For second hand book lovers, the League of Women Voters Book Sale in Amherst is a real mother lode. I picked up some Lindsey Davis mysteries (set in ancient Rome), a couple of Elmore Leonard books, a few Robert B. Parker books, and the First and Second Rumpole Omnibi (Omnibuses? […]

I’ve been having great fun reading The Sixties, the last volume of Edmund Wilson’s journals. They’re more accessible (for me) than many of his other writings, and I’ve learned a lot about many notable literary figures, and even my own family. In one entry, Wilson has a dream that he […]

I’ve always had trouble understanding the works of my grandmother’s cousin, Edmund Wilson, but I have continued to labor away, largely as a point of family pride. Axel’s Castle and To the Finland Station receive high praise from people smarter than I, but I have always had trouble understanding them. […]

I’ve been reading Black Elk Speaks, transcribed by John G. Neihardt, the autobiography of a Sioux warrior and medicine man, a cousin of Crazy Horse who was present at the Battle of the Little Bighorn and the Wounded Knee Massacre. While I don’t understand  Black Elk’s elaborate visions, his story […]

In my last entry about Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, a novel about the Old West, I made the observation that love and romance make up a big part of the book’s exploration of human nature. Women were rather scarce in the Old West, as we know, so most of […]

As I mentioned before, I was laid up for a week or so with gout, something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. It’s like having a broken leg only worse, because it hurts even when you hold still. Anyway, I really needed a good book to tide me over […]

I’ve been debilitated for the past week by an attack of gout, a condition wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. I’ve had it in my feet before; you take some pills and goes away. But this time its in my knee and it’s not responding very well to the medication. […]

I’m watching the last episode of “Big Little Lies” for the third time. It’s worth watching more than once because of the lush visuals — the gorgeous scenery of the California coast, the incredibly beautiful women, the sweet faces of the children — and the best acting I have ever […]

Dashiell Hammett, Alexander Dumas, Homer (the blind Greek guy, not Homer Simpson), Georges Simenon, Sue Grafton, Mikhail Lermontov, Nikolai Gogol — these are authors whose books I automatically buy when I see them at tag sales and flea markets. If you asked me who is my favorite author, I would […]

I’ve been to the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst a couple of times, and I admit I am intrigued by the reclusive Belle of Amherst, though I have never been able to make heads or tails of her enigmatic poetry. I know, I know, “A poem should not mean, but […]