Yearly Archives: 2005
Scenes from a Holiday
Laurie Graff, Caren Lissner, and Melanie Murray I picked this up from the bargain table at Barnes & Noble because the imprint, Red Dress Ink (a division of Harlequin) features quirky romantic tales about eccentric women, and because I wanted something light and cozy for the holidays. This trio of short stories (two Christmas, one … Continue reading
Everyone Worth Knowing
Lauren Weisburger Everyone Worth Knowing was exactly what I needed to read in during December. I’d been on a book hiatus, not reading much of anything new for a couple of weeks, and then I’d started a new job, and needed light reading to pass the time during lunch (I’m determined NOT to get in … Continue reading
Yes, Virginia…
Francis P. Church It’s a perennial favorite, and one I read every year in the beginning of December. Technically, not a book at all, but a bound essay, Yes, Virginia… is my favorite Christmas story ever. I’m not sure if I like it because it pushes imagination and belief, or if it’s because I love … Continue reading
Harriet the Spy
Louise Fitzhugh Harriet the Spy is the reason I became a writer. Well, not entirely, but she’s the fictional sister of my soul. With her ratty jeans and tool belt full of spy stuff, her endless number of notebooks, and her love of observation, she snuck into my life when I was eight or ten … Continue reading
Jamaica Inn
Jamaica Inn, by Daphne DuMaurier is one of those books that I first read as a young teenager, when I read in cycles, finishing everything by one author before moving on to the next. The summer I was fifteen, I think, was my DuMaurier summer, probably because we’d watched the miniseries with Jane Seymour and … Continue reading
Julie and Julia
Julie and Julia caught my attention when I saw it mentioned by Amy of
The Historian
Elizabeth Kostova Elizabeth Kostova is obviously a fan of both European history, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and both of these interests are thoroughly intertwined in her first novel The Historian. Written from the point of view of the unnamed female narrator, who is sixteen during the bulk of the events in the novel, it is … Continue reading
The Hungry Ocean
Linda Greenlaw Made famous by Sebastian Junger’s book The Perfect Storm, and the movie that followed, Linda Greenlaw was the captain of the Hannah Boden, a swordboat out of Gloucester, MA. In this book, her first, though I read her others long ago, and only just finished this one, she tells the story of a … Continue reading
Isabel’s Daughter
Judith Ryan Hendricks Hendricks’ second book is a departure from the cozy Seattle she wrote about in Bread Alone, and returned to in The Baker’s Apprentice. This time, the setting is New Mexico, primarily in and around Santa Fe, and instead of bread, the main themes are art, herbs, and family. Avery James, raised in … Continue reading
The Baker’s Apprentice
Judith Ryan Hendricks I was first introduced to Ms. Hendricks’ work through the novel Bread Alone, which I mostly read in a single night in a hotel in L.A. that had an extremely uncomfortable mattress. That book was warm and funny, and when I finished it, I was inspired to bake bread for the first … Continue reading
