Jane Gardam's Queen of the Tambourine (1991) Abacus - Little Brown, 2006 Dear Joan, "I do hope I know you well enough to say this." And she signs it, "Your sincere friend, Eliza (Peabody)." So begins Eliza first letter to Joan. We learn from the letters that Eliza has been
E.M. Forster's The Longest Journey (1907) When I started reading The Longest Journey, I was reading Keith Oatley's novel, Therefore Choose, which also opens with a scene at Cambridge. He writes: "If one were to go back a hundred years, the clothing would no doubt be different but the young men would
Sherman Alexie's Indian Killer Grand Central-Hachette Book Group, 1996 Isn't it funny (funny-dumb) how the simple act of putting a book on a list can transform the idea of reading it from a pleasure into a chore. Even when you're the one listing it? That's what happened with me and
Sherman Alexie's Reservation Blues Warner Books, 1996. Thomas tried to hide the salmon behind his back, but the guitar saw it. "We're plannin' on burnin' me up?" the guitar asked. "Yeah," Thomas said. He could not lie. The guitar laughed."That's all right," the guitar said. "You eat your fish. I'll
Michael Crummey's Galore Doubleday- Random House, 2009 Yes, it's true: I have fallen under another bookspell. Unlike the two instances of this earlier in my reading year, with Sarah Waters and Hiromi Goto, this is with an author I haven't read before: Michael Crummey. And perhaps it is because I am
