Camper's Breakfast Hash made an easy Saturday night supper. I know it's supposed to be a breakfast food. And yes, I've recently become a morning person, but I wouldn't carry that kind of thing so far as to feed people in the morning. So, breakfast at suppertime it is. Here are the ingredients: The hash browns were supposed to be the freely-shredded kind, but they [...]
You could call this week’s book “opposition research.” I don’t like the author or his politics, but the remarkable thing about Ezekiel Emanuel as portrayed in his book, The Brothers Emanuel, is the sheer weight of accomplishment between all these brothers. How many families do you know in whom every member has risen to the top of their profession? Ari is a high-powered Hollywood agent. Rahm is [...]
We’ll get right to the point: Ann Hood’s The Obituary Writer seemed like a good idea. It wasn’t. Obituaries are my guilty pleasure. I hear they are the grunt work of newspaper writing, but it’s grunt work I might just like to try. Except for coming up with adjectives to describe all the relatives. “Fond aunt of . . . . Loving grandmother of . [...]
How do you, a married woman, justify looking up an old flame? Well, it’s never justifiable. But specifically, how does Judith Toomey Whitman, the protagonist of Tom McNeal’s novel, To Be Sung Underwater, justify it? Does the fact that her husband constantly works late do it? And that his comely secretary always appears in these “work late” scenes? To Be Sung jumps back and forth [...]
As social habits go, listening to talk radio rates somewhere between shopping at Wal-Mart in your pajamas and tossing litter out of your car window. Especially if your afternoon fix is Rush Limbaugh. I’ve eaten dinner with friends who dismissed the “dittoheads” they know as crazy sheep-like paranoids who take their marching orders from a bombastic liar. But I like the guy. I’ll gladly listen. [...]
Can’t say as I understand the point of Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer. The narrator doesn’t attend all that many movies. But he describes everything beautifully--a family picture on the mantel, a disappointed relative, a chimney sweep on the street, hollering in French. If you would like a virtual visit to New Orleans just before the Mardi Gras of 1960 or so, if you would like [...]
Back when I was addicted to People Magazine, I’m sure it was royal weddings and celebs on diets or in rehab that made me buy an issue. But deep inside its pages, People’s reporters offered up quieter stories that really grabbed me by the collar. Two points for you if you can guess which kind of story: 1. Animal rescue 2. Adoptions and/or orphans 3. [...]
With just a few weeks of perfect sit-outside weather left, you know a wedding-weekend novel would be just the thing to read. Some of you can’t make it to the beach because your kids are already in school. No problem. The porch will do, especially with no children around, begging for snacks. In Beautiful Day by Elin Hilderbrand, we not only have a wedding to [...]
Just curious: I know you love books. But which do you love best? Book-books? The kind with the spine that breaks if you keep your place by resting it upside down? The kind where you get to turn the pages? Or e-books? The kind where you can read in bed without your flashlight? The kind where you can take whole libraries on your trip [...]
I’m reading a door-stopper of a book that’s taking me two weeks. But don’t worry, I still have reading ideas for you. Here’s a post about developing a canon of Mormon literature. It’s intended for scholars and critics — “Mormon literary critics need something to criticize” — but includes a list of ten Mormon-themed books. Ten for one! Just like a big sale week at your [...]
