A 65-year old woman retires to a cottage in the country after a professional life as an anthropologist. Goes on and on about always being an outsider, never a participant. And she continues that life despite opportunities for jumping in.
Recent Posts
- New Blog Location
- American Fire by Monica Hesse
- Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
- The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway
- The Hamilton Case by Michelle de Kretser
- Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear
- That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott
- Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear
- Happiness by Aminatta Forna
- Books to Read
Books by Author
- Abi-Ezzi, Nathalie
- Aciman, Andre
- Ackland, Jenny
- Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi
- Albright, Madeleine (Prague Winter)
- Albright, Madeleine (The Mighty and the Almighty)
- Alexander, Robert
- Alvaraz, Julia
- Anderson, Jessica (One of the Wattle Birds)
- Anderson, Jessica (The Impersonators)
- Anderson, Jessica (Tirra Lirra by the River)
- Ansari, Aziz
- Ariely, Dan
- Ashmere, Emma
- Aslan, Reza
- Astley, Thea (Drylands)
- Astley, Thea (Coda)
- Atkinson, Kate
- Atkinson, Kate (Life After Life)
- Atkinson, Kate (A God in Ruins)
- Atwood, Margaret
- Austen, Jane (Sense and Sensibility)
- Austen, Jane (Emma)
- Austen, Jane (Northanger Abbey)
- Austen, Jane (Persuasion)
- Auster, Paul (Brooklyn Follies)
- Auster, Paul (Invisible)
- Auster, Paul (Oracle Night)
- Auster, Paul (Sunset Park)
- Auster, Paul (Travels in the Scriptorium)
- Babst, C. Morgan
- Bail, Murray (Eucalyptus)
- Bail, Murray (The Pages)
- Bailey, Elisabeth Tova
- Baker, Dorothy
- Banville, John
- Barbery, Muriel
- Barnes, Julian (Arthur and George)
- Barnes, Julian (The Sense of An Ending)
- Barry, John M.
- Bezmozgis, David (The Betrayers)
- Bezmozgis, David (The Free World)
- Bianculli, David
- Bitto, Emily
- Black, Cara (Murder in the Marais)
- Black, Cara (Murder in the Rue Paradis
- Black, Robin
- Bloom, Stephen
- Bohgalian, Chris
- Boyd, Martin (A Difficult Young Man)
- Boyd, Martin (Outbreak of Love)
- Boyd, Martin (The Cardboard Crown)
- Boyd, Martin (When Blackbirds Sing)
- Brooks, David
- Brooks, Geraldine (Caleb's Crossing)
- Brooks, Geraldine (March)
- Brooks, Geraldine (People of the Book)
- Brooks, Geraldine (Year of Wonders)
- Bryson, Bill (A Short History of Nearly Everything)
- Bryson, Bill (A Walk in the Woods)
- Bryson, Bill (In a Sunburned Country)
- Butler, Robert Olen
- Byatt, A.S. (Possession)
- Byatt, A.S. (The Matisse Stories)
- Campbell, Joseph
- Camus, Albert
- Carey, Peter (Chemistry of Tears)
- Carey, Peter (Oscar and Lucinda)
- Carey, Peter (True History of the Kelly Gang)
- Carr, J.L.
- Carter, Alan
- Carter, Stephen
- Cash, Rosanne
- Cathcart, Thomas and Daniel Klein
- Chatwin, Bruce
- Child, Julia
- Coleman, Claire
- Corbett, Christopher
- Costello, Mary
- Dalton, Robin
- Daoud, Kamel
- Darznik, Jasmin
- Davidson, Robyn
- Davies, Peter Ho (The Welch Girl)
- Davies, Peter Ho (The Fortunes)
- Davies, Robertson (The Lyre of Orpheus)
- Davies, Robertson (The Rebel Angels)
- Davies, Robertson (What's Bred in the Bone)
- Dawson, Greg
- de Waal, Edmund
- Desai, Kiran
- deWitt, Patrick
- Dickens, Charles
- Dillard, Annie
- Doerr, Anthony
- Dostoyevsky, Fyodor
- Draine, Betsy and Michael Hindon
- Drewe, Robert (The Drowner)
- Drewe, Robert (The Shark Net)
- Duhigg, Charles
- Eberstadt, Fernanda (Little Money Street)
- Eberstadt, Fernanda (Rat)
- Edgerton, Clyde
- Egan, Timothy
- Eggers, Dave
- Elliott, Sumner Locke
- Ellis, Joseph
- Enright, Ann
- Enright, Anne (The Green Road)
- Ephron, Nora
- Erdrich, Louise
- Facey, A.B.
