I have mixed feelings about James by Percival Everett. In general, I am not a fan of fan fiction…in other words, taking an author’s work and adding to it. For instance, I love Geraldine Brooks’s writing (Year of Wonders, Horse, People of the Book), but I refuse to read March because it riffs off of Little Women. If Louisa May Alcott had wanted to write a novel about the father of Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, she would have. After…
Book Challenge by Erin 20.0 is finished! I’m so impressed that Erin has hosted a successful book challenge 20 times. Wow! And now it’s time to compile my reading list for 21.o. (I know, I’m behind schedule. Sigh.) But first, I thought I’d wrap up what I read for Book Challenge by Erin 20.0. Here are the categories and the books I read with some comments: Building on cover: The Hacienda by Isabel Canas I double-dipped by reading this historical…
The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center The Rom-Commers is a delightful new offering from much loved author Katherine Center about a blocked, emotionally distant screenwriter and the romance author called in to ghostwrite his terrible manuscript. (According to our heroine rescue-writer, the screenplay is so terrible that terrible is not a terrible enough word to describe it.) Naturally, the screenwriter rejects help from the romance writer whom he deems unqualified. And the romance writer, unrenowned for compelling reasons of her own,…
Book Review: Ladykiller by Katherine Wood My favorite part of Ladykiller by Katherine Wood is the opening. I love the omniscient, slightly wry writing of the first chapter. I mean how can you go wrong beginning a novel of friendship and secrets and betrayal with a cheetah devouring a warthog? Plus, the opening of Ladykiller really reminded me of the opening of The Group by Mary McCarthy that I loved in my youth–both novels presenting gatherings (a funeral and a…
It’s that time of year for lists. Lists abound. The best restaurants of the year. The best hair salons. The best dog groomers. And the best (or, at least, favorite) books of the year. The folks over at the Shepherd book site gave me (and a bunch of other authors) the opportunity to opine about the three favorite books of 2023. Check out what I said about my three favorite reads. And be sure to check out Shepherd’s listing of the…
It’s book challenge time! It’s been a while since I posted (as in stating the obvious). I’ve been busy. I know, I know, you are, too. Hey, thanks for reading! What have I been up to? you ask. Or even if you didn’t. Writing-wise, I’ve done some lackadaisical agent querying for my upper middle grade novel and am working on my new women’s fiction contemporary WIP. I’m about 20k words into the new novel and now have a BIG pile…
The Puzzle Master by Danielle Trussoni Angie Kim, author of the bestselling novel Miracle Creek, describes The Puzzle Master as “The Da Vinci Code + The Silent Patient + sprinkle of Stephen King.” I can’t speak for The Silent Patient, but I’ve read The Da Vinci Code and my share of Stephen King. After finishing The Puzzle Master I had to think about why Kim references Stephen King and came up with King’s novel The Institute (a fantastic read, by…
Review of Hello Stranger. Joy. Heart. Laughter. That’s what you get when you read a book by Katherine Center. And the author wouldn’t have it any other way. In her essay “Read for Joy,” Center explains, “When I talk about reading for joy, I’m talking about reading from the heart.” Katherine Center continues the joy-heart-laughter triage with her newest novel Hello Stranger. Sadie is a struggling portrait artist living in the rooftop storage room of an apartment building owned by…
Navigating eczema. So, you probably noticed already (because you are very sharp) that this post does not exactly fall under my usual three R’s: reading, ‘riting, or ranting. Nope. Today I will be discussing eczema–primarily hand eczema–so if this is not a concern for you, you may want to skip this post. But actually, my eczema is related to writing because it affects my hands–bad news for a writer. The other way eczema is related to writing is that writers…
The new Book Challenge by Erin 17.0 approaches! In case you don’t know what this is, Book Challenge by Erin 17.0 is a reading challenge [you guessed that, right?] that runs from July through October. For more information and to join in the fun, check out Erin’s Facebook page. As usual, I had lots of fun coming up with books to fit the categories. If you enjoyed participating in scavenger hunts as a kid, you know the thrill that comes…
It’s Book Challenge by Erin time. And I’m already more than one month in. Cleary, I’ve been remiss in posting. As my fifth grade teacher used to say, “Fifty lashes with a wet noodle.” That done, here are the categories of the book challenge and my choices and comments so far: 5 points: Freebie – Read a book that is at least 200 pages A Trick of the Light/Penny Finished. I returned to this series after an absence, partly because…
Book banning Book burning. The Nazis did it in the 1930’s. The Red Guard did it during the Cultural Revolution. Want to know when the earliest recorded state book burning occurred? China in 213 BCE. Yep, that long ago. Emperor Qin Shi Huang burned books he deemed uncomplimentary to his regime. And since then, many countries, states, and provinces have joined in book banning and book burning. Journalist Daniel Schwartz details this history in his article, “The Books Have Been…
Every October I participate in a common read of the Supernatural Fiction Readers over at Goodreads. The group selection this time is The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. We have been having a super lively discussion of this supernatural classic. Check out the discussion here. And great news! You can read The Castle of Otranto for free here on Gutenberg. The Castle of Otranto is supernatural lite, the paranormal elements consisting primarily of a giant helmet and a haunted painting….