Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Feb 10, 2012, 12:00 am
So my book-buying ban is officially lifted- my birthday is tomorrow. And... well, it was time to lift it. I picked up Dirty Snow, a crime novel by Georges Simenon set just after World War 2 in France. I have never read him and I think this book will be fun. From the NYRB webs...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Feb 8, 2012, 12:00 am
The Flight of Gemma Hardy, by Margot Livesey. Published 2012 by HarperCollins. So, I wasn't sure I was going to review The Flight of Gemma Hardy. I think it's really hard to rewrite a classic- Gemma is a retelling of Charlotte Brontë's immortal Jane Eyre- and I don't think the book is bad. I ...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Feb 7, 2012, 12:00 am
The Little Russian, by Susan Sherman. Published 2012 by Counterpoint. I haven't been reading a lot of Jewish books lately; a few still cross my desk every now and then, and among them was The Little Russian, the story of Berta Alshonsky, the daughter of a grocer from a small villag...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Feb 6, 2012, 11:42 am
 This week’s musing asks… Did you do any reading in lieu of watching the football game, yesterday, or were you foregoing reading to watch the game? If you read a book (or books) what did you choose? I watched the Super Bowl! I live in B...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Feb 5, 2012, 12:00 am
I actually got kind of tired of reading this week. I finished From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant, an entertaining read by debut author Alex Gilvarry, and looked at some of the books in my to-read-next pile and felt sort of deflated. So I took a few days off from reading. This mont...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Feb 3, 2012, 12:00 am
Another light week in book acquisitions, which is fine. I got a couple of books in the mail but I'm still not buying a whole lot for the time being. Frank Delaney's latest The Last Storyteller arrived for review. It's even a signed copy! I was a huge fan of Venetia Kelly's Tr...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Feb 2, 2012, 12:00 am
Leaving the Atocha Station, by Ben Lerner. Published 2011 by Coffee House Press. Leaving the Atocha Station is a good book but its audience is going to be pretty small. It's a moody,  style-driven novel about a student living on a fellowship in Spain, writing poetry, doing drugs a...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Feb 1, 2012, 8:27 am
Are you in? World Book Night is an event during which people all over America and elsewhere are volunteering to give out copies of favorite books to strangers to encourage and promote literacy and reading in their community. From the site: We need book-loving volunteers to fa...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Jan 31, 2012, 12:00 am
Stoner, by John Williams. Published 2006 by NYRB Editions. The other day I was looking for what to read next and I remembered that I had this book Stoner on my shelf, and that it had been there for a while. I also remembered that a couple of my good book pals (Matt of A Guy's Moles...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Jan 30, 2012, 6:19 am
This week’s musing asks… How far along are you in your current read before you start thinking about what you’ll read next? I'm usually thinking about my next read (and the one after that- and the one after that) immediately, but I often change my mind. For example,...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Jan 29, 2012, 8:57 am
So I'm a little stuck in winter doldrums right now but bright things are on the horizon. My husband and I have a quick trip to New York coming up in the next few weeks; we've already made reservations at my favorite NYC hotel and have lined up dinner at a restaurant I love. I hope that s...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Jan 27, 2012, 12:00 am
But did you really expect me to wait that long? I decided it's OK if it's already on my wishlist and it's used or very, very cheap. :-) The Possibility of an Island is a science fiction/dystopia novel along the lines of Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, written by Frenc...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Jan 26, 2012, 12:00 am
The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes. Published 2011 by Random House. Winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize and latest novel by acclaimed British writer Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending is a must-read for any reader of literary fiction. The book tells the story, ...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Jan 25, 2012, 12:00 am
... , by Caroline Preston. Published 2011 by Ecco. The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt is a delightful little trifle, ... Vassar and then to Paris. She has a scrapbook and an old typewriter when she leaves high ... characterizations nor the story feel thin. Nonetheless, The Scrapbook is a quick read, ...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Jan 23, 2012, 12:00 am
