Enjoyable for both spouses
Dear Carrie – Thank you so much for organizing the summer book club. All of the readings were thought provoking and page-turners. An added bonus is that it’s the first time my husband and I have ever read the same set of books (other than classics that we both read long before we met each […]
Small Island: A Change in Perspective
As we’ve transitioned from Bel Canto to Small Island, I’m really intrigued by the different techniques the authors have used to tell their stories. Bel Canto was told as a third person narrative and was rich in details and texture. In Small Island, the author takes a very different approach. Here we have a layering of voices, a […]
Catching Up with Bel Canto
It has been at least five years since I read Bel Canto, and I have to admit that I sailed through it on a fairly superficial level, basically turning page after page to see what would happen next. I was addicted and couldn’t put the book down. Alas, I failed to stop and search and […]
Welcome new authors!
Lots of folks are signing on as “authors” on the blog, which is wonderful. I love that incoming students will be able to be in conversation with alums who have since left campus but whose hearts remain here! Here are a couple of procedural matters: please offer a brief bio of yourself at the end […]
If three books isn’t enough…
For those of you who can consume three novels as quickly as I do a pint of Häagen-Daz ice cream, please feel free to amble over to the y:1 program’s blog to review information about next year’s Common Reading text, Reza Aslan’s Beyond Fundamentalism: Confronting Religious Extremism in the Age of Globalization. You might also […]
Distinguished contributors!
Several members — past and present — of the Sweet Briar community have signed on to contribute posts to the blog. They include: Lea Harvey (class of 1990), now Vice President for Development at Resources for the Future, an independent nonpartisan environmental policy research firm in Washington. Zehra Asghar (‘10), who works as an Urdu […]
On “Let The Great World Spin”
As I read the first chapter in “Let the Great World Spin,” I, too, looked up to see the man standing on the ledge. I became one of the invisible people standing on the sidewalk, wondering not if he planned to jump, but if he would attempt to walk across and fall. I had an […]
Risks and Rewards
After finishing Let the Great World Spin, I had to take a step back and rethink the tightrope walker metaphor. I’d initially thought the image was about maintaining a sense of separation or aloofness out of a need for self protection. Now, however, and somewhat ironically, I believe it’s about being willing to engage, to […]
First Impressions
Over the weekend, I picked up Let the Great World Spin, and was immediately drawn in. The New York described in its pages is gritty and forbidding, with layer upon layer of humanity, crime, culture, redemption, and disappointment. I’m also struck by the lead characters and their palpable sense of isolation. In a city of […]
Let the Great World Spin
Even if you’re just getting started, you’ll appreciate this: p. 4, paragraph 5: “Another day, another dolor.” That’s not a typo, it’s a beautiful play with language. “Dolor” is grief, or sadness. I seldom dog-ear pages in my books, but this one already has 20 pages folded over to mark exceptional uses of language.
Update For Bloggers
Hi Bloggers, This is an update from your friendly administrator, to explain the process of contributing posts to the blog. As a reminder, the way to become a contributor is to subscribe to the blog and create a username and password. (This can be done at the bottom of the blog page on the right […]
Ready to blog
I just picked up Let the Great World Spin, and can’t wait to get started. However, I’m another blogging neanderthal – poor Molly! Should be a nice way to share book opinions, though. (For anyone from the SBC Book Club who is logged in: See? We GET the book, we READ the book and then […]