Review

book review

“Finding Me” by Viola Davis

The book is not so much a triumphant tale of overcoming adversity as a howl of fury at the injustice of it all. —the Guardian In this candid memoir Viola Davis details her journey from desperate childhood poverty in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to becoming one of the finest actors working today. “I learned from […]

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book review

“The Art of X-Ray Reading”

I picked this book up because I interpreted the description to mean I’d get a refresher course in the kind of slow, close reading we spent our time on in grad school. Clark’s stated purpose is to help writers “learn their best moves” by observing how literary writers have used language to produce “the effects

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feature: Life Stories in Literature

Review: ”The Ten Thousand Doors of January”

I loved this fantasy, a coming-of-age tale based on an epic search for lost love, a place to call home, and the power of stories. We first meet the protagonist, January Scaller, at the beginning of the 20th century, when she’s seven years old.  She lives with a guardian: Mr. William Cornelius Locke, self-made not-quite-billionaire,

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book review

“Where Are the Children Now?”

Related Post: In 1975 Mary Higgins Clark published her first suspense novel, Where Are the Children? Over the ensuing years she published 55 more books, all of which were best sellers, according to her publisher Simon & Schuster, that earned her the title Queen of Suspense. During her career she partnered with her daughter, Carol

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feature: Life Stories in Literature

Review: “The Time Has Come” by Will Leitch

“ Lindburgh’s Pharmacy is an Athens, Georgia, institution—the type of beloved mom and pop shop that once dotted every American town but has mostly disappeared. But Lindburgh’s has recently become the object of attention of a local third grade teacher Tina Lamm (“Ms. Lamm to my students”). Tina is certain something very, very bad is

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Last Week's Links

Literary Links

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.

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Last Week's Links

Literary Links

What I Learned About Writing From Reviewing Bethanne Patrick writes, “I believe in both author and reader as partners in a delicate dance. The author wants to speak; the reader wants to listen. I’ve occupied both roles.”  Having been both a critic and a writer, Patrick here offers some advice for writers. Categories: Literary Criticism,

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feature: Life Stories in Literature

2 Novels About Communities

This novel well deserves the recognition it received: ITW Thriller Award Nominee for Hardcover Novel (2021), Los Angeles Times Book Prize Nominee for Mystery/Thriller (2020), Edgar Award Nominee for Best Novel (2021). Set in Los Angeles, it tells the stories of women who represent the outcasts, the marginalized and the expendable members of society. West

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feature: Life Stories in Literature

Review: “The Rose Code” by Kate Quinn

“ The year 1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. Vivacious debutante Osla is the girl who has everything – beauty, wealth, and the dashing Prince Philip of Greece

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book review

2 Recent Audio Reviews

I’m a fair-weather walker. Here in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. we finally started having what I consider to be fair enough weather to walk in around the first of April. And walking means audiobooks. Here are reviews of two that I completed recently. “ An innocent father serving life for the murder of

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