Books that made me cry
by Anne Lamott
I laughed, I cried. I started writing. I actually read this book more than
once, just by picking it up, without really intending to read it again.
And I really appreciated finding Anne Lamott's picture on the inside back
cover of the book. After all, when someone makes you cry, you sometimes
end up wondering what they look like.My recommendation on this one? Visit
www.Amazon.com and
buy
Bird by Bird.
Her father's advice to her brother, writing a book report under deadline,
"Just take it bird by bird, buddy. Bird by bird," is poignant and memorable.
Good advice, too! Just about everyone who reviewed this over at Amazon gave
it a 10, but even the guy who gave it a four was right about it.. Read the
reviews, then
buy
the book.
The Writing Life
by Annie Dillard
Well, this just made me cry right away, just in the first few pages. It's
so well written. I must have a weakness for a certain kind of extremely
well-written writing, to coin a phrase. I haven't even finished the book,
so how can I possibly recommend that YOU visit www.amazon.com and
buy
it?
The Size of Thoughts : Essays and Other Lumber
by Nicholson Baker
I got this slim volume of essays at a bookstore in Berkeley and brought
it (along with some other books) to my mother-in-law to read during what
turned out to be her last hospital visit in a long battle with lung cancer.
It's my view that no matter what your circumstances, it's always nice to
have a choice of reading material.
Nicholson Baker's essays cover a wide range of topics, and his insights
are unusual, sometimes even peculiar, and deeply genuine. How can the history
of punctuation be so funny? How can reading about something so mundane as
books pictured in advertising be so outrageously enjoyable? And how dare
they do away with all the card catalogs? As if we could do anything about
it. And the title essay, the first, how could it be so silly, so full, so
wonderful, so true? I hope she got the chance to read at least some of it.
Head over to Amazon.com
and try these thoughts on for size.
THE SIZE OF THOUGHTS Hardback
buy
the hardback
THE SIZE OF THOUGHTS Paperback
buy
the paperback
Hardcover, 384 pages
Publication date: January 1, 1998
The bluefin tuna, a powerful amazingly designed animal, evolved after we
did. Now it's in short supply, and we're in denial. Will this be just the
latest Atlantic fishery to close? When one fish can bring hundreds of thousands
of dollars, it must be time to worry.
The salmon and the redwood forest. Intertwined in surprising ways, both
in decline.
Fish markets of the Far East, with frozen fish on the floor as far as
the eye can see.
I started this book not long after visiting the Monterey Aquarium, with
has a special exhibit on the decline of the world's fisheries, and a little
bit about the cause. This book, lyrical, knowledgeable, intelligent, and
sane, bears a good reading soon.
Swim up to Amazon.com
and
haul this one in.