Since I never expect to visit Siberia myself, I thought I would listen to this very long book on CD about it. As a travelogue, it combines many of the elements one might expect from the genre: adventures with food, people, weather, and transportation; a review of the literature on Siberia; a his...
Picked this up off a remainder table. Looked like a humorous pastiche of mommy blogs, which I guess it was, minus the humor. Apparently, the book is based on a frequent column in the New Yorker by Ian Frazier, who wrote the favorite nonfiction I've read this year, The Great Plains. While I admire...
There were many chuckles in this book--the children's snowman, school repairs, the cursing mom's beverage choices, etc. I identified with her method of "keeping it all together" by beginning each entry with an inspirational quote, then as her day unfolded, she began unraveling until she became th...
Ian Frazier makes me laugh, so I thought our senses of humor were more aligned. I was surprised that I found many -- maybe even most -- of his choices for this anthology quite dull. However, this is worth reading for a few really great pieces:Steve Martin's "The Third Millennium: So Far, So Good"...
On the Rez is a sharp, unflinching account of the modern-day American Indian experience, especially that of the Oglala Sioux, who now live on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the plains and badlands of the American West. Crazy Horse, perhaps the greatest Indian war leader of the 1800s, and Bl...
“I fear for the Great Plains because many think they are boring.”ttttttp. 91I'll probably like this book more than you. I salivated over the possibilities of Great Plains after reading the author's Travels in Siberia. I went in with high hopes but acknowledge now that twenty-one years lapsed be...
In The Fish’s Eye: Essays About Angling and the Outdoors, Ian Frazier explores his lifelong passion for fishing, fish, and the aquatic world. He sees the angler’s environment all around him—in New York’s Grand Central Station, in the cement-lined pond of a city park, in a shimmering bonefish flat...
really enjoyed the pieces i really enjoyed, was completely neutral on the ones i didn't. some of the ones in this collection are heavily dependent on references and allusions to other material. the basic joke or premise is easily still communicated, but you get the idea that you'd like, say, the ...
For a fish to be literary, it must be immense, moss-backed, storied; for it to attain the level of the classics, it had better be a whale. But in fact, mostly that’s not what we catch. Especially when first learning the sport, we catch little ones, and we continue to catch them even when we gain ...
ACME Where the Bodies Are Buried At long last, the glamorous and poignant saga of Elsa Maxwell is coming to a bookshop near you … . “Party Girl: The Elsa Maxwell Story” by Rosemary Kent … . “Elsa knew where the bodies were buried,” said Kent. —William Norwich, in the New York Daily News You’re at...