- Farrington, Tim
- Ferguson, Will
- Ferrante, Elena (My Brilliant Friend)
- Ferrante, Elena (The Story of a New Name)
- Ferrante, Elena (The Story of the Lost Child)
- Ferrante, Elena (Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay)
- Flanagan, Richard (Wanting)
- Flanagan, Richard (The Narrow Road to the Deep North)
- Fowler, Karen Joy
- Fowler, Karen Joy (We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves)
- Fox, Lauren
- Francke, Linda Bird
- Franken, Al
- Fraser, Antonia
- Frayn, Michael
- Fuller, Claire
- Galloway, Steven
- Garner, Helen (The Spare Room)
- Garner, Helen (Everywhere I Look)
- Gaston, Bibi
- Gay, Peter
- Groff, Lauren
- Ghosh, Amitav
- Gifford, Bill
- Gilbert, Elizabeth (Eat, Pray, Love)
- Gilbert, Elizabeth (The Signature of All Things)
- Glass, Julia
- Goldsmith, Margaret
- Grant, Linda
- Greene, Graham (Our Man in Havana)
- Greene, Graham (The Heart of the Matter)
- Greg, Wioletta
- Grenville, Kate (One Life: My Mother's Story)
- Grenville, Kate (Sarah Thornhill)
- Grenville, Kate (The Idea of Perfection)
- Grenville, Kate (The Lieutenant)
- Grenville, Kate (The Secret River)
- Griffiths, Elly (The Crossing Places)
- Griffiths, Elly (The House at Sea's End)
- Griffiths, Elly (The Janus Stone)
- Grissom, Kathleen
- Gruen, Sarah
- Haddon, Mark (A Spot of Bother)
- Hadley, Tessa
- Hagerty, Barbara Bradley
- Haidt, Jonathan
- Hamid, Mohsin (The Reluctant Fundamentalist)
- Hamid, Mohsin (Exit West)
- Hamilton, Gabrielle
- Harr, Jonathan
- Harris, Jane
- Harris, Joanne (Holy Fools)
- Harris, Joanne (The Girl With No Shadow)
- Harrower, Elizabeth
- Harstad, Donald (A Long December)
- Harstad, Donald (Known Dead)
- Haruf, Kent
- Harvey, Samantha
- Hay, Ashley (A Hundred Small Lessons)
- Hay, Ashley (The Railwayman's Wife)
- Hay, Ashley (The Body in the Clouds)
- Hazzard, Shirley (The Great Fire)
- Hazzard, Shirley (The Transit of Venus)
- Heaphy, Timothy
- Heiss, Anita
- Hellenga, Robert (Sixteen Pleasures)
- Hellenga, Robert (The Confessions of Frances Godwin)
- Hessler, Peter (Oracle Bones)
- Hessler, Peter (River Town)
- Hickey, Christine Dwyer (Last Train from Liguria)
- Hickey, Christine Dwyer (The Cold Eye of Heaven)
- Hillenbrand, Laura
- Hodgman, George
- Hoffman, Alice
- Hoffman, Claire
- Horan, Nancy
- Hosseini, Khaled (A Thousand Splendid Suns)
- Hosseini, Khaled (The Kite Runner)
- Howell, Georgina
- Huddle, David (Nothing Can Make Me Do This)
- Huddle, David (Tenorman)
- Huddle, David (The Story of a Million Years)
- Hughes, Robert
- Hurston, Zora Neale
- Hyland, M.J.
