44 Followers
65 Following
laurieh

Tomes and Tea Leaves

Currently reading

Kismetology
Jaimie Admans
On Paper: The Everything of Its Two-Thousand-Year History
Nicholas A. Basbanes
Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing
Anya Von Bremzen
The Mirror Lied: One Woman's 25-Year Struggle with Bulimia, Anorexia, Diet Pill Addiction, Laxative Abuse and Cutting.
Marc A. Zimmer, N.R. Mitgang, Ira M. Sacker
Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear: Inside the Land of Ballet
Stephen Manes
Sisterland
Curtis Sittenfeld
Flora
Gail Godwin
The Old Curiosity Shop
Charles Dickens, Norman Page
The English Eccentrics
Edith Sitwell, Richard Ingrams (Introduction)
In This Dark House: A Memoir - Louise Kehoe Kehoe's memoir of growing up in rural England is a sad and dark one. Throughout her childhood Kehoe was subjected to the whims and abuse of her eccentric and tyrannical father. A gifted arcitecht, Kehoe's father ruled his children and his wife like a dictator. Isolated and miserable, Kehoe has no explanation for her father's behavior. As an adult, she decides to investigate her family's past, to try and better understand her father. Spurred on by an episode of anti-Semitic violence in her youth, Kehoe's search for her past leads her to unexpected places and surprises. It's difficult to say more without giving away the conclusion, except that this memoir explains Kehoe's search for her past, and how she comes to terms with what she finds and what she knows of her father. Well-written, sad, and sometimes shocking, Kehoe's rendering of an elaborate family myth and its unravelling is well-crafted.