It's Summer Reading Week at Oprah.com! This week we're profiling the writers and books that you love, as well as some unexpected tidbits about all things literary. Today's homage: Laura Ingalls Wilder (plus a few thoughts on Edgar Allan Poe and Flannery O'Connor)
Should you find yourself in the same spot—yearning for more of an author, while running out of books to read—there is now a website that can help. Writers' Houses pays tribute to various author abodes all over the world. There is even a house finder that lets you search by author name or geographic location, which lead to me to this pastoral pic of Wilder's home in Mansfield, Missouri.
| Photo: www.joleenenaylor.com |
"We feature over 100 homes," says A.N. Devers, founder of the site. Her obsession with literary real estate began while studying at the University of Virginia, where the dorm room of Edgar Allan Poe is kept open to the students 24 hours a day, visible through a door covered in Plexiglas.
Men! What are they thinking? We can't always answer that, but we'll be posting our favorite glimpses into their world in this space every Thursday.
* Stephen Colbert breaks character for Dan Savage's It Gets Better Project. [It Gets Better via The Daily What]
* Want to catch a good mood? When Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon reprise their roles as hip-hop chroniclers in "History of Rap, Take 2," their enthusiasm is positively contagious. [Vulture]
* "The magic of the relationship between the baseball field and its beyond is such as to invite the grandest mythical and metaphorical projections."—Herschel Farbman in "Baseball Fans and the Ball in the Stands" [The Awl]
* This old time sling shot is guaranteed to be a hit with any guy who is on good terms with his inner child. [Hicoree's Hard Goods]
* And if you're worried you might eventually regret gifting a weapon that has the potential to destroy both your favorite lamp and your vision, you can still satisfy the boyish curiosity of men and children alike with this neat study about how suits of armor influenced medieval battles. [BBC]
* "In our crucial human capacities to think, to create, to work, to love, I do not see men and women as different."—Robert Olen Butler, author of A Small Hotel, in O's Twitter chat with him.
* Stephen Colbert breaks character for Dan Savage's It Gets Better Project. [It Gets Better via The Daily What]
* Want to catch a good mood? When Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon reprise their roles as hip-hop chroniclers in "History of Rap, Take 2," their enthusiasm is positively contagious. [Vulture]
* "The magic of the relationship between the baseball field and its beyond is such as to invite the grandest mythical and metaphorical projections."—Herschel Farbman in "Baseball Fans and the Ball in the Stands" [The Awl]
* This old time sling shot is guaranteed to be a hit with any guy who is on good terms with his inner child. [Hicoree's Hard Goods]
* And if you're worried you might eventually regret gifting a weapon that has the potential to destroy both your favorite lamp and your vision, you can still satisfy the boyish curiosity of men and children alike with this neat study about how suits of armor influenced medieval battles. [BBC]
* "In our crucial human capacities to think, to create, to work, to love, I do not see men and women as different."—Robert Olen Butler, author of A Small Hotel, in O's Twitter chat with him.
Every week, we'll be letting you know about new releases the editors at O and Oprah.com couldn't stop reading. On sale today...
One Day I Will Write About This Place
By Binyavanga Wainaina
The story behind the memoir: A boy's joyous and politically uncertain childhood in Kenya, his travels around the globe as a full-grown man—and then all the way back to Kenya to learn about the meaning of home.
The person we loved: Mum, whose "voice is soft, and tingly" so that "people get tingly with her and do what she says."
The Swahili word we learned: nyatiti (a traditional instrument)
The scene made for
falling in love with Africa: "The
wind swoops down, God breathes, and across the lake a million flamingos rise,
the edges of Lake Nakuru lift, like pink skirts swollen by petticoats..."
The scene made for considering the complexities of Africa: The Swedish men who come to Wainaina's elementary
school to teach the young but English-speaking children about cow manure, which the Swedes mistakenly call "fecal martyr." "With this new fuel," the Swedes kindly explain, "you can light your bulbs and
cook your food. You will become balance dieted; if you are industrious perhaps
you can run a small ... food mill and engage in income-generating activities. ... This is called development and we are here to raise your awareness."
Read More
- Read the full review of One Day I Will Write About this Place
- Catch up on our 27 delectable new summer reads
- The perfect paperback to toss in your bicycle basket
When Claudia Kincaid, heroine of From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, grew tired of the injustice of having to both empty the dishwasher and set the table on the same night and bored of the sameness of every week, she devised a plan to break free from the monotony of everything. That plan involved running away from home to hole up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and for many readers of E.L. Konigsberg's 1977 children's classic--I include myself among them--a museum-based slumber party has long represented the ultimate escape fantasy.
I still haven't figured out a way to sleep in a bed that is also an 18th-century work of art, but the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is offering an opportunity Claudia Kincaid would have schlepped across the country for.
Every week, we'll be letting you know about new releases the editors at O and Oprah.com couldn't stop reading. On sale today...
by Esmeralda Santiago
The genius idea: A Puerto Rican Gone with the Wind
The passage that sets the mood: "The end of her cigar was a beacon, her voice syrupy and languid and full with promises. On the floor below her was a bottle of rum."
