false 104523 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078m/104523.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078s/104523.jpg Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading. "It's just that there always comes a moment when I'm in the company of others, even my nearest and dearest, when I'd rather be reading a book." In this delightful memoir, Corrigan reveals which books and authors have shaped her own life, from classic works of English literature to hard-boiled detective novels, and everything in between. And in her explorations of the heroes and heroines throughout literary history, Corrigan's love for a good story shines.]]> 104523 4 1654 2005 Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading: Finding and Losing Myself in Books total:299|5:32|4:85|3:108|2:58|1:16| 299 956 733 103 60422 3.20 299 103 16881490 23751 104523 0375709037 9780375709036 94 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078m/104523.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078s/104523.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104523.Leave_Me_Alone_I_m_Reading_Finding_and_Losing_Myself_in_Books 3.20 271 Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading. "It's just that there always comes a moment when I'm in the company of others, even my nearest and dearest, when I'd rather be reading a book." In this delightful memoir, Corrigan reveals which books and authors have shaped her own life, from classic works of English literature to hard-boiled detective novels, and everything in between. And in her explorations of the heroes and heroines throughout literary history, Corrigan's love for a good story shines.]]> 2005 4 2 false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Mar 03 01:37:44 -0800 2008 Mon Mar 03 01:38:59 -0800 2008 more...]]> 17433497 745303 104523 0375709037 9780375709036 94 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078m/104523.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078s/104523.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104523.Leave_Me_Alone_I_m_Reading_Finding_and_Losing_Myself_in_Books 3.20 299 Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading. "It's just that there always comes a moment when I'm in the company of others, even my nearest and dearest, when I'd rather be reading a book." In this delightful memoir, Corrigan reveals which books and authors have shaped her own life, from classic works of English literature to hard-boiled detective novels, and everything in between. And in her explorations of the heroes and heroines throughout literary history, Corrigan's love for a good story shines.]]> 2005 4 2 false Fri Apr 04 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 10 07:44:37 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 29 18:14:44 -0700 2009 http://thebookwormslibrary.com/?p=450]]> 51038082 202005 104523 0375709037 9780375709036 94 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078m/104523.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078s/104523.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104523.Leave_Me_Alone_I_m_Reading_Finding_and_Losing_Myself_in_Books 3.20 299 Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading. "It's just that there always comes a moment when I'm in the company of others, even my nearest and dearest, when I'd rather be reading a book." In this delightful memoir, Corrigan reveals which books and authors have shaped her own life, from classic works of English literature to hard-boiled detective novels, and everything in between. And in her explorations of the heroes and heroines throughout literary history, Corrigan's love for a good story shines.]]> 2005 5 1 false Tue Mar 31 10:49:47 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 31 10:49:53 -0700 2009 I love this book even though it has complicated my life by adding dozens and dozens of books to the list of books I will never have time to read, dammit.

