5 Books that Celebrate Books
This is a list of stories that pay homage to the world of books; whether through the comfort and sanctuary of libraries, the careful crafting of a narrative, or the mysticism and power of books themselves, each contain different versions of the same awe and appreciation of words, stories and imagination.
Categories: Book Recommendations, List, Reading
The Volcano That Shrouded the Earth and Gave Birth to a Monster
This article discusses how one huge weather event affected people around the globe—and contributed to the creation of Frankenstein as “the anti-superhero of modernity—the “Modern Prometheus”—stealer of the gods’ fire.”
Categories: Literature & Culture, Literary History
Confessions of a Closet Novelist
“A nonfiction author turns his attention to his first love: fiction”
Michael Oren, who started his writing career as a poet and screenwriter, explains his journey to writing history and then to fiction:
All of my fiction writing reflects three things about me: the thrill I derive from telling a good story, the joy of drawing on the rich experiences of my life, and the deep satisfaction of exploring the human condition.
Categories: Author News, Writing
Seven Books Where the Setting Exposes the Characters
Heather Hansman examines books that use the setting to crystallize characters:
When writers bring us back to a location that they’ve already visited, they’re employing a useful narrative tool. The contrast with unchanging environments is a clear way to illustrate how a protagonist changes over the years. But it can also be a subtler measuring stick of how secrets simmer, or of how painful, powerful forces such as racial injustice or economic inequality can grind characters down over time. The books below show how a setting can reveal the depth of those tensions, and how people respond to their circumstances at different periods in life—for better or worse.
Categories: Book Recommendations, List, Writing
Howard Zinn at 100: Remembering “The People’s Historian”
Robert Cohen and Sonia Murrow celebrate the centenniel of the birth of Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States (1980). When I was a student at Boston University, Zinn was a well-liked professor in the political science department, although I graduated 10 years before his famous book was published. This article explains how Zinn developed his ideas by analyzing his own experiences as a child of working-class immigrants and the experiences of other people marginalized by war, poverty, and lack of political power. These are the stories that figure in the concept of Life Stories in Literature.
Categories: Life Stories in Literature
These Memes Make Books More Fun
“Or at least they make it easier to choose what to read.”
Anna Grace Lee examines how literary memes and infographics, like these created by Fawzy Taylor, social media and marketing manager of A Room of One’s Own bookstore in Madison, WI, affect peoples’ choices of books to buy and read.
Categories: Bookstores, Reading
© 2022 by Mary Daniels Brown