- Irving, Washington
- Isaacson, Walter
- Itani, Frances (Remembering the Bones)
- Itani, Frances (Tell)
- Jacobson, Howard
- James, Clive
- James, Henry (Portrait of a Lady)
- James, Henry (Washington Square)
- Jewett, Sarah Orne
- Johnston, George
- Johnston, Jennifer
- Jolley, Elizabeth
- Jones, Gail (A Guide to Berlin)
- Jones, Gail (Five Bells)
- Jones, Gail (Sixty Lights)
- Jones, Lloyd
- Joyce, Rachel
- Just, Ward (A Family Trust)
- Just, Ward (An Unfinished Season)
- Just, Ward (Echo House)
- Just, Ward (Forgetfulness)
- Kaag, John
- Kafka, Franz (Metamorphosis)
- Kafka, Franz (The Trial)
- Keneally, Thomas
- Keret, Etgar (Suddenly a Knock on the Door)
- Keret, Etgar (The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God)
- Kertész, André
- Kidd, Sue Monk and Ann Kidd Taylor
- Kiernan, Denise
- Kimani, Peter
- Kimberling, Brian
- King, Lily
- King, Ross (Judgment of Paris)
- King, Ross (Michelangelo)
- King, William
- Klima, Ivan
- Kostova, Elizabeth (The Historian)
- Kostova, Elizabeth (The Swan Thieves)
- Koval, Ramona
- Kowalski, William
- Kurlansky, Mark
- Kushner, Rachel
- Lahiri, Jhumpa (Interpreter of Maladies)
- Lahiri, Jhumpa (Unaccustomed Earth)
- Lalwani, Nikita
- Lang, Lisa
- Leane, Jeanine
- Lebovitz, David
- Lee, Min Jin (Free Food for Millionaires)
- Lee, Min Jin (Pachinko)
- Leonhardt, Lynne
- Lepore, Jill
- Lethem, Jonathan
- Levitt, Steven and Stephen Dubner
- Levy, Andrea
- Levy, Deborah
- Lewis, Bernard
- Lewycka, Marina
- Lindsay, Joan
- Lively, Penelope (City of the Mind)
- Lively, Penelope (Cleopatra's Sister)
- Lively, Penelope (Spiderweb)
- London, Joan
- London, Joan (The Golden Age)
- Lopez, Steve
- Lucey, Donna
- Lurie, Alison
- Macdonald, Helen
- MacLaverty, Bernard
- Madden, Deirdre (Molly Fox's Birthday)
- Madden, Deirdre (Time Present and Time Past)
- Makine, Andrei
- Malouf (The Conversations at Curlow Creek)
- Malouf, David (Fly Away Peter)
- Malouf, David (Harland's Half Acre)
- Malouf, David (Remembering Babylon)
- Mankell, Henning
- Mann, Charles C.