** Maureen Corrigan is related to Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan.
** She once lived a part-time app...more...]]> 50190279 1080484 104523 0375709037 9780375709036 94 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078m/104523.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078s/104523.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104523.Leave_Me_Alone_I_m_Reading_Finding_and_Losing_Myself_in_Books 3.20 299 Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading. "It's just that there always comes a moment when I'm in the company of others, even my nearest and dearest, when I'd rather be reading a book." In this delightful memoir, Corrigan reveals which books and authors have shaped her own life, from classic works of English literature to hard-boiled detective novels, and everything in between. And in her explorations of the heroes and heroines throughout literary history, Corrigan's love for a good story shines.]]> 2005 2 1 false Wed May 09 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Mar 23 11:57:06 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 23 13:27:46 -0700 2009
However, I found the book a little disjointed and less about the joy of reading books in general, less about the transportive effect of books, and more a literary analysis of various books thrown in amongst various autobiograp...more...]]> 65306466 2467151 104523 0375709037 9780375709036 94 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078m/104523.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078s/104523.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104523.Leave_Me_Alone_I_m_Reading_Finding_and_Losing_Myself_in_Books 3.20 299 Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading. "It's just that there always comes a moment when I'm in the company of others, even my nearest and dearest, when I'd rather be reading a book." In this delightful memoir, Corrigan reveals which books and authors have shaped her own life, from classic works of English literature to hard-boiled detective novels, and everything in between. And in her explorations of the heroes and heroines throughout literary history, Corrigan's love for a good story shines.]]> 2005 4 0 false Thu Feb 28 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Jul 28 14:08:36 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 28 14:08:36 -0700 2009 more...]]> 52135095 308471 104523 0375709037 9780375709036 94 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078m/104523.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078s/104523.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104523.Leave_Me_Alone_I_m_Reading_Finding_and_Losing_Myself_in_Books 3.20 299 Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading. "It's just that there always comes a moment when I'm in the company of others, even my nearest and dearest, when I'd rather be reading a book." In this delightful memoir, Corrigan reveals which books and authors have shaped her own life, from classic works of English literature to hard-boiled detective novels, and everything in between. And in her explorations of the heroes and heroines throughout literary history, Corrigan's love for a good story shines.]]> 2005 3 0 false Sun Apr 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 09 18:48:06 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 09 18:52:54 -0700 2009
A cross between lit crit and memoir, Corrigan makes some interesting arguments -- her idea of a Female Extreme Adventure as being something more in...more...]]> 63996411 576203 104523 0375709037 9780375709036 94 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078m/104523.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078s/104523.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104523.Leave_Me_Alone_I_m_Reading_Finding_and_Losing_Myself_in_Books 3.20 299 Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading. "It's just that there always comes a moment when I'm in the company of others, even my nearest and dearest, when I'd rather be reading a book." In this delightful memoir, Corrigan reveals which books and authors have shaped her own life, from classic works of English literature to hard-boiled detective novels, and everything in between. And in her explorations of the heroes and heroines throughout literary history, Corrigan's love for a good story shines.]]> 2005 2 0 false Fri Jul 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 18 11:49:44 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 25 06:22:58 -0700 2009 1 more...]]> 80760101 1428024 386228 0375504257 9780375504259 9 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174355768m/386228.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174355768s/386228.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/386228.Leave_Me_Alone_I_m_Reading_Finding_and_Losing_Myself_in_Books 3.21 28
Part memoir, part coming-of-age story, and part reflection on favorite and influential books, Leave Me Alone, I’m Reading views the world through an open book. From her unpretentious girlhood in the working-class neighborhood of Sunnyside, Queens, to her bemused years in an Ivy League Ph.D. program, from the whirl of falling in love and marrying (a fellow bookworm, of course), to the ordeal of adopting a baby overseas, Corrigan has always had a book at her side.

We read this life in reverse as Corrigan begins the book as a “professional reader” always conscious of the many people, like her own mother, who don’t “get” the power of reading, and we end up as a fly on the wall of this only child in Queens, transported to exciting yet threatening worlds beyond her small apartment, a block from the #7 subway.

Corrigan’s references range from Richard Wright to Philip Roth to Chekhov, but certain themes emerge. Corrigan subverts the classic “man conquers mountain or ocean or battlefield” genre by juxtaposing it with what she calls “female extreme adventure novels”–books such as Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, the Collected Poems of Stevie Smith, and Anna Quindlen’s Black and Blue, which feature women quietly fighting for their lives.

Hard-boiled detective stories that cloak social criticisms of work and family beneath their protagonist’s trench coat–-Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers, Sara Paretsky’s mysteries–are another abiding passion. More surprising, and perhaps more revealing, is her taste for tales of Catholic martyrs and secular saints, a holdover from her days in parochial school that left an indelible impression.

