My Continued Apologies
The comment glitch on this blog continues. My hosting provider has been helpful in trying to track down the cause.
In the meantime, here’s a work-around that may may work: If you type a comment and hit the “post comment” button, you’ll get the message “submitting comment,” followed by nothing. But, if you manually reload the page, the comment will magically appear. At least that’s what happens for me.
Again, I apologize for this inconvenience. I do value your comments and look forward to restored communication.
10 Best Inspirational Movies About Writing
“. . . the best inspirational movies about writing show both the highs and lows of writing, while also telling a great story,” writes Faith Roswell for ScreenRant. See which 10 movies about writers and their writing process she recommends.
What a psychiatric diagnosis means – and what it doesn’t mean
One aspect of literature that interests me is how fiction presents mental health issues. I recommend this article because, although not specifically about fiction, it discusses several of the many aspects surrounding mental health. Awais Aftab, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, helps us understand the issues at play in a psychistric diagnosis. Particularly important is this statement: “A diagnosis does not describe the essence of a person.”
Against Autofiction: Two Paths for the Internet Novel
This article marks my first experience with the internet magazine Spike. Its About page describes it as “a place for criticism and unconventional ideas, mixing writing on themes urgent and forever unresolved” and “by turns pushy, poetic, unexpected – and not shy to start an argument.”
Here’s the slug for this article:
“The digital era is synonymous with flat, persona-driven fiction. How can literature transcend celebrified Tweets and respond innovatively to the web’s decentered form?”
In the article Conor Truax, a writer based in New York, addresses this question: “How can the novel respond to the internet in a way that’s constructive to the form?” He begins with American novelist Philip Roth’s 2009 lament ““The book can’t compete with the screen.”
This comprehensive literary history contains links to several other thought-provoking related articles.
Book of Kells: A 1,200-year-old manuscript made by monks escaping the Vikings
“The Book of Kells is considered one of the finest surviving medieval manuscripts.”
The 25 Most Influential Cookbooks From the Last 100 Years
From the New York Times:
A cookbook can be a work of cultural anthropology, a historical record, an instruction manual and a vehicle for armchair travel. But what makes a cookbook great? In trying to compile T’s list of the 25 most essential examples written in English over the past 100 years, we prioritized influence — how has a book affected the way we eat, cook, think, talk, photograph and write about food?
Historical Fiction Set In the 1950s
The 1950s was a decade in history filled with rapid change and unforgettable events in the United States and around the globe. But it wasn’t all sock hops and poodle skirts! The world was emerging from World War II with an ever-constant threat of the Cold War with the Soviet Union, and a rise of the Civil Rights movement — just to name a few. Luckily for us, this decade is an excellent source of inspiration for this list of historical fiction set in the 1950s.
There’s an international flavor to this list from Penguin Random House.
How Will the Publishing Industry Respond to Trump 2.0?
The marriage of art and capitalism in publishing has never been an entirely happy one, and conservative imprints — and, of course, conservative readers — are nothing new. What is new is the somewhat abrupt shift in what “conservative” means, or what it’s now acceptable to say out loud about what it means.
America’s literacy crisis isn’t what you think
“This is what happens when kids don’t read for pleasure anymore.”
Anna North, a senior correspondent for Vox, “reached out to educators and literacy scholars to find out how far behind kids really are, and what their reading skills (or lack thereof) mean for their future as voters, news consumers, and citizens of the world.”
Duets review – co-written stories that sing
While successful songwriting partnerships abound, literary fiction created by two or more authors is rare, and short stories produced by two hands are unicorns. Step forward plucky micro-press Scratch Books, which has set out to rectify this situation. Duets is a volume of co-written short stories by some of the genre’s best current practitioners. The results are startling, occasionally baffling, but never less than thrilling.
© 2024 by Mary Daniels Brown
I enjoyed the link about influential cookbooks. I am not much into cooking or cookbooks, but old cookbooks are fascinating. Especially the history of the various editions of The Joy of Cooking. I had one when I first married in 1971 and I wish I still had that book.
Also the list of historical fiction of the 1950s from Penguin. That one would be good to follow up on.
“The Joy of Cooking. I had one when I first married in 1971 and I wish I still had that book.” I was also married in 1971, got that same cookbook, and still have it! Thanks for reading and commenting.
My favorite inspirational movie about writing is The Man Who Wrote Christmas. It’s a delight.