September (second half) 2016 Reads

People leave home, then come back--but do they stay?
Five excellent novels and a great collection of short stories.

Waterland by Graham Swift
Multi-generational story set in the flat, soggy reclaimed lands of East Anglia. History and geography intermingle with family secrets and tragedies. Library book.

Leaving Tangier  by Tahar Ben Jelloun, Linda Coverdale (Translation)
Young man leaves Morocco for Spain and a strange life. Library book.

A Map of Tulsa: A Novel by Benjamin Lytal

Coming if age, almost quit about halfway through Part 1. Glad I stayed with it. In this one a young man leaves Tulsa for college and then New York. Library book. 

Malafemmena by Louisa Ermelino 

Excellent short stories about women, mostly set in Little Italy or on backpacking adventures around the world. Library book. Contents: Where it belongs --Sister-in-law --Mother love --Fish heads --Marguerite --Six and five --James Dean and me --Malafemmena --Louise Ciarelli --The ménage --The baby --Death becomes her --A smuggling case --The cellphone you have called --The child in the sun --Sudder Street 

Kit's Law by Donna MorrisseyThis one is about not leaving home although home is far from perfect. A girl comes of age in Newfoundland when her grandmother dies and she is left coping with her retarded mother and a hostile town. Library Book.

Downhill Chance by Donna Morrissey
This was good, but I didn't like it as much as Kit's Law. Library book.

Online

We need to talk about cultural appropriation: why Lionel Shriver's speech touched a nerve by Stephanie Convery, the deputy culture editor of Guardian Australia.

People on food stamps aren’t feasting on filet mignon by Christopher Dum, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Kent State University; author of Exiled in America: Life on the Margins in a Residential Motel

The Singing Turk at Center Stage: How Europeans once saw themselves through Turkish eyes at the opera by Larry Wolff, Professor of History and Director of the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies at New York University; author of The Singing Turk

Enrique Vila-Matas Takes a Walk a short piece on walking and thinking.

What I Pledge Allegiance To  by Kiese Laymon  a Black American discusses the flag and more..."The same reason I choose not to stand for our pledge or anthem is strangely why I still haven’t taken down the American flag flying outside my new house. It looks, to me at least, like every American flag on Earth should look: beat down, bleeding, fading, weak, tearing apart, barely held together, absolutely stanky, and self-aware."

Relentlessly Relevant: The Dangerous Legacy of Henry James  by Paula Marantz Cohen makes me think it's time to re-read some James.

We Went to the Moon and Brought Back These Cool Photos: On NASA's Mission to Snap Pictures of the Moon.  These are beyond cool. Some pictures from  The Moon 1968-1972;  Edited by Evan Backes & Tom Adler.

High Hitler: how Nazi drug abuse steered the course of history
Rachel Cooke reviews Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany by Norman Ohler.

Poetry is a Pipe: Selected Writings of René Magritte: The Surrealist Master Takes on Another Form
Selections from René Magritte: Selected Writings; Edited by Kathleen Rooney and Eric Plattner; Translated by Jo Levy. This is so much fun to explore. I want the book!

Short Cuts   Joanna Biggs discusses Marguerite Duras.

The Novelist Whose Twitter Feed Is a Work of Art  by Jonathan Blitzer. How and why writer Rabih Alameddine posts all those amazing works of art (he also does a poem of the day tweet) on Twitter. “I’ve still not been able to go beyond being a writer who just happens to waste time on Twitter.” Well, Mr Alameddine, I just happen to be  a reader who wastes a lot of time on Twitter because of people like you. And isn't that what Twitter is all about?