Moving from page to life and back again, Corrigan writes ultimately of fashioning a complicated, sometimes contradictory self out of her class background, her classroom teaching, and her own classics of literature; a list of favorite books is also included. In Leave Me Alone, I’m Reading, Maureen Corrigan invites us to accompany her on the journey of a lifetime.]]> 2005 4 0 false Tue Dec 15 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Dec 12 09:47:19 -0800 2009 Wed Dec 23 09:30:05 -0800 2009 more...]]> 1582160 57852 104523 0375709037 9780375709036 94 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078m/104523.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078s/104523.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104523.Leave_Me_Alone_I_m_Reading_Finding_and_Losing_Myself_in_Books 3.20 299 Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading. "It's just that there always comes a moment when I'm in the company of others, even my nearest and dearest, when I'd rather be reading a book." In this delightful memoir, Corrigan reveals which books and authors have shaped her own life, from classic works of English literature to hard-boiled detective novels, and everything in between. And in her explorations of the heroes and heroines throughout literary history, Corrigan's love for a good story shines.]]> 2005 1 1 false Fri Jun 01 07:48:13 -0700 2007 Mon Jun 11 07:51:10 -0700 2007 74391450 2785143 104523 0375709037 9780375709036 94 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078m/104523.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078s/104523.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104523.Leave_Me_Alone_I_m_Reading_Finding_and_Losing_Myself_in_Books 3.20 299 Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading. "It's just that there always comes a moment when I'm in the company of others, even my nearest and dearest, when I'd rather be reading a book." In this delightful memoir, Corrigan reveals which books and authors have shaped her own life, from classic works of English literature to hard-boiled detective novels, and everything in between. And in her explorations of the heroes and heroines throughout literary history, Corrigan's love for a good story shines.]]> 2005 0 0 false Tue Oct 13 09:28:26 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 13 09:28:30 -0700 2009
[Maureen Corrigan:]'s enthusiasm for the novels of Susan Isaacs reflects her winning openness to popular fiction. She calls Isaacs "Jane Austen with a schmear" and judges her "one of our great underappreciated cont...more...]]> 82124525 310055 104523 0375709037 9780375709036 94 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078m/104523.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078s/104523.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104523.Leave_Me_Alone_I_m_Reading_Finding_and_Losing_Myself_in_Books 3.20 299 Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading. "It's just that there always comes a moment when I'm in the company of others, even my nearest and dearest, when I'd rather be reading a book." In this delightful memoir, Corrigan reveals which books and authors have shaped her own life, from classic works of English literature to hard-boiled detective novels, and everything in between. And in her explorations of the heroes and heroines throughout literary history, Corrigan's love for a good story shines.]]> 2005 3 0 false Mon Dec 21 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Dec 26 18:39:36 -0800 2009 Sat Dec 26 18:45:17 -0800 2009 more...]]> 73930021 247896 104523 0375709037 9780375709036 94 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078m/104523.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078s/104523.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104523.Leave_Me_Alone_I_m_Reading_Finding_and_Losing_Myself_in_Books 3.20 299 Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading. "It's just that there always comes a moment when I'm in the company of others, even my nearest and dearest, when I'd rather be reading a book." In this delightful memoir, Corrigan reveals which books and authors have shaped her own life, from classic works of English literature to hard-boiled detective novels, and everything in between. And in her explorations of the heroes and heroines throughout literary history, Corrigan's love for a good story shines.]]> 2005 3 0 false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 08 20:24:25 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 25 20:45:41 -0700 2009
As someone who wasn't very familiar with the genres discussed in this book, I didn't get a ton out of it. This was a book that was decent, but I didn't enjoy through no real fault ...more...]]> 41631940 1913975 104523 0375709037 9780375709036 94 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078m/104523.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078s/104523.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104523.Leave_Me_Alone_I_m_Reading_Finding_and_Losing_Myself_in_Books 3.20 299 Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading. "It's just that there always comes a moment when I'm in the company of others, even my nearest and dearest, when I'd rather be reading a book." In this delightful memoir, Corrigan reveals which books and authors have shaped her own life, from classic works of English literature to hard-boiled detective novels, and everything in between. And in her explorations of the heroes and heroines throughout literary history, Corrigan's love for a good story shines.]]> 2005 4 0 false Fri Jan 02 13:25:44 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 02 13:26:28 -0800 2009 more...]]> 72805317 275015 104523 0375709037 9780375709036 94 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078m/104523.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078s/104523.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104523.Leave_Me_Alone_I_m_Reading_Finding_and_Losing_Myself_in_Books 3.20 299 Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading. "It's just that there always comes a moment when I'm in the company of others, even my nearest and dearest, when I'd rather be reading a book." In this delightful memoir, Corrigan reveals which books and authors have shaped her own life, from classic works of English literature to hard-boiled detective novels, and everything in between. And in her explorations of the heroes and heroines throughout literary history, Corrigan's love for a good story shines.]]> 2005 3 0 false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 28 14:21:24 -0700 2009 Thu Nov 05 10:51:10 -0800 2009 My favorite section of the book was her discussion of detective...more...]]> 38889291 901266 104523 0375709037 9780375709036 94 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078m/104523.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078s/104523.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104523.Leave_Me_Alone_I_m_Reading_Finding_and_Losing_Myself_in_Books 3.20 299 Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading. "It's just that there always comes a moment when I'm in the company of others, even my nearest and dearest, when I'd rather be reading a book." In this delightful memoir, Corrigan reveals which books and authors have shaped her own life, from classic works of English literature to hard-boiled detective novels, and everything in between. And in her explorations of the heroes and heroines throughout literary history, Corrigan's love for a good story shines.]]> 2005 4 0 false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Nov 29 14:25:00 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 06 06:26:32 -0800 2008 more...]]> 13028118 301501 104523 0375709037 9780375709036 94 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078m/104523.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078s/104523.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104523.Leave_Me_Alone_I_m_Reading_Finding_and_Losing_Myself_in_Books 3.20 299 Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading. "It's just that there always comes a moment when I'm in the company of others, even my nearest and dearest, when I'd rather be reading a book." In this delightful memoir, Corrigan reveals which books and authors have shaped her own life, from classic works of English literature to hard-boiled detective novels, and everything in between. And in her explorations of the heroes and heroines throughout literary history, Corrigan's love for a good story shines.]]> 2005 2 0 false Tue Feb 19 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 21 00:07:28 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 19 12:44:51 -0800 2008
For me the only redeeming fa...more...]]> 8673122 547639 104523 0375709037 9780375709036 94 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078m/104523.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078s/104523.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104523.Leave_Me_Alone_I_m_Reading_Finding_and_Losing_Myself_in_Books 3.20 299 Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading. "It's just that there always comes a moment when I'm in the company of others, even my nearest and dearest, when I'd rather be reading a book." In this delightful memoir, Corrigan reveals which books and authors have shaped her own life, from classic works of English literature to hard-boiled detective novels, and everything in between. And in her explorations of the heroes and heroines throughout literary history, Corrigan's love for a good story shines.]]> 2005 4 0 false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Nov 04 19:08:05 -0800 2007 Sun Dec 09 20:51:05 -0800 2007 I was drawn in immediately by Corrigan's analysis of the female extreme adventure tale, particu...more...]]> 24683029 341014 386228 0375504257 9780375504259 9 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174355768m/386228.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174355768s/386228.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/386228.Leave_Me_Alone_I_m_Reading_Finding_and_Losing_Myself_in_Books 3.20 299
Part memoir, part coming-of-age story, and part reflection on favorite and influential books, Leave Me Alone, I’m Reading views the world through an open book. From her unpretentious girlhood in the working-class neighborhood of Sunnyside, Queens, to her bemused years in an Ivy League Ph.D. program, from the whirl of falling in love and marrying (a fellow bookworm, of course), to the ordeal of adopting a baby overseas, Corrigan has always had a book at her side.

