Tag Archives: By the Book

Liane Moriarty Recommends Books

Posted on by

imagesIn her interview for the New York Times “By the Book,” author Liane Moriarty identifies a few of her favorites:

  1. Kansas in August by Patrick Gale
  2. The Course of Love by Alain de Botton
  3. The Dry by Jane Harper
  4. The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood
  5. In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
  6. Crow Lake by Mary Lawson

Only the last two are in my library system, so I am starting with them.

I share Moriarty’s admiration of author Anne Tyler.  When Moriarty was asked which author she would want to write her life story, she answered:

“Anne Tyler, please, because she would make my ordinary life extraordinary and my flaws adorable, and she’d find some beautiful truth that I would only recognize once she pointed it out to me.”

Related Reviews:  

Sara Ruhl and Montaigne

Posted on by

How would you answer the question  “What books are currently on your night stand?” Would you be honest or try to impress?

A recent television episode of “Younger” has star Sutton Foster helping her  boss prepare to answer questions for a “By the Book” interview in the Book Review section of the Sunday New York Times.  Foster suggests classics – safe to enhance his profile.

Playwright Sara Ruhl knows how to mix humor with reality – her plays, “Dead Man’s Cell Phone” and “The Clean House,” had me laughing – and then I thought about what she was saying.  Her answers in “By the Book”included books I know and enjoyed, by authors Elizabeth Bishop, Katherine Mansfield, Jonathan Franzen, and Tina Fey.  But her mention

montaigne-anon-ca-1590

Montaigne

of Sarah Blakewell’s How to Live; Or, A Life of Montaigne – brought back a good memory, and the motivation to find the book and read it again. Have you read it?  One phrase I recall: How to live? Read a lot, forget most of what you read, and be slow-witted.

Here is my review from 2011 – time for me to find the book again…

The World’s First Blogger – Montaigne