Literature and Poetry

Oh, and one more thing: a true beach read must be one that you can pass along, which is why ours are almost always paperbacks. When you’ve found a satisfying beach read, others will request your copy as soon as you’re through with it, probably because you’ve been recounting your delight at the dinner table (an obnoxious habit, that, but I’ve had some good reads out of it). If you’ve been emphatic enough with your praise, the book will travel from hand to hand, and probably wind up going home with someone else. more »

But he was nearly a ghost, almost made of nothing, and so the wood and metal and sheaves of brightly printed cardboard and paper (MOVE FORWARD SIX SPACES TO EASY STREET! Great-Grammy Noddin, shawled and stiff and frowning at the camera, absurd with her hat that looked like a sailor's funeral mound, heaped with flowers and netting), which otherwise would have crushed his bones, dropped on him and fell away like movie props, he or they facsimiles of former, actual things. more »

A child who loves to read may beg for just a few more minutes so that she can finish the chapter before lights-out. If you refuse her, she may well sneak a flashlight and her book under the covers. It’s a minor dilemma, but a parent must ultimately decide: do you punish the deception, or do you just wait a bit, and then quietly remove the flashlight and book from underneath the sleeping child? more »

From the razor's edge between what we know and what we absolutely cannot know and the coping with dread draws the reader to viewpoints often far from ordinary consideration, though no distance at all from what is vital to humanity. more »