Balsamroot: A Memoir Mary Clearman Blew is neither sentimental nor dogmatic. In simple, vivid prose she has written three memoirs about her lifetime in the American West. All But the Waltz describes her path to young adulthood from an isolated upbringing in a family with pioneer roots in Montana. In This is Not the Ivy League, she recounts her experiences with education … [Read more...] about Balsamroot
The Secret Life of Dust
The Secret Life of Dust: From the Cosmos to the Kitchen Counter, the Big Consequences of Little Things. It rises from swamps, forests, deserts and the oceans. Our bodies are surrounded by a personal cloud of it. A certain scent, a single whiff of which can launch a thousand flashbacks—it isn’t air. It’s dust and it’s everywhere. Everything in the galaxy and beyond, … [Read more...] about The Secret Life of Dust
Is That a Fish in Your Ear?
David Bellos, the author of Is That a Fish in Your Ear? is the director of Princeton University’s program in Translation and Intercultural Communication. Graduates of this program might get work in international legal firms, as interpreters in government, or translating blockbuster novels. The title refers to the Babel-fish of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which, when … [Read more...] about Is That a Fish in Your Ear?
Sarah Canary
Karen Joy Fowler's 1991 novel Sarah Canary is set, for the most part, in rainy Washington state in the late 1800s where men are violent, women are sexual objects, and brown people and the mentally ill are always in danger. The tale is told through the perceptions of the Chinese railway worker Chin Ah Kin, his accidental accomplice B.J., and a disembodied voice of authority … [Read more...] about Sarah Canary
Jagged Edge of the Sky
How could I not love a book that I edited? The editing process is an engagement with the author, the story, the language and the whole universe of a work of art. Although I have not created this art, I have observed and stoked it. The astonishing part of editing Jagged Edge of the Sky was the opportunity to observe the generative brilliance of Paula Marie Coomer’s creative … [Read more...] about Jagged Edge of the Sky