In Jincy Willett’s 2008 novel, Amy Gallup teaches an extension class on writing fiction. She was once a writer herself: her first novel was published when she was only twenty-two, and she wrote a couple of decent novels after that. But when her husband died, her motivation died with him, and now she makes a [...]
Archive for November, 2009
The Writing Class
Posted in Contemporary, Fiction, Mysteries on November 25, 2009 | 4 Comments »
The English Major
Posted in Contemporary, Fiction on November 24, 2009 | 6 Comments »
My book club, like a lot of all-female book clubs, tends to mostly read books by and about women. If we read a book by or about men, it’s usually either a classic like On the Road or a nonfiction book about a topic of interest like Into the Wild. One of the women in [...]
Plato and a Platypus Walked into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes
Posted in Nonfiction on November 24, 2009 | 6 Comments »
When I started working on my master’s in theology, the class I dreaded more than any other was philosophy. It just seemed like so much gobbledygook to me—epistemology, ontology, noumenology, blahblahdelogy. In fact, I had a sneaking suspicion that all these fancy words were just ways to dress up a lot of ideas that either amounted [...]
Citizen of the Galaxy
Posted in Children's / YA Lit, Fiction, Speculative Fiction on November 23, 2009 | 4 Comments »
I’ll never forget the first time I took a real book suggestion from my father. I was about twelve or thirteen, and he gave me Robert Heinlein’s Have Space Suit, Will Travel. At the time, I’d never really read any science fiction — my taste tended more to fantasy and endless re-readings of Rebecca. I [...]
Sunday Salon: Help! Time for Christmas Shopping
Posted in Uncategorized on November 22, 2009 | 22 Comments »
Dear readers, I need your help! I have a huge number of nieces and nephews, and every year I struggle with Christmas gifts for them. This year, for the first time, most of them are old enough to read or to enjoy being read to, so I’ve decided to get each of them a book.
Here’s [...]
The Regency (Morland Dynasty #13)
Posted in Historical Fiction on November 20, 2009 | 4 Comments »
I’m now over one-third of the way through Cynthia Harrod-Eagles’s 32-volume historical fiction series, The Morland Dynasty. In less than two years, I’ll be done. Each book covers a period in English history through the eyes of the Morland family, a wealthy, well-connected Yorkshire family. The characters are a good mix of likable and unlikable, the [...]
Lord of the Rings Readalong
Posted in Uncategorized on November 19, 2009 | 17 Comments »
As I mentioned on Sunday, several bloggers and I have been wanting to reread J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Eva, Maree, the Literary Omnivore, and I decided to share the experience and wanted to invite along anyone else who wants to join.
Starting January 1, 2010, we’ll be reading one book from the series (including The Hobbit) each month with a [...]
Sharp Teeth
Posted in Fiction, Speculative Fiction on November 19, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Imagine that Buffy the Vampire Slayer had been written by Homer. Or, no, wait, that’s not quite right. Imagine that Walt Whitman had been brought up on MTV and Frank Miller and B-movies and amphetamines, and that he decided to write a novel about werewolves. It is just possible that it might turn out something like [...]
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (audio)
Posted in Children's / YA Lit, Historical Fiction on November 18, 2009 | 15 Comments »
Nine-year-old Bruno loves living in his five-story house in Berlin, playing with his three best friends for life, and exploring; and he is devastated when his father’s promotion to commandant means that the family must move to “Out-With, ” where the house has only three stories and there are no friends to play with. The only [...]
What the Dead Know (take two)
Posted in Fiction, Mysteries on November 17, 2009 | 11 Comments »
The very first book I ever reviewed for this blog was Laura Lippman’s What the Dead Know. I really, really didn’t like it. In fact, I disliked it so much that I abandoned it. Imagine starting a blog that way! But I had started Shelf Love to talk about the books I was reading, and [...]
