So many good books, so little time. I just read and fell in love with The Shadow Catcher by Marianne Wiggins. It reads partly like memoir (the main character is named Marianne Wiggins) but it's a novel. So full of life and history (it’s also the story of Edward C. Curtis, the photographer) and…
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P.S. From Bette Henning
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 0 Comments
I just heard from Bette Henning (see post below about her book). Bette wrote: The book can be obtained by e-mailing me at bettehen@sbcglobal.net I will US mail it, $20 prepaid. I have some copies (35/40) left. If there is a "DiVinci Code" ground-swell, I will print more. Bette Henning bettehen@sbcglobal.net 229 E. Commonwealth #100,…
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I Don’t Want To Put My Head On Just Yet
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 6 Comments
A few months ago a former student, Jean Franks, sent me a book published by her friend Bette Henning who’s eighty-five (but looks about forty-five in her author’s photo.) The book’s title is I Don’t Want To Put My Head On Just Yet. Bette did the amazing drawings using the program Microsoft Paint…
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Revving Up Reading
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 3 Comments
I'm revving up to teach “Memoir and Personal Essay: the Next Level” at the Writers Studio for UCLA Extension this week. Though revving up sounds much more active than what I'm actually doing – which is reading. Reading all day! Finding the most amazing and wonderful books – revisiting old familiar…
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Come For Dinner and Tell Me More: Reading Jim Harrison
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 12 Comments
I’m now reading The English Major by Jim Harrison and I think it’s the best of all his books. You want to call up his main character and say, Hey, Cliff, come on over for dinner and let’s talk – I want to hear more of your thoughts on farming and politics…
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The Black Girl Next Door by Jennifer Baszile
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 12 Comments
I stayed up three hours past my bedtime the other night reading a memoir that was published this week: The Black Girl Next Door by Jennifer Baszile. It’s Jennifer’s story of growing up in a white suburb of Los Angeles (she went on to Columbia and then to get her PhD at Princeton…
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The Week of Reading Dangerously
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 17 Comments
R. and I both got terrible colds the day before Christmas, and by Christmas Day we were at the point of having only enough energy to get out of bed, make cups of tea and pick up a book to read. We’ve been reading all day long ever since. I can’t do this…
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The Secret Life of Readers
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 11 Comments
I don’t like to bad mouth other writers, but in this case it’s a really good writer who wrote a book I loved, The Secret Life of Bees, and then wrote a book I didn’t love. I just finished reading Sue Monk Kidd’s The Mermaid Chair which annoyed me at the same time I was…
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Some Good Reads
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 13 Comments
Local Wonders by Ted Kooser. I don’t want to finish this memoir of a year in the life of Kooser. I have three pages to go. I don’t want it to ever end. It’s wry and true and sometimes makes me catch my breath with delight. Ted Kooser lives in Nebraska and is best known…
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A Great Reading List from Readers
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 6 Comments
If you’re looking for some good books to read, check out the comments left by readers on the last post. Such interesting suggestions that I’ve printed out all the comments for my files. One of my old favorites was mentioned : My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell – years ago we read the…
