Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry; Counterpoint, 2004. 186 pages; $16.95 (paperback); reading level: adult. The year is 2001. Hannah Coulter is looking back on the seventy-nine years of her life, spent mostly in the fictional Kentucky town of Port William. In words that are both plain-spoken and elegant, she chronicles her childhood, the loss of… [Read More]
This Is the Chance!; The Great Alaska Earthquake, Genie Chance, and the Shattered City She Held Together by Jon Mooallem Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge…
August 28, 2024 By
This Is Chance!; The Great Alaska Earthquake, Genie Chance, and the Shattered City She Held Together by Jon Mooallem; Random House, 2021. 315 pages; $18.00 (paperback); reading level: adult/young adult. Beginning with the epigram (a quote from Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town) and a “Cast of Characters” followed by Acts One, Two, and Three (instead… [Read More]
Everybody’s Book; The Story of the Sarajevo Haggadah by Linda Leopold Strauss Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge…
June 25, 2024 By
Everybody’s Book; The Story of the Sarajevo Haggadah by Linda Leopold Strauss; illustrated by Tim Smart; Kar-Ben Publishing/Lerner, 2024. 32 pages; $18.99 (hardcover); reading level: Grades 2-5. This true story begins in 1350, when a stunningly beautiful haggadah (a book that narrates the Jewish passover along with other Bible stories) is presented to a Spanish… [Read More]
Beethoven; A Life in Nine Pieces by Laura Tunbridge Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge…
March 15, 2024 By
Beethoven; A Life in Nine Pieces by Laura Tunbridge; Yale University Press, 2020. 276 pages; $39.00 (hardcover); reading level: adult. Timed to appear for the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth in 2020, this book’s fascinating structure drew me in. Each of the nine chapters centers on a work by Beethoven and focuses on “a theme… [Read More]
Foster by Claire Keegan Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge…
January 2, 2024 By
Foster by Claire Keegan; Grove Press, 2022. 92 pages; $20.00 (hardcover); reading level: adult/young adult. Originally published in Great Britain in 2010 (with a shortened version appearing in The New Yorker that same year), both a movie (under the title The Quiet Girl) and the book Foster finally appeared in the U.S. in 2022. The… [Read More]
Characters Julian Fellowes’ Gilded Age Gets Right: William Backhouse Astor, Jr.
November 21, 2023 By
Caroline Astor’s husband, William Backhouse Astor, Jr., does not appear in Season 1 of The Gilded Age and that’s exactly why Julian Fellowes gets him right. Her husband preferred to be anywhere Caroline Astor wasn’t, which was a relief to Caroline because he tended to upset her perfectly orchestrated social events by treating guests rudely…. [Read More]
Brideshead Revisited; The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder by Evelyn Waugh Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge…
November 1, 2023 By
Brideshead Revisited; The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder by Evelyn Waugh; (originally published in Britain, 1944); Back Bay Books, 2020. 402 pages; $17.99 (paperback); reading level: adult. In 1944, as Waugh’s magnum opus was going to press, he observed that Brideshead Revisited “is steeped in theology, but I begin to agree that… [Read More]
Characters Julian Fellowes’ Gilded Age Gets Wrong: Ward McAllister
October 27, 2023 By
In Season 1 of The Gilded Age, Ward McAllister appears to be a beneficent grandfather-figure who helps Bertha Russell after she’s been socially snubbed. A social climber himself who had gained entrance to High Society by ingratiating himself to Caroline Astor, McAllister did help the Vanderbilts, among others, into the same elite company he’d cajoled… [Read More]
Characters Julian Fellowes’ Gilded Age Gets Right: Mamie Fish
October 2, 2023 By
Like Caroline Astor, Mamie Fish was part of Old New York Society and looked down on the new-money climbers. When Mamie built a new home at 78th and Madison Avenue, she instructed the architect to create a ballroom that would make a person who was not well bred feel uncomfortable. Fellowes captures this aspect of… [Read More]
Oceans of Grain; How American Wheat Remade the World by Scott Reynolds Nelson Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge…
October 2, 2023 By
Oceans of Grain; How American Wheat Remade the World by Scott Reynolds Nelson. Basic Books, 2022. 356 pages; $32.00 (hardcover); reading level: adult. This is more a textbook than an informational read for a lay audience and requires those willing to soldier through it to bring a lot of knowledge to the table: a background… [Read More]