‘Lost and wanted’ is a modern ghost story How are we supposed to feel when we learn of the death of a friend who had slowly drifted out of our day-to-day life? As Nell Freudenberger shows in her latest novel (Alfred A. Knopf, 2019), it’s complicated. Helen Clapp and Charlotte “Charlie” Boyce were as closeContinue reading “Exploring the science of grief”
Author Archives: Julia
Battle of the book covers
U.S. versus U.K. — who ya got? Are your Mondays filled with too much thinking? Ease into your work week by gazing upon some beautiful and striking book covers. The fine folks over at Electric Literature pitted the U.S. and U.K. cover versions of some new books to see which their readers preferred. I agreedContinue reading “Battle of the book covers”
Abby, sometimes I wonder if our parents were right when they forbade us to read novels! It is all the fault of the Circulating Libraries!” “Putting romantical notions into girls’ heads?” said Abby, smiling. “I don’t think so: I had a great many myself, and was never permitted to read any but the most improvingContinue reading
Fairy tales
Naomi Novik makes old stories new again I first got hooked on Naomi Novik’s fantastic (in all senses of the word) writing with His Majesty’s Dragon, an imaginative novel whose plot could most succinctly be described as “The Napoleonic Wars, but with dragons.” That book bloomed into an eventual nine-book series; though I read allContinue reading “Fairy tales”
Literary links
No matter what your favorite genre, there’s a summer beach/vacation book waiting for you. Today’s Literary Links roundup roams the web to present several lists of new books worth checking out.
A window into a isolated world
“The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating” is Elisabeth Tova Bailey’s luminous memoir about a year of debilitating illness, with only a snail to provide companionship and comfort.
FIRST LOOK: Deep dives into art and artist
Two new acquisitions spotlight very different artists: Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Bruce Springsteen.
Abe Lincoln had the write stuff
From the start, he needed to overcome internal and external opposition by willful acts of self-definition, the ambitious farm boy autodidact becoming a splitter of words and ideas rather than fence rails. Fred Kaplan, Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer I’m having trouble writing this review because I have so much to say. I triedContinue reading “Abe Lincoln had the write stuff”
Reality is not a linear construct
If you don’t remember something, did it really happen? Who do you believe when you’re presented with alternate versions of events that you were involved in but cannot remember for yourself? It’s a fascinating puzzle, and Tana French explores all the pieces of it in ‘The Witch Elm’.
The Journey Begins
Thanks for joining me on this reading adventure! I’m hoping to make An American Bluestocking a place where I can share my thoughts about the books I read and interesting articles I stumble on across the intertoobz. Fair warning: My reading tastes are eclectic, so there’s no telling what kind of books you may findContinue reading “The Journey Begins”
An American Bluestocking 