a novel, I daresay (like but not love it though I do).  You very much get the feeling that you "know" Malc and that he would've been horrible/good company and fun (or nightmare).  One's not bogged down with minute details and innumerable minor minor figures (as one is with the tome-like Gordon Bowker text--though it IS equally riveting in spots).  I never ever ever thought I would be terribly interested in Lowry's life on account of I don't really rate him super high as a post-modern English novelist; yet I find myself becoming quite the student now of his life and work.  Highly recommended and probably long out of print!!!  Read this.  It's cool.
3535357
I love the writer's style and how life was during the war.  It makes me be very grateful for what I have now and the fact I didn't have through those hard times.  I love the language, different from what I'm used to, I'm even beginning to use some of the words, anyroads rather than anyway, it makes me laugh, very cute.  I'm not familiar with many words, though but I've learned about them.  Family life is very enjoyable.  Hope to be able to visit some of the places named in the writer's books.  I can't stop reading her books, it's like reading the life of people I know.  It looks like I'll continue reading all of her books until her last one.
2816205
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Schwarz writes beautifully, using metaphors and descriptive language that one notices and remembers. Her characters are richly detailed and realistic. They remind me of people I have known. Schwarz also gives the book a strong sense of time and place, drawing vivid scenes of both Trudi's life in Wisconsin and its contrast to the new landscape and life she experiences in Point Lucia, California. It is fun to live in each of Trudi's worlds for a while, and Schwarz's writing really transports. Additionally, the book raises interesting questions about choices we can make about how to live our lives: new experiences offering excitement and passion, versus the comfort and safety of the life we might expect for ourselves.

Schwarz is not merely an excellent writer. She is also a masterful storyteller. Sometimes well-written books require one to be satisfied with admiring and appreciating the writer's beautiful language. Yet who doesn't enjoy a great page-turner? Here, Schwarz has accomplished the unusual feat of writing a compelling story full of literary riches.
2361955
Felice Picano is perhaps one of the most prolific writers on the GLBT literary scene. His work has excelled in the forms of poetry, plays, or written prose - fiction or non. His collection of personal essays True Stories: People and Places from My Past (Chelsea Station Editions - 2011) is a beautifully put together anthology of the various people he's met throughout a fascinating life. In his latest collection, True Stories Too: People and Place from My Past, Picano once again revisits those individuals and special locales that have resonated over the years, and shares a range of emotions associated with each.
  As with the first collection, True Stories Too is a delightful read. The subjects are fascinating, not only as insight to other people and foreign places, but also a (potentially) unintentional look into the author's fascinating life and events that have helped shape him as well. True Stories Too is not only well written, but continues to support the prolific reputation of good writing that we have come to expect from Felice Picano
3147949
Makkai has penned an excellent series of short stories that are lyrical in both the writing and the topic - they revolve around music, art, or poetry. The stories are so good that this reader was left wanting more - "what happened next?" - in a few of them (such as "The Worst You Ever Feel"), and found the book to be a little too short, as the quality of the writing was so enjoyable. The story, "Couple of Lovers on a Red Background," has composer J. S. Bach living with a woman in today's times and had a few laugh-out-loud moments. Most of the stories have a somber feel, as they are around wartime issues, but are a rich, delightful read. This was my first Makkai experience and I will be going back to read her others. Highly recommend.
1450827
A collection of thirteen stories of life, as seen by talented author KateMarie Collins. These are stories she wrote as she learned about the craft, but they are also so much more. They're delightful slices of life. Some are whimsical bits of fancy. Others are well-crafted tales that speak to the reader. Immortality especially delighted me, as it will all authors.
280092
Going back and re-reading the works of Truman Capote is like visiting an old and trusted and extremely wise friend. Mr Capote as much as any writer I have read, knew the difference between good writing and very good writing and between very good writing and brilliant writing. And for most of his career, his writing was brilliant.

He could write as descriptively and beautifully as F. Scott Fitzgerald or as descriptively and brutally realistic as Joseph Conrad, but as much as any writer he knew the correct balance when it came to his writing, his subjects, and his characters.

"Music For Chameleons" includes a wonderful collection of short stories and a brilliant and gripping short, non-fiction, novel called "Handcarved Coffins."

The stories are quite a diversified collection of Americana and the locations include New York City, Los Angeles, New Orleans, the Midwest, and Alabama...and a little bit of Italy, Russia, and Switzland. Mr Capote feels as much at home writing about Hollywood stars, as he does about cleaning ladies working in Manhattan, or as he does about writing about murderers and a member of the Manson clan.

