Prose

Eiseley

I think was my introduction to Loren Eiseley. I was working at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and managed to return quite a bit of my paycheck to them via their well-stocked bookstore.

One particular idea of his has stuck with me. Searching for a meaning for human beings in the world, he struck upon memory. We are the memory of the Earth, he said. We are here to record, to bear witness. Read more about Eiseley

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Caleb Carr

It's a mystery to me (and a large reading public) why Caleb Carr has not followed up on his two wonderful novels (1994) and (1997). Maybe it's because the two more recent novels, and were so badly received. Nevertheless ... Read more about Caleb Carr

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Dead Presidents

Full disclosure. I haven't read these. Or not very many anyway. But they are all on my list of books to read. Someday. If there's time.

- I have read this. Bought it at the Old Manse in Concord, very near the

rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.

It doesn't cover Washington's presidency, but you get an idea of who he was and of how very close we came to losing that war. Read more about Dead Presidents

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The Singing Wilderness

I must have been all of 12 or 13 when I first picked up my mother's copy of Sigurd F. Olson's and it has stayed with me ever since. Literally. I spotted that same old ratty copy on the bookshelf a couple of days ago.

Even now the chapter headings ring familiar bells, and I am almost back in my early teens, dreaming of canoes and long tramps in the north woods and magical encounters. The Way of a Canoe, Easter on the Prairie, Pools of the Isabella, Farewell to Saganaga. Read more about The Singing Wilderness

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Garry Wills

I haven't read nearly enough Garry Wills.

He's a rare breed, a conservative Catholic who has come slowly and thoughtfully into the light. It is his thoughtfulness that attracts me, his curiosity about how and why people and things come to be as they are, his probing search for understanding. Read more about Garry Wills

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Even Bad Mothers Can Read

I actually wasn't a very good mother. I didn't bake cookies. Very often. Birthday parties terrified me. The first time I tried to play "horsie" with my son - you know, when he climbs on your back and you gallop around the room on all fours? - almost 70 years later my knees still remember the pain.

But I always liked to read. So I read to them. Here's one I liked to read on the first snow day of every year: .

snowyday.jpg Read more about Even Bad Mothers Can Read

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