sensible shoes: a liberal librarian's blog Vox 2008-07-17T21:11:23Z sensible shoes http://sensibleshoes.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom tag:vox.com,2006:6p00cd96f7e9364cd5/ What's so funny about peace, love, understanding and sensible shoes? Book Review: Away by Amy Bloom tag:vox.com,2008-07-17:asset-6a00cd96f7e9364cd500fa9689046f0003 2008-07-17T21:11:23Z 2008-07-17T21:11:23Z sensible shoes http://sensibleshoes.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom

Away: A Novel

Lillian survives a Russian pogrom that kills her parents, husband and presumably her child. She flees to America where she finds work as a seamstress for a Yiddish theater. Then one day a cousin arrives at her door and tells her that her daughter...

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]]> Book Review: Three Junes by Julia Glass tag:vox.com,2008-07-17:asset-6a00cd96f7e9364cd500fae8ccf124000b 2008-07-17T21:09:52Z 2008-07-17T21:12:34Z sensible shoes http://sensibleshoes.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom

Three Junes

I spent a couple of years thinking this book was about three women named June! In fact, it's about three distinct summers in the lives of a Scottish family and the people they love (or don't). The first section is about the family patriarch, P...

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]]> Book Review: While They Slept by Kathryn Harrison tag:vox.com,2008-07-05:asset-6a00cd96f7e9364cd500fad697cfbe0004 2008-07-05T21:54:49Z 2008-07-05T21:56:56Z sensible shoes http://sensibleshoes.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom

While They Slept: An Inquiry into the Murder of a Family

Harrison's analysis of a boy's murder of his abusive parents and innocent younger sister got a huge write-up in the Sunday NYT Book Review, and all I can say is Harrison must have a hell of a publicist. The book held my attention, and I read it q...

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]]> Book Review: When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris tag:vox.com,2008-06-30:asset-6a00cd96f7e9364cd500fad69644120004 2008-06-30T18:27:54Z 2008-06-30T18:27:54Z sensible shoes http://sensibleshoes.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom

When You Are Engulfed in Flames

I love David. His humor is biting and dark but not mean or unfair, usually. Sometimes his self-deprecation goes over the top, as if he's begging to be reassured, but I fall for it; I think it's cute. This latest collection is close in tone to t...

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]]> Book Review: His Illegal Self by Peter Carey tag:vox.com,2008-06-30:asset-6a00cd96f7e9364cd500fad69644020004 2008-06-30T18:26:33Z 2008-06-30T18:26:33Z sensible shoes http://sensibleshoes.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom

His Illegal Self

This is my first stab at one of Carey's novels. Maybe I started with the wrong one. The premise is intriguing - a Weather Underground-type radical kidnaps a young boy from his wealthy grandmother and spirits him away to the Australian bush. How...

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]]> Book Review: Arthur and George by Julian Barnes tag:vox.com,2008-05-28:asset-6a00cd96f7e9364cd500fad68b5af70005 2008-05-28T19:22:14Z 2008-05-28T19:22:14Z sensible shoes http://sensibleshoes.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom

Arthur and George

The blurb on the back of my copy calls this “a cracking good yarn,” and indeed it is. Shortlisted for the Booker, this novel is about George Edalji, a country lawyer accused of a series of terrible crimes. Justice is in short supply in the rura...

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]]> Book Review: Marley & Me by John Grogan tag:vox.com,2008-05-28:asset-6a00cd96f7e9364cd500fa9679cc590003 2008-05-28T19:18:34Z 2008-06-15T11:04:00Z sensible shoes http://sensibleshoes.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom

Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog

This is a good airplane book: short, slight, diverting. The subtitle “Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog” is overstating the case; Marley, a slobbery, tail-wagging, galumphing yellow lab, is really just a run-of-the-mill bad boy. If you li...

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]]> Book Review: Lisey's Story by Stephen King tag:vox.com,2008-05-03:asset-6a00cd96f7e9364cd500f48d1318390001 2008-05-03T12:09:58Z 2008-05-03T12:09:58Z sensible shoes http://sensibleshoes.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom

Lisey's Story: A Novel

I read and loved most of Stephen King's early novels and then got sidetracked. This one is quintessential King, encompassing all that I enjoy about his books and also all that I find annoying. Lisey is the widow of a renowned novelist, Scott Lan...

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]]> Book Review: Black Girl/White Girl by Joyce Carol Oates tag:vox.com,2008-04-28:asset-6a00cd96f7e9364cd500f48d11a4b10001 2008-04-28T22:57:44Z 2008-04-28T22:57:44Z sensible shoes http://sensibleshoes.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom

Black Girl/White Girl: A Novel (P.S.)

Genna Meade is the well-meaning daughter of well-to-do, radical hippie parents. Her college roommate Minette, the daughter of an African American minister, is reserved, prickly, eccentric and unpopular. Genna is almost desperate to win Minette's...

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]]> Book Review: Girls Like Us by Sheila Weller tag:vox.com,2008-04-15:asset-6a00cd96f7e9364cd500f48ceeab1e0002 2008-04-15T11:37:36Z 2008-04-15T11:37:36Z sensible shoes http://sensibleshoes.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom

Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--And the Journey of a Generation

The subtitle is Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--And the Journey of a Generation, so you can guess why I bought it. I cheated and only read the Joni chapters so far. The author managed to talk to a lot of people, and uncovered stories th...

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