National Book Lovers Day was this week (Thursday, Aug. 9), and Escape into Life asked on Facebook what people were reading. The answers came back in wide variety, and mine was The Monk of Mokha, by Dave Eggers, plus a whole lot of poetry. I might write about The Monk of Mokha when I’ve finished it (suffice to say now that I’m enjoying it). For now, I want to give the poetry its due.

I don’t read poetry every day of my life, and sometimes I go fairly long periods without reading any. For the last few months, though, I’ve had it open regularly and often read myself to sleep with it. Here are books that have stood out: Continue reading →

I’m pleased and honored to have a new book review published on Escape Into Life, this one looking at Chicago reporter Natalie Moore’s 2016 book The South Side. I finished this book back on Martin Luther King Day, which seemed fitting, and I mentioned it briefly in this space at the time. The new piece on EIL is more complete—and also written mostly in complete sentences, so I’m right proud of myself.

One suggestion I make in the review is that The South Side would be a great book to read with a discussion group. It’s chockfull of thought-provoking interviews, data and personal stories, and raises a lot of serious issues that deserve discussion. I actually wrote down a few questions to ponder as I was reading it, and I offer those up here for anyone who interested in fueling a discussion. Bring these questions along with your own to your book group’s meeting—or, if you’re not reading The South Side with a book group, offer your answers for discussion here. Continue reading →

“Thinking back on her own life, she couldn’t say exactly at which crossroads she’d chosen the wrong path, the path that had made her the woman she was now, the woman she saw in the mirror before her.”

–Maurizio de Giovanni
Darkness for the Bastards of Pizzofalcone

This is not the kind of sentence I expect to read in a crime novel. But there it was, near the end, near the point at which all is to be revealed, the “Whodunnit?” question answered.

It jarred me, made me look inside myself, revisit themes that already were on my mind after finishing The Book of Joy—these themes: owning your decisions (and indecision); acknowledging responsibility for your own life and actions; making your life and world the best you can make them, no matter what comes at you that is beyond your control. Continue reading →

Rabbit, rabbit, as we say for luck in our house on the last day of the month!

It’s also the last day of the year, of course. I’m looking back on my year of reading and am reminded of some books that made my life richer. Here are some that stand out among my favorite reads of 2017, in the order in which I read them: Continue reading →