Tag Archives: women writers

A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories by Lucia Berlin

I wonder what it would have been like to read Lucia Berlin in the 1970’s, as my family was driving through the western United States on various extended vacations — two parents and five kids stuffed into a green Buick … Continue reading

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Look At Me by Anita Brookner

Brookner’s precise and darkly imaginative second novel explores, with an unstinting, dispassionate, and bone-scraping precision, the paradoxical and painful dichotomy between seeing and being seen. Fanny Hinton, a handsome and sober young woman of means living alone with the aging … Continue reading

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M Train by Patti Smith

Patti wanders equally and easily through dreams, memories, as well as through what we call everyday life. The immediacy of her lovely thoughts, annotations, and reflections pull us so strongly into her consciousness that we feel blessedly wrapped in a magical fabric part dream, … Continue reading

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The Door by Magda Szabó

What is behind the door? Do not come to this book expecting to find easy answers to any of your tired questions about relationships, faith, poverty, love, or the meaning of life. Check your preconceptions at the door. This is the … Continue reading

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House Hold: A Memoir of Place by Ann Peters

I first heard Ann Peters read from this book in the summer of 2012 in Wisconsin; it was one of the most compelling and enjoyable book readings I’ve ever attended. I’ve since read the book in its entirety and found … Continue reading

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Between My Father and the King: New and Uncollected Stories

A new collection of Janet Frame stories, many of them previously unpublished, has been released by Counterpoint. Janet Frame, one of New Zealand’s most distinguished writers, is one of my favorite authors. Resources New York Times Book Review by By ALISON McCULLOCH … Continue reading

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Are You Somebody?

The second of nine children, O’Faolain lived a bohemian childhood with little money and many books. Her father, a well- known journalist in Ireland, left to her mother the responsibility for their children. O’Faolain’s mother read voraciously and drank with a similar appetite, often neglecting her children. Continue reading

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