reviews

Love, Loss, and Ghostly Revenge By: Stephen King Captivating me with a sinister movie preview back in the mists of time (ok, college), Bag of Bones has long been a Stephen King novel that I wanted to sample. Left alone to do some house sitting over the holidays, I had plenty of time to crank the horror movie carnage and to delve into some good, old-style original Stephen King. Only Bag of Bones remained elusive, my library carrying neither the movie nor the book, and Amazon Instant Video likewise disappointing. Resting before my final semester of grad school, I spied [...]

Literary Lunches Author: Dinah Fried For as long as I’ve been a reader — that is, as long as I can remember — I’ve felt a strong connection between books and food. From the perfect pastel ice-cream cones enjoyed on a summer’s day by Babar the Elephant and his family to the wickedly mysterious cubes of Turkish Delight perched on the glistening snow of Narnia, food has the power to anchor magical settings in reality by reminding us of the appetites we share with even the most uncommon characters. And, of course, there’s the pleasure of eating along with your [...]

Tradition and Moving Forward: The Poignancy of Unanswered Questions Author: Leslie Pietrzyk Leaving one’s homeland but keeping the family tradition alive across all the miles of ocean and all the generations is both the sustaining life force for the Marchewka women and a suffocating burden that puts the individual in subjugation to the past.  A multi-generational tale of love, hate, confusion, and self-discovery, Pears on a Willow Tree is the story of life and how we form ourselves from the roots of the past. Rose is the great-grandmother who gives up her family in Poland to start a new life [...]