Jimmy Carter: Poet, Novelist, Memoirist, Philosopher
“He wasn’t just prolific, publishing 32 books. His output also showed an unusual range that included memoirs and forays into historical fiction and even poetry.”
The New York Times eulogizes President Jimmy Carter with emphasis on his writing: “Publishing 32 books over the course of his life, he wasn’t simply prolific, as far as former presidents go. His output also displayed an extraordinary range that included historical fiction, poetry and meditations on the meaning of faith and the splendor of nature.”
As a Writer, You Can Never Collect Too Many Endings
When I saw the title of this article, I immediately thought its author must be a fiction writer. He is, but he’s also an essayist and a thinker: “I prefer pausing to look back. I’m less interested in setting out than I am in having arrived. The journeys I take are return trips into memory in search of origin and meaning. Where and when did this story begin? How did I end up here feeling like this? And why?”
The Best Sentences of 2024
If you look back at my December blog posts, you’ll see that I’ve collected lots of lists all year to save up for publication during the darkest and final month. But here’s one I’d never though about: The Best Sentences of the Year. Fortunately Frank Bruni—a writer and professor of journalism at Duke University—has.
How to Turn Surprising Historical Facts Into Compelling Historical Fiction
Brilliant historical fiction novelist Kate Quinn also collects things; in her case, it’s wacky historical facts that she enjoys working into her novels. “Novelists . . . are restricted by what is plausible: will a reader believe this could really happen?” she writes. “Reality knows no such constraints: anything can happen, and usually already has.”
Remember this the next time you read something in a novel and think “That could never happen.”
“A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” Isn’t a Feel-Good New York Story
“Memorialized as the quintessential Brooklyn novel, it is really a book about leaving the borough—and escaping the poverty and brutality of immigrant New York.”
Perri Klass points out since its publication Betty Smith’s enormously popular novel “has often been treated as a kind of feel-good coming-of-age story for girls,” despite the fact that Francie Nolan, the main character, lives in “a world filled with cruelty, danger, and shame, especially for women.”
You Saw the Movie in 2024. Do You Know the Book That Inspired It?
Test yourself with this quiz from Great Adaptations, brought to you by the New York Times Book Review. This challenge focuses on “books that were adapted into biographical movies that were released in the United States sometime in 2024.”
Why does a ball drop on New Year’s Eve?
I’m really calling your attention to the entire blog rather than just this latest piece. John Kelly is fascinated by language in general and by etymology—or “why we call things what we do”—in particular.
The Best Psychological Novels
Psychotherapist turned bestselling author Salley Vickers “recommends five novels that delve into the psychology of the self—and of society.” Vickers, who started out as a teacher of English literature, says, “my principal interest in English literature was, or is, the way it explores human relationships and the psychology of individuals in a way that is very difficult to do in actual life.”
Celebrate the New Year with These 8 Novels About New Beginnings
Our lives are full of new beginnings, sometimes planned, sometimes unexpected. We are creatures of habit, and sometimes it takes outside forces to shake up our lives. That’s what New Year’s is for people — an opportunity to start over. To begin living life… differently.
In honor of the New Year, BookTrib suggests 8 novels about “people who were given the chance to start over.”
© 2025 by Mary Daniels Brown
Newspapers are a treasure trove of weird true stories you couldn’t make up. And trust me–I steal them for my own fiction!
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