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Let Me Take You Down, Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever, by Jonathan Cott                   Jonathan Cott has a long history with The Beatles, having interviewed them over the years for Rolling Stone. Jonathan interviewed Lennon for nine hours just a few days before he was murdered. This was

Still Life at Eighty, The Next Interesting Thing by Abigail Thomas ‘59 When I saw that Abigail Thomas had written a new memoir, I knew what the next interesting thing would be for me.  For a memoir to work, the central character (the “me”), must be likable because this person is going to be your co

The Berlin Painter and his World, Athenian Vase-Painting in the Early Fifth Century B.C. This book is edited by Michael Padgett, who, so far as I know, has nothing to do with Friends Seminary.  I chose to include this work because one of the contributing editors is Jennifer Udell, class of circa 80

Are You Nobody Too? By Tina Cane   Emily, the protagonist of this novel in verse, is the namesake of Emily Dickenson. When her parents named her, they scarcely could have realized how significant their name choice would be to the infant, whom they adopted from China, as she came to consciousness gra

My Beloved Monster, Masha, the Half-Wild Rescue Cat who Rescued Me by Caleb Carr   As I began this saga of man and cat, I kept wondering what seemed so familiar in the style.  I had read other books by Caleb, but that familiarity was not it.  I also found myself hearing the text in the voice of Vinc

Sisters by Michael Polowetzky 70’s or 80’s.  Sisters is a prequel to Michael’s earlier book, Messenger.  Again we are in the world of devout and intelligent women who are eager to devote their lives to service to God and humankind.  The story unfolds mainly in a convent in the Pyrenees.  The charact

Untangling Blackness in Greek Antiquity by Sarah F. Derbew.  If you think that scholarship, particularly scholarship of ancient relics and literary works, is dry and tedious, think again.  Sarah Derbew’s journey back and forth through time will acquaint you with, among many other things, clay artifa

Getting Over Tom by Abigail Thomas ’59. If you have read anything I have written about Abigail Thomas, you know that I am a fan.  I want to read everything she has written.  This book of short stories, the first volume she published, probes the subtleties and complexities of being part of families t

Children of Light, Friends Seminary 1786-1986 by Nancy Gibbs ’77. This invaluable history of the school sprang from a happy coincidence: Joyce McCray’s tenure as principal at the time of the bicentennial of the school and the availability of such a promising young writer and alum as Nancy Gibbs.

Conversations with People who Hate Me by Dylan Marron ’06. The internet came along too late for me. I use it, of course, to get information and to contact people, but when I encounter a book that is steeped in this alternate universe I begin to see the possibilities it offers. Dylan does podcasts

September 17, a novel by Amanda West Lewis                   This book is based on fact. On September 17, 1940, a ship called the City of Benares, carrying among its passengers 90 children went down en route from England to Canada. Only 13 children survived this tragic attack by the Germans. We see

These are not the Words By Amanda West Lewis early 60’s   These are not the Words is a lyrical portrayal of growing up in Stuyvesant Town and attending Friends Seminary and then having that idyllic childhood disrupted on the magnitude of being cast out of the Garden of Eden.  Missy, the poetic prota

Bardo By Emily Gallo ‘67   Stepping into one of Emily Gallo’s novels is like meeting up with old friends.  Bardo is the fifth of her books that I have read, and characters I met before reappear in surprising ways.  Minor characters in one book come into the spotlight in another. Luther, who was fina

Frame by Frame A Materialist Aesthetic of Animated Cartoons by Hannah Frank (early 2000’s?)   A scholarly work about cartoons might seem a bit contradictory, but Hannah approaches the period between 1920 and 1960, when cartoons were hand-drawn, and the period that followed, when Xerography speeded

The Inner Coast by Donovan Holn ff.    Donovan proves that it is not the subject matter that counts in the creation of a great essay. Rather it is a mind pitted against a puzzle. In the tradition fathered by 16thcentury Montaigne, the essays in this book invite you to examen with the author from eve

