Book A Minute

Our blogging friend at www.19thcentury.wordpress.com, a blog about the Victorian era, told us about a website that summarizes a long list of classics in just a minute each!  Go to www.rinkworks.com/bookaminute/classics.shtml.  Okay, so you’ll miss a few details and all of the romantic or dramatic touches.  But think of how much time you’ll save! Cathy

The Story Behind Edgar Sawtelle

Here is the link to David Wroblewski’s the story behind “The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.”  Our book club read this book as our September choice and we unanimously agreed we would recommend it.  Seldom are we all in accord!  Oprah now has decided to jump on our bandwagon and has recommended it for her book club, [...]

Fisticuffs over Edgar Allan Poe’s Body

Philadelphia and Baltimore Fight Over Edgar Allan Poe’s Body

Edgar Allan Poe.

Edward Pettit, an Edgar Allan Poe Scholar, argues that Poe’s body belongs in Philadelphia where he wrote many of his works not in Baltimore, where he’s buried because he happened to die there — under strange circumstances.  On January 13, Pettit is going to square off against Jeff Jerome, [...]

Tom Wolfe

Tom Wolfe was recently featured in the Sept. 8, 2008, Time Magazine.
In 1998, we read Tom Wolfe’s recently published “A Man in Full,” a heavy tome that I’ve just gotten from the shelf and dusted off. I remember it was hot enough off the press then that I had to buy the thing. The waiting list [...]

George Orwell is in the news again! (with Evelyn Waugh)

Some people just can’t keep out of the news.  I recently wrote in this blog about George Orwell’s new blog, which is on the blatherblog blogroll – that’s a tongue twister! 
Now Orwell is the subject of a new book along with Evelyn Waugh.  The book, The Same Man: George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh in Love and [...]

Our Avatar

This is our “avatar,” which will appear whenever we make a comment.  I was tempted to use Edvard Munch’s “The Scream,” which is how we feel whenever we pay $25 for a book (less at Costco and amazon.com, and free at the library, if it’s available, always my favorite option) and discover it’s terrible and can’t [...]