Literature & Psychology

“The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox” by Maggie O’Farrell

O’Farrell, Maggie. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox    New York: Harcourt, 2006  ISBN 978-0-15-101411-8   Blackstone Audiobooks, narrated by Anne Flosnik Recommended This novel is about family stories–in this case, the truths that don’t get told and the lies that spring up to fill the void–and how those stories reverberate through generations. Iris Lockhart […]

“The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox” by Maggie O’Farrell Read More »

“The Knitting Circle” by Ann Hood

Hood, Ann. The Knitting Circle New York: Norton, 2007 ISBN 0-393-05901-4 Blackstone Audiobooks, narrated by Hillary Huber Highly recommended This novel is all about perspective, and about the healing power of telling our stories. When Mary Baxter’s five-year-old daughter dies suddenly of meningitis, Mary finds herself unable to read, write, go to work, or do

“The Knitting Circle” by Ann Hood Read More »

book review

“The Reader, the Text, the Poem” by Louise M. Rosenblatt

Rosenblatt, Louise M. The Reader, the Text, the Poem: The Transactional Theory of the Literary Work  Carbondale, Ill., 1978Hardcover, 196 pagesISBN 0-8093-0883-5 Highly Recommended Rosenblatt is one of the proponents of the reader-response theory of literary criticism, a concept that emerged in the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s as a reaction to New Criticism, which treated

“The Reader, the Text, the Poem” by Louise M. Rosenblatt Read More »

“Writing a Woman’s Life” by Carolyn G. Heilbrun

Heilbrun, Carolyn G. Writing a Woman’s Life (1988)  W.W. Norton & Company, 144 pages, $14.95 hardcover  ISBN 0-393-02601-9 In the “Introduction,” feminist scholar Carolyn Heilbrun explains the topic of her book: There are four ways to write a woman’s life: the woman herself may tell it, in what she chooses to call an autobiography; she

“Writing a Woman’s Life” by Carolyn G. Heilbrun Read More »

Scroll to Top