A Writing Group’s Writer
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September 8, 2011

A Writing Group’s Writer On August 3rd at 6pm, Buffalo Street Books hosted Leslie Daniels for a discussion of her critically acclaimed novel/fictional memoir, Cleaning Nabokov’s House. (For a review of the book on our blog, follow this link. Or, watch the book trailer here.)The discussion was open to the public, and followed suit with the bookstore’s ongoing commitment to Ithaca’s literary community with their… [Read More]

Peter Nimble: an imaginative theft just short of magical vision
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September 1, 2011

Jonathan Auxier’s debut book, Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, released August 1st by Amulet Books, is an imaginative attempt within the Young Adult (YA) fiction genre. But what appears to be the beginning of an action-and-adventure-filled series starring a persevering and original cast of characters is in reality an imaginative but half-hearted tale foiled by an amateur voice and copycat style. By his own… [Read More]

Ithaca’s Balkan Voice: Tea Obreht, Tiger’s Wife
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August 30, 2011

Tea Obreht, The Tiger’s Wife: A Novel, Random House, March 2011 Grandfather recently died. He died alone on a trip away from home in a town where no one expected him to be. Tea Obreht opens her novel with her protagonist, Natalie, searching to escort her grandfather’s soul home during those 40 days after the spirit passes from the body. Her grandmother is shocked by… [Read More]

Lincoln’s Gift from Homer, New York
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August 25, 2011

Retired teacher and native son of Homer, New York, Martin Sweeney has written a captivating account of three other native sons who played pivotal roles in Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and the United States’ history. Just released from McFarland & Company is Lincoln’s Gift from Homer, New York: A Painter, an Editor and a Detective. The painter, Francis Carpenter, brushed “The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation… [Read More]

A Straight-Edge Education
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August 23, 2011

Until I picked up Eleanor Henderson’s Ten Thousand Saints, I had never heard the term “straight-edge,” much less anything about a movement of it. At first, I thought the world Henderson created was 100% fiction. I could not have been more wrong. This is understandable, as I was born at the tail-end of all the action and, to add salt to the wound, I grew… [Read More]

Without Water
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August 9, 2011

“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water,” W.H. Auden, First Things First. Emotions run high in the issues involving ‘hydrofracking’ in the southern tier of New York State. The Marcellus Shale deposits of natural gas are extracted using the force of water and sand mixed with a secret toxic mix of chemicals to fracture the shale and release the gas. Greed, jealousy, betrayal,… [Read More]

The Spur & The Sash: Love and Displacement in the Civil War
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August 3, 2011

Robert Grede’s first novel has all the makings of a rollicking good story. Based on the life of Sergeant George Van Norman, Grede’s great-great-grandfather, The Spur & The Sash seamlessly combines fiction and fact. The facts, Grede tells us, are these: “Sergeant George Van Norman, a Yankee, was wounded in one of the last battles of the American Civil War, at Nashville(December 15th and 16th,… [Read More]

The End of Country
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July 26, 2011

The End of Country is like many other books that have surfaced in the last five or so years on the scarcity of true wilderness and the abuse of natural resources resulting from corporate greed. Seamus McGraw’s story is frightening, even apocalyptic; after all, Nature’s resources are finite. But it needs to be told and, for many residents in Upstate New York like me, its… [Read More]

The Summer Without Men
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July 12, 2011

Don’t let the jacket copy and title fool you. No chick lit fodder beckons in Siri Hustvedt’s newest fiction: The Summer Without Men (Picador, April 26, 2011). The antics of Mia Fredrickson’s young and turbulent neighbors, the adolescent girls in her poetry workshop, and her mother’s senior circle composed of the wise and nurturing “Five Swans” provides the context for deep intellectual passages and keeps… [Read More]

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
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July 9, 2011

By Bethany Dixon I admit it: I judged this book by its cover. The enigmatic title alone would have pulled me in, but what I noticed was a presentation that would seduce any foodie – a robin’s egg blue background behind three perfect tiers of lemon cake, with chocolate frosting hidden between the layers like a secret. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake tells the… [Read More]