The Letters of Galileo’s Daughter

I discovered the letters written to Galileo by his daughter in the wonderful book, Letters to Father: Suor Maria Celeste to Galileo, translated and annotated by Dava Sobel.

Uneasiness of The Lifeboat

Charlotte Rogan’s The Lifeboat made me queasy and uneasy, pitching me off the defining center line of my most heart-held certainties: that we are born inherently decent, caring, and altruistic. But then I realized her narrator, who was causing me this internal spiritual vertigo…

“Trouble is the universal grammar of stories.”

And that is all we need to know about storytelling.

But how much more fun it is to read all about storytelling, and the vital role it plays in our economic, social, romantic, and political lives. Jonathan Gottschall tells…

To Rise Above: Leon’s Story

I read another Christmas present yesterday, this one from my friend Fernando. The book is Leon’s Story by Leon Walter Tillage, as told to and illustrated by artist Susan L. Roth.

2012 Books and Thanksgiving

Thank you to the authors who make my year of reading — whether it is a book a day or a book a week — a core…

Four Marvelous Murder Mysteries

Four recently released mysteries helped me get through a bad bout of flu. Almost fully recovered by now, I am strong enough to sit at the computer and pound out my recommendations for all three, each one entirely different from the other and all sure to satisfy your desire…

The Round House: Truth and Legend

The Round House by Louise Erdrich is a stunning exploration of the laceration of pain, the deep bruising and scarring caused by violation. In The Round House, the violation is of a woman and mother: told from the point of view of the son, the impact of the assault and…