A Year in Books/Day 1: February House

  • Title: February House
  • Author: Sherill Tippins
  • Year Published: 2005 (Houghton Mifflin Company)
  • Year Purchased: 2008
  • Source: Daedalus Books
  • About: The true story of how Carson McCullers, Paul and Jane Bowles, Benjamin Britten, Gypsy Rose Lee and W.H. Auden all came to live under one roof, in a Brooklyn brownstone, during the early 1940’s.
  • Motivation: The combination of Auden and McCullers, and the quirky communal living aspect, was irresistible.
  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page 111: “And now-running after the fire engine, laughing, and shivering in the night air-Carson experienced the moment of illumination for which she had been praying. The key to her novel, the image that would allow her to continue, had emerged at last. “I caught Gypsy’s arm,” she would recall, “and out of breath said, ‘Frankie is in love with her brother and his bride and wants to become a member of the wedding!’
  • Happiness Scale: 7

Project 366: A Year in Books

My goal for A Small Press Life’s version of Project 365 366 is a simple one: to catalogue the vital statistics of one book per day from my collection. I have long been openly fascinated by the psychology of book buying. My own history is full of a long list of complex motivations; I have never, to the best of my memory, chosen a book due to boredom or indifference. As a life-long passionate reader, a sense of excitement has accompanied every ring of the cash register. As the year wears on, I hope to occasionally spotlight others’ books as well. Each entry will show basic information, a random excerpt and a photograph.