Just when I was thinking that I've been talking a lot about theme and structure with these stories, and not so much about characterization, along comes a story like "Mrs. Cross and Mrs. Kidd" to make the point. "Mrs. Cross and Mrs. Kidd have known each other eighty years, ever
1961; Dell Publishing, 1975 Maria Gripe's trilogy is just charming. Josephine chooses her own name because the name Anna Grå is too big for her, like a pair of shoes that she needs to grow into. She is six years old. Her blue sweater is getting too small but
Elspeth Cameron's And Beauty Answers: The Life of Frances Loring and Florence Wyle Cormorant Books, 2007 It certainly wasn't something that a lot of women were doing in the early 1900s; girls weren't lining up to become sculptors. But Frances Loring and Florence Wyle did just that, meeting in 1906
1. Remarkable wrangling with world-changing matters: racism. (Most of what I say below is about this: but there are other fine reasons too.) 2. Southern US setting (Many readers know and love Southern fiction, but this isn't Mississippi: it's Arkansas. That's refreshing. Even if Chess does think it's boring!) "I
When I first mentioned that Fridays were going to be reserved for letters, Laura mentioned Helene Hanff's epistolary classic right off. She reminded me how much I love this collection. And, so, I pulled the volume off the shelf and aimed for a re-read. If you're reading these
