Literary Links

4 Essential Books About Queen Elizabeth II

Talk about life stories. Queen Elizabeth II certainly had one. Kirkus Reviews suggests some books for those of us wanting to read about it.

Reimagining the Homeland Through Speculative Fiction

Speculative fiction as a genre is conducive to diasporic literature, particularly for Palestinian writers, because it combines several literary genres that, when put together, speak to the experiences of Palestinians in Occupied Palestine and in exile. By bringing together seemingly disparate genres, speculative fiction becomes an expansive one—wide and varied enough to encompass the multitude of lived realities and future hopes of Palestinians all over the world.

Category: Life Stories in Literature

Uncomfortable Books Are Important

Sarah Tinsley writes about her debut novel, The Shadows We Cast, “a dark novel about consent and control that unsettles ideas about victims and villains.” 

“Sometimes stories are a pleasant escape. But they have always been, and should always remain, a place to explore the dark side of ourselves,” Tinsley writes.

Categories: Literature & Psychology, Reading

Reading fiction early in life is associated with a more complex worldview, study finds

PsyPost reports on some new research results:

Research has demonstrated that people who read more fiction tend to have better perspective-taking abilities. Now, new research published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin has found that reading more fiction early in life is associated with a more complex worldview and increased empathic abilities.

Categories: Fiction, Literature & Psychology, Reading

Do You Have an Inner Monologue?

Kathy Hopewell describes how what psychologists call “inner monologue” or “inner speech” helps her as a writer.

Categories: Literature & Psychology, Writing

Can a TV Show Really Help Kids Develop Reading Skills? What a New Study Says

Sarah Schwartz reports on some new research for Education Week:

For decades, television shows have helped young children practice their ABCs and 1-2-3s. From “The Electric Company” to “Sesame Street” to “Between the Lions,” research has shown that educational programs can effectively teach kids the foundations of literacy and numeracy, like recognizing letters and sounds and how numbers represent quantity.

Now, a new study finds that educational television can teach young children more complex reading skills, too—skills that could help set them up for greater success in a school setting.

The research examines the children’s ability to comprehend informational text—nonfiction books and articles, and other sources such as reference books, recipes, or lectures.

Categories: Reading, Television

Don’t Call Them Trash

“Romance novels celebrate female pleasure and aspiration.”

Sophie Gilbert, writing in The Atlantic, discusses the history of “intellectual disdain for novels enjoyed by women.” She writes that designating such novels as trash ignores “the revolutionary potential inherent in women expressing and exploring what they really want.”

Categories: Fiction, Literary Criticism, Literary History, Reading

Is the Publishing Industry Broken?

Publishers Weekly takes a VERY deep dive into the state of the publishing industry.

Book publishing has long had a reputation as a low-paying industry, but one that offers its professionals enviable perks—not the least of which is helping to influence the national discourse. Over the past few months, though, questions about whether that sort of trade-off is still working have been circulating on social media and roiling different factions of the industry.

According to the article, the complaints come not just from overworked junior staff, but also from veterans in the industry.

Categories: Publishing

© 2022 by Mary Daniels Brown