March 2020 was the month the world turned upside down for most of us. Reading helped me to stay afloat! I managed to keep up with most of my reading goals: some nonfiction, some books from around the world, and something from my own shelf, the results of which you can see below. An immersive […]
After a couple of years of very little activity, I finally got back into the Reading All Around the World project and I’m so glad I did. It reminds me of how powerful reading is as a way to learn and expand our horizons while staying in one place. Here’s what I’ve read since the […]
Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma (2014) In keeping with my resolution to read more nonfiction this year — ideally, not only memoir or biography — I made my way through this book in the first couple of months of 2020. It took […]
Well, I’m quite sure we could all use some cheering up right now, so it’s the perfect time to celebrate March Magics – thanks to Kristen from We Be Reading who has hosted the event (originally DWJ March) for umpteen years. As we hole up avoiding dangerous germs, and tear our hair about other dire […]
In my youth, books were not always easy to find; now they seem to be assaulting me from every direction. New, old, domestic, imported, print books, e-books, conventionally published, self-published…. This abundance is amazing, but it sometimes feels a bit oppressive. Even though I have a “no review requests” policy on my blog, I […]
This month, I thought more about my reading goals and how I might plan to meet them. I’m really enjoying reading books representing various countries of the world and I’ve finished a few more this month. I managed to finish one nonfiction book this month — the excellent The Body Keeps the Score. I’m interested […]
Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) I’m not a horror fan, so I’ve never made an effort to read the classics of the genre — but for one reason or another, in the last few years I’ve read Frankenstein, Dracula, and now this brief but hugely influential tale […]
Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) The publication of Maya Angelou’s autobiography (which eventually took up seven volumes) was a real landmark in many ways. It was a frank and deeply personal exploration of the Black American experience, from the chaos following slavery to our own muddled times. It gave voice […]
At the beginning of the year, I love reading about other people’s reading goals and making my own. I also sympathize with those who want to have no or very few goals. Nobody should feel that reading has to be a chore. This year, I noticed that some people have more specific plans than […]
As I was reviewing and updating my reading goals, I decided that a major goal for me this year is to read more books from or strongly representing different countries around the world. I got a good start this month! I read Pachinko, a multi-generational saga about Koreans in Japan; The House of the Spirits […]