Maureen Corrigan

A lot of her poems are rueful odes to how tough it was for a smart, celebrated literary woman to find love. So how fun to discover other, lesser-known poems that are sassier. Here's one called Fighting Words that veers away from female martyrdom. Say my love is easy had. Say I'm bitten raw with pride. Say I am too often sad. Still behold me at your side. Say I'm neither brave nor young.

Say I woo and coddle care. Say the devil touched my tongue. Still you have my heart to wear. But say my verses do not scan, and I get me another man. If Parker's voice embodies the wisecracking ethos of the 1920s, the humor of British-born novelist Camilla Barnes is more in the droll, psychologically astute tradition of a Barbara Pym novel. Barnes' debut is called The Usual Desire to Kill.

Say I woo and coddle care. Say the devil touched my tongue. Still you have my heart to wear. But say my verses do not scan, and I get me another man. If Parker's voice embodies the wisecracking ethos of the 1920s, the humor of British-born novelist Camilla Barnes is more in the droll, psychologically astute tradition of a Barbara Pym novel. Barnes' debut is called The Usual Desire to Kill.

Say I woo and coddle care. Say the devil touched my tongue. Still you have my heart to wear. But say my verses do not scan, and I get me another man. If Parker's voice embodies the wisecracking ethos of the 1920s, the humor of British-born novelist Camilla Barnes is more in the droll, psychologically astute tradition of a Barbara Pym novel. Barnes' debut is called The Usual Desire to Kill.

It's what two sisters here, Charlotte and Miranda, acknowledge that that's what they feel whenever they visit their eccentric, exhausting, retired parents at their tumble-down farmhouse in rural France. Mum, a homemaker, is described by Miranda as looking like a piece of low-slung Victorian furniture. Dad, a former philosophy professor, lives in his head.

It's what two sisters here, Charlotte and Miranda, acknowledge that that's what they feel whenever they visit their eccentric, exhausting, retired parents at their tumble-down farmhouse in rural France. Mum, a homemaker, is described by Miranda as looking like a piece of low-slung Victorian furniture. Dad, a former philosophy professor, lives in his head.

It's what two sisters here, Charlotte and Miranda, acknowledge that that's what they feel whenever they visit their eccentric, exhausting, retired parents at their tumble-down farmhouse in rural France. Mum, a homemaker, is described by Miranda as looking like a piece of low-slung Victorian furniture. Dad, a former philosophy professor, lives in his head.

Here's Miranda talking about her father's way of relating to the ducks, cats, chickens, and llamas who live on the farm. They were not pets. He didn't interfere in their lives in the same way he didn't interfere in his daughter's lives. He was just not very good at being interested in other living creatures, particularly if they only had two legs. The more legs, the better, he would say.

Here's Miranda talking about her father's way of relating to the ducks, cats, chickens, and llamas who live on the farm. They were not pets. He didn't interfere in their lives in the same way he didn't interfere in his daughter's lives. He was just not very good at being interested in other living creatures, particularly if they only had two legs. The more legs, the better, he would say.

Here's Miranda talking about her father's way of relating to the ducks, cats, chickens, and llamas who live on the farm. They were not pets. He didn't interfere in their lives in the same way he didn't interfere in his daughter's lives. He was just not very good at being interested in other living creatures, particularly if they only had two legs. The more legs, the better, he would say.

He would be happier living with a spider than with mom if the spider could cook. A millipede would be paradise. The pair met in Oxford in the early 60s and married after their first real date resulted in an unplanned pregnancy. For more than 50 years, they've been nattering at each other, sunk deep into a marriage that Miranda describes as a game of stubbornness versus pedantry.

He would be happier living with a spider than with mom if the spider could cook. A millipede would be paradise. The pair met in Oxford in the early 60s and married after their first real date resulted in an unplanned pregnancy. For more than 50 years, they've been nattering at each other, sunk deep into a marriage that Miranda describes as a game of stubbornness versus pedantry.

He would be happier living with a spider than with mom if the spider could cook. A millipede would be paradise. The pair met in Oxford in the early 60s and married after their first real date resulted in an unplanned pregnancy. For more than 50 years, they've been nattering at each other, sunk deep into a marriage that Miranda describes as a game of stubbornness versus pedantry.

The constant pleasure of reading The Usual Desire to Kill is Barnes' unexpected language. A bed with a hard mattress is likened to sleeping on old toast. Dried eggs, which the father recalls eating during World War II, are said to have tasted a bit like dandruff.

The constant pleasure of reading The Usual Desire to Kill is Barnes' unexpected language. A bed with a hard mattress is likened to sleeping on old toast. Dried eggs, which the father recalls eating during World War II, are said to have tasted a bit like dandruff.

The constant pleasure of reading The Usual Desire to Kill is Barnes' unexpected language. A bed with a hard mattress is likened to sleeping on old toast. Dried eggs, which the father recalls eating during World War II, are said to have tasted a bit like dandruff.

But as the story of their parents' lives comes to the fore through old letters and other narrative devices, it's evident that, much as Charlotte and Miranda have always felt unseen by their odd parents, they in turn don't really know those parents, not in full. None of us do, given that we mostly only hear selective stories of our parents' early lives.

But as the story of their parents' lives comes to the fore through old letters and other narrative devices, it's evident that, much as Charlotte and Miranda have always felt unseen by their odd parents, they in turn don't really know those parents, not in full. None of us do, given that we mostly only hear selective stories of our parents' early lives.

But as the story of their parents' lives comes to the fore through old letters and other narrative devices, it's evident that, much as Charlotte and Miranda have always felt unseen by their odd parents, they in turn don't really know those parents, not in full. None of us do, given that we mostly only hear selective stories of our parents' early lives.

The sharpest humor is always grounded in some pain. Parker and Barnes both affirm that familiar truth. Reading these very different, very funny books boosted my spirits and lowered my tight shoulders.