Mary Daniels Brown

My mother always insisted that, as soon as I was old enough to sit up, she’d find me in my crib after my nap babbling away, with a Little Golden Book on my lap. I’ve had my nose in a book ever since. I grew up in a small town, with the tiny town library literally in my backyard. As an only child in an unhappy home, I found comfort and companionship in books. As an adult I wanted to be Harry Potter, although I admit I’m more Hermione. My life has been a series of research projects. Reading has taught me that human lives are deliciously messy and that “it’s complicated” isn’t a punchline.

On Novels and Novelists

On Novels and Novelists

10 Famous Authors’ Favorite TV Shows In an era when it’s impossible to open a web browser without stumbling across another “Is television the new novel?” piece, we couldn’t help but wonder, Carrie Bradshaw-style, just what our favorite writers watch in their spare time. See what shows the following authors like: Zadie Smith S.E. Hinton […]

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Blog a Day Challenge: August Report

Once again, travel has intervened (which is a good thing) and affected my blogging (not such a good thing). Since this report falls right in the middle of a two-week cruise, I will once again have to publish posts after I arrive back home, where I have reliable internet access. This travel also means that

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13 + 1 Books That Feature Time Travel

I find time travel fascinating. It can be just a gimmick to add suspense or intrigue to a story, but some authors use it as a technique to explore the world we live in or the way we think about things, including ourselves. Here are 13 novels that use time travel to explore larger themes.

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On Novels and Novelists

On Novels and Novelists

14 Women Writers Who Dominate The Universe Of Sci-Fi For decades men dominated the world of science fiction. But, Maddie Crum reports, the tables have turned. Read why she things these women authors now dominate the field: L. Timmel Duchamp Emily St. John Mandel Octavia Butler Madeleine L’Engle Nnedi Okorafor Jo Walton Hiromi Goto Karen

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4 More Literary Lists, and Where I Stand on Each

One of the activities that my daily blogging challenge is cutting heavily into is reading. Since I’m not currently adding many new titles to my lifetime reading list, I’m turning to some other lists for a bit of consolation. I think that for next year I’ll have to define for myself a serious reading challenge.

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bookshelves: Literature and Psychology

“The Headless Hawk,” Truman Capote

Capote, Truman. “The Headless Hawk” (1945) In The World Within: Fiction Illuminating Neuroses of Our Time Edited by Mary Louise Aswell Notes and Introduction by Frederic Wertham, M.D. New York: Whittlesey House, 1947 Related Posts: “The World Within”: Introduction “Silent Snow, Secret Snow,” Conrad Aiken “The Door,” E.B. White “I Am Lazarus,” Anna Kavan This

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On Novels and Novelists

On Novels and Novelists

10 Best Novels by Poets Novelist and poet Naja Marie Aidt offers a list of novels “that bring a poetic sensitivity to language into the history of the novel.” She especially asks us to take a look at the work of the Danish poets included (the first two entries on her list), whom we Americans

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woman reading

On Reading

Everything Science Knows About Reading On Screens This article summarizes research into how we read differently on screens than in books. Of course not all screens are the same: A smartphone screen is much smaller than a laptop or desktop computer screen, a Kindle is different from an iPad. “But many researchers say that reading

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On Novels and Novelists

On Novels and Novelists

E. L. Doctorow, The Art of Fiction No. 94 Novelist E.L. Doctorow, who died recently, participated in this interview with George Plimpton that was published in the winter 1986 issue of The Paris Review. Here’s a quotation from Doctorow that I particularly like: One of the things I had to learn as a writer was

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bookshelves: Literature and Psychology

“Go Set a Watchman”: A Lesson in Writing & Reading Fiction

Related Posts: Review: “Go Set a Watchman” Compendium on “Go Set a Watchman” More on Harper Lee’s “Go Set a Watchman” Lee, Harper. Go Set a Watchman New York: HarperCollins, 2015 ISBN 978–0–06–240985–0 Consensus is that Go Set a Watchman is the manuscript that Harper Lee originally submitted to publisher J. B. Lippincott Company in

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