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.

Discussion

Reading Goals for 2023

Overall, I was pleased with the way my year of reading 2022 turned out. Therefore, in setting my reading goals for 2023, I’m going to follow the general outline of last year’s post: Like last year, I’m going to continue in 2023 to avoid focusing on mere productivity (such as number of books or pages read). […]

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Last Week's Links

Literary Links

You Can Watch ‘Kaleidoscope’ Episodes in Any Order. A Complete Guide I love novels with unusual structures. So when I read that the episodes of Netflix’s new drama Kaleidoscope could be viewed in any order, I had to check it out. This article from CNET discusses how several choices can affect the way viewers experience the

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stack of 3 books plus open book with pen. Title: Top Ten Tuesday

Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2023

Today’s topic is My Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2023. By far the one I’m most looking forward to is the April release of Alafair Burke’s continuation of Mary Higgins Clark’s 1975 novel Where Are the Children?  Below are my choices, listed in order of release date. Included is a short

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Last Week's Links

Literary Links

Authors Who Write Outstanding Mystery Series and Stellar Standalones One question that comes up periodically on book blogs is this: Do you prefer to read series or standalone novels? But this article by novelist Alicia Beckman reminded me that there’s also another side to this question: Do authors prefer to write series or standalone books?

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Book covers: Beach Read by Emily Henry; Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan; The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline; Exiles by Jane Harper; The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield; A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki; The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

6 Degrees of Separation: A Very Short Journey

Beach Read by Emily Henry is this month’s starting point:  “ A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters. Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews

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stack of 3 books plus open book with pen. Title: Top Ten Tuesday

#TopTenTuesday : The Best Books I Read in 2022

Goodreads insists that I read 44 books in 2022, but my records indicate 46. Whichever number is correct, here are the best ones: 10 best + 5 honorable mention. Listed alphabetically by author’s last name. The 10 Best Connelly, Michael. Desert Star This latest installment in Connelly’s overlapping Harry Bosch/Renée Ballard series finds the detectives

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Celebrate National Science Fiction Day!

Today is National Science Fiction Day here in the United States. Science fiction touches so many different areas of literature that most people can find one area that they love. Science fiction can include stories based in space with aliens like E.T. or space battles like Star Wars. The genre also can include time travel,

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fireworks: Happy New Year

Literary Links

Happy New Year! Welcome to the first blog post of the year! NaJoWriMo Journal Writing Challenge Starts January 1st I know a lot of book bloggers are also writers. Many participate in NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, every November. Since I don’t write fiction, I’ve always been a little jealous. But, if you write in

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