November 1961 Back in 1961, when women wore shirtwaist dresses and joined garden clubs and drove legions of children around in seatbeltless cars without giving it a second thought; back before anyone knew there'd be a sixties movement, much less one that its participants would spend the next sixty years chronicling; back when the big … Continue reading Lessons in Chemistry | Bonnie Garmus #USfiction
Opening Lines: The pool is located deep underground, in a large cavernous chamber many feet beneath the streets of out town. Some of us come here becasue we are injured, and need to heal. We suffer from bad backs, fallen arches, shattered dreams, broken hearts, anxiety, melncholia, anhedonia, the usual aboveground afflictions. For about a … Continue reading The Swimmers | Julie Otsuka #USAnovella
Opening Lines: Like many others, I did not see it coming. But William is a scientist, and he saw it coming; he saw it sooner than I did, is what I mean. Like many others, I did not see another Lucy book coming! But, in the end, I was glad. Lucy by the Sea brings … Continue reading Lucy by the Sea | Elizabeth Strout #USAfiction
The 1929 Club 24-30 October 2022 The 1929 Club is being hosted by the very lovely Simon and Karen during the week of 24th - 30th October 2022. The idea is to read and review a book, novella, short story, or poem first published in 1929. Finding something from 1929 to read from my TBR … Continue reading Passing | Nella Larsen #1929Club
Heating & Cooling | Beth Ann Fennelly (2018) Kate @Books Are My Favourite & Best first piqued my interest with Heating & Cooling a month ago. So much so, I ordered the book at work the very next day and it turned up in time for me to take on my beach holiday to beautiful, … Continue reading Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs | Beth Ann Fennelly #BookReview
As I've been reading so many chunksters this year, novellas have proven to be the perfect inbetween palate cleansers. The current ones are both from 2022 and both new releases. One is from Australia and one is from Pakistani writer Mohsin Hamid (on his website he says that he now spends his time between Lahore, … Continue reading #MiniReviews – the Novella edition
I had planned on writing extended reviews for some of these books, but Covid. Assembly especially, which packed a punch much weightier than its mere 100 pages would suggest, deserves to be more widely considered and discussed. But for now, all I will say is READ IT. You have to stop this, she said. This … Continue reading June Mini Reviews [2]
The Edith Readalong has been my priority of late. But before I got started with it, I was determined to finish a few of the half read books by my bed which included a trip to Nigeria, dabbling with some poetry and a peek inside a leper colony. Princeton, in the summer, smelled of nothing, … Continue reading June Mini Reviews
"Ready ?""Ready.""Now ?""Soon.""Do the scientists really know? Will it happen today, will it ?" First published on the 1st March 1954, Ray Bradbury's short story came to my attention today thanks to a chat on our local ABC radio morning show. One of the presenters remembered a story she read as a child about a … Continue reading All Summer in a Day | Ray Bradbury #USAshortstory
He had come into the habit, before dinner, of taking a walk around the park: ten laps, as slow as he pleased on some evenings, briskly on others, and then back up the stairs of the house and to his room to wash his hands and straighten his tie before descending again to the table. … Continue reading To Paradise | Hanya Yanagihara #USAfiction
A peculiar aspect of Joan Didion's nonfiction is that a significant portion of it reads like fiction. Or, more specifically, has the metaphorical power of great fiction.Foreword by Hilton Als Last year I had had a copy of Let Me Tell You What I Mean floating around on my TBR pile for a number of … Continue reading Let Me Tell You What I Mean | Joan Didion #USAessays
I would like to say a few things about my first husband, William. Laura Linney played Lucy Barton in a one woman show, first in London, then on Broadway. A comment during rehearsal one day about William (Lucy's first husband), made Elizabeth Strout realise that William had his own story. I'd love to know what … Continue reading Oh William! | Elizabeth Strout #USAfiction
Tommy Guptill had once owned a dairy farm, which he'd inherited from his father, and which was about two miles from the town of Amgash, Illinois. Oh my, the good folk of Amgash, Illinois are an unhappy bunch. Thank goodness it is a fictional town! Poverty, illness, domestic abuse, divorce, PTSD, secrets and affairs are … Continue reading Anything Is Possible | Elizabeth Strout #USAfiction
There was a time, and it was many years ago now, when I had to stay in hospital for almost nine weeks. When planning my summer holiday reading, I wanted a mix of books. I wanted short stories, I wanted some Australian authors, particularly Gen IV Australian Women Writers, I wanted a Japanese book, a … Continue reading My Name is Lucy Barton | Elizabeth Strout #USAfiction
But we might never find them? Fermi's Paradox is at the heart of this story. The story goes that in 1950, Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi, made a passing comment asking 'where are all the aliens?' given the youngish nature of our planetary system and the relative ease of space travel. Fermi was not the first … Continue reading Bewilderment | Richard Powers #USAfiction
bronasbooks.com 