Category Archives: Books

Richard Russo’s Difficult Mom

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Kathy

How could Richard Russo’s memoir Elsewhere not intrigue me? I’m already a fan. His novels Nobody’s Fool and Empire Falls, for example, tell heartfelt and funny stories about flawed, even infuriating, but ultimately sympathetic characters. Russo has mastered an assured, … Continue reading →

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See Scout and Pina

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Kathy

A couple weeks ago, before the rains came, I opened the windows one last time on a warm night. When I heard the dry leaves skittering on the sidewalk outside, my mind went to To Kill a Mockingbird. This movie, as … Continue reading →

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Never Sorry Folly?

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Kathy

I’m recommending Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry and Almayer’s Folly, both showing at the Cinematheque this weekend. Unlike past weeks, I haven’t seen either one. The documentary about Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has earned a 97% at the website Rotten Tomatoes, … Continue reading →

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Moby and Me

Posted on September 8, 2012 by Kathy

Howard Vincent, author of two books about Herman Melville, The Trying-Out of Moby-Dick (1949) and The Tailoring of Melville’s White Jacket (1970), was my favorite professor at Kent State University. He had, in my memory, an elfin appearance: white of hair, bushy of … Continue reading →

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Ad Astra Per Errores Multos

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Kathy

Caleb’s Crossing by Gwendolyn Brooks, a recent selection of my book group, concerns young Puritans in early America, growing up and getting educated. The Latin they were studying contained a number of errors, showing exceeding carelessness, I thought, on the part … Continue reading →

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Plastic Progress

Posted on June 30, 2012 by Kathy

I just saw the film Surviving Progress at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque, which lays out many dangers to human survival on earth, graphically portraying overpopulation and over-consumption. It makes you want to read the book that inspired it, A Short … Continue reading →

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Measuring Education

Posted on June 8, 2012 by Kathy

I tutor once a week in a GED program in the Kinsman neighborhood of Cleveland, where my church used to be. I’ve been touched, the last two weeks, by my interactions with students. Touched, infuriated, sobered, and enlightened. Last week, a … Continue reading →

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The Stress Response

Posted on April 14, 2012 by Kathy

Various therapies preach that “feelings aren’t facts.” This is a useful admonishment inside or outside of therapy. Though our feelings are real, and therefore factual in a sense, the aphorism suggests that our perceptions may depart from objective reality. We … Continue reading →

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In Memoriam

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Kathy

I was rereading Bobbie Ann Mason’s lovely 1988 novel Spence + Lila today when I heard that my mother-in-law, Grace Ewing, had died this morning. I read this passage soon after the news. Sixty-six-year-old Spence is surveying his Kentucky farm. … Continue reading →

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Best Practices

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Kathy

  David Finch The Journal of Best Practices by David Finch purports to offer marriage advice to people with Asperger syndrome. Finch discovered he had the disorder when his beleagered wife administered an online personality test, on which he scored … Continue reading →

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