Too many of you figured out the deliberate error in the Jan. 22 Reading List to list names here — indicating that it was really an easy one. Yes, as you guessed, Rover was not the name of the dog in Call of the Wild. It was Buck.
But we are happy to report that no one has yet figured out the error in the January 29 Reading List. Here’s a hint: It’s a conceptual error, a plot point; not a name gone wrong. So get out your old issues and go to it.
This week, no error (we think), but rather two over-looked contemporary novels worthy of finding in a library and giving a read, about strong mothers and their daughters — in honor of the poised and impressive Chelsea Clinton:
Their Pride and Joy, by Paul Buttenweiser. A superb novel, published in 1987, about how charitable impulses among the rich — the desire to do the greatest good for the greatest number — can lead do-gooders to ignore the crises that can destroy their own families, their on children.
Mrs. Brathe’s August Picnic, by Jacqueline Wheldon. Published in 1965, this English masterpiece concerns a millionaire female industrialist who gives birth to a modern-day Homer — a daughter who is also a brilliant poet and a clear-eyed critic of her mother.
