For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Nearly fifty years after it was written, this has become a classic. It's been on my reading list for years.

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Tomboyland: Essays by Melissa Faliveno
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a hard book to read. Not because of the writing style, which is excellent, poetic, and very clear, but because of the subject matter. Faliveno takes on subjects that can be gut wrenching, especially in the current political climate. Sexuality. Guns. The environment. She makes them all personal. And she's not apologetic about offending either side of an issue, or for that matter, both sides.

For those who are interested in questions of genré, this work challenges the notion of what makes a piece of writing an essay and a memoir. I found myself questioning such notions throughout the book. Of course, there is always the notion of "What difference does it make?"

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So You Don't Get Lost in the Neighborhood by Patrick Modiano
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Memory, memory, memory. The French seem preoccupied with it at least since Proust. And its difficulties.

I have to confess that Modiano has turned out to be my favorite author. Maybe it's the Irish in me. I do recognize his skill.

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Sassafrass by Ntozake Shange
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A lyric novel. I've shelved it under poetry although it has many of the qualities of a novella. Published in 1976, it came out at a time when many writers were declare poetry and short story writing dead. And nearly everyone was experimenting with language.

The language is arranged on the page in a format that we usually consider prose. It is also written in heavy dialect more closely associated today with written rap lyrics. Little in the way of punctuation is used, but forward hash-marks appear throughout in the manner usually seen when lyric poetry is rendered in prose within quoted material.

It took me a few pages before I became convinced that I actually enjoyed reading the book, but I knuckled down and came around.

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Trajectory by Richard Russo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoy Russo's writing style even when I'm not thrilled with the particular story he's telling, like the final story in this book. Stories about the shallowness of Hollywood end up just depressing me. On the other hand, the novella that comes second about a retired professor I found more interesting.

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The Oxford Book of American Verse by F.O. Matthiessen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the third of these 1650 to 1950 anthologies that I've read in the past year or so. And the longest. At this point, it's difficult to differentiate between them in quality. Considering when they were published, it shouldn't be surprising that they lack considerable in the area of diversity. The book contains most of the usual suspects from Bradstreet to Lowell.

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Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An absolute delight! The other evening I picked up my eBook reader and looked down the list of books stored there. This one seemed short, and I recalled the interviews and the press the book and the author received when it came out. I opened the book and read the first paragraph. Before I knew it, I was on page thirty-five. And I was laughing out loud. Who knew punctuation could be such fun. A sure joy to read. (Note: I am a retired English professor, so there is that, as they say.)

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Gargantua and Pantagruel, Book 1 by François Rabelais
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rabelais dies about the time Shakespeare and Cervantes are born. While reading Rabelais didn't put me in mind of those to great authors, his influence can't be ignored. He was immediately translated into several languages and read widely, which no doubt contributed to the problems he had with the church.

If you haven't read this French writer, and it's likely that you have not, he reminds me most of Jonathan Swift and "Gulliver's Travels." Over the top satire.

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Taratuta and Still Life with Pipe: Two Novellas by José Donoso
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found this book in a discount bin nearly 30 years ago and have been carrying it around ever since, always intending to read it. I got it towards the end of my fascination with Latin American writers, not that I no longer read them, but I just don't find them as compelling as I did back then. The two novellas remind me of Carlos Fuentes with whom his work has been paired at times.

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An Introduction to Philosophy by George Stuart Fullerton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I suppose if I'd read this book when it was first published (1915) I'd have rated it much higher. Time has taken its toll. For me, one of the more interesting aspects of the book is the language that Professor Fullerton uses to discuss his topic. It reflects the "most correct English" as the university would describe it of the time. The language used – diction and syntax – was itself a moral issue at the time. This is what the modernists ran away from as fast as their pens and typewriters would carry them. This is the language of the upper class in England, or at least what the better east coast schools in America perceived it to be.

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