Introducing the 2024 Reading Log! I’ve been keeping track of the books I’ve read since May 1, 1991, when we got our first computer. I started with a database program, but, over that many years, software has changed multiple times. Every time a program would bite the dust, I’d export my data, then import it […]
Usually Notes in the Margin overflows with stories during December that deal with everything book-related. But we were traveling from mid-September to mid-December. In an effort to catch up with everything I missed during that time, here’s a compendium of literary topics. The Ultimate Best Books of 2023 List “Reading All the Lists So You
My Big, Year-End Catch-Up Post Read More »
Conservative book ban push fuels library exodus from national association that stands up for books This summer, the state libraries in Montana, Missouri and Texas and the local library in Midland, Texas, announced they’re leaving the ALA, with possibly more to come. Right-wing lawmakers in at least nine other states — Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana,
Seven Books for the Lifelong Learner Chelsea Leu suggests seven books that “describe the experience of becoming absorbed by a skill or craft, and deliver insights into what mundane activities—say, playing sports or learning a foreign language—can tell us about how we live today. Look closely enough at any human endeavor, these books suggest, and
How the Essay and the Novel Inform and Influence Each Other Here’s an excerpt from Jane Smiley’s recently published collection of essays, The Questions That Matter Most: Reading, Writing, and the Exercise of Freedom (Heyday Books, 2023): Most of the essays in this book have been assignments—I am handed a topic and asked to reveal
queer indie and self-published books to read during pride month The indie and self-published community offers a great range of identities and diversification that you often can’t find in traditionally published books, but because of people’s prejudice against these books, or because of their laziness in trying to find them, indie books often go unnoticed.
6 Mid-Life Memoirs of Transformative Years “6 Life-Changing Memoirs” “What would it take for you to transform your life? Could you do it in the span of a year or two? Spurred on by loss, career changes, new hobbies — or even a global pandemic — what if your life could become something new? In
‘Little Banned Library’ featuring books removed from schools opening in Houston’s Heights neighborhood Many of the current book challenges are coming out of Florida. Here’s a heartening story about a Little Banned Library erected in a Houston suburb featuring books that have been challenged in or removed from public schools. Be sure to take a
Charles Frazier Wants You to Wait Before Reading the Classics “‘Over the years,’ says the historical novelist, whose new book is ‘The Trackers,’ ‘I’ve come to realize that many great books we were assigned to read in school are far more enjoyable and have more to say when approached later in life.’” I was attracted
A Veteran of the Book-Banning Wars on the Importance of Speaking Out Claudia Johnson is a nationally recognized advocate for free speech, author of Stifled Laughter: One Woman’s Story About Fighting Censorship—nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1994—and winner of the inaugural PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award for her “extraordinary efforts to restore banned literary
