A bluish-green rectangle with drawings of leaves in various shades of yellow, orange, and brown. Superimposed is a smaller rectangle of the same bluish-green color. Text: Nonfiction November Week 2: 11/4/24 - 11/8/24. Choosing Nonfiction hosted by Volatile Rune

Nonfiction November Week 2: Choosing Nonfiction

Week 2 (11/4-11/8) Choosing Nonfiction: What are you looking for when you pick up a nonfiction book? Do you have a particular topic you’re attracted to? Do you have a particular writing style that works best? When you look at a nonfiction book, does the title or cover influence you? If so, share a title […]

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Last Week's Links

Literary Links

‘Each bears his own ghosts’: How the classics speak to these days of fear, anger and presidential candidates stalking the land You thought Spooky Season ended at midnight on October 31? Here in the U.S., Rachel Hadas, professor of English at Rutgers University, writes, “A week before the election, everyone seems to be afraid.”  “Our

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Collage of book covers: Intermezzo by Sally Rooney; The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker; Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg; The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig; Summer of '49 by David Halberstam; The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon; Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

6 Degrees of Word-Association Separation

The starting point for this month’s 6 Degrees of Separation challenge is Sally Rooney’s latest release, Intermezzo. I keep meaning to read Sally Rooney’s works, but, you know, “so many books, so little time.” So I’m going to begin this exercise with word association first degree Intermezzo immediately reminded me of the title The Mezzanine

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A small black open container, holding a white votive candle, with 4 orange-and-black bent legs on each side. Title: Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

For your Halloween enjoyment, I offer this fascinating article: Witches around the world “The belief in witches is an almost universal feature of human societies. What does it reveal about our deepest fears?” Gregory Forthis, retired professor of anthropology at the University of Alberta and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, has spent

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Bluish-green rectangle with leaves in shades of brown and gold. Text: Nonfiction November Week 1: 10/28/24 to 11/1/24. Your Year in Nonfiction hosted by Based on a True Story

Nonfiction November Week 1: My Year in Nonfiction

Because I have a personal penchant for alliteration, I’ve been reading nonfiction in November for the past few years. Only a couple of months ago did I discover that Nonfiction November is An Actual Thing, an established book-blogging meme: Announcing Nonfiction November I apologize to the hosts for not acknowledging them in past years, and

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A stack of 3 closed books, next to an open notebook on which rests a ballpoint pen. Text: Literary Links: Life Stories in Literature

Literary Links: Life Stories in Literature

Usha Vance Is Reading The Iliad, a Poem About Male Rage. Its Famous Translator Sees Irony. “JD Vance’s wife is reading a more than 800-page book about men fighting to control women’s bodies, waging war, and ‘refusing to accept a loss.’” This article ticks off so many Life Stories in Literature patterns: rewriting history, giving

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Last Week's Links

Literary Links

Echoes of the Past in Crime Fiction Clinical psychologist and novelist Lucy Burdette understands exactly what I value most about crime fiction: we humans are always affected by our history. Our families shape our stories with their presence or absence, their quirks and patterns, their healthy traits and unhealthy, and sometimes their serious trauma. We

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Last Week's Links

Literary Links

To read or not to read: Does COVID-19 belong in our books? Logan Brown, an arts writer for The Michigan Daily, writes the “ability to escape into another world is an essential requirement for me to like a book — when I am reminded of my own reality that escape is often broken.” She then

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Last Week's Links

Literary Links

Books Aren’t Mental Movies: You’re Missing the Best Part of Reading BookRiot writer Danika Ellis caught my attention with this opening paragraph: Sometimes, when people describe what they love about reading, it feels like we’re doing two very different activities. They talk about a movie playing out in their mind’s eye as they read, imagined

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Collage of book covers: Long Island by Colm Toibin; Sag Harbor by Colin Whitehead; The Last House Guest by Megan Miranda; The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir; Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson; Night Woman by Nancy Price; The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud

6 Degrees of Separation

This month’s starting point is Colm Tóibín’s Long Island. Here’s the description from Goodreads: From the beloved, critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author comes a spectacularly moving and intense novel of secrecy, misunderstanding, and love, the story of Eilis Lacey, the complex and enigmatic heroine of Brooklyn, Tóibín’s most popular work, twenty years later.

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