Good morning, lovely readers! It’s not a normal Monday at The Gilmore Guide to Books because I don’t have a review or a post about what I’m reading or anything to do with books at all. Instead, I’m here to tell you I’m taking a break for a bit. One week, possibly two. I've never done this before (even when I went to Italy for 10 days) so it's scary, but necessary. You all know ... Read More...
The Stranger in the Woods
In case this news slipped by you, as it did me: In 2013 a man was apprehended at a children’s summer camp in northern Maine stealing food and supplies. Not particularly interesting except that when asked by the police he can tell them his birth date, but not how old he is—he has no idea what year it is. Further questioning reveals he has no address, no vehicle, no mail, none of ... Read More...
The Coincidence Makers
He always loved this warm sensation, which nearly permeated the bone, during the minute preceding the execution of a mission. It was the sensation that came from knowing he was about to reach out a finger and nudge the planet, or the heavens. The knowledge that he would be diverting things from their regular and familiar path, things that until a second ago were ... Read More...
When Breath Becomes Air
Science may provide the most useful way to organize empirical, reproducible data, but its power to do so is predicated on its inability to grasp the most central aspects of human life: hope, fear, love, hate, beauty, envy, honor, weakness, striving suffering, virtue. Paul Kalanithi knew he would split his life in two—the first half would be devoted to his passion for ... Read More...
Fear of Dying: A Novel
It has been so long since I read Fear of Flying that I can’t claim to remember anything about it, except being left with the feeling ‘wow, that is one gutsy author’, writing about sex and relationships in a way I’d never read before. The author was Erica Jong and 40 years after that novel she is back with Fear of Dying, her new fictional take on sex, relationships, and ... Read More...
