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A lively and entertaining contribution to the shelf of books about books.
Kirkus Reviews
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*River of Books* is as exhilarating as a first date, and it delivers: The memoir of a lifelong book lover who brings us her keen, engaging perspective on her own reading and the larger world of books, it will warm you and delight you and make you realize how fabulous reading can be.
Susan Orlean
Author of On Animals and The Library Book -
Readers know the feeling that is equal parts escape and appreciation. Book groups, especially those that read classics and demanding books, would have a terrific time discussing *River of Books* Donna’s writing about her reading life is sure to inspire readers to contemplate their own and lead to lively discussions.
Booklist
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Donna Seaman reads with her whole body, and *River of Books* is a hymn to her vocation, a testament to her immersions, the story her transports. The surface is calm, but the water runs deep in this memoir of intense responses, of enchantments and ecstasies.
Edward Hirsch
Author of Stranger by Night and editor for 100 Poems to Break Your Heart -
*River of Books* is a beautiful memoir. Deeply personal, it is moving, dazzling, and spiced with touches of Seaman's slantwise sense of humor.
Sarah Paretsky
Author of Pay Dirt and other V. I. Warshawski novels and the memoir, Writing in an Age of Silence
More from Our Catalog
A memoir of reading and working with books by the renowned Booklist editor. With the infectious curiosity of an inveterate bibliophile and the prose of a fine stylist, Donna Seaman charts the course of her early reading years in a book-by-book chronicle of the significance books have held in her life. River of Books recounts Seaman’s journey in becoming an editor for Booklist, a reviewer, an author, and a literary citizen, and lays bare how she nourished both body and soul in working with books. Seaman makes palpable the power and self-recognition that she discovered in a life dedicated to reading.
Reading the Room is Paul Yamazaki’s love letter to the work of bookselling and an engaged life of the mind. Over twenty-four hours, Yamazaki leads us through the stacks of storied City Lights Booksellers in San Francisco; the care and prowess of his approach to book buying; his upbringing in a Japanese American family in Southern California and moving to San Francisco at the height of revolutionary foment; working with legendary figures in the book publishing industry like Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Sonny Mehta, and others; and his vision for the future of bookselling. Navigating building trust with readers and nurturing relationships across the literary industry, Yamazaki testifies to the value of generosity, sharing knowledge, and dialogue in a life devoted to books.
A lively and thoughtful exploration of how book clubs change the way we read. In this engaging and vivacious memoir, college professor Katarzyna Bartoszyńska thinks back on various book clubs she has been a part of. Through brief discussions of a variety of novels, memoirs, and nonfiction works such as Ottessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Marjane Satrapi's Chicken with Plums, and Alma Guillermoprieto's Dancing in Cuba, she considers how the things she has learned in book club discussions differ from what she tries to teach students in her literature classes. As she muses on the various benefits that we imagine reading offers, she describes the unique knowledge that book clubs can provide.