If you appreciate it when people, especially those who know what kinds of books are on your nightstand – or scattered everywhere around your house, like mine – tell you “Read this book!” then this is a page for you.

Be warned though: I only write about books I’m in love with, that I probably have read more than once, and hope to read again before I’m dead. (That means soon, because, as of this writing, I am ninety-five year old.)

Thus, I will write only about books that can be described as “literary.”

Which means that if I am constantly wanting to rewrite the sentences, I stop reading. I was an English teacher, for goodness sakes; I’ve already corrected a million papers!

if in non fiction a point is made repetitively, as if I were dumber than I am, I tend to throw book against the wall, like the felonious President Trump did with his hamburger when Bill Barr told him there was no evidence of election fraud.

 I need prose that has the qualities of poetry. Sometimes, I find myself reading aloud just to hear the sound. Once, travelling in Italy I heard a recording of someone reading Dante. I didn’t understand a word.  But I started crying. 

In fiction, I need to see the world the way the characters do. I don’t want to be told what happens; I want to be there when it happens. I want to be held, as in a dream, by universal themes. If it doesn’t reveal to me how the world works, doesn’t surprise me with news I can’t get anywhere else, if it isn’t true on some deep, universal level where I want to linger and ruminate, and be overcome with emotion, even grief, Ill pass. 

The only romance novel I have ever read that feels “literary” to me is Pride and Prejudice.

I don’t care much for thrillers. If I want to be thrilled, I’ll take up skydiving.

And mysteries? No way. I’m puzzled enough about almost everything already.

That’s enough to give you an idea of what to expect.

I intend to make a suggestion of a great book you might not know about every month. We all know, though, that the way to make God laugh is to tell Him your plans – so it may be more often than once a month, or less. Either way, I hope this page will be useful, and enjoyable. I would enjoy hearing from you, in the Comment page of this website, about books you are reading.

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