One of the things that I love most of all about reading memoirs, journals and letters (of literary figures, especially, because they tend to read so much, but of anybody really) is taking note of what the writer is reading. This was particularly interesting in reading Journey with My Selves
Here are the bits that biased me towards liking Marina Endicott's novel before I'd read more than two pages. 1. The pudding-skin metaphor at the top of the second page. I think pudding-skins are far more versatile than most writers give them credit for and I overuse metaphors with them
Even though I actually finished reading this memoir last week, it seems fitting to launch February's blog, on the first day of Black History Month, with bookchat about this memoir, penned by the woman who was the first black woman to teach history at Yale University, as an assistant professor
I've updated my January reads to the 2010 Book Log and am now looking forward to February's reads. As February is Black History Month (which was initiated in 1926, partly based in the coincidence of Lincoln's, Washington's, and Douglass's birthdays in the month) I'm turning to some Virago Modern Classics
Those who have already seen the exhaustive and enticing biography of L.M. Montgomery that Mary Rubio published last year might wonder whether readers need another biography of this 20thC writer, but these two are very different. Urquhart's will appeal to those who admired Carol Shield's slim biography of Jane Austen,
