I’m still working through the reading list I put together last year but I can’t resist starting a new pile of must-reads to be tackled in the fall of 2017. Check out the first three titles on my list, see what you think, and watch for my reviews which will be posted on my website… [Read More]
A Preview of The Books On My Fall 2017 Reading List (Updated). See Why I Chose Them and Reviews Will Follow!
March 31, 2017 By
Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
March 21, 2017 By
Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015. 408 pages; $27.00 (hardcover); reading level: adult. As Miss Constance Kopp tells it: “Our troubles began in the summer of 1914, the year I turned thirty-five.” Constance and her two younger sisters Norma and Fluerette are riding into town from the New Jersey farm where… [Read More]
The Illuminations by Andrew O’Hagan Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
March 15, 2017 By
The Illuminations by Andrew O’Hagan. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015. 293 pages; $26.00 (hardcover); reading level: adult. O’Hagan writes in the third person, shifting perspective among multiple characters (sometimes within a single paragraph) and frustrating, until the very end, readerly attempts to uncover the “real story.” At the center of the tale is photographer Anne… [Read More]
Nanette’s Baguette by Mo Willems Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
March 3, 2017 By
Nanette’s Baguette by Mo Willems; illustrated by the author. Hyperion Books, 2916. 32 pages; $17.99 (hardcover); reading level: ages 4-8. If you’re on the lookout for every word that rhymes with “Nanette” and “baguette,” this is the book for you. Tucked away in the playful pile-up of rhymes (and it is quite the pile-up!) is… [Read More]
Ben-Gurion; Father of Modern Israel by Anita Shapira Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
February 21, 2017 By
Ben-Gurion; Father of Modern Israel by Anita Shapira; translated from the Hebrew by Anthony Berris. Yale University Press, 2014. 276 pages; $25.00 (hardcover); reading level: adult. In the first four chapters of this biography, David Ben-Gurion is born David Green in Plonsk, Poland, travels to Warsaw to attend high school (only to be rejected for… [Read More]
Reading Like a Writer – All Writing Can Benefit From Clarity and Organization
February 14, 2017 By
I’m not fond of broccoli but I eat it anyway because it’s good for me. As a writer of nonfiction, I also do the writerly equivalent of eating broccoli. Midway through the January 19, 2017 issue of The New York Review of Books, I came to an article entitled “The Trouble with Quantum Mechanics” by… [Read More]
A Bittersweet Interview – Listen to an Interview with Connie Wooldridge and the Late Andrea Cheng
January 31, 2017 By
It’s been over a year now since my writer-friend Andrea Cheng died – too quickly and too young – of cancer. She wrote some marvelous books, some of which are reviewed on my website, and she gave me invaluable advice about my writing over the years I knew her. Quite a few years ago, Andrea’s… [Read More]
The Water Princess by Susan Verde Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
January 24, 2017 By
The Water Princess by Susan Verde; illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2016. 42 pages; $17.99 (hardcover); reading level: ages 4-8. Gie Gie, a princess in her parents’ eyes, surveys her kingdom: the African sky, the wild dogs, the tall grass, and the dusty earth. Not part of her kingdom is water,… [Read More]
The Two Tims by David Elliott Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
January 18, 2017 By
The Two Tims by David Elliott; illustrated by Gabriel Alborozo. Candlewick, 2016. 32 pages; $15.99 (hardcover); reading level: 4-8. Tim and Tim (one with blond hair, one with brown) are best friends. Until Tom comes along. Blond Tim plays knights with Tom while brown-haired Tim sulks. Brown-haired Tim crazy-dances with Tom while blond Tim sulks…. [Read More]
The Turner House by Angela Flournoy Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Woodridge
November 8, 2016 By
The Turner House by Angela Flournoy. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015. 340 pages; $14.95 (paperback); reading level: adult. Two narratives from two time periods unfold concurrently in this impressive first novel: The first is the story of Francis and Viola Turner, who marry in 1944 and migrate north to Detroit; the second story reaches forward to… [Read More]