- Mantel, Hilary (Bringing Up the Bodies)
- Mantel, Hilary (Eight Months on Ghazzah Street)
- Mantel, Hilary (Wolf Hall)
- Marra, Anthony
- Marra, Anthony (The Tsar of Love and Techno)
- Martin, Steve (An Object of Beauty)
- Martin, Steve (Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life)
- Martin, Steve (Shopgirl)
- Maxwell, William (So Long, See You Tomorrow)
- Maxwell, William (The Château)
- McCann, Colum (Let the Great World Spin)
- McCann, Colum (Thirteen Ways of Looking)
- McDermott, Alice (After This)
- McDermott, Alice (Someone)
- McEwan, (Sweet Tooth)
- McEwan, Ian (The Children Act)
- McGahern, John
- McManus, Sophie
- McNamee, Thomas
- Mears, Gillian
- Messud, Claire
- Michaels, Sean
- Miller, Alex (Autumn Laing)
- Miller, Alex (Conditions of Faith)
- Miller, Alex (Journey to Stone Country)
- Miller, Alex (Landscape of Farewell)
- Miller, Alex (Lovesong)
- Mitchell, David
- Modiano, Patrick
- Montero, Mayra
- Montgomery, Sy
- Moorehead, Alan
- Morris, Jan (Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere)
- Morris, Jan (Venice)
- Morrison, Toni
- Mortenson, Greg
- Mortenson, Greg and David Oliver Relin
- Mosse, Kate
- Moynahan, Brian
- Munro, Alice (Runaway: stories by Alice Munro)
- Munro, Alice (Stories: View from Castle Rock)
- Natterson-Horowitz, Barbara and Kathryn Bowers
- Nemirovsky, Irene
- Nguyen, Viet Thanh
- Nguyen, Viet Thanh (The Refugees)
- Niland, D'Arcy
- Norman, Howard
- Nothomb, Amélie (Fear and Trembling)
- Nothomb, Amélie (The Stranger Next Door)
- O"Farrell, Maggie (This Must Be The Place)
- O'Farrell, Maggie (Instructions for a Heat Wave)
- O'Farrell, Maggie (The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox)
- Obama, Barack
- Obrecht, Tea
- Ogawa, Yoko
- Olson, Lynne
- Ondaatje, Michael (Divisidero)
- Ondaatje, Michael (The Cat's Table)
- Orlean, Susan
- Osnos, Evan
- Otsuka, Julie
- Oz, Amos
- Ozeki, Ruth
- Pagels, Elaine
- Pagnamenta, Peter (Prairie Fever)
- Pagnamenta, Peter and Momoko Williams
- Pagnol, Marcel
- Panter-Downes, Mollie
- Park, David
- Park, Ruth
- Patchett, Ann
- Patchett, Ann (Run)
- Patchett, Ann (State of Wonder)
- Pears, Ian
- Penney, Stef
- Penny, Louise (A Fatal Grace)
- Penny, Louise (How the Light Gets In)
- Penny, Louise (Others in Armand Gamache Series)
- Penny, Louise (Still Life)
- Pepperberg, Irene
- Percy, Walker
- Perlman, Elliot
- Petterson, Per
- Phillips, Arthur
- Pollan, Michael
- Porter, Katherine Anne
- Power, Carla
- Powers, Richard
- Prose, Francine (Mister Monkey)
- Prose, Francine (Peggy Guggenheim)
- Pym, Barbara
- Raban, Jonathan (Passage to Juneau)
- Raban, Jonathan (Waxwings)
- Rachman, Tom (The Imperfectionists)
- Rachman, Tom (The Rise & Fall of Great Powers)
- Raddatz, Martha
- Redhill, Michael
- Reichl, Ruth
- Rendell, Ruth
- Richardson, Henry Handel, pseudonym (Australia Felix)
- Richardson, Henry Handel, pseudonym (The Way Home)
- Richardson, Henry Handel, pseudonym (Ultima Thule)
- Richler, Nancy
- Rindell, Suzanne
- Robinson, Marilynne (Gilead)
- Robinson, Marilynne (Gilead, second time)
- Robinson, Marilynne (Lila)
- Rubenstein, Richard E.
