Miss Thompson Reads More Alice Munro

I've read Alice Munro in The New Yorker, came upon a big book of her Selected Stories at the library, and carried it home to read in bed. The book was too heavy to read in bed, but the stories are great, each with a blind hem of mystery running beneath. I liked the selections in this volume more than those in (the lighter) Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage. "Wenlock Edge" is especially creepy and cold. You'll intuit Munro's heritage via a peppering of distinctly Canadian references, underscoring the impression that, reading along, you're traveling in another land.

Can't Look Away from The Bag Lady Papers

Alexandra Penney's The Bag Lady Papers tells how Penney has coped since losing her fortune to Bernie Madoff. Penney is a New York photographer and painter, and a Conde Nast alumnus (editor in chief of Self magazine, beauty editor at Glamour). Since her savings were stolen, she's had to curb her fondness for expensive things, sell her Florida and Long Island homes, and faces a financially insecure future. She still has her Upper East Side apartment, her brains and talents, and a host of accomplished friends, so she may sound like a person who has no right to complain. But regardless of circumstance, she is no less a victim of thievery than any other Madoff client. The writing is lively, and the book is full of dishy details. Penney's history of hard work is inspirational -- the girl never gives up! -- and glimpses of her childhood raised by cold withdrawn parents add other dimensions to the story. Penney's chin-up Rx —the daily donning of a crisp white no-iron shirt from Lands' End or Brooks Brothers—is so appealing I am heading out to buy one of my own.

Dylan Landis Sure Can Write

I finished Normal People Don't Live Like This by Dylan Landis first thing this morning, and only stopped 15 pages short of the end last night because my eyes were seriously starting to blur (1 a.m.). If you're a person who appreciates words, notice how the author conjures up character with a few deft strokes. These interlinked stories about young women, their mothers, and lovers will stay with you long after you close this lovely pink book (Persea Books, $15). Normal People Don't Live Like This is the perfect gift for a friend with a couch, a blanket, and a Saturday afternoon.

Miss Thompson Returns

Jancee Dunn never fails to amuse me; she's a female David Sedaris. Why Is My Mother Getting a Tattoo? and other questions I wish I never had to ask is a small pink book you can read in a few days; the only chapters I skipped were a few of the verbatim phone conversations she has with her best friend, because I have the same phone conversations with my best friend every morning. Jancee's husband is apt to say "call Julie" when the subject veers toward emotions and minute examination of feelings and motives, just as my husband says "Ask Phyllis" when decorating, kids, or mysterious medical symptoms are raised. Jancee's best friend is Julie Klam, and I loved her book, too: Please Excuse My Daughter. Clever women, these two.

Miss Thompson Plays Darts at the 321 Club

The Dart League King by Keith Lee Morris (Tin House Books, $15, ISBN 978-0-9794198-8-1) is seriously overdue, but I don't want to bring this little book back to the library. I'm sorry I finished it, and I might even have to read it again.  Or (don't tell my dad) buy it. ("Don't buy a book, Miss Thompson, if you can get it at the library.") I write a rare fan letter when something hits home, and this Clemson University English professor is definitely hearing from me. (I've actually heard back from author Jane Stern and actor Sam Waterston, which makes me a lifelong fan.) So The Dart League King: The writing is impeccable. Some of the characters are dangerous, and you'll sense SOMETHING BAD IS GOING TO HAPPEN without the writer ever saying so. It's all in his pace, and the narrative flow. Wow. I want to write like this. I'm going to see if Keith Lee Morris is teaching at any writer's workshops this summer. One more thing: This handsome paperback has one of those heavy-stock covers with book flaps that work as bookmarks. Love this. Speaking of love, Miss Thompson was once carried away by a handsome dart king of her own. Therefore, she was predisposed to like this book. The book didn't fail her like the dart king did. Then again, the book didn't drive a Corvette. C'est la vie.

*Miss Thompson wore Burt's Bees Wings of Love All-Natural Lipstick in Grace pink to write this review.* 

Miss Thompson in Kenya

A tender little story of unrequited love, A Guide to the Birds of East Africa

by Nicholas Drayson (Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 978-0-547-15258-5, $22) can be devoured in hours--it's that good. Under Kenyan skies, the wild man Mr. Kahn and the shy widower Mr. Malik compete for the affection of the lovely British widow Rose Mbikwa. Each chapter begins with a simple illustration of a Kenyan bird—so pretty—and the cover alone is a work of art; kudos to Christopher Neal.  I imagine this book could be compared to those written by Alexander McCall Smith, though I have never warmed to his writing. Drayson's 202 pages are perfection, and I love how he talks to me as he writes: "Before we find out more about the mysterious stranger, I should tell you a little more about Mr Malik, and about Rose...." Mysterious stranger? I'm there! No need to wear lipstick while reading this book: just jump into bed, pull up the covers, with a hot water bottle at your feet...and possibly a cat.

Miss Thompson Steps Back

I'm not sure how I missed reading Jhumpa Lahiri until

now, as her name and her books have been in the news

for years. Over the holidays, I devoured Unaccustomed 

Earth (Knopf, 2008) and it gets four stars, four lipsticks, full accolades.

It's enough to say her writing is perfect. Now I'm reading

The Namesake (Houghton Mifflin, 2002), just to catch up

($2 at the library book sale). 

And because I admire George Stephanopoulos on ABC, I am

reading All Too Human (Little, Brown, 1999) about his work

on the Clinton campaign, way back when. All that history; all that

fun. It's an icy day; Miss Thompson is wearing Body Shop pink-brown

lip pencil all over her lips, topped with peppermint Chapstick and

some Molton Brown gloss. Time for hot chocolate.