Literature

Piano Lessons

Cathy LaGrow 7 Comments

Classification: Non-fiction

My littlest and I were at the library for story time last Wednesday, and I had to return a movie, and the drop slots are right there by the “used books for sale” shelves, so it’s really not my fault.

Of course I had to sidle over, to see if there was anything interesting for sale.

Of course there was. There almost always is.

Within seconds, I found a book I wanted, but I didn’t buy it right away – give me some credit. After all, as I’ve mentioned, my to-be-read collection at home now encompasses nearly two shelves of a bookcase. You do not NEED another book, I scolded myself. You put a moratorium on yourself last week, remember?

So the boy and I went into the kid’s room, where they were doing a special program on the Chinese New Year, which involved them singing songs in Chinese, which I didn’t understand, which gave me plenty of time to think about the book waiting outside on the sale shelf. Continue reading →

The Littlest Bookworm

Cathy LaGrow 30 Comments

A Mama friend recently asked me to recommend some books for her fifth-grade daughter (who is reading at a ninth-grade level, but the teachers apparently want her to stick with fifth-grade books, which sounds to me like some sort of crime against learning, if not against humanity, but never mind.)

The number one thing that fostered my interest in reading, as a child, was something that is not (I’m sorry to say) very practical for the modern family. And that was this:

We didn’t have a television in the house. Ever. From the time I was born, until I went off to college.

This arrangement posed some minor problems, of course. Whenever we went to a friend’s house, we kids would park ourselves in front of their TV and stare, slack-jawed, as though it were a five-headed creature from another planet. We absolutely could not be pried away from it, for love or money or new bicycles or anything. Continue reading →

My Year in Books – 2010

Cathy LaGrow 19 Comments

I blatantly stole this idea from my friend Tony Alicea, who posted his own list a couple of days ago. People who like to read like to see what other people read – it’s one of our little things. So, below are the books I finished in 2010.

Actually, these aren’t all the books I read, because I wasn’t keeping track as I went along, and I honestly can’t remember some of them, especially the ones I checked out from the library. (I own most of the books I read – almost all of them were bought on clearance or from my favorite used bookstore, for anywhere from 50 cents to four dollars.)

I was surprised by how many books I managed to finish, given that my reading time has shrunk to the hours when my boys are unconscious or absent – and they’re rarely absent. Or unconscious. Also, writing has cut into my reading time, this year. Also, almost every month, I read the following magazines: Oprah, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Guideposts, and Better Homes and Gardens. Also, I read about 30 back-issues of Architectural Digest this year.

(All of this does explain why my house is not quite as tidy as it could be.) Continue reading →

Dudes Who Can WRITE

Cathy LaGrow 12 Comments

As promised, here is the equal opportunity follow-up to my Chicks Who can WRITE post.

I’m often asked for book recommendations (and giving them is one of my all-time favorite activities, just so you know), so I came up with these lists as a go-to guide for friends who are looking for their next great read.

This list is a bit more eclectic than my chick’s list – whereas those ladies all write literary fiction, my dudes include some biographers, an adventure writer, a scientist, and a couple of memoirists. (There’s a reason for this lopsidedness, which I’ll explain in a future post, but, hint: I generally prefer the way women write fiction.)

The criteria are the same, this time around: the author must be living, and I must have personally read and enjoyed at least two of their books. I have included my personal favorite(s) from each of them.

Here we go, in no particular order. Continue reading →

Writing that rocks – Unbroken

Cathy LaGrow 20 Comments

Classification: Non-fiction

I can’t afford to buy brand-new books these days, and certainly not hardcovers (unless Alice Munro publishes a new book, in which case I am at the bookstore the day it is released.) But I made an exception for the new Laura Hillenbrand book, Unbroken. It was my early Christmas gift.

By just a few pages in, I was itching to tell you about it – yeah, it’s that fantastic. This true story is a sports story, and a war story, and an adventure story, all rolled into one. And it’s the most incredible survival story I ever expect to read, as long as I live.

All the usual adjectives fall short: unbelievable, harrowing, devastating, triumphant. If there is one book I’ve read this year that makes me want to grab you by the collar and insist, “Get your hands on this book,” this is it.

You can find an excerpt of Unbroken in Vanity Fair. But here’s a re-cap of the whole thing, because I want you to know this story even if you don’t read the book. (If you already plan to read the book, and you don’t want to know the ending, stop reading now!)

In the 1920’s, a small boy named Louis Zamperini was growing up in California and giving his Italian-American parents a run for their money. From the beginning, their son showed no fear and no restraint. He pulled pranks, he stole, he sabotaged, he set fires, he made messes, he got in trouble with the law. Fueling his mischief was his huge optimism; he always believed he could squirm out of any sticky situation. Continue reading →