Things that are making me happy this week

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with Anita Brookner, Annette Hess, author talk, COVID-19, David Sedaris, film, Graeme Macrae Burnet, music, swimming, swimming pool, twitter October 24, 2021

01. It’s been approx. 80 days and my rotator cuffs were like rusty wheels… but BEST SWIM. Continue reading →

Six Degrees of Separation – from Shuggie Bain to The Arsonist

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with author talk, Beverly Cleary, Charles L. Granata, Chloe Hooper, David Sedaris, Douglas Stuart, Helen Garner, Sarah Krasnostein, Six Degrees of Separation, Victoria Hannan April 3, 2021

It’s time for #6degrees. Start at the same place as other wonderful readers, add six books, and see where you end up. Continue reading →

Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris

Posted by Kate W in Non-fiction and tagged with 2019, American, audiobook, book review, David Sedaris, essays, memoir, nonfiction, review April 16, 2019

Because I am in #campold, a dinner party conversation I had last weekend was about colonoscopies. More specifically, the person who brought it up was talking about their anxiety – they’ve never had a colonoscopy. Neither have I*, which is probably why I gleefully suggested they should read the hilarious chapter on colonoscopies in David Sedaris’s eighth collection of essays, Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls. Continue reading →

The Top 50 from the Best Books of 2018 List of Lists

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with 2018, A. J. Finn, Akwaeke Emezi, Andrew Roberts, book list, Chloe Benjamin, Curtis Sittenfeld, David Sedaris, Denis Johnson, Esi Edugyan, Gary Shteyngart, Idra Novey, Kristin Hannah, Lauren Groff, Leïla Slimani, Leslie Jamison, Ling Ma, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Lisa Halliday, Luis Alberto Urrea, Madeline Miller, Meg Wolitzer, Melissa Broder, Michael Ondaatje, Michelle Obama, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Olga Tokarczuk, Olivia Laing, Ottessa Moshfegh, Pat Barker, Patrick deWitt, R. O. Kwon, Rachel Cusk, Rachel Kushner, Rebecca Makkai, Richard Powers, Rumaan Alam, Sally Rooney, Sarah Perry, Sayaka Murata, Sheila Heti, Shobha Rao, Sigrid Nunez, Susan Orlean, Tara Westover, Tayari Jones, Tommy Orange, William Trevor, Zadie Smith, Zora Neale Hurston December 9, 2018

This is my annual community service to book-bloggers – a list of the books that appear most frequently on all of the lists (37 of them) I listed on Best Books of 2018 – A List of Lists.

Here it is, the 2018 Commonly-Agreed-by-the-People-Who-Publish-Best-of-2018-Book-Lists-Before-December-31 top 50 books. Continue reading →

‘My Ideal Bookshelf’ by Thessaly La Force and Jane Mount

Posted by Kate W in Non-fiction and tagged with Ayelet Waldman, book list, book review, Dave Eggers, David Sedaris, Jane Mount, Leanne Shapton, Malcolm Gladwell, Michael Chabon, nonfiction, Oliver Jeffers, Stephanie Meyer, Thessaly La Force, twitter November 16, 2012

I just came into possession of the most divine book – My Ideal Bookshelf, edited by Thessaly La Force and illustrated by Jane Mount. Let me stress, if you’re looking for a Christmas gift for book lovers (and they are difficult to buy for because you don’t know what they’ve already read…) this book is perfect. Continue reading →