This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett — I read this book because I’m nosy. I didn’t exactly want to know about Patchett’s marital situation; I wanted to know about her mother’s. Why? Because in researching Patchett for a previous book review, she indicated that her book, Commonwealth, had autobiographical elements. It mirrors her parents’ divorce and her…

Lots to learn from her 50+ year career — When my daughter was nine or ten years old, she had a moment of bliss brought to her by Dolly Parton. As a fourth grader, Lisa was required to read lots of library books, and that’s how a biography of the performer entered our lives. The book was called Coat…

Life lessons from nature plus a wonderful story… — Where the Crawdads Sing is the story of Kya, the so-called Marsh Girl. At a young age her siblings and mother abandon her leaving her with an abusive and alcoholic father who ultimately abandons her too. Thus, at the age of ten (10!) she is alone in the marsh to…

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron — A main goal of this book is for the reader to get in touch with his/her authentic, creative self. There are two basic things that will enable this. First, the reader is to write three “morning pages” every single day. These journal-type pages are intended to be a dumping ground…

The Weekend by Charlotte Wood — There are a lot of novels that tell the story of several female friends over the course of decades — let’s choose four decades, forty years. This book follows that format. Where it differs from other novels is that usually these long-term friends met as children, so forty years later…

An awareness campaign about reading online — It’s a good thing William Faulkner is not alive today. He would not meet success as a writer — at least not online. Such writers today are advised to use short words, short sentences, and short paragraphs. Words should be three syllables or less; sentences should be 20 words or…

I Used to Have a Plan but Life Had Other Ideas by Alessandra Olanow — This book is physically small, short on words, and heavily illustrated by the author. It will take fifteen minutes to read. But if you need a bit of cheering up for any reason, this is the book to read. Since it is so short, I can’t quote it heavily or…

I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell — I love it when novelists publish autobiographical non-fiction. I love to see where their real lives intersect with the stories they make up. Thus, after reading a few books by Maggie O’Farrell, I was excited to read I Am, I Am, I Am. Its subtitle is Seventeen Brushes with Death…

How to make ideas for personal transformation pop, pop, pop — I am reading a best-selling book that hopes to inspire introspection. The book has twelve chapters. I am instructed to read one per week for a three-month period. Each chapter has a topic and famous quotes to amplify it. If I have time during the week, there are also ten…