Truth: At first, I had a hard time accepting this 2017 novel. I prefer my protagonists likeable, and both Eleanor and her suitor Raymond have personality challenges. And then there’s Eleanor’s Mummy, who seems (possibly) incarcerated or in an institution for mental patients. However, I was completely hooked by chapter 3. Honeyman keeps us in the dark until the end, but drops clues I missed. See if you figure it out before the book’s satisfying conclusion. Reese Witherspoon has an option to produce it as a movie.
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For lovers of memoir: actor and musician Minnie Driver has added author to her resume. Managing Expectations, which sounds to me like a self-help book, is really about Driver learning to manage her own expectations about family, men, and her career. The surprise for me was that Driver is funny.
The subtitle is A Memoir in Essays; the text goes from her early childhood to the 2018 fire in Malibu that spared her home and finally a lengthy section about her mother’s death. This isn’t a juicy tell all; of her relationships we generally get only the ending and aftermath. Nor are there many photographs, but the prose and the story are excellent. |
What I’m ReadingI began working in libraries as a seventh grader, courtesy of scoliosis. My orthopedic surgeon wrote me a pass to miss gym class, so I began working in the school library to feed my love of reading. Even after my surgery to correct the curvature, I kept getting out of gym to work in my high school library and then in my college library (for pay, at last!).
So began my eventual career as a college reference librarian—after a detour into teaching high school English. Later I worked for an educational publisher before going back to libraries.
I have a reading and writing life now. I devour both fiction and nonfiction, and will tell you about some of my favorite reads, both old friends and new discoveries.
Here's some library-themed music to get you in the mood.
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