What does the term "cult classic" conjure up for you? Last week Ellie Robins of Melville House wrote this great post on the subject, responding to another article on the subject in El Pais. Robins asks whether the term is something that marketing folks apply to a book (and in doing so, do they strip...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Jan 22, 2012, 8:24 am
So today my husband and I are finally putting Christmas away! He got the boxes down from the attic yesterday and today we're going to un-decorate the tree and put all the gewgaws and nicknacks back in their containers, and even, maybe, take the tree itself down. It's a fake tree so it do...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Nov 3, 2011, 12:00 am
French Leave, by Anna Gavalda. Published 2011 by Europa Editions. French Leave is the story of a family of siblings. Garance, Simon, and Lola sneak off from a wedding in France to visit their brother Vincent, who works as a tour guide at a castle near the wedding site. ...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Nov 1, 2011, 12:00 am
The Moonflower Vine, by Jetta Carleton. Originally published 1962. Reissued 2009 by HarperPerennial. The Moonflower Vine is another one of those rediscovered classics- a book that's been out of print for a while and brought back to our attention. Sometimes I think some of those books are...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 31, 2011, 12:00 am
Nightmare Alley, by William Lindsay Gresham. Originally published 1946; this edition 2010 by NYRB Classics. Need a good suspenseful creep-out for Halloween? There's nothing truly supernatural in William Lindsay Gresham's neglected classic Nightmare Alley but there's plenty of grit,...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 30, 2011, 12:00 am
Today I'm sleeping in. I've just finished my first week as a bookseller and what a week it was. But today is a day off and I'm going to carve a pumpkin and maybe go out for brunch. I've been reading a ton this week. I tried two galleys that bored me so I put them aside, then went for Shi...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 28, 2011, 12:00 am
So, if you follow me on Facebook or Twitter you know my big news- I started working this week as a full-time bookseller at the New England Mobile Book Fair, the venerable independent bookstore in Newton, Mass. Open since 1957, it's a gigantic warehouse of books. It's wonderful, and I get...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 26, 2011, 12:00 am
Everything Happens Today, by Jesse Browner. Published 2011 by Europa Editions. When I started reading Everything Happens Today I wasn't sure I was going to like it. It's the story of Wes, an affluent highschooler in New York City, and his various angst and problems. The story takes...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 25, 2011, 12:00 am
The Cat's Table, by Michael Ondaatje. Published 2011 by Random House. I haven't read anything by Michael Ondaatje in a long time, not since probably 1993 or 1994, when I first read The English Patient, his Booker Prize winner about people caught up in the maelstrom of World War 2. ...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 24, 2011, 6:43 am
Well, after this weekend's Read-a-thon, I was able to finish up a small stack of books and start a new one. Now, I'm reading The Moonflower Vine, by Jetta Carleton, which I'm loving, Growing Up, by Angela Thirkell, a during-the-war novel set in rural England, a wonderful treat of a ...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 23, 2011, 12:00 am
Yesterday was the 24 Hour Read-a-Thon and I decided at the last minute to participate. I used the opportunity to finish three books that I'd been reading simultaneously; it was a great day of reading and relaxing and blogging! Now I'm deep into Jetta Carleton's The Moonflower Vine...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 22, 2011, 6:13 pm
So, I finished Everything Happens Today, by Jesse Browner and thanks to your suggestions have started the (so far) luminous The Moonflower Vine, by Jetta Carleton. This was another one of those books, like Nightmare Alley, that I just picked up in the store. Sometimes the be...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 22, 2011, 12:04 pm
Okay! I finished two of my four Read-a-Thon books and I'm looking for something new to start once I've finished at least one more. Done are: The Cat's Table, by Michael Ondaatje. Liked, didn't love.  A book to admire for me, not one to swoon over. Full review on Tuesda...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 22, 2011, 12:00 am
I just heard about the 24 Hour Read-a-Thon yesterday and decided to participate late last night. My stash? I'm reading four books right now: The Cat's Table, by Michael Ondaatje (almost done), Everything Happens Today, by Jesse Browner (3/4 done), Nightmare Al...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 21, 2011, 6:36 am
The Great Northern Express, a writing memoir due out in the spring from author Howard Frank Mosher, and Walking to Gatlinburg, his recent novel, came from a publisher-rep friend who wants me to get to know this author better. So I will!
