“Mental illness is less a disease of the mind and more of a societal blindness. Reading fiction opens our eyes to other people’s way of viewing the world. As a reader, there have been magical moments that I have felt the soul of someone I’ve never met has seen me. As a writer, it is …
Quotation: “How We Write Mental Illness in Fiction” Read More »
Spain’s literary world has been thrown into chaos after a coveted book prize was given to “Carmen Mola” — a lauded female thriller writer who turned out to be the pseudonym of three men. Source: Carmen Mola: Lauded Spanish female crime writer revealed to be 3 men – CNN I found this oddly appropriate, since …
Carmen Mola: Lauded Spanish female crime writer revealed to be 3 men – CNN Read More »
The great book shortage of 2021, explained Those exhortations you’ve heard about ordering holiday gifts early include books. My daughter reminded me just a couple of days ago to get my book requests to her soon. In defence of memoirs – a way to grip our story-shaped lives After studying life stories and their nonfiction …
How the Clique Books Taught Me to Hate Other Girls and Myself “I thought these middle-grade novels would help me navigate private school. Instead, they immersed me in bullying and materialism.” Anyone who doesn’t believe how much literature can influence people could benefit from reading Lena Wilson’s account of how she was influenced by “the …
All Our Possible Lives: On Sylvia Plath, Matt Haig, and the Female Suicide Narrative “Savannah Marciezyk Compares Textual Interpretations of The Midnight Library and The Bell Jar” Sylvia Plath and Matt Haig have much in common, but the differences between their receptions and textual interpretations are remarkable. Plath’s novel is famously (and controversially) autobiographical. Haig …
This month we start with “a (frightening) short story,” “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. This is probably the story Jackson is best known for. It appeared in The New Yorker in 1948. What I love about Shirley Jackson’s work is the way she gradually makes the reader realize that things are not always what they …
For my final post about Banned Books Week, here are two more infographics from the American Library Association.
I don’t routinely do end-of-month roundups, but I’m feeling particularly optimistic and inspired right now at turning the calendar page to a new month. For two reasons: The greatest legacy my mother left me is a love of baseball. She was a dedicated Red Sox fan, so that’s how I started out. Then we spent …
In celebration of Banned Books Week, here are some articles about censorship. Banned Books Week Fights Censorship by People in Power “This op-ed argues that those who ban or burn books are seeking to destroy history, ideas, and narratives that challenge the authority of those in power.” Jameelah Nasheed provides a succinct history of censorship, …
“We think of the writer as being the person who writes the book and the book as an object, solid and unchanging. But the book is a mutable object. I can write a book and you can read it, and in doing that, we’ve engaged in a process of cocreation. The book that you read …
