Emily Gray Tedrowe's Blog

How much money do you spend on books per year? This is a delicate question. I’m both willing and unwilling to learn the truth in this matter. But I did a little (very little) number crunching. At this point on 12/10, I’ve read 84 books over the course of 2021. Will probably get into the 90s, if not the big triple digit, by end of year. Of those 84, 18 were checked out from the library. And about 10 were either borrowed or came to me as free review copies. That means that if I bought 54 books in ...

I got hot and cold on Atwood and this one is no exception. Loved the ambiguity around the central (title) character, and the interweaving of women’s lives. But so much backstory, hanging on a thin thread of present action, left me antsy.

If there’s something better than a cold drink and a brand new novel from the singular Margot Livesey, then I don’t know what it is. Started this one and I can already tell it’s a gem. Run, don’t walk.

“Over the course of that first year, these five women knit themselves together into a friend group, a sort of institute within the Institute. They collaborated and debated and celebrated each other’s work. They saw each other as artists first and foremost and in this way differentiated themselves from the more bookish a...

“Then I thought, Fuck a budget. I grew up poor and now I have money, so I’m going to spend it on Chanel nail polishes. I don’t know how you can possibly have joy in your life when you do shit like ‘balance your checkbook’ or ‘pay your minimum balance on time,’ and if doing those awful-sounding things means I can’t see four movies in one weekend, then I don’t ever want to do them. I can’t go to the library. I mean, first of all, what if someone else checked out the book I want? I’m not the o...

Haven’t finished yet, but am thoroughly enjoying. Sometimes you fall into a novel that is pure pleasure derived from excellent craft.

“Too mixed to be a gentleman—but wonderful. The irreplaceable and unrepeatable Boz. The brilliance in the room. The inimitable. And, above and beyond every other description, simply the great, hard-working writer, who set nineteenth-century London before our eyes and who noticed and celebrated the small people living ...

All you really need to know about how much I’m looking forward to THE LYING LIFE OF ADULTS is that I bought the original Italian edition months ago. And I don’t speak or read Italian.

First of all, it’s one of the greatest novel titles that I can think of. And it’s a smart, compelling story that I just loved reading. Last weekend I took it to a bench by a park and read for an hour straight with the greatest of pleasure.

Re: the sex scenes. I thought this comment by Sittenfeld in a recent interview was completely on point: “In the novel, Hillary worked at a legal aid clinic... I have two female friends who are law professors. Both of my friends answered so many questions tha...

Hello folks. I wanted to let you know that I'm now blogging (tumbling?) about all things related to my love of books at a new site: egtedrowe.tumblr.com. I hope you'll check it out. I particularly like to take photos of what I'm reading and where I'm reading it (usually on a bench at a playground), an ongoing series I like to call "reading in the wild." Also: musings on favorite novelists, Twitter meltdowns, inspiring quotes for writers, and how I've decided to hand-write my new novel. I'll post those occasionally here. Thanks!