This is a must-read for any Gatsby enthusiast, English lit student, or lover of the Jazz Age. Churchwell carefully pieces together very specific events in the Fitzgeralds’ lives and relates them to Scott’s most famous work, The Great Gatsby. These are not wild hunches or bizarre theories. She draws from scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, letters from friends,…
ACCENT: NOSTRADAMUS by Stephane Gerson
The turn of a new year is as good a time as any to revisit our plans and perhaps read a horoscope or two. For some people these predictions are literal. Others find it to be an amusement but nothing more. This book asserts nothing about Nostradamus’s ability or even prognosticators in general. Instead, Gerson…
REVIEW: ONE SUMMER by Bill Bryson
Bryson has an uncanny way of approaching his subjects. Here he looks at human achievements, culture, art and more only during the summer months of 1927. Using Charles Lindbergh and his historic transatlantic flight as a unifying thread, Bryson also investigates the case of Sacco and Vanzetti, the magical season for the New York Yankees,…
FOR WORD NERDS: THE ETYMOLOGICON & HOROLOGICON
Mark Forsyth has vindicated word nerds the world over with these two books. Far from being dry reference books, Forsyth brings the dead back to life by digging up the circuitous history of the words we use every day. The Horologicon arranges the entries around the hours of the day. The chapters include Commute, The…
ACCENT: SIX WOMEN OF SALEM by Marilynne K Roach
I used to live in a colonial house in New England. Our home was built in 1786, by a Revolutionary War veteran. For a time we also lived in an old fishing village on the south shore of Boston. So, needless to say I grew up with a healthy respect (and fascination) for the colonial…