And more books. . .

Salt and Light, oil on board, 11×14″, not for sale

(But why isn’t it for sale? Because it is too personal to me. Then why are you showing it here? Because it is the only painting I have with books in it!)

  1. Up For Renewal by Cathy Alter is autobiographical. It was well written for a dumb book, or maybe it was a dumb subject. Anyway, I ended up just skimming it at the end. She spent a year of her life actually following the advice in women’s magazines!!! Are you kidding me???
  2. Just My Type by Simon Garfield is a book I had in my Amazon shopping cart for awhile until I remembered that I don’t like to own too many things. My friend Don bought it and graciously lent it to me. We both have an interest in typefaces, and this is “a book about fonts”. I ended up skimming it too. I realized that I like the way fonts look, I like to see if I can recognize them, but I don’t care very much about their history. It goes back to a year of my life as a phototypesetter, and then a couple of years working at a printshop where I ordered type through several other phototypesetting companies. Just broke my heart to hear my graphic designer nephew tell me that Papyrus is a horrible type. It was confirmed in this book. So what? I STILL think it is pretty, so there, Cory!!
  3. Georgette Heyer was recommended to me by my current favorite writer, Carolyn Henderson, author of Middle Aged Plague (READ HER! SHE IS FANTASTIC!! Then remember to return to me, ‘k?) Carolyn explained her this way:

    Georgette Heyer was a Regency Romance (don’t lose me here) writer of 1920-1960 – comedy of errors, delightfully written, much good advice slipped into gems of stories.

    Heyer reminds me of Jane Austen. I tried with the book Bath. Too many words, too little action, people with nothing to do but talk about one another. If you like Jane, you will like Georgette. I keep trying, but I have really lost my taste for fiction.

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3 Comments

  1. Cheryl, I read reviews on Unbroken and decided to pass. (Can’t stomach brutality) The Glass Castle is in the top 5 books I read last year. (Along with Same Kind of Different as Me which you recommended and I thank you again!) And thank you for your recommendation by Jody Hedlund. I will put it on my list. And thank you for your kind words about my little birds. That one was just plain fun!

  2. Also meant to tell you, Jana, that I loved looking down through the pictures of your work that you’ve posted this week. Especially loved the one of the birds on the beach.

  3. A couple of non-fiction books that have blown me away in recent months, Jana, are Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand and The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. If you haven’t read those, I highly recommend them.

    I also read a debut novel by Jody Hedlund that is based on the lives of John and Elizabeth Bunyan. Excellent. Maybe you could give that one a try.

    Happy Reading! 🙂

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