I tend to avoid essay collections/memoirs by bloggers. This is a little strange, considering I’m an aspiring author with a blog that will be 16 years old this month. But a lot of times when…
Posts tagged Essays
Intimacy Idiot
In a few past reviews for this site, I’ve mused aloud whether I didn’t quite enjoy a book as much because it didn’t reflect my life. (See: Dept. of Speculation and The Buried Giant) If…
After her misspent youth
Some time after college I read an essay in The New Yorker that so resonated with me, that I actually carried it around for a while and pushed it into people’s faces. It seemed like…
Not that Kind of Girl
A friend of mine recently reviewed the new U2 album, the one that magically appeared on our iThings. While he mentioned the mass hysteria and just how pissed certain people can get over receiving an…
At least his heart is in the right place?
Hoo, did I struggle with Chris Kluwe’s new book of essays, Beautifully Unique Sparkleponies: On Myths, Morons, Free Speech, Football, and Assorted Absurdities. Kluwe, as you probably know, is the quick-witted, sharp-tongued, outspoken NFL player…
Hanging out with Mindy Kaling
I was already pretty pro-Mindy Kaling before I listened to Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), which she reads, and after finishing it I’d put myself solidly in the fan camp. Known…
The literary equivalent of puffcorn
When I babysat my nephews, The Tibbles, a few weeks ago we were at the grocery store gathering supplies for our “make your own sandwiches” lunch. Make your own sandwiches is their favorite lunch, right…
When Women Were Birds
What a strange, lovely book this is, Terry Tempest Willams’ When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice. Part memoir, part feminist essay, part poetry, and part environmental screed, Williams’ book defies easy summarization, which…
I Remember Nothing
It’s no secret that there are things you can do when you’re famous that you can’t do when you are not. In the case of Nora Ephron, it would be writing I Remember Nothing, finding…
Broken windows
Hey, ladies: Caitlin Moran wants you to stop shaving your kooch. She wants a world where you don’t break the bank on spendy purses and illogical shoes. She’s over strip clubs and wants the power…
Mindy, will you hang out with me?
I haven't found a book that I love in months. It has been a dark time and all I did was scour the library looking for a book I could love. I walked through life…
The wonder years of Joan Didion
Dear Shevaun, You left a self-addressed envelope, the size of a note card, in the Duluth Public Library’s copy of The White Album, a collection of essays by Joan Didion. Your name as both the…