For readers who adore: hammocks, corsets, sherry, lace, sugar cane and forbidden love
Spanish word we learned: finca (estate)
Larger message (gulp): The history—and slaves—behind the romance of the early 19th-century sugar trade
Keep Reading
by Alethea Black
The story that won our hearts: A woman who suspects her partner is having a long-distance affair pins her hopes on a birthday gift that demonstrates that she knows him better than anybody. (And boy, does she succeed!)
The title we'll never forget: "The Only Way Out Is Through"
The character we'd like to run away with: The divorced gentleman who falls in love with a woman with laryngitis, and woos her by writing notes.
The quote that changed our lives: "Only then, as she stared at the rows of book covers, at the pictures of people laughing or embracing or crying, all caught in the heroic struggles of their lives, did a small thought occur to her with such simplicity she almost said it out loud: 'I am afraid to try.'"
Looking for a good book? Discover all 27 new summer must-reads on our list. Or, take one of these nine paperbacks to the beach.
I was never sure which attracted me more: the totally wrong brother-sister love affair in Flowers in the Attic or the cool, metallic cover with a creepy mansion where Cathy peeked out, her face contorted with unspeakable terror. I spent a lot of seventh grade with that book—reading it, enjoying the feeling of being afraid, secretly aflutter "down there" and full of desperate longing all at the same time. Like all my friends, I tore through the next three in the series.
And then I grew up.
At last, a book that captures all those same feelings, only with exquisitely written literary prose. Rebecca Wolff's The Beginners debuts this week—a novel about Ginger, a shy 15-year-old girl who befriends the Motherwells, a new couple in her tiny Massachusetts town who may or may not be ghosts from the Puritan witch-burning past, live humans with sociopath tendencies, or just young, beautiful, magnetic 20-somethings with some questionable values. As Ginger gets more and more involved with the twosome, I found myself similarly enthralled. What did these very grown-up adults want with this girl? What were they going to do with her? The real mystery, though, had less to with the Motherwell's dark designs and more to do with tentative, starstruck Ginger, who so willingly adapts herself to their every need. Wolff captures the awakening of this dreamy, shy girl so perfectly and acutely, you might just shiver—not only from fear but recognition.
And then I grew up.
 |
At last, a book that captures all those same feelings, only with exquisitely written literary prose. Rebecca Wolff's The Beginners debuts this week—a novel about Ginger, a shy 15-year-old girl who befriends the Motherwells, a new couple in her tiny Massachusetts town who may or may not be ghosts from the Puritan witch-burning past, live humans with sociopath tendencies, or just young, beautiful, magnetic 20-somethings with some questionable values. As Ginger gets more and more involved with the twosome, I found myself similarly enthralled. What did these very grown-up adults want with this girl? What were they going to do with her? The real mystery, though, had less to with the Motherwell's dark designs and more to do with tentative, starstruck Ginger, who so willingly adapts herself to their every need. Wolff captures the awakening of this dreamy, shy girl so perfectly and acutely, you might just shiver—not only from fear but recognition.
Every week, we'll be letting you know about new releases the editors at O and Oprah.com couldn't stop reading. On sale today...
Untold Story
By Monica Ali
The question: What if Princess Diana were alive and well and living in small-town America?
Who it's for: Anyone who craves lyrical, lovely fiction with a side of gossip magazine.
Perfect timing: One giant, lavish media event/wedding wasn't enough royal intrigue for the year.
Keep Reading
 |
Untold Story
By Monica Ali
The question: What if Princess Diana were alive and well and living in small-town America?
Who it's for: Anyone who craves lyrical, lovely fiction with a side of gossip magazine.
Perfect timing: One giant, lavish media event/wedding wasn't enough royal intrigue for the year.
Keep Reading
 |
Every week, we'll be letting you know about new releases the editors at O and Oprah.com couldn't stop reading. On sale today...
The Astral
By Kate Christensen
The title: It's a Brooklyn apartment building where Christensen's main character Harry lives, until his wife kicks him out for an affair he isn't having.
Why you'll care: In the face of lost love, Harry (who is a poet) finds joy with a group of aging bohemians.
Truth in fiction: Relationships are complicated, which means you learn something important from every single one.
Read the full review and browse our complete summer reading list here
 |
Today, the insightful and inspiring Patchett steps off the page to explain to Life Lift about her personal struggle with a little old two-letter, one-syllable word. How exactly do we know when to (politely) say no—not just in our work or other commitments but also with the people we love? Patchett's answer to that very question is a tad surprising. Hint: It involves a piece of pocked, gray stone, a gift from Elizabeth Gilbert and various kitchen appliances.
Read the full article here
Photo: Melissa Ann Pinney
Advertisement
about Life Lift
The Oprah blog is a place where you can find engaging news coverage, fresh inspiration, and the straight talk you've come to count on. A place that
provides the tools you need to make a change—if not in the world—then at
least in your little corner of it. It's a place that will raise your energy, lower your blood pressure and
occasionally make you laugh—in short, a place of possibility.
topics
Advertisement
Advertisement
contributors
archived posts