Quiet Violet Finds her Voice by Gabrielle Nidus ’93?  If you were a quiet child or if you are the parent of a quiet child, you will be heartened by this gift of loving kindness.  Violet’s longing to be visible to her peer group is countered by her inherent bashfulness.  She is a talented cook and wh

Winning Fixes Everything by Evan Drellich ‘04 This book is about baseball, but don’t expect a romance about the boys of summer or the field of dreams.  Baseball, it turns out, is a business and a rather cut-throat one at that. The front office, where every trick imaginable is dreamed up to bring a

America on Two Wheels, Biking Coast to Coast in Search of Human Stories by David King ’96.  Human stories are actually what David King finds as he bikes across the country from San Diego to Miami.  What he seeks takes a number of forms during his introspective musings as he pedals along: adventure,

Listening is an Act of Love, A Celebration of American Life from the StoryCorps Project by Dave Isay. StoryCorps is among the most significant and far-reaching accomplishments of any Friends Seminary Alum. In addition to the many uplifting, heart wrenching and captivating stories in this volume, t

The Matrix, Poems: 1960-1970 by N. H. Pritchard ff. When I first came to Friends Seminary, Norman Pritchard was Poet in Residence. I don’t know of anyone else who ever served in that capacity. He floated about the school in a long white robe; I thought of him earlier this year when I passed throu

Pippin, book by Roger O, Hirson ‘43 I have wanted to read this play for a long time but could only find the music; Roger Hirson wrote the book.  Recently someone posted a PDF of the whole play, and I was happy to have a chance to read the part of the work that was Hirson’s creation.  This alum had

The Widow’s Crayon Box, Poems by Molly Peacock ff The Anna Karenina principle might have merit, that all happy families are alike, but when one member dies, say one member of a marriage, the similarity, along with some of the happiness, passes through a prism and splits into an array of variation. 

In Captivity by Camille Guthrie ff. Inspired by the Medieval tapestries of the Hunt of the Unicorn in the Cloisters, Camille frames human experience as a hunt in various forms, some obvious and some shrouded in ambiguity. Mesmerizing and complex, this collection of poems captivates the reader with

Out of Ukraine by Emily Gallo              Darwin’s theory puts forward the idea that life is motivated by two impulses: survival and reproduction.  This exciting novel explores just how far the quest to reproduce will go. After the tragic death of their child Chloe, who contracted cancer as a todd

Ngongo Chronicle by Ron Singer te. This is the third in a trilogy about Africa.  The other two works, commented on at this site, are Uhuru Revisited and The Real Presence. This book has not yet been published but I was lucky enough to get a copy in advance and hope it will be available to readers ve

What is Juneteenth?  By Kirsti Jewel Peters f. This book will put young readers on a path toward reading to find answers to questions.  Now that Juneteenth has become a national holiday, they (and many adults) will wonder why is it so important?  Where did the word “Juneteenth” come from?  How shoul

Idlewild by James Frankie Thomas, maybe’03. Idlewild is a small Quaker school on Fifteenth Street in Manhattan.  Fifteenth, Sixteenth, who’s counting? It would be tempting to treat this novel as a roman a clef, and once in a while communal moments at Friends Seminary do poke through the fictional sc

There’s a Mystery There, The Primal Vision of Maurice Sendak by Jonathan Cott ’62.  Maurice Sendak was a great admirer of Melville, so it is fitting that Jonathan Cott takes the title of this work, which is mostly about Sendak’s Outside Over There, from Melville’s Redburn. There is enough mystery in

More Light, Collected Masonic Writings 2017-2021 by Austin Shifrin. These thoughtful essays originally appeared in a Masonic periodical and touch on matters important not just to Masons but to the general reader curious about this oldest of fraternities. They reflect on issues of concern to everyon

Little Wade and Watchtower, Abigail and the Great Gang Trap by Sean Mullan aka Sean March. This novel tumbles young readers (and the rest of us) into the exciting and dangerous world of late nineteenth-century New York, where natural and supernatural forces converge, bringing on a cosmic battle of