The BookFetish Blog

Carla Buckley’s Invisible is the first of my 2013 must-reads. From the first page, I had a hard time putting it down. Buckley gives us two compelling stories. First is a fractured family dealing with secrets long buried. Second is an epidemic of kidney disease in a small town in Minnesota. The two stories converge […]

Marjorie Celona’s Y:A Novel is simultaneously jostling, sad, and hopeful. From the book description (because it says it more succinctly than I can): ““Y. That perfect letter. The wishbone, fork in the road, empty wineglass. The question we ask over and over. Why? . . . My life begins at the Y.” So opens Marjorie […]

Margaret Powell’s Below Stairs is a memoir about her life as a kitchen maid and cook for wealthy British families in the 1920’s. The subtitle of the book calls it the inspiration for “Upstairs Downstairs” and “Downton Abbey”. Margaret Powell was born into a lower working class family in 1907. Although she enjoyed school, her […]

I first read William Lobdell’s Losing My Religion back in 2009. As I re-read Kevin Roose’s The Unlikely Disciple earlier this year, I felt compelled to re-read Losing My Religion as well. William Lobdell spent many years as a Christian, moving from a non-denominational church to Presbyterian, and finally undergoing courses to convert to Catholicism. He was an enthusiastic Christian, praying […]

My first review of 2013! I finished the audiobook of Rob Lowe’s autobiography, Stories I Only Tell My Friends, on December 30, but this is my first chance to write about it. Narrated by Lowe, the audiobook is charming, enlightening, and entertaining. Lowe recounts key aspects of his early life, then his journey to Hollywood and […]