...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 19, 2011, 12:00 am
Poisonville, by Massimo Carlotto and Marco Videtta. Published 2009 by Europa Editions. Translated from the Italian by Anthony Shugaar. I know I said that I'd probably never read another Massimo Carlotto book after the downer that was Death's Dark Abyss but something about Poisonvil...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 18, 2011, 12:00 am
Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, by Danielle Evans. Published 2010 by Riverhead. Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, Danielle Evans' debut collection, knocked my socks off, spun them around in the laundry and hung them out to dry. Need to know more? Evans' book is a co...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 17, 2011, 8:40 am
This week’s musing asks… Do you judge a book by its cover? All the time! Who doesn't? Cover art sets the tone, gives you a clue about the theme, subject or setting of a book. If you're writing about about, say, Marie Antoinette, and you put a movie-tie-in picture from ...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 16, 2011, 12:00 am
I'm at the end of a week simply packed with books, bookstores and bookish events. I may be headed towards bookish burnout if I'm not careful! (I don't think that will happen though!) On Monday my husband and I did some book shopping on the North Shore- we went up to Manchester By T...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 14, 2011, 12:00 am
The Cantor's Daughter, short stories by Scott Nadelson about Jewish residents of a New Jersey suburb, arrived via Bookmooch. I picked up G. by John Berger at a local indie. It's a Booker Prize winner and one of the last I have to collect. After this I think...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 13, 2011, 12:00 am
Nairobi Heat, by Mukoma Wa Ngugi. Published 2011 by Melville House (Melville International Crime). Ishmael, a black detective from Wisconsin, has a problem. A nameless young white woman has shown up dead on the Madison doorstep of Joshua Hakizimana, a hero of the Rwandan genocide m...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 11, 2011, 12:00 am
River of Smoke, by Amitav Ghosh. Published 2011 by FSG. If you read Sea of Poppies and loved it as much as I did, you've been waiting with baited breath for two long years for the follow-up to that wonderful book with its dramatic cliff-hanger ending. It's here; dive right in. River of S...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 10, 2011, 6:35 am
Some more great things came in via the mailbox this week! Seymour Chwast's graphic novel adaptation of The Canterbury Tales came in from Bloomsbury, a win from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program. It's fun; I started reading it last night and should have a revie...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 9, 2011, 12:00 am
Well today I'm on the island of Nantucket for the annual Cranberry Festival, which was actually yesterday. Nantucket is known as a center of cranberry harvesting and every year we get a big bag of fresh-off-the-bog berries for fall and Christmas baking. Anyone who's been to my Christmas ...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 8, 2011, 12:00 am
So, I don't just read and write lame, amateurish book reviews all the time. Sometimes I do lame, amateurish crafts, too! I quilt! I've been quilting since 2002, although I've just come off about a three-year hiatus. That's how long the quilt above had been sitting in a heap ...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 6, 2011, 6:42 am
What’s the oddest book you’ve ever read? Did you like it? Hate it? Did it make you think? One of the oddest books I've read in recent years has to be Bowl of Cherries, by Millard Kaufman. It's a picaresque about a young man who falls in love with the daughter o...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 5, 2011, 12:00 am
Almost Dead, by Assaf Gavron. Published 2010 by Harper Perennial.  Eitan Enoch has the worst luck, or the best luck, of anyone in Israel. "Croc," as he's known to his friends, works for a tech company that's slowly going under; he's their star performer but...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 4, 2011, 12:00 am
Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio, by Amara Lakhous. Published 2008 by Europa Editions. Sometimes you start reading a novel thinking it's pure comedy, and then it turns out to have some darker themes going on just under the surface that make you think a lit...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 3, 2011, 6:30 am
It's time to review the things I've received in the mail over the past week. Some great things arrived! I'm very excited about The Nun, by Simonetta Agnello Horn...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Oct 2, 2011, 12:00 am
So it's fall, and that means fairs. We meant to go to King Richard's Faire yesterday, a local legendary Renaissance fair, but our plans got rained out and we're going to save that for another weekend soon. Today we're off to the Topsfield Fair, in Topsfield, Mass., the oldest agricultura...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Sep 30, 2011, 12:00 am
... season. What follows is my picks of the picks, and some picks they ... not autobiographical. (October) In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination, by Margaret Atwood. This collection of essays documents her thoughts on the ... this, I'm wildly jealous. (October) The Dovekeepers looks like...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Sep 29, 2011, 12:00 am
To Be With Her, by Syed Afzal Haider. Published 2010 by Weavers Press. To Be With Her is the story of Rama, a young Pakistani man who comes to the United States in the 1950s for an education and finds himself in the process. Rama is a cinephile and film is a constant metaphor and theme, ...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Sep 28, 2011, 12:00 am
Today I have the distinct pleasure of presenting an interview with writer Moazzam Sheikh, short story author, librarian and now publisher of Weavers Press, a new small press based in San Francisco and specializing in South Asian literature.  I've known Moazzam for a couple of years now and it...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Sep 27, 2011, 12:00 am
You Deserve Nothing, by Alexander Maksik. Published 2011 by Europa Editions. "We only become what we are by the radical and deep-seated refusal of that which others have made of us" - Jean-Paul Sartre How can I begin to describe You Deserve Nothing, Alexander Maksik's novel and the...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Sep 26, 2011, 12:00 am
The 3rd Salem Literary Festival was held this past weekend in historic Salem, Mass., with events taking place in various locations around the city. Events took place from Friday night through Sunday; the star of the show was Erin Morgenstern, author of the recently-published and much-fê...
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Marie C. posted an article on The Boston Bibliophile - Sep 25, 2011, 12:00 am
Well today is the second day of the Salem Literary Festival! Yesterday Jeff and I attended two sessions, one a panel of literary agents and the second a panel on writing strong women, with authors Brunonia Barry, Katherine Howe and Julia Glass. Both were very informative; I'll have more ...
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