- July 9, 2021
Who would have ever guessed that a group of New York Times obituary writers could be the topic of a great documentary? Director Vanessa Gould certainly turned an interesting idea into a bittersweet but entertaining film (2016) about how this small staff of career journalists research and write about the lives of those who have ...
Read more… - July 2, 2021
Are you tired of the summer heat? Looking for a sweet and spooky Halloween treat? If you are, I would recommend picking up Aliza Lane’s graphic novel Beetle & the Hollowbones in between staring longingly at your calendar and cursing the humidity. It was hard to be grumpy about the hot weather while I was ...
Read more… - June 24, 2021
I took my son to the Grand Opening of the Children’s Museum in Portland and we really enjoyed our visit! My children and I frequented the former Children’s Museum over the years and we have such fond memories from those visits. It’s been exciting to watch the new museum spring up on Thompson’s Point in Portland, and ...
Read more… - June 18, 2021
We have a new national holiday! Juneteenth (also known as”Black Independence Day”) has been celebrated by the African-American community on June 19 since 1865, when Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced the end of the Civil War and the end of slavery. Although the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed two years ...
Read more… - June 11, 2021
The Sum of Us explores economic policy through the lens of who benefits and who suffers. McGhee’s central claim is that policy has been crafted over the years to prevent services, upward mobility, and wealth accumulation for people of color, often at the expense of white people. A signature example referenced throughout the book highlights ...
Read more… - June 4, 2021
The New York Times referred to this surprise best-seller by Swedish journalist Patrik Svensson as ‘strange and nerdy.’ I just loved it.
It is part natural history, part memoir, and all about eels. Even if you know or care nothing about eels before reading the book (like me), you will be amazed to learn that eels ...
Read more… - May 28, 2021
I really identified with the narrator of Jumpha Lahiri’s new book, Whereabouts. The storyteller is an Italian woman in her 40s, a solitary soul who wrestles with conflicting needs and desires. She likes to be alone and unattached, but also seeks companionship and belonging. It was amazing how I could identify her “whereabouts” even though ...
Read more… - May 21, 2021
This is the first volume of what will be a series of four manga, a Japanese style graphic novel adaptation of the young adult novel Fangirl, which was written by bestselling author Rainbow Rowell. This adaptation stays faithful to the original book as we follow Cath on her journey as a first-year English major at ...
Read more… - May 14, 2021
Every book lover’s dream (or mine, at least) is to own a little bookshop in a tiny, picturesque village in the east of England.
In The Bookshop, a film based on Penelope Fitzgerald’s acclaimed novel, the protagonist, Florence Green, is doing just that, despite the fierce objections of the local arts connoisseur. Undeterred, Florence finds an ...
Read more… - May 7, 2021
When I started reading this fictional tale about a prestigious all-girls boarding school in Connecticut, I was quickly transported back to the discomforts and insecurities of my own high school experience. In retrospect, I guess the immediate angst I felt was indicative of how skillfully the author, Emily Layden, evokes the memory of what it’s ...
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