We read this life in reverse as Corrigan begins the book as a “professional reader” always conscious of the many people, like her own mother, who don’t “get” the power of reading, and we end up as a fly on the wall of this only child in Queens, transported to exciting yet threatening worlds beyond her small apartment, a block from the #7 subway.

Corrigan’s references range from Richard Wright to Philip Roth to Chekhov, but certain themes emerge. Corrigan subverts the classic “man conquers mountain or ocean or battlefield” genre by juxtaposing it with what she calls “female extreme adventure novels”–books such as Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, the Collected Poems of Stevie Smith, and Anna Quindlen’s Black and Blue, which feature women quietly fighting for their lives.

Hard-boiled detective stories that cloak social criticisms of work and family beneath their protagonist’s trench coat–-Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers, Sara Paretsky’s mysteries–are another abiding passion. More surprising, and perhaps more revealing, is her taste for tales of Catholic martyrs and secular saints, a holdover from her days in parochial school that left an indelible impression.

Moving from page to life and back again, Corrigan writes ultimately of fashioning a complicated, sometimes contradictory self out of her class background, her classroom teaching, and her own classics of literature; a list of favorite books is also included. In Leave Me Alone, I’m Reading, Maureen Corrigan invites us to accompany her on the journey of a lifetime.]]> 2005 2 0 false Wed Jun 18 10:33:05 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 16 21:58:39 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 18 10:33:05 -0700 2008
In this book she focuses on Women's Adventure stories, Catholic martyr stories, and mysteries. I don't enjoy ANY of those genre....more...]]> 71291550 2373480 104523 0375709037 9780375709036 94 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078m/104523.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078s/104523.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104523.Leave_Me_Alone_I_m_Reading_Finding_and_Losing_Myself_in_Books 3.20 299 Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading. "It's just that there always comes a moment when I'm in the company of others, even my nearest and dearest, when I'd rather be reading a book." In this delightful memoir, Corrigan reveals which books and authors have shaped her own life, from classic works of English literature to hard-boiled detective novels, and everything in between. And in her explorations of the heroes and heroines throughout literary history, Corrigan's love for a good story shines.]]> 2005 0 0 false Tue Sep 15 09:29:31 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 15 09:31:59 -0700 2009 0
Book Lover's Pick
NPR'S Fresh Air book reviewer Maureen Corrigan is passionate, funny, and sometimes offbeat in her writing about what she knows: books, books, books, and growing up Catholic in Queens, New York. In her descriptions and comments, yo...more...]]> 39015001 1616834 104523 0375709037 9780375709036 94 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078m/104523.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171513078s/104523.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104523.Leave_Me_Alone_I_m_Reading_Finding_and_Losing_Myself_in_Books 3.20 299 Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading. "It's just that there always comes a moment when I'm in the company of others, even my nearest and dearest, when I'd rather be reading a book." In this delightful memoir, Corrigan reveals which books and authors have shaped her own life, from classic works of English literature to hard-boiled detective novels, and everything in between. And in her explorations of the heroes and heroines throughout literary history, Corrigan's love for a good story shines.]]> 2005 2 0 false Thu Dec 11 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 01 06:44:19 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 11 06:42:34 -0800 2008 more...]]> 8 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=104523