- Rushdie, Salmon
- Russell, Mary Doria (Doc: a Novel)
- Russell, Mary Doria (Dreamers of the Day)
- Russo, Richard
- Sachs, Harvey
- Salter, John
- Sanders, Michael
- Saunders, George (Lincoln in the Bardo)
- Saunders, George (Tenth of December)
- Schiff, Stacy
- Schulman, Audrey
- Schumacher, Julie
- Scourfield, Stephen
- Shaffer, Mary Ann and Annie Barrows
- Sheers, Owen
- Shields, Carol
- Shorto, Russell
- Shteyngart, Gary (Absurdistan)
- Shteyngart, Gary (Little Failure)
- Shteyngart, Gary (Super-sad-true-love-story)
- Siblin, Eric
- Silvey, Craig
- Simonson, Helen
- Simsion, Graeme
- Smith, Ali
- Smith, Dodie
- Smith, Zadie (On Beauty)
- Smith, Zadie (NW)
- Spark, Muriel (A Far Cry from Kensington)
- Spark, Muriel (Memento Mori)
- Spence, Catherine Helen
- Spufford, Francis
- St. John, Madeleine (The Women in Black)
- St. John, Madeleine (A Pure Clear Light)
- Standage, Tom
- Starnone, Domenico
- Steinem, Gloria
- Steinhardt, Arnold
- Stewart, Rory
- Stibbe, Nina (Love, Nina)
- Stibbe, Nina (Man at the Helm)
- Stibbe, Nina (Paradise Lodge)
- Stockett, Kathryn
- Strout, Elizabeth (Anything is Possible)
- Strout, Elizabeth (My Name is Lucy Barton)
- Strout, Elizabeth (Oliver Kitteridge)
- Strout, Elizabeth (The Burgess Boys)
- Suri, Manil
- Swift, Earl
- Swift, Graham
- Taylor, Barbara Brown
- Taylor, Elizabeth
- Taylor, Jill Bolte
- Temple, Peter (The Broken Shore)
- Temple, Peter (Truth)
- Thubron, Colin
- Tiffany, Carrie
- Tilghman, Christopher (Mason's Retreat)
- Tilghman, Christopher (The Right-Hand Shore)
- Toibin, Colm (Brooklyn: a Novel)
- Toibin, Colm (House of Names)
- Toibin, Colm (Nora Webster)
- Toibin, Colm (Testament of Mary)
- Toibin, Colm (The Master)
- Toobin, Jeffrey
- Tough, Paul
- Towles, Amor (A Gentleman in Moscow)
- Towles, Amor (Rules of Civility)
- Tremain, Rose (The Road Home)
- Tremain, Rose (Trespass)
- Tremain, Rose (The Gustav Sonata)
- Trevor, William
- Turgenev, Ivan
- Ullmann, Linn
- Undset, Sigrid
- Unsworth, Barry
- Verghese, Abraham (Cutting for Stone)
- Verghese, Abraham (My Own Country)
- Vermalle, Caroline
- Vickers, Salley (Miss Garnet's Angel)
- Vickers, Salley (The Cleaner of Chartres)
- Vickers, Salley (The Other Side of You)
- Vila-Matas, Enrique
- Von Arnim, Elizabeth
- Vowell, Sarah (Assassination Vacation)
- Vowell, Sarah (Lafayette in the Somewhat United States)
- Vowell, Sarah (The Wordy Shipmates)
- Vowell, Sarah (Unfamiliar Fishes)
- Vreeland, Susan
- Waldman, Adelle
- Wallis, Velma
- Walter, Jess
- Ward, Jesmyn
- Waters, Sarah
- Watson, Larry (An American Boy)
- Watson, Larry (Montana, 1948)
- Waugh, Evelyn
- Weiner, Eric
- Weisman, Jonathan
- Wharton, Edith (Ethan Fromm)
- Wharton, Edith (The House of Mirth)
- Wharton, Edith (In Morocco)
- Wharton, Edith (The Age of Innocence)
- Wharton, Edith (The Custom of the Country)
- Whealy, Diane Ott
- Wheeler, Sara
- Whitehead, Colson
- Willis, Connie
- Winchester, Simon
- Winters, Michelle
- Winton, Tim (Breath)
- Winton, Tim (Cloudstreet)
- Winton, Tim (Dirt Music)
- Winton, Tim (Eyrie)
- Winton, Tim (That eye, the sky)
- Winton, Tim (The Boy Behind the Curtain)
Blogs I Like
Prague 2007
- This album has pictures from our trip with Abby and Will to Prague in March 2007.
New York 2008
- In June we met Jen and Brooke, Bill and Mary, and Sean and Kim in New York to see the performance at Carnegie Hall of a piece that Brooke wrote. It was performed at Carnegie Hall on June 4 by Luther College faculty members.