By Taylor Jasmine | On September 22, 2017 | Updated December 18, 2022 | Comments (0)
From the 2004 HarperCollins edition of The Grandmothers by Doris Lessing: With the four short novels in this collection, Doris Lessing once again proves that she is unrivaled in her ability to capture the truth of the human condition.
The Grandmothers
Two women, close friends, fall in love with each other’s teenage sons, and these passions last for years, until the women end them, promising a respectable old age. Read More→
By Taylor Jasmine | On September 11, 2017 | Updated December 4, 2022 | Comments (0)
An Acceptable Time by Madeleine L’Engle (1989) is the last of the sci-fi series of books featuring Polyhymnia O’Keefe (known as Poly in The Arm of the Starfish and Dragons in the Water, and Polly in A House Like a Lotus and this book).
Poly’s parents are Meg Murry and Calvin O’Keefe, from the series that began with A Wrinkle in Time.
From the 1989 Farrar, Straus and Giroux edition of An Acceptable Time: When Polly O’Keefe visits her grandparents in Connecticut, she plans a quiet fall, filled with study and frequent forays to the star-watching rock. Read More→
By Taylor Jasmine | On September 10, 2017 | Updated December 18, 2022 | Comments (0)
A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L’Engle (1980) is the fourth book in the series about the fictional the Austin family. It followed Meet the Austins, The Moon by Night, and The Young Unicorns. It’s the story of Vicky Austin, who discovers an ability to communicate with dolphins while at the same time struggling with the illness and death of a beloved grandfather.
In 2002, The Disney Channel presented an adaptation of the novel, but it was considered less successful, as it avoided some of the serious themes that L’Engle explored.
A review of the film by Laura Fries in Variety stated that “Writers Marita Giovanni and Bruce Graham take the poignant and thought-provoking notions of life and death found in the Madeline L’Engle teen novel and turn it into Gidget meets Flipper drivel…” Read More→
By Taylor Jasmine | On September 3, 2017 | Updated December 6, 2022 | Comments (2)
From the 1957 E.P. Dutton Edition of Those Without Shadows by Françoise Sagan: Bonjour Tristesse and A Certain Smile, Françoise Sagan’s first two novels, made literary history because of the youth and amorality of their heroines and the elegant excellence of the writing.
Now in this brilliant third novel (originally published in French as Dans un Mois, Dans un An), the exciting young author explores with the same precision but with added warmth and authority the wayward hearts of a circle of sophisticated Parisians. Read More→
By Taylor Jasmine | On August 23, 2017 | Updated November 18, 2022 | Comments (0)
June 2017 marked the 100th anniversary of legendary poet Gwendolyn Brooks. In commemoration, Beacon Press has published A Surprised Queenhood in the New Black Sun: The Life and Legacy of Gwendolyn Brooks by award-winning poet, playwright, and novelist Angela Jackson.
The first trade biography Brooks in over two decades, the book offers a fresh account of this literary icon.
Granted unprecedented access to Brooks’s family, personal papers, and writing, Jackson provides a new retrospective on the first African-American ever to receive a Pulitzer prize. Read More→
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