As is often the case with Alice Munro's story stories, details that a reader might overlook in everyday life take on a new significance. Take, for instance, gravel. Small chips of stone, one thinks. And, yet, gravel is actually "a loose aggregation of small water-worn or pounded stones". Although the pit
So, first, there is the matter of 2012. That which came before. My spreadsheet lists 240 books, my GoodReads shelf 247 (it's an imperfect, yet perfectly bookish world) and I've updated the pages of Books Discussed and added a list of favourite titles. My reading year ended in a burst
Paradoxically, Morgan Holly, owner of the Capital movie theatre in Maverley, who occupies the opening scene of this short story does not leave the town, but all of the other characters in this tale do leave Maverley. Random House, 2012 "And before long he found himself outside, pretending
Beginning with an arrival and ending with a departure, readers might think "Amundsen" a more conventionally told tale. Random House, 2012 (Thinking about the last story, "To Reach Japan", which began with a departure and ended with an arrival, I mean.) And, yet, both this arrival and departure
You've probably had spells like this too, when -- even though you usually turn to books for escape and entertainment and information and, well, nearly everything -- reading is impossible. Things have been unexpectedly and overwhelmingly quiet here, online, due to a couple of major offline events which completely eclipsed
