Tag Archives: writing

Sally Rooney: Up to the Hype?

Posted on 03/02/2020 by

I took up reading Irish literary sensation Sally Rooney to find out what the fuss was all about. After all, she’s only twenty-eight and has written two novels that have rocked the literary world, Conversations with Friends (2017) and Normal … Continue reading →

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Review: Paul Collier, Exodus: How Migration is Changing Our World

Posted on 01/16/2020 by

Not long ago, Hillary Clinton controversially summed up Britain’s Brexit morass as essentially about immigration: “Europe needs to get a handle on migration because that is what lit the flame.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/22/hillary-clinton-europe-must-curb-immigration-stop-populists-trump-brexit A way of saying that only then can Europe … Continue reading →

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2020 Draw-Bag Reading List

Posted on 01/01/2020 by

I can’t believe it! Another year has passed. Last year, I drew up my first annual Draw-Bag Reading List (2019). Happy to say, I’m glad I did it, as it structured my reading. While I didn’t get to read every … Continue reading →

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Thoughts on a remarkable book I’ve just re-read

Posted on 05/12/2018 by

This week I re-read Brad Willis Warrior Pose, a book that has lodged in my memory since I first came upon it two years ago. I read a lot of books, but only a few do I read twice. It’s the … Continue reading →

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On Reading Rebecca Mead’s My Life in Middlemarch

Posted on 09/07/2016 by

All of us have a favorite book we wouldn’t mind reading again. For me, it’s David Copperfield, simply because I identify with much of what happens in it. The same holds true for Rebecca Mead in her bibliomemoir, My Life … Continue reading →

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On finding a new booklist quarry

Posted on 03/14/2016 by

I confess I’m addicted to booklists. No sooner do I finish one book, but I’m into another. What surprises me is that I can’t remember anyone in my family serving as a role model when I was a child, either … Continue reading →

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Brimmings: Five Years and Counting

Posted on 02/23/2016 by

I’ve been keeping my blog, Brimmings, for five years now, never realizing when I began that I would pursue it for so long, initially undertaking it to assuage my wrestlings with serious illness at the time, or as diversion from … Continue reading →

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A Poet Reminisces: Essays After Eighty

Posted on 02/15/2015 by

I have always liked poetry and poets, in particular, because of their sensitivity to human experience. One poet I like a lot is Donald Hall, a giant among contemporary American poets, although he’s given up the craft, or as he … Continue reading →

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Being Mortal

Posted on 12/17/2014 by

I’ve just finished reading Being Mortal: What Matters in the End by Dr. Atul Gawande. I had read his previous Complications about life as a surgeon several years ago, greatly impressed. Both books have been highly praised, with the present … Continue reading →

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Why some writers succeed and others don’t

Posted on 06/24/2014 by

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you do, but people will never forget how you made them feel (Maya Angelou).   I like to read and I read omnivorously, whether fiction or non-fiction. … Continue reading →

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