Category Archives: book talk

Earthquakes: St. Louis and Japan: shaken, and stirred

Last week we in St. Louis felt our second earthquake here – well, some of us. At 3:00 a.m., many were soundly in dreamland, but I was sitting on the bed getting ready to tuck in after staying up way … Continue reading

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Picking on Joyce Carol Oates’s memoir

Oh, my. Julian Bond of the New York Book Review wrote of Joyce Carol Oates’s A Widow’s Story that Oates should have told her readers she had remarried. What? But wait, Oates’s beloved husband of close to 50 years died … Continue reading

Posted in bad memories, book talk, memoir writing | 4 Comments

In the Garden of Beasts, in the garden of your life

I arrived at Erik Larson’s author event the other night to be ushered into a small overflow room with a TV viewer. There were about 250 people total in the audiences; I did not know Larson was so popular. I … Continue reading

Posted in book talk, memoir writing, war stories | 1 Comment