Mary Daniels Brown

My mother always insisted that, as soon as I was old enough to sit up, she’d find me in my crib after my nap babbling away, with a Little Golden Book on my lap. I’ve had my nose in a book ever since. I grew up in a small town, with the tiny town library literally in my backyard. As an only child in an unhappy home, I found comfort and companionship in books. As an adult I wanted to be Harry Potter, although I admit I’m more Hermione. My life has been a series of research projects. Reading has taught me that human lives are deliciously messy and that “it’s complicated” isn’t a punchline.

“Disturbances in the Field” by Lynne Sharon Schwartz

Schwartz, Lynne Sharon. Disturbances in the Field    New York: Counterpoint, 1983    ISBN 1-58243-332-1 Highly Recommended We hear a lot about nutritionally dense foods these days. Foods that are nutritionally dense provide high nutritional value in proportion to the calories they contain; they are the opposite of junk food, which delivers high calories with […]

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The All-New Notes in the Margin has been uploaded

About an hour ago I took down the old pages of the Notes in the Margin Web site and uploaded an all-new, streamlined version. For now, the Fiction Notes page is sparse, with no linked reviews for many of the books listed. I apologize for that. I’ll be catching up with the fiction reviews bit

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Troubled book world is going for novel ideas

Troubled book world is going for novel ideas – Los Angeles Times As Book Expo America, the nation’s largest annual book convention, opens today in Los Angeles, innovation — some would say desperation — will be the main order of business. More than 2,000 exhibitors from every facet of the publishing world, nearly 1,000 authors

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RACISM RAMPANT AT ALABAMA SCHOOL

A south Alabama town that was the inspiration for the setting in Harper Lee’s book “To Kill a Mockingbird” is finding itself as the backdrop for a real-life legal case involving allegations of racism at school. The parents of several black junior high school students have filed a discrimination lawsuit claiming their children are subject

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In ‘Bright Shiny Morning,’ James Frey Presents Little Pieces of Los Angeles in His Way

In ‘Bright Shiny Morning,’ James Frey Presents Little Pieces of Los Angeles in His Way – New York Times New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin writes about James Frey’s new novel: He got a second act. He got another chance. Look what he did with it. He stepped up to the plate and hit one

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“The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox” by Maggie O’Farrell

O’Farrell, Maggie. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox    New York: Harcourt, 2006  ISBN 978-0-15-101411-8   Blackstone Audiobooks, narrated by Anne Flosnik Recommended This novel is about family stories–in this case, the truths that don’t get told and the lies that spring up to fill the void–and how those stories reverberate through generations. Iris Lockhart

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50 States of Literature: Heading On Down to Colorado | Columbia Spectator

50 States of Literature: Heading On Down to Colorado | Columbia Spectator The Columbia Spectator cruises into Colorado with Kent Haruf’s novel Plainsong: Here, patches of snow sit among blue mounds of sandhill and dead sunflowers drop their loaded heads onto the black-top roads. In this atmosphere we find a land at once modernized and

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Hoaxes hit bookstores – Los Angeles Times

Hoaxes hit bookstores – Los Angeles Times It’s a scam aimed at independent book stores holding author appearances: Someone calls claiming to be the scheduled author, relates the story of an emergency, and asks the store owner to wire money to Western Union. Most of the events seem to be occurring in southern California. And

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