Monthly Archives: June 2019

Lee, Andrea. Lost Hearts in Italy. Random House, New York, 2006. F;6/19. This is a love triangle, or really more like a pentagon or hexagon, involving wealthy highly-educated cosmopolitan characters who are almost without exception drop-dead gorgeous. Sex and big … Continue reading →

Savas, Aysegul. Walking on the Ceiling. Riverhead, New York, 2019. F;9/19 This first novel was not as sharply gripping as the short story Canvas in a recent New Yorker, but it had intriguing and thought-provoking complexity. Nunu is a young … Continue reading →

Reichl, Ruth. Save Me The Plums. Penguin Random House 2019. NF;6/19. I didn’t enjoy this memoir as much as Reichl’s Garlic and Sapphires, in which as the new New York Times restaurant critic she famously presented herself to a fancy self-important restaurant first as the critic, … Continue reading →

Orringer, Julie. The Flight Portfolio. Knopf New York, 2019. F; 6/19. I was really impressed with Orringer’s other two books The Invisible Bridge and How to Breathe Underwater, but this one didn’t work for me. It tells the story of … Continue reading →

Rooney, Sally. Normal People. Faber and Faber, London, 2018. F;5/19. This is a love story beginning in high school and carrying into young adulthood. Wealthy Marianne is brilliant but a social recluse, Connell is if anything even smarter but his … Continue reading →

Oz, Amos. A Tale of Love and Darkness. Translated from Hebrew by Nicholas DeLange. Harcourt Harvest 2003. F; 5/19 I thought this was superior to Oz’s Judas. Here we have essentially an autobiography, detailing the boy’s upbringing by a strongly academic … Continue reading →