PLAYING WITH MATCHES * A GUIDE TO QUALITY, TASTE & STYLE * DREAMING IN CHINESE

Playing With Matches by Carolyn Wall - You know how when you read To Kill A Mockingbird for the first time even if you'd seen the movie, you didn't want it to ever end?  I wanted that book to go on and on into forever and eternity, and I would do nothing but read it always.  No other books required.  Here's a book, albeit with a less than satisfactory title, that lives up to Harper Lee.  Playing With Matches takes place on Potato Shed Road in a Mississippi prison town.  It's about an outspoken girl named Clea and her remarkable family.  It is so good that I will tell you no more.  Clea is the first girl who ever reminded me of Scout Finch and I love the author for the gift of this powerful character. 

  A Guide to Quality, Taste and Style by Tim Gunn - Who doesn't love Tim Gunn, that formal, fun voice of reason and kindness on Project Runway.  You won't learn anything new from his book, but you'll learn about Tim's aesthetic, and here and there you'll revisit some age old basics of style.  

  

                          Dreaming in Chinese  by  Deborah Fallows - The author and her husband lived in China, and she studied the language which is filled with complicated characters and nuance.  If you are a student of the Chinese language or a language aficionado, you might enjoy this account of some of the vagaries of the language, otherwise, read my review or the back cover and go on back to your fiction.  An imaginary world is so much more enticing than the real one!