Black Lamb

July 2010 in Black Lamb

Volume 8, Number 7 — July 2010

July 1st, 2010

The Black Lamb Review of Books

In this Black Lamb Review of Books, a seventh annual issue devoted entirely to books and reading, editor Terry Ross reflects on his springtime reading, which as included four novels by Frederick Buechner, Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, two books by Jim Harrison, a Forties noir classic, and novels by Wallace Stegner, Edith Wharton, and Frederic Raphael. Greg Roberts reports on the autobiography of Isaac Stephenson, an honest politician vilified during his lifetime.

Toby Tompkins reviews Leonardo Sciascia’s anti-Mafia book The Day of the Owl, and John M. Daniel celebrates the work of Richard Bissell, a minor American classic. Ed Goldberg review five books new and not-so-new, from a Tammy Wynette biography to a guide to European birds, while Joel Hess explains how a serious medical condition gave him the time to catch up on his reading. Dean Suess muses on his latest literary jag, which has immersed him in drama, on stage and on the page, and Elizabeth Fournier reviews a book of funeral recipes.

Our Honorary Black Lambs column offers four new inductees, all of them English, or nearly so: Czech-born playwright Tom Stoppard, novelist E.F. Benson, novelist, poet, and translator Robert Graves, and Anglo-French writer Hilaire Belloc. Another literary sampler proffers nine selections from authors mentioned in this issue. Bridge columnist Trixie Barkis borrows two intriguing deals from classic bridge books. Our Black Lamb Recipe is for Lamb with Blackberry Sauce. Advice columnist Millicent Marshall brings us up to date on her own recent reading. And Professor Avram Khan gives us another challenging Black Lamb Word Puzzle.

Posted by: The Editors
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