“We carry the lives we’ve imagined as we carry the lives we have, and sometimes a reckoning comes of all the lives we have lost.” Ms. Macdonald is reeling from the sudden death of her beloved father. Cambridge educated, a writer and a naturalist, she turns to a skill she has cultivated since childhood, falconry. She gets it into her head to train a goshawk, a notoriously difficult raptor to deal with, and is soon on her way to Scotland to obtain the captive bred […]
Where the wild things are…
I’m going to Alaska next week because my best friend is getting married. A couple of friends are coming with me, along with their son and The Kid. Somehow or other, I got conned in to agreeing to go camping in Denali during this trip. And not even in a cabin, but outside. In a tent. With a sleeping bag. On the ground. With, you know, bears and moose. I’ve gone nearly 40 years without peeing outside; I have a real fear that streak may […]
Afraid of Vaccination Since 1901
Conversations that occur in my household… CaitlinD: You know, this book on smallpox isn’t as good as I wanted it to be. Mr. D: Um you’re surprised? CaitlinD: Smallpox should be interesting!!! So yeah, I love history and non-fiction which is probably a bit strange; but my one requirement is that it doesn’t read quite so text-booky. The majority focus of Pox is on the vaccination process the government rolled out during the turn of the century when variola minor was becoming a problem everywhere […]
Triple Cannonball on a sad read
I would normally do a happy dance for a triple cannonball (which was my goal for the whole year, so I’m pretty amazed that I hit it in August!), but my 156th book, Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, hardly lends itself for happy dancing. While the book contained some pretty depressing material, Krakauer also filled it with beautiful scenery, touching interviews and his own little glimpse into the life of a difficult, passionate young man. “I’d like to repeat the advice that I gave you before, in that I […]
An intimate glimpse at the AIDS crisis
I can’t remember to whom I am indebted for picking up Paul Monette’s memoir Borrowed Time. I can’t remember if I saw it here on Cannonball Read or on Goodreads. I wish I could recall it, because then I would gladly thank that kind person. As you know, I’m far more a fiction reader than any other genre, but I have read some aces memoirs lately, and this is definitely on that list. Paul Monette is a writer in San Francisco area. He is also […]
Lilli, Greta and Einar
Like The Aviator’s Wife, The Danish Girl is based on real people and real events but is a fictional account of what really happened. Einar Wegener was an artist, who in 1920s Denmark, leads a simple life with his wife, Greta, who is also an artist. One day Greta asks her husband to sit in for a portrait when her female model has to cancel. Although Einar is a bit reluctant, he puts on the pantyhose & ladies shoes and steps into the beginning of […]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 465
- 466
- 467
- 468
- 469
- …
- 515
- Next Page »