The one thing all the stories and the novel have in common is a vivid, undeniable "honesty."
"Honesty," the most important quality that only the greatest of writers have ever achieved.
4228962
Superbly well written, a joy to read. Ms. Markham's stories of her childhood and young adulthood are so imbued with a sense of time and place, her images so carefully drawn that it's impossible to not feel yourself a witness to her remarkable life. Her compelling narrative is filled with observations of wit, compassion, and respect for the peoples and animals that populated her corner of the world.
3243408
This fabulous collection of short selections is a refreshing walk through the writings of many women who were part of a wonderful writing group. Each selection is different and reveals a deep and insightful glimpse into the woman who wrote it. I loved being able to sit down with this book and read a couple selections, put it down when I had something to do and not miss a beat when I was able to pick it back up. These women share from their heart and some of the selection s are so personal and intimate that they stir emotions very deep inside. Definitely a book to read if you want to enjoy the work of some budding writings.
2642656
Famed New Yorker short story editor and master of the form himself, William Maxwell writes in his essay collection The Outermost Dream: I can never get enough of knowing about other peoples lives. Andrea Vojtkos short story collection is a magnificent representation of that sentiment  how we are wired to be curious about other people. Its fair to invoke Maxwell since Vojtkos stories are carefully crafted in terms of conflict, pacing, character, idiom, and ending. Moreover, Vojtko goes further and demonstrates the inquisitive human tendency to explore our place in the natural world. Specifically, Vojtko manages in many stories to weave a connection between the complex relationships among people and the human interaction with nature. Readers open a window to see how the natural world and especially birds, whether flocking vultures or a solitary heron, intersect in and impact the lives of people (as in Swirling Above Her Head and The All-Knowing Eye). Vojtkos stories explore with humor and poignancy the peculiar behavior constituent of the human condition without forcing answers on readers. We don't have any real heroes here; we have idiosyncratic and highly sympathetic characters who reflect human nature with their foibles, quirks, broken lives, and ultimately a quest for meaning (as in Searching for Life on Mars, A Year in Beverly Hills, Of Persimmons and Asian Pears, and Marvelous). Reading a Vojtko story is a special experience, where one enters a wondrous and even at times bizarre world, her writing reminiscent of another short story master, Flannery OConnor. There is a fine line dividing reality and fantasy, and these stories are filled with magical drama and dark comedy though quite believable. There are situations where some odd circumstance gets compounded by chance incrementally and builds to a strange outcome (as in Chasing the Loon). The essence of a character is crystallized quickly in dialogue and actions, where, for instance Vojtko wonderfully captures the difference between men and women or the paradoxical ties between parent and child (as in I Stop for Falcons, Jubilant Voices, and Meditating Like Brutus). In real life we often don't get to know someone deeply, but in the space of a Vojtko story we come to know the inner thoughts, pains, and sufferings of individuals and how their lives converge meaningfully with other people (as in Stations of the Cross).
Andrea Vojtkos collection of literary stories populated with memorable characters, resounding with crisp idioms, and flavored with the sounds, textures, and colors of nature in the Mid-Atlantic States is highly recommended for anyone curious about the lives of other people.

Gregory F. Tague, Ph. D.
Professor of English, St. Francis College, N.Y.
General Editor, Bibliotekos
113533
I aspire to ever have a way with words as fluid and wonderful and imaginative as McKillip.  Her writing is a treasure and I like many of her novels.  The thing that makes her books isn't story, or characters, though both are strong in this book for sure.  It's her way of using words and instilling feelings in you not with just scenery or setting, but with how events take place but most importantly of all, with the way in which she uses words to inject imagery direct into your soul.  It's a gift and she's one of the best writers out there if you ask me.
4447290
When I read this book, it was quite apparent that Holly Lisle's writing style and insight into our present day society was unique and superb. I laughed at her views of the computer in not only our world, but in Hell (which is to say a little of Hell will be ever present though out the rest of our lives.) This book also shows in the difficulties of and choices we must make on the basis of our feelings. I think that Holly Lisle is one of today's greatest writers, and all of her books have brought the delight of fantasy into my small literary collection. Any person, who is a fan of fantasy and humor, would do well to read this novel, or any of her other fantastic books.
1618805
The year is 1984, Manhattan, New Year's Eve. As the last hours of the year elapse, 85 year-old Lillian Boxfish takes a 10-mile walk around the city, and brings us right along with her. While she encounters old acquaintances and makes new ones, she reminisces on her life, past and present. Observing the dramatic changes that have taken place in the place she has called home for more than 50 years brings a certain level of nostalgia and sadness.

It wasn't until after I finished the novel that I realize that Kathleen Rooney's inspiration for this character was a real person. Like her fictional counterpart, Margaret Fishback was a poet and copywriter for R.H. Macys during the 1930's, becoming highly successful in both roles.

As she makes her way through the streets of the city, our protagonist recalls her best moments: the publication of her first book, meeting Max (the man she eventually marries), giving birth to her son. And her challenges: struggling to adjust to married life, going through a severe bout of depression, her painful divorce, losing her best friend.

Watching a character grow old is so interesting because it underlines the fact that getting older doesn't erase the essence of who we are. That's why for me, experiencing Lillian's zest for life, her sense of curiosity and sharp mind, and seeing how consistent those traits remained throughout her life, was so very refreshing.

Rooney's writing is witty and illuminating and I admire her ability to write a novel so intimate that at times, it almost reads like a memoir. To me Lillian Boxfish belongs in the canon of characters representing a generation of women that were so ahead of their times, they were feminist icons before that was even a thing.

Lillian is one of those wonderful characters you wish were real, so you could at least hope to share a cup of coffee with her!!
4525054
While this isn't one of Maeve Binchy's finely crafted novels, it is a treat for fans who have been yearning for more of her work since her passing.

"Maeve's Times" is a collection of her articles and essays from the Irish Times. It's definitely NOT one of her novels or even a collection of short stories- it's just brief snippets about all sorts of things from her life. I've read all her books and one thing I know for sure is that Binchy EXCELLED at slowly unspinning beautiful and delicate yarns in very complex and long stories, and sine these are brief, short pieces, a lot of that has to be sacrificed.

I think as a longtime fan of Mrs. Binchy's fiction that I just naturally assumed that the world she inhabited was similar to that of one of her novels, or that she just fit somewhere within those worlds. I guess I assumed she was tucked away in a beautiful stone cottage somewhere at the edge of one of the towns she wrote about, typing away on a battered but beloved typewriter, tending to a garden and her family, walking to the village for a cup of tea or provisions. Needless to say, "Maeve's Times" was a little jarring in that I quickly realized that she lived in *our* world. She got up like everyone else, and went about busy days like everyone else.

If you go in to this book knowing that it's not a novel but instead brief glimpses of Maeve Binchy's life *outside* the world's she created inside her novels, it's a treat.
3989469
I've read four of McCaughrean's novels so far this year and at this point I'm just going to declare that she's the best living writer I can think of. Her writerly talents are, well, obscene. She can toss of more brilliant metaphors and similes on a single page than most writers can muster in an entire novel, and her storytelling imagination is fully the equal of her other skills. She's so good I actually find it a bit odd that she hasn't attracted more critical attention. One possible reason is that most of her output has been for the kids' lit and young adult market, and I think big time reviewers and critics are probably loath to take heed of someone who doesn't write for the grownups. Jealousy may also be part of the equation. I barely count as a writer, but I'm jealous that one individual should be so supremely gifted, so I can only imagine what the average professional writer thinks of a person who can apparently toss off sublime prose every time she puts her fingers on a keyboard.

Lovesong is one of a handful of adult novels McCaughrean has written. It's set in France and the Middle East during the last half of the 12th century and is described as a novel of "courtly love," which is rather like calling The Iliad a story about a package tour to Turkey. The French nobility in the 12th century was in the throes of an obsession with knight-troubadours and the formalities and demands of courtly love. As McCaughrean makes clear, it was a highly ritualized game or cult that was neither courtly nor loving. Her main characters are Amaury and Foulque, knight-troubadours; Oriole, a jongleur (a poet) in the employ of Amaury; and Ouallada, Oriole's daughter who eventually becomes a jongleuse. The story covers everything from the Crusades to tragic love affairs to mad nobles to the slaughter of the Cathars, and there are healthy helpings of violence, intrigue, sex, exotic locales, and lots of stomach-churning detail about the grimness of life in the Middle Ages.

The heart of the novel is the long and tortured relationship between Foulque and Ouallada. The sub-plots that spin off from their relationship are multitudinous, but to keep things simple just imagine Foulque as Mr Rochester and Ouallada as Jane Eyre. But don't let that comparison make you think that this novel is basically a historical romance. McCaughrean tackles some weighty themes in Lovesong, chiefly the idea that love and faith are blind. She doesn't, however, take a sentimental view of this kind of faith . Blind love and faith in this world leads to harrowing examples of violence and betrayal. McCaughrean would explore the idea of blind faith even more thoroughly in Not the End of the World (2004), a young adult book that takes a hyper-realistic look at the Noah's Ark myth. In Lovesong, religion and the informal institution of courtly love are used as pretexts for astonishing crimes; for furthering the interests of the ruling classes; and for asserting the dominance of men over women.

As excellent as Lovesong is, it does go on just a tad too long. Ouallada and Foulque get kicked in the shins by Fate and History so many times it's a wonder they can walk, and the fact that it takes Foulque forever to notice that Ouallada is in love him defies logic. Similarly, Foulque's infatuation with Aude, a shallow but beautiful noble, really only makes sense as a plot device. Even with these minor deficiencies Lovesong is still one of the very best historical novels you'll ever find.

Read more of my reviews at JettisonCocoon dot com.
4275197
These wonderfully written, highly engaging stories are rich with insight into a range of very different characters, revealed by finding the character at a turning point in his/her life. In my personal favorite, a seemingly patient woman's suffused rage surfaces to prevent her son from adopting his father's worst character traits. In another, we follow a young woman's mood shifts over a 24-hour period as they signal a shift in her life direction. Stegner never explains too much, and she captures brilliantly the sometimes tender, sometimes violent, creepy thoughts that exist just below the surface of polite discourse.

The stories have a powerful sense of place, with vivid physical details that propel the reader right into the scene with the characters. A woman looking out at Big Sur redwoods in the early morning: "Everything felt still, the only movement coming from the ground that was faintly huffing the heat it had held on to through the night."

Special bonus for Californians: Experience the most memorable ride up Highway 1 ever!!