The Folded Clock: A Diary by Heidi Julavits
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Folded Clock by Heidi Julavits is self-absorbed and absorbing, reflective, boring to some but not to me, diary of a young woman's thoughts with each date starting "Today I..." and continuing with an anecdote or meditation about her life, i.e. I walked by here when I was on my way to have an affair with the man who became my second husband, or I swam for hours on the last day of our Maine vacation in t he little town where I have summered most of my life, or I went to see my therapist who did not answer the door or I fought with my husband when we were in Berlin. and she continues to muse on these beginnings for a few pages before we willy nilly move on to another date, not necessarily chronological. As a writer, and one not given to this kind of introspection, I found her entries fascinating. I listened to the book on CD and my husband did not share my enthusiasm even though she's funny at times and off the wall with her neuroses. It was a voyeurish excursion but the worries and obsessions about aging and death and friendship which concern her are shared by many women and I was sorry to have the book end. I'd buy another installment.


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The Green Road by Anne Enright

The Green Road by Anne Enright
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Green Road was sheer poetry, some of the best writing I've enjoyed in a long time. Anne Enright is the kind of writer who makes me want to toss my pen, she is so good and her work appears effortless:   "Rome was 1962, an audience with the Pope, a man on a little Vespa, so handsome he would cut you, with a fat brown baby on his knee. Oh and Roma, Roma! The unexpected piazzas, the sprays of orange blossom, an old codger on the tram who stank of garlic so badly -- Rosaleen should have realised that morning sickness was setting in. Dan was conceived in Rome. And Dan loved garlic! There was no end to the mysteries of Dan.". The story of a family told through the lives of each of the grown children and their mother in Ireland, it ends with a family Christmas which is a stunning chapter on the trauma and tragedy faced by many on the enforced holidays slated to be joyful, and the priceless litany of groceries brought in by the striving-to-please daughter Constance as she unloads almost 500 Euros of foodstuffs to please all, forgetting the coffee. Poignant, funny, and deeply affecting, the book is a top choice for me this year. Knausgaard is next or maybe Elena Ferrante.


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The Odd Woman and the City: A Memoir by Vivian Gornick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Vivian Gornick becomes a flaneur in her own city and relates priceless anecdotes of her encounters along her walks, with strangers and with friends. It is a prize for anyone who loves good writing, musing on friendship, culture, identity and New York City.

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
My rating: 4 of 5 stars




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I zoomed through this beautifully written story of a family at tragic odds with each other as the children suffocate trying to live the dreams of their parents and race and gender haunt each of them.The relationships have an occasional hollowness and some character development was sketchy (e.g. relentless of the parental line and coldness of friends and neighbors), but the title says it all about the inability of some families to share feelings and communicate.

5th Chuckanut Writers Conference - "I've been all over the world and I've never seen a statue of a critic." Leonard Bernstein

I just wrote Chuckanut "reader's" instead of writer's conference but I am a writer and a reader.  I just returned from http://chuckanutwritersconference.com/ Gathering in Bellingham at Whatcom Community College, we were inspired and surprised about writing -- from daily practice to the author's platform in preparation for publishing. What did I learn? "If I am going to get anything right, I have to risk getting it wrong." From Poet Sam Green (Brooding Heron Press) we gleaned the importance of "small noticings" in which you write down observations on walks or sitting in waiting rooms or anywhere, jotting down phrases to be mined later.  From Elizabeth George (soon out with another Inspector Lynley, Banquet of Consequences) I learned to create a character and came away enthused to try writing fiction. From Brian Doyle we learned the invaluable gift of stories. A panel on process offered the varied ways each of the writers does their job from cutting and pasting (Erik Larson), to elaborate character studies and scenes (Elizabeth George) to daily morning practice in an office away from home with an outline on a large salvaged window pane (Steven Galloway) to the value of perfecting small manageable chunks into which she digs deeper rather than outline(Carol Cassella). All do extensive research which can become procrastination if you don't get to the writing. And send your stuff out counsels Brian Doyle (Mink River and The Plover)As do Jennifer Worick and Kerry Colburn who run the website   www.bizofbooks.com and www.twitter.com @jenandkerry and teach publishing preparation including author platform such as, who knew? writing a blog. Kay Lebo, whose essay on hearing won a place in current edition of Best American Essays, held us rapt with her talk. It was an intensive two days and I am delighted to have gone, only regretting I could not be in triplicate to catch all of the simultaneous workshops. And I'm grateful to have been hosted by Writer Marilyn McClellan in her roomy comfortable house with the Pacific Northwest's best view.

The Whites by Harry Brandt

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While I admired Price's Lush Life, The Whites did not grip me as thoroughly although my traveling companion liked it a lot. It was fine for sleepy vacation reading and the author (otherwise known as Richard Price) is a stellar writer, tossing out admirable metaphors and description like "In the middle of the cramped living room, Horace Woody, deep into his sixties but DNA-blessed with the physique of a lanky teenager, stood hands on hips in his boxers, the taut skin across his flat chest the color of a good camel hair coat. But his eyes were maraschinos, and his liquored breath was sweet enough to curl Billy's teeth." And this bit right out of a 30's film noir:
She'd been a golden girl once and she took her tumble hard.
"Hey how's it going?" Billy said as he took a seat.
"The meat's so tough that it got up off the plate and beat the shit out of the coffee, which was too weak to defend itself."
The plot, relationships, grudges and murders befuddled me but the writing and character sketches kept me going, a reversal from the usual thriller.

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The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History by Jonathan Franzen

Entertaining, well-written memoir from the author of The Corrections and Freedom. If you're not interested in the growing up story of Jonathan Franzen and his nerdy, bookwormy Midwestern youth and beleaguered, irritating parents, read it for the marvelous descriptions of birding in the last part of the book. We listened to it on a road trip and it was excellent fare.

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