Houghton Mifflin, 1986 "I want everything back, the way it was. But there is no point to it, this wanting." So says the narrator, whom we know as Offred. But that's not her real name. And it doesn't feel to her that this is her real life, what
Judith Viorst’s It’s Hard to be Hip Over Thirty and Other Tragedies of Married Life New American Library, 1968 (Also published by Persephone Books, No. 12) When I was a girl, I used to pull Judith Viorst’s slim volumes off my mother’s bookshelves, but I was always disappointed. And, no
What a cozy little volume to read in December. Based around the series of annual letters written by the women of one family, this is not a plot-driven chronicle. It's a meditative, quiet collection of updates on everyday family life. You know, the Christmas Letter. As the author indicates in
The final window opens with talk of ice wine, the paradox that "the hardest weather makes the nicest wine". And then I learn a botanical term, vernalization, which refers to "seeds that can only thrive in spring if they have been through the severity of winter". But how
Jonathan Yardley's Second Reading: Notable and Neglected Books Revisited Europa Editions, 2011 Originally published in "The Washinton Post" between 2003 and 2010, these pieces were accompanied by this snippet: "An occasional series in which the Post's book critic reconsiders notable and/or neglected books from the past." Well, what could be
