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 →

A Modern Day Magi

Cathy LaGrow 23 Comments

I had a nice little post just about ready to go for today, and you would have liked it, I think – it was informative, with a dash of personal context, and it was about cooking (which, who doesn’t like that) – (okay, I might be overselling it here…it was fine, and you’ll get it next week) – but then something happened which slammed me upside the head, in a wonderful way, so I’m going to tell you about that, instead.

Last Saturday, after a movie date with my oldest boy (using gift cards), we met my husband and baby boy at the mall (for cheap hamburgers.) Then, since we were right there, I casually suggested we stop in at Borders bookstore.

Actually, it wasn’t so much a suggestion as it was my husband saying, “Well, what do you want to do now?” and me standing on the damp sidewalk and vaguely looking around as though I was considering the question; then mumbling and waving my hand towards the left; then him heading to Borders without further ado, because we’ve been married for 21 years now and he is a kind and patient man.

Once inside the store I abandoned him and the rampaging little guys – I really can’t tell you where they went, probably to ride the escalators a dozen times. I was transfixed by the tables and racks near the entrance. All those new releases, those beautiful, colorful covers. There was the new Jonathan Franzen novel that my brother had been pestering me to get. There was a new title by Julia Glass (one of my ten “Chicks Who Can Write”)! And there, my goodness – Edmund Morris had finally finished his spectacular Teddy Roosevelt trilogy – there was Colonel Roosevelt!

I walked around and around the tables, dreaming. More memoirs, more fiction, more history. There was a day, truly, when I would have already owned a great many of the titles I was looking at. Continue reading →

Chicks Who Can WRITE

Cathy LaGrow 29 Comments

You can tell a lot about a person by the literary company they keep. Or at least, that’s one of my many theories.

If you’re a writer and you want to improve your own skills, you HAVE to read great writing. Here is a short list of my favorite female authors: chicks who (in my opinion) can write circles around almost everyone else. (Dudes Who Can Write will come in another post.) These women write sentences that are so crazy-good, I often stop and read a particular one over and over.

My own arbitrary criteria for this list are: the writer must be living, and I must have personally read and enjoyed at least 2 of their books. This eliminated a whole lot of one-hit-wonders whose books I LOVED. I’m limiting this post to 10 writers.

With most of these chicks, you can scarcely go wrong by picking up something they wrote. Here they are, in no particular order, along with my personal favorites of their work. Continue reading →

Silent Meals, Reading, and the Worst. Map. Ever.

Cathy LaGrow 7 Comments

PART TWO

(If you missed Part One, and you don’t know why I’m spending my 40th birthday in a monastery, you can read about it here.)

I don’t sleep well that night, of course. I rarely do; and here, the floors are creaky and the bed is small. I futz around, moving furniture, rearranging pillows, nearly knocking the crucifix from the wall once, when I flail around with extra blankets.

The monks gather in the chapel for Vigils at 4:15 a.m. I do not